The Three Types of Love

Virtue is its own reward, as moral philosophers tell us. The mere fact that we do good is recompense in itself because it confirms the presence of reason in us, and makes us feel more human. People of conscience appreciate this reality and rejoice in it. They deserve to experience the happiness that true virtue informs. And love is true virtue. It's not just a "secondhand emotion," as Tina Turner says in her hit song, What's Love Got to do With it? Rather, it is a good we are commanded to do by God. The bible instructs, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself" (Lk 10:27). Viewed this way, we don't even have to feel like loving; it doesn't have to be convenient; we don't even have to like the object of our love - we just need to go ahead and love.

True love is at its best when we feel like not loving, find it hard to love, endure pain and sacrifice in loving, but go ahead and love anyway because of God. True love is selfless and longsuffering. It seeks to serve and to give. It is the greatest Christian duty. It is a human attribute founded in reason, and it is through love that we best resemble God. In a previous post, we talked about love in the example of the Good Samaritan. In today's post, we shall look at the three kinds of love there are: agape (or worship), philia (or charity) and eros (or romance), all contained in the past two Sundays' First Readings and their continuation, as found in Genesis, chapters 18 and 19. We should start out by saying that these three forms of love are good in themselves. We can match them up with Plato's three aspects of the self: spirit, soul and body. Agape matches up with the intellectual or spiritual aspect; philia matches up with the animated or soulful aspect, and eros belongs with the appetitive or bodily aspect.

But before we proceed with today's material, let's briefly recall what we said about love when we treated the Good Samaritan story in a previous post. We said that love is the starting point for faith, and that it consists in optimal interpersonal perception, ihunaya in Ibo, which literally means "to see someone." We said true love is the situation of seeing a person for who they are, a brother or sister in Christ. This optimal interpersonal perception consequently moves us to act charitably toward them. It makes us respond to everyone we meet in ways that are congruent with the characteristics of true love as found in 1 Cor 13. Seeing people optimally makes us love them truly. Now that we've recalled the central idea in the previous post on love, let us proceed with today's charity message. Using as background material the 18th and 19th chapters of the book of Genesis, we shall explain the three basic forms of love there are: worship, charity and romance, all of which we have said are good in themselves when properly used and appreciated as the virtues they were made to be by God.

To begin with, we encounter Abraham in Genesis 18 accosted by three men. These three men were actually angels in human form. The bible says that "Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground" (Genesis 18:2). In other words, Abraham did not just see the men; images of the men did not simply fix themselves on Abraham's retina, but Abraham consciously, optimally, saw these men, and recognized them to be children of God to whom he owed a measure of charity, and so he first "bowed low to the ground" before them. In other words, he worshiped before them. Abraham's starting act of love to the three men that accosted him was worship (agape). He showed love by initially recognizing the presence of God dwelling inside the bodies of the three men. "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" (1 Cor 6:19a). Again, "You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High" (Psalm 82:6).

Another way of explaining Abraham's behavior is by saying that he performed a profound Namaste to the three men. Namaste is a Hindu traditional greeting that means "I bow to the presence of the divinity inside of you." In Indian cultures, when you visit with a neighbor, you reverently clasp both your hands together and bow your head, and say, "Namaste." It is the customary form of greeting developed over the years, owing to the insight of the Hindi people that were able to recognize the presence of God in others. In our own day, people have borrowed this ancient culture and use it among themselves as a cool way of saluting one another. A celebrity famous for her culture of Namaste is my sweet and dearly beloved Oprah. I recall once when she welcomed the great spiritual writer Iyanla Vanzant on stage at a Lifeclass event in St Louis and, as Vanzant drew closer to Oprah, the billionaire talk sensation clasped her hands together and bowed reverently to Iyanla, recognizing the presence of the divinity in Vanzant, who reciprocated the gesture. Isn't Oprah simply the coolest! I love this woman, I tell you. Anyway, we're still talking of Abraham.

Once Abraham had worshiped before the three men (agape), he proceeded to show them charity (philia). He pleaded with them not to pass on by, but to stop awhile so he could entertain them. He had water brought for the washing of their feet, and he instructed his wife Sarah to make bread; his servants to prepare meat, and he himself brought curds and milk and stood beside the men as they ate. He selflessly served the men. Similarly, true love moves us to compassionate and selfless service. Remember that when we were treating the story of the Good Samaritan we showed how the Samaritan - in spite of the fact that his people were not on speaking terms with Jews - saw the wounded Jew on the roadside, disembarked from his mule, and took the poor fellow to an inn for treatment. Emulating this charitable Samaritan, we all are encouraged in our own lives to selflessly serve one another. Galatians 5:13 commands us to "serve one another selflessly in love."

Serving one another selflessly in love means that we serve without seeking anything in return. In the Abraham story we are dealing with, Abraham was not expecting any recompense from the three men for his service to them. This is why when they proceeded to prophesy the birth of a son to him from Sarah his hitherto barren wife, neither he nor Sarah actually believed the three men. Their attitude toward the men was like, "Yeah right, a child indeed. Please, just eat your bread, meat, curds and milk in peace and stop this nonsense about a child." In the same way, we should not do things for other people only because we secretly want them to do something for us in return. Jesus said in this regard: "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous" (Lk 14:12-14). Besides, if we do good expecting good to be done us in return and our expectations are not met, we may feel angry and vindictive.

Abraham also showed selfless charity when he prayed for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is charitable to pray for others, rather than for ourselves alone. This sort of prayer is intercessory. When the three men said that God had sent them to destroy the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham boldly interceded for the people there, even if he did not know them. He repeatedly bargained with God and struck a deal with the divine such that if ten righteous individuals were found in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities would be spared because of the ten. In the same way, we should always pray for the sick, the suffering, and indeed everyone in the world. We should not pray to God like to some Santa Claus, with a catalog of needs: "Dear God, I want this, and this, and that, and that also - oh, and by the way, I want that, and that other thing and - you remember last summer when I asked you for that other thing; you know, that thing? Yes, I want that." True charity instead prays for the needs of others and the world. True charity seeks the other's good.

When the three men had finished their meal of bread, meat, curds and milk, they stood up to leave. Abraham bid them goodbye, and they continued on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah. When they arrived, they went to the house of Lot, pretty much the only righteous man living in Sodom and Gomorrah at the time. The bible says that as soon as Lot saw the three men he, like Abraham, "bowed down with his face to the ground" (Genesis 19:1b). He also said, "Please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning." Lot also baked them some bread from yeast (v3b). In other words, Lot wholeheartedly welcomed the three men to his home. His hospitality toward them knew no bounds. He, like Abraham, wanted to provide for and protect the three men, and make them feel completely welcome. He, like Abraham, showed agape and philia to the three visiting men.

However, Lot's neighbors had different plans. "Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom - both young and old - surrounded the house. They called to Lot, 'Where are the gorgeous men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them'" (v4-5). Here was Lot, a newcomer to the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was a good guy, who wanted no trouble. Three men had come to his house. He had taken them under his wing; had fed them, and was providing them shelter for the night. Courtesy demanded he protect them while they stayed with him, but his neighbors seemingly would have none of it. He was distressed indeed. "Lot went outside to meet his neighbors and shut the door behind him and said, 'No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.  Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof'" (v6-8).

"'Get out of our way,' the neighbors replied. 'This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.' The neighbors kept pressuring Lot and moved forward to break down the door of his house" (v9). At this point, the three men inside the house became infuriated. They reached out and pulled Lot back into the house, and then went outside to confront the mob. They struck all the men outside blind. Now, let us reflect on this awhile. We have already said that true love is optimal perception, properly seeing everyone as a sibling and child of God. Lot's neighbors however refused to see the three handsome men as children of God. Unlike Abraham and Lot, they failed to see the presence of God inside of the three men. All they saw were the gorgeous bodies of the men, and they lusted after these. And so the attitude of the three men was, "Well, since you refuse to see properly, you really don't need eyes." This is why the three men struck the lustful neighbors blind. Similarly, we have eyes. We're supposed to "use them or lose them."

The love that Lot's neighbors had for the three beautiful men was eros, or sexual love. They observed the three men come to visit Lot, and they said to themselves, "Woo-hoo, here come three sexy men!" They then waited till dusk, and surprised Lot and his guests. This was improper. Forget the fact that Lot even offered to give them his virgin daughters in his bid to protect the three men, but the neighbors actually intended to rape the three men, to force their will on the innocent visitors! The bible says they pressured Lot and stormed the door. They were insistent. Their attitude was like, "Look Lot, give us those three men so that we can love them (romantically) whether you or they like it or not. We won't take no for an answer. Bring them out to us right now, or else we will break your door and fetch them out by ourselves." Dreadful, simply dreadful! And when matters got to a head, the three men, who really weren't men at all but angels - but of course the lewd neighbors didn't know that - had no choice but to strike the aggressive neighbors stark blind.

And once they had done this, the three men hastened Lot and his family out of the cities, cautioning them not to look back. It was time to completely destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Enough was more than enough already. Lot and his family had to be quick. They ran as fast as their legs could carry them toward the hills on the outskirts of the cities. They had no time to take all their stuff with them, and the three men, or angels, did not let them take anything. Their lives were more important  than their possessions. All human life is worth more than material possessions. And we all are called to love people more than physical things, because people have souls. But Lot's wife was concerned with physical stuff. She loved physical and material things more than soulful and spiritual things. She was concerned with the appetitive aspect, rather than the soulful and spiritual aspects of herself, and so she looked back with regret at the stuff she was leaving behind. She wanted to see, to perceive, to grieve over, to love her physical and material possessions, and she too was consequently struck blind. Her eyes ossified and became like stone - but not just her eyes, all of her body became a pillar of solid salt. Incredible! She was punished, like were Lot's lustful neighbors, for focusing solely on physical, material or bodily love; love for individual bodies or for material possessions; appetitive love, eros. Conversely, Lot and Abraham were gratified in the worship (agape) and charity (philia) they displayed to the angels that came visiting in human form.

In all, we have today considered the three kinds of love, and they are: worship (agape), charity (philia), and romance (eros). Worship is the highest of the three; charity is next in value, and the lowest of the three is romance. We find the three at play in the passage, Genesis 18-19. True love, or optimal seeing, is observable in the profoundly worshipful obeisance Abraham and Lot paid to the three angels that visited them in the form of men, and in the charitable hospitality they showed to these visiting men. Conversely, Lot's lustful neighbors and his own wife were respectively punished for preferring in the first instance the bodies of the visiting men to their souls and spirits, and in the second instance material possessions to her own life. Lot's neighbors and his wife showed appetitive or sexual love in the wrong manner and at the wrong time, and were punished for it. Indeed, Jesus says, "What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose their soul?" (Matt 16:26). Like the rich fool (Lk 12:13-21), what life are we to use in enjoying the whole world we've gained when we lose our soul? Let us therefore be wise. Of the three types of love there are - agape, philia, and eros - let us rank them in that order, in terms of their value.

"I'm Coming Out" - A Spirituality of Human Sexuality

Diana Ross' Motown hit single, I'm Coming Out, has thrilled numerous global audiences since its release in 1980, topping charts and billboards around the world, and featuring as opening act for most of her performances till date. Feeding off the energy exuded by her thronging crowds, the singing sensation throws her arms asunder, bobs about her head and comes out onto the stage singing ever so melodiously to accompanying instruments at her concert events. The aura and beauty about her are unmistakable, and they entrance all. Oprah has called Ross a "force," an electricity that lights up a space, charges up the surrounding atmosphere, and breathes forth a consuming warmth. The Guinness Book of World Records has called her the most successful female artiste of all time.

The lyrics of the chart-topper, I'm Coming Out, contain an enduring message. In them, Ross exclaims: "I'm coming out; I want the world to know, gotta let it show." She further talks about living and giving and being positive; of making it; breaking out of her shell; using her abilities, and fulfilling her plans. She insists on transforming herself and inspiring others to do the same. Coming out for her is being creative and passionate in the use of her natural gifts to invigorate all. Such beauty, such grace! Listening to her perform, I fancy screaming at the top of my voice and saying, "I too, Diana; I'm coming out! I too want the world to know, gotta let it show" - I also want to use my creativity and passion to mobilize the world. Indeed, let's all just come out already! We all, like Ross, have to live and give, and use our abilities; break out of our shells and fulfill our plans - let the world see and know us; let our lights shine. "We are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let our light shine before others, that they may see our good deeds and glorify our God in heaven" (Matt 5:14-16).

Let us all come out. Out from the closets of depression and inferiority complex; out from the cages of shame and self-hate; out from the dungeons of ostracism and bulimia, of addiction and crudity, of needless pain and suffering; out from want and waste - let us all come out. Jesus said: "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43b). We should come out each day, and encourage others to do the same. As we walk along the road, we should greet one another by asking, "Have you come out today?" "Have you embraced this awesome responsibility of letting your light shine; of using your gifts to decorate the world?" "Are you out already, please?" "Because, listen fella, I'm coming out." The prospect of a universal out-coming is magnificent; over 7 billion people, all having come out, reach out to one another in a grand ceremony of participatory unity, with no one feeling ashamed or depressed or lonely, or needy. Such glory, such bliss! What could be more fulfilling when viewed in this way than coming out? It cannot be at all hard.

And yet it sometimes is. You see, for our siblings in the LGBTQ community, "coming out" means something else. It is when a gay person walks up to their family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances and neighbors and says, "I'm gay." Some of these significant others don't respond gaily to the news that has come out to them. The consequent fear of rejection felt by the one coming out is therefore understandably real. Having felt ashamed of their sexual tendencies for so long and eventually summoned up the courage to fess up to it, the possibility of being ridiculed hurts. So, in spite of all the joys of coming out, joys we've already exposed, some people out there still view the event of coming out with considerable trepidation. Yet, coming out remains a good thing. We all should keep coming out, for whatever reason we choose to. Inspired by Diana Ross' example and cognizant of the manifold advantages of doing so, coming out should be a priority for us all.

Yesterday, Francis I, on his way from Rio back to Rome, said to reporters at a press meet, "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?" This stance taken by Francis is not original, and is by no means recent. Holy Mother Church has endorsed it for centuries. No individual is culpable for having antecedent emotions which pull them toward people of the same sex. No one judges them for being who they are. And so, let our gay brothers and sisters come out happily, gaily, to the rest of the world. Let them not be confined to the recesses of shame and self-reproach. Whether or not they are asked, they should tell who they are. Coming out need not be a frightening experience for anyone, especially since "coming out" and "acting out" are two different things. I pray that the example of St Joseph who lived in celibacy with his wife, the ever-virgin Mary, will inspire our gay siblings in the coming out process, in the joyful event of exposing the truth about the physical aspect of their sexuality, while embracing modesty and restraint.

For the rest of us, the spiritual reality of coming out is just as joyful and as cool. We do not just explain our gender and our sexual orientation, but also our creativity and our passion. Make no mistake, I am a boy and very happy to be one - it is the one thing I love the most about myself. I'm sure some girls would similarly say that being girls is what they love most about themselves too. But coming out for me means more than expressing the truth about this physical aspect of my sexuality. The spiritual aspect for me is even more important, and it includes my creativity, passion, compassion and sensibility. It refers to all the non-physical ways I show my humanity and relate with everyone around me. When I say hello to someone I walk by on the street; when I hold open the door for an old lady to pass through; when I give up my seat on the bus to a sick person; when I show charity to a beggar at the road corner; when I visit seniors at a retirement home - I express the spiritual aspect of my human sexuality. When I am a good citizen, a good neighbor, a good member of the community, I come out; I "let my little light shine."

I've come out several times in the space of 32 years: I've volunteered at a prison in Iperu, where I preached to and prayed for the inmates. I've volunteered at a nursing home in Chicago, where I kept the seniors company with my lively presence. I've volunteered with an Upward Bound Program in Wichita, where I mentored at-risk high school kids, and I've volunteered at the Kansas Humane Society, where I took care of domestic animals. All these coming-out experiences were delightfully healing. With creativity, passion, compassion, and sensibility, I was able to express love and a whole range of concomitant positive emotions to all the people and animals to whom I came out. And on each occasion, I wasn't afraid of doing so. I was confident that the love and sincerity in my heart would make all the recipients of my coming-out message react positively toward me. Volunteering and other works of charity are solid ways of coming out.

We are a nation of volunteers. Realizing how immensely blessed we are, we find it easy to share with those in need within and without these shores. There are numerous food banks run by church and civic organizations which cater to the hungry at home and abroad. I recall that when the earth quaked in Haiti, I joined in with a couple organizations in Wichita to pack thousands of meals destined for Port-au-Prince. Food banks help struggling families to tide over the difficult periods when scarcity of the most precious commodity to human life is felt. But it's not only food we share. We also share shelter. Habitat for Humanity and other organizations committed to sheltering every homeless person ensure that houses are built all over the world so that families can keep out of the rain, the sun and the snow. Back in Kansas City, I recall volunteering for hours at a local church project committed to building a hundred homes in Johnson County, in Olathe and environs. We volunteer with other things as well, such as: tutoring, mentoring, substance abuse counseling, domestic violence intervention, and so on. We come out to everyone in very many ways. We just keep coming out, really!

And perhaps no one in recent history has come out more than the great saint-to-be Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a woman I admire and adore. Having experienced a transformational "call within a call," from her darling Jesus while at prayer inside her closet - nuns live in closeted rooms called cells - she came out into the street and began to minister to the poor, suffering, sick and dying people of Calcutta. She fed, clothed and consoled them, and was ever present to their needs. A story had it that once, as she went about her daily works of charity, she happened upon a sick and dying man lying by the side of the road. The man had been left there to die by his family and friends, who felt they could do no more for him. Mother Teresa was moved with compassion and approached him, knelt at his side and ministered to him. She fed him, wiped his face and arms off the gathering dirt, and spoke softly to him. Then, seeing he was close to death, she talked to him about Jesus, the one who could receive the dying man's soul into heaven. The dying man looked at Mother Teresa and asked, "This Jesus you speak of - does he behave like you?" Mother Teresa blushed and said, "Bless your heart sir, but this Jesus is actually better than I could ever be." The dying man smiled and said, "In that case, I want Jesus to have my soul and bring it to heaven when I die."

Such beauty, such peace! And all because Mother Teresa came out to him. Truly, a great number of souls can be saved when we all come out to one another in this way, expressing the truth about the spiritual aspect of our human capacity to love, our human sexuality. When we use our abilities openly in love to inspire others and minister to the needs of those around us, we create a richer, fuller and more beautiful world, one of peace and joy. We can do this by volunteering, engaging in works of charity and being models and sources of inspiration to those we come across. The spiritual aspect of our human sexuality, which refers to the non-physical capacity within us to love, embraces our creativity, passion, compassion and sensibility, and repeatedly begs to be expressed for all the good it can do for the world. Like Diana Ross, we can be a "force" for good wherever we are, lighting and charging up the space we inhabit, and using our abilities to fulfill our good plans. Like Ross, we can let the world know we care, by showing in our charitable actions that we all are coming out.

"Hell is Other People" - A Practical Philosophy of Interpersonal Relationships

I woke up this morning feeling a little tired. It's ironic - sleep is supposed to reinvigorate, but it sometimes seems like an enervating exercise. Hours pass by while we're semi-conscious and dreaming, and then we rise to observe the world again, mostly what we're used to but have never fully understood. It's our old dreams and passions again, with their pulls and pushes. We've not tired of it yet, and in all honesty we can't because we don't keep ourselves in it. Our being here is consequent on the will of another, who is far more powerful than we are, and obedience to this authority is wise. And so we trudge on, regardless of how difficult it is.

 

I think the most difficult part of it all is the presence of other people. It was the great philosopher Sartre who said that hell is other people. The folks around us, with whom we live, are the very source of most of our pain and suffering. The irony is that we cannot live alone; we need other people. And so, even though the presence of others in our lives is painful, we go ahead and cohabit anyway. I agree with Sartre. Hell is indeed other people. They judge us; they compete with us; they tempt us with negative emotions, and they play devil's advocate with us most of the time. It's like the people around us are members of a tireless jury, like a thousand quizzing eyes watching and waiting for the right moment to call us out on our faults and failings, like pesky insects crawling all over our bodies. The psalmist squeals: "They compass me about like bees!" (Psalm 118:12a).

 

We cannot escape the presence of other people. We depend on them for sustenance, and they depend on us as well. We wear clothes, eat food, read books and drive cars - all these things were made by other people. Imagine if we had to make everything we ever used by ourselves - I mean, that would be quite impossible. Even the fact that we're here is as a result of our father and our mother - other people. Face it buddy - other people are here to stay. So we might as well quit complaining about their being here. We should learn to make do with the situation as it is, a situation that involves our cohabitation with many other people. We can benefit from them in so many ways, just like we've said; but again, they can be sources of pain and discomfort.

 

To begin with, they judge us. Many times, it is through the eyes of others that we see faults we didn't even know we had. We might for example have thought ourselves as being humble and respectful and all, but one day a person living near us might suddenly declare: How disrespectful you are! You try to defend yourself by saying: Me, disrespectful? Hardly. But they insist that you are, and get a couple more people to confirm their judgment. You find yourself looking in the mirror the rest of the day, trying to discover if truly you are as disrespectful as they say; one more vice about yourself you now have to worry about. The standards other people set for us also judge us. Some parents or significant others practically set ambitious goals for their relatives and make these unfortunate souls exchange their dreams for those of their parents and loved ones. They feel the pressure of conformity, of towing the path set for them by other people, who do not understand the impetus of their aspirations, the causes of their desires.

 

Other people compete with us. They make us feel as if we need to prove ourselves. They make us feel as if we're running track, and the prize is victory over others, being the first to brace the tape. Ordinary activities are no longer just fun things to do, but actual sprint performances, where speed and accuracy are prized over enjoyment of experience. We rush about, always reminded of the need to appear victorious. We overwhelm ourselves with plans, memoranda and schedules. We want to be recognized as the numero uno, the first among equals. We feel that without being the best at something, anything, we are pretty much losers. We seek some form of domination or recognition for a certain quality that nobody holds better than we do. Other people keep us on our toes.

 

Other people tempt us with negative emotions. They make us afraid. By reminding us of our shortcomings, they make us doubt the possibility of our attaining our dreams. They make us unhappy, by suggesting that we may not for long hold on to the good we think we have. They make us feel insecure, less than perfect. They make us feel emotions we don't want to feel. They also make us feel betrayed, like Judas made Jesus feel that night in the garden when he kissed the savior and thus signaled to the soldiers that Jesus was the one they should arrest. Jesus must have felt disappointment as he looked at a friend of his sell him out for a few silver pieces. And as if that was not painful enough, the rest of his disciples ran off and left him by himself. Peter lied three times that night, calling on the wrath of God to bear witness that he did not know this Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saw Peter do this. Awful; just awful.  Other people inspire in us negative emotions.

 

Other people sometimes play the devil's advocate with us. We tell them our plans and they jinx it. We share with them our dreams and they think of at least five reasons why it probably won't come true. They fill our heads with antitheses to our syntheses. They ply us with contradictory stances to our thoughts and ideas. It hurts when those that are closest to us seem like they don't have faith in us, don't trust our abilities. It hurts because they are close, are the ones we counted on. The psalmist complains: "If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God" (Psalm 55:12-14). Our closest friends have the potential to hurt us the most.

 

So what must we do - hide, isolate ourselves from those around us; from other people in general? We possibly couldn't even if we wanted to. There is an option: We can develop social skills. Some people are better than others at exercising social skills, but everyone can learn a thing or two. Individuals with greater social skills are those with higher emotional quotients. They are the ones who find it easier to deal with varied emotional situations with grace and ease. Emotions such as envy, resentment, anger, disappointment and so on are not too overwhelming for them to deal with. They anticipate the existence of these emotions in others and figure out ways by which to deal with them optimally. These individuals have high levels of practical wisdom, Aristotle's phronensis. They did not learn this in school as we mentioned in a previous post, but by emulation and practice. They learned endurance, tolerance, wit, charm and conviviality.

 

How can we be like these people? How can we grow our emotional quotients and social skills? How can we get along better with the people around us? We must work on our psyche; pay attention to social cues, and be willing to take the fall sometimes. To begin with, we must work on ourselves. Jesus in this regard asks us to remove the log in our own eyes before we attempt to remove the speck in other people's eyes (Matt 7:5; Lk 6:42). Whenever it seems that others are giving us a hard time, we should first ask ourselves if there's anything we're doing to warrant it. We cannot change others, but only ourselves, and so the easiest way to change the way others treat us is to change ourselves. Present a new and improved self to those around you and see if the way they treat you changes at all. Evaluate the behavioral and attitudinal responses your new self receives from others and see whether your transformation has any merit. You can benefit in this regard from therapy or from advanced spirituality, such as meditation and spiritual literature.

 

Also, we can pay attention to social cues. Social cues are mostly nonverbal and may be prone to misinterpretation. Yet they must be interpreted correctly before we act on them. They are the ways by which we know what is expected of us in a certain social situation. Most human communications involve nonverbal cues, such as facial expression, vocal cues, posture, gestures and so on. By picking up on their signals without others having to speak, we can modify our observable behaviors to better accommodate their needs and hopes concerning us and the situations that bring us in contact with them. First impressions are also key to building good interpersonal relationships. A good first impression is likely to impinge upon how others assess our subsequent behaviors, and vice versa. The ability to properly pick up and respond to social cues also shows that we are well socialized, and have healthy mental abilities.

 

More so, we can sometimes take the fall. We need not seek to be right or justified all of the time. In order to preserve the peace and foster positive relationships with other people, we can sometimes let them be right. Some of the things that we fuss about, trying to prove our correctness about, are just not worth the sacrifice of relationships that they cost us. I have found myself in certain situations for example where I've simply let the other person win, even if I knew my ideas were better. There was a situation for example where I and another brother were debating whether we should set a gauge at 300 or at 200. I said 300, but he said 200. I went with his suggestion. An hour later, the meal was still cold. I didn't say "you see, I told you so," but I did feel gratified when he said, "I'm sorry, I should have listened to you." I simply said, "No problem, let's just see if we can save the situation now." There was another case as well when I went along with a friend's opinion at a grocery store and bought far more stuff than we needed. Later on, he realized that we had indeed bought too much stuff, and he came to appreciate that I had been right at the time. He too was sorry he hadn't listened. In each of these situations, I prized my interpersonal relationships more than the mundane situations that threatened them. By allowing the other person win, I was communicating a message of conviviality and respect.

 

All in all, we have seen that interpersonal relationships are potentially challenging. Sartre has said that hell is other people, because they can judge us, make us feel bad and play the devil's advocate with us. Interpersonal relationships are difficult to cultivate. The potential for hurt and misunderstanding especially among close friends and family is great, and we all experience this potential. In any case, we can improve our emotional quotients, acquire greater levels of practical wisdom and fare better in our interpersonal relationships. We can anticipate the emotions of others and respond better to them; we can work on ourselves by changing our behaviors and attitudes and the first impressions others have of us; we can pay attention to nonverbal communications that others give us, and we can sometimes take the fall in order to preserve the goodwill existing between us and other people. If we do all of this, we can be sure that our interactions with others will not feel as difficult or as painful as the prospect of hell.

"Living in Joy": A Reflection on World Youth Day 2013

It ends today, the 2013 edition of World Youth Day. What started with pomp and beauty on Tuesday in Rio wraps up after nearly a week. The late Pope John Paul II created World Youth Day in 1984, to celebrate the manner in which young people embrace Christian values: passionately, joyfully, exuberantly. The event draws young people from different parts of the world to a central location every two or three years and reminds them to focus on Christ's redeeming love. There've been 14 editions so far of the event, all of which have been well attended. World Youth Day, like the Olympics or FIFA World Cup events, is a global peace ceremony that highlights the sweet reward of international harmony: different flags blowing in the breeze; different dresses sported by ethnically diverse groups of young people; different languages spoken in small-group conversations; different foods eaten in diverse informal canteens - young people collect themselves in a unity of diversities.

 

It's no accident that Blessed John Paul II was the one to start such an event. Like the World Youth Day, the late pope was a man for all peoples. He spoke many international languages; related well with diverse sects and communities; traveled extensively round the world, and was an eternal fountain of youth, with his abundance of charisma and goodwill. He was well loved around the world. By a parish I stayed at for eight months in Chicago, there is a huge statue of Blessed John Paul II and, every once in a while, you could see people stopping at it just to pray or to admire or to reflect on the man, that towering personality whose enduring optimism and vibrant faith has forever changed the world and left for it a lasting legacy.

 

Since his death in 2005, the late pope's successors, Benedict XVI and Francis I, have continued the World Youth Day tradition. Francis was elected pope only this year, and so this is his first WYD. Interestingly enough, it is taking place in the region of the globe he hails from. On the day he became leader of the more than 1.3 billion Catholics in the world, he teased his brother Cardinals for going to pick him "from the other end of the world," rather than from Europe as had been the usual. His pontificate has been a burst of fresh air for Christendom. One of its characteristics is humility. Francis has been universally observed to be the humble pope: washing and kissing dirty feet on Holy Thursday; riding the bus with his Cardinal colleagues; carrying his own bag on trips; living in relatively simple lodgings - the pope has continually spread the message of detachment from worldly wealth, and has encouraged the world to think afresh in those terms. He has also spoken and written fervent messages of hope and joy.

In his homily at the opening mass of the 2013 WYD celebrations, which he delivered at Aparecida, the pope addressed three themes: hopefulness; openness to being surprised by God, and living in joy. With regard to hopefulness, Francis, using the image of the dragon and the woman as contained in Rev 12:13a, exhorted the world's youth to sustain within themselves an attitude of optimism in spite of the many troubles and challenges life makes them shoulder. Just as the dragon was unable to destroy the woman and her child, the hardships of life, however painful they may be, should not overwhelm the youth who have fixed their sights on Christ. Rather, by "knocking on Mary's door," the youth will enter into the redeemer's presence and receive the hope that is necessary for mastering the vicissitudes that threaten to banish peace from the human heart.

The pope furthermore enjoined the world's youth to remain open to the prospect of being surprised by God. Borrowing from the event of Jesus' new-wine miracle at the Wedding of Cana, the pontiff inspired us to persevere even in the face of seemingly hopeless situations, trusting in the power of God to surprise us by turning such situations around. As long as we do not close our minds to God's desire to save us, we may rest assured that the raging storms of life will not drown us in their fury. Though the world's youth today face untold hardships: self-hatred; body-image issues; depression; anxiety; dissipation, and addiction to mention but a few, they can find relief in the knowledge that God has the power to extract good from the bleakest of situations, surprising us daily with the divine splendor and grace (2 Cor 12:9).

More so, Francis encouraged all young people to live in joy. He said: "Dear friends, if we walk in hope, allowing ourselves to be surprised by the new wine which Jesus offers us, we have joy in our hearts and we cannot fail to be witnesses of this joy. Christians are joyful, they are never gloomy. God is at our side." He went further to say that our potential for living joyful lives is increased by the help of Mother Mary's prayers, and by the church's commitment to reflecting Christ's own joy to the world. This joy will envelop us if we continue in our love for Jesus, the beautiful son of Mary, without whom there is "no hope, no love, no future." The pope concluded the homily with these words: "Dear friends, we have come to knock at the door of Mary’s house. She has opened it for us, she has let us in and she shows us her Son. Now she asks us to 'do whatever he tells you' (John 2:5). Yes, dear Mother, we are committed to doing whatever Jesus tells us! And we will do it with hope, trusting in God’s surprises and full of joy. Amen."

In another homily he delivered at Copacabana Beach, Francis called on young people around the world to "put on faith," so as to become models of sanctity to the people around us. The pope recalled Peter's exclamation at the Transfiguration, when in awe he said, "It is good for us to be here" (Matt 17:4a). In the same way, through faith, we can emulate Jesus and be transformed into glorious images of the adorable Christ. Bringing peace to the troubled; channeling healing to the ailing; giving alms to the needy; building up the body of Christ - we can serve the world and all its peoples in the many ways Christ teaches us to, when we strive to be like him and copy his behavior. Indeed, in Francis' own words, "our very being is transformed; our way of thinking and acting is made new, it becomes Jesus’ own, God’s own, way of thinking and acting. During the Year of Faith, this World Youth Day is truly a gift offered to us to draw us closer to the Lord, to be his disciples and his missionaries, to let him renew our lives."

And so the WYD Celebrations 2013 draw to a close. The dancing and talking and praying halt awhile; people will begin to return to their homes to reflect on what has transpired. Hopefully they will realize that what they have attended is not a jamboree or a large party. They have instead been to a mountain top, secluded there with Jesus. They have prayed with and learned from him, and so have become transformed into other Christs, ready to take the message of renewal to the ends of the world, making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19) and striving in their own lives to be hopeful, open to God's surprise and continually joyful. I wish I had been there myself. Anyway, thanks to Facebook, I get to live the virtual reality of the event especially through the pictures a friend of mine posts of his experiences there, in all of which he is smiling. When school resumes for the fall on August 26 and I see him again, I hope to say to him, "Emanuel, tell me everything - how exactly was it?" I wonder what he will tell me then.

The Waters of a River: A Brief Call to Prayer

"The waters of a river give joy to God's city, the holy place where the Most High dwells" (Psalm 46:5). This line captures the joyful aspect of the waters of a river. "Save me God for the waters of a river have reached up to my neck" (Psalm 69:2). Again, "I have gone down into the watery depths; the flood overwhelms me" (v3b). These lines capture the anguishing aspect of the waters of a river. Whereas on the one hand the waters can uplift a soul with joy, the waters can also drown a soul with anguish. Water is the symbol of emotion. Its courses, undulations, crests and tides; the way it sometimes comes with a rush like a flood, or flows smoothly like a brook - the waters of a river are always changing, unstable most of the time, like emotions unchecked.

 

"God is for us a refuge and strength, a helper close at hand in time of distress, so we shall not have fearful emotions though the earth quakes and the mountains tumble into the depths of the waters; though the seas rage and foam and the mountains totter at their surging. The Lord of Hosts is with us, our citadel is Jacob's God" (Psalm 46:2-4). In dealing with the surging seas that shake the mountains and the earth, God is for us a "refuge and strength." What this means is that when we are beset by emotions we ordinarily cannot control, we turn to God for support. If the emotions are joyful, we give thanks with song and praise. If the emotions are sad, we supplicate or petition. "Is anyone among you in trouble or suffering? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise" (Jas 5:13). We are like the mountain and the earth. The waters of a river are like our emotions. These waters sometimes cool the mountains and the earth. At other times, they rock the earth's very foundation. Similarly, our emotions are sometimes joyful, sometimes sad. Whatever they be, we should consult God. If joyful, as James says, we should thank God; if sorrowful, we should render the divine our supplications and intercessions.

 

On a certain day, we can experience a number of emotions. We may start off feeling joyful, and then something may happen to make us feel sad. Or we may start off feeling sad, and then something may happen to make us feel joyful. We have a large supply of potential emotions, and we deal with them in the courses of the days. Emotions are the language of the soul and belong to the realm of psychology, but also of spirituality. Remember I have already argued that spirituality can deal with anything psychology can deal with. In an earlier post, I relayed what Descartes recommends for handling human emotions, especially the negative ones. Let's recall. He said that the first of three steps in dealing with human emotions is consciousness. Descartes insists that we must always be conscious of our emotions. We should have emotion-sensing antennae that are swift to pick up any emotion that creeps up in us. As soon as we feel something, pronto - we become conscious of it. This is the first step.

 

The second step is to allow the emotion which we have become conscious of to travel from the place where we felt it - the heart - all the way to the head, so we can think about it. There in the head, we dissect the emotion - I'm sure you recall your high school biology days, when you must have dissected guinea pigs and rabbits and the like. Similarly, you dissect and analyze the emotion. Why am I feeling this emotion? You ask yourself. Is it because of so, so and so reason? Why am I feeling it today? What is the source of the hurt? You ask yourself as many questions as necessary to understand the emotion. But you don't just try to understand it, you also assess the sort of behavior the emotion is tempting you to embark upon. You say to yourself: This emotion seems to want me to smash something, or throw a tumbler against the wall, in the case of anger. Or you can say to yourself: This emotion is tempting me to steal, in the case of greed. You look at the proposed behavior and analyze it. Then you move to the third step.

 

The third and final step is applying the power of reason. You say to yourself: But if I steal, I could go to jail. Or, if I act violently, I could hurt myself and others. You weigh the cons of the behaviors, and see whether it were not better for you to refrain from acting in the ways the negative emotion suggests. You also speak positive words to yourself, such as: I will be calm; I will forgive; I will keep my cool, and so on. Gradually, the emotion fades away. I guess you can similarly apply this method to even positive emotions, so as to regulate the otherwise positive behaviors they suggest. You may want to jump up and down with joy for example if you just won the lottery, but if you jump too high, you may break the ceiling, or you may be feeling ecstatic or euphoric after hearing that your wife just birthed a baby, but if you jump into your car and try to hurry to the hospital, you may have an accident. Either way therefore you should think through your emotions - positive or negative - and the behaviors they suggest to you. All this is in the realm of psychology.

 

In the realm of spirituality, in addition to the concept of sacrifices for dealing with negative emotions especially, and as we may guess positive ones as well, we can also pray. As James would say, we can praise and thank God when we are feeling joyful, and we can petition and intercede when we are feeling troubled. There are four kinds of prayer, and each is suited to a kind of emotion. These kinds of prayer are: praise and thanksgiving; intercession; ejaculation, and petition. Praise with thanksgiving is best suited to joy and its sibling emotions. When you feel joyful or ecstatic, or euphoric or happy or content - when you feel any of the emotions in this family, you should give praise and thanks to God. What are some of the things you feel happy about today, for example? You should develop an attitude of gratitude for them, and for all the good things in your life and the lives of all those around you. Were you recently promoted? Did you win a fortune; pass an exam - what joyful thing happened to you? Give thanks and praise to God. You can say a short prayer like this: God I thank you for your wondrous graces to me and my loved ones today. You fill me with so much joy. I am grateful, and I praise you forever.

 

When you feel needy, you can petition God. Recall the parable of the importunate widow, contained in Luke 18:1-8. It tells the story of a widow who lived in a town where the judge feared neither God nor people. She kept on going to him everyday to ask for justice. The judge refused, but she kept on going until, exasperated by her resoluteness, the judge granted the widow her wish. Jesus told a few other stories, and made several remarks about asking for our needs from God. He said for example: "Ask and you will get it; seek and you fill find it; knock and enter the door. For everyone who asks always receives; everyone who seeks always finds, and everyone who knocks always enters the door" (Matt 7:7-8). But Jesus didn't stop there. He went ahead and said: "Which one of you would hand his child a stone when they asked for bread, or a snake when they asked for fish? If you then who are imperfect know how to give good things to your children, how much more will the perfect God give good things to those that petition?"(v9-11). There are many other examples in the bible about the efficacy of petition. Also, in Acts 16:25, Paul and Silas petitioned God with prayer and solemn hymns and they were freed from their incarceration.

 

When you feel disturbed about something bad happening to your friends or family, you can intercede. Perhaps you have a relative or a friend suffering from cancer or any other ailment. Or maybe your friend is facing a trial, an exam or something important in their life. You can intercede for them. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much" (Jas 5:16). James encourages us to pray for others. This is called intercession. In Acts 12:5, the bible also says: "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." This intercessory prayer worked out Peter's release from prison. We can intercede not only for our friends and family, but also for the sick, the prisoners, the world, and the church. We can intercede for our communities and for peace and progress in our nation. We can pray in groups too, for "again, truly I tell you that if two or more of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by God in heaven" (Matt 18:19).

 

And we can pray ejaculatory prayer. According to the Oxford Dictionary, one of the meanings of ejaculate is "say something suddenly." This is the meaning we are going with - believe me, there is at least one other meaning of ejaculate, which I'm quite sure you know, and so we shall not talk about here. Ejaculatory prayer is that which we say for example as we walk along the road and a sudden emotion comes into our hearts. Spontaneously then, we ejaculate, or say a quick prayer, for example: Thank you, Jesus! Or, I am healed today; or, "It is well with my soul." Or, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you." Ejaculatory prayers are short and quick, but powerful, because they are sudden outbursts of sincere emotion. A sudden and quick sign of the cross also serves as ejaculatory prayer, and some soccer players do as much as they jog onto the field.

 

All in all, when the "waters encamp like a flood," we can always approach God in prayer. Depending on the nature of the emotion, we can praise, petition, intercede, or ejaculate. God is always willing to answer us whenever we pray. Indeed, Jesus, in further trying to encourage his disciples to pray frequently, taught them the most classic of all prayers, which includes parts that are ejaculatory, intercessory, petitioning and praising. It is an all-in-one kind of prayer, and we say it always and everywhere at Mass. It goes like this: "Our God in Heaven, hallowed be your name; let your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, since we usually forgive others that sin against us, and do not put us to the test, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, glory and power for evermore. Amen."

Determinism or Free Will - What Shapes our Ends?

I'm sure I don't know whether it is determinism or free will that prescribes our destiny. The determinist school would have us believe that forces external to our being assume responsibility for what eventually happens to us. The free will school conversely insists that our intellect and will power shape our ends. Both sides have credible supporting arguments. Could it then be that both determinism and free will jointly draw our life map? I'm not sure. Let's look at the arguments on both sides and see if we can make some sense of the entire dialectic.

 

Every person has an intellect - don't worry that some are better than others - in addition to a will. These two things, intellect and will, help each individual to make choices and decisions to guide themselves. They can choose on one afternoon to have ravioli for snack rather than pizza; they can choose to travel to Chicago from Portland by train or by bus. By processing relevant information with the intellect and then resolving by force of will to do something, these individuals go about step by step along their life path, making decisions as they go. Existentialists largely endorse the free will paradigm. For them, an individual is born without a predestination. Such an individual simply surges up in the world based on the conscious choices they progressively make. That being the case, everyone is ultimately responsible for what becomes of them in the end.

 

The determinist paradigm on the other hand posits that everyone, regardless of the fact that they have intellect and free will, makes decisions based on the compelling forces of the environment they live in. Sometimes, they do not even get to make decisions, but decisions are made for them. Depending on the external realities of the space and time in which they live, individuals can proceed on one life path or another. In other words, the fact that person A decided to have ravioli instead of pizza was simply because the café down the street had only ravioli at the time; and because they were already running late for work and did not want to upset their boss, they simply went with ravioli. Or, even though person B wanted to take the train from Portland to Chicago, circumstances prevented them from doing so, thus compelling them to take the bus instead.

 

Authors like Rhonda Byrne are more likely to go with the free will paradigm. Some Christian authors as well would go along with free will, probably for different reasons. While authors like Byrne would espouse the free will paradigm because it shows that we are powerful enough to take hold of the Secret of personal success, Christian theologians would endorse free will because it tallies with the concept of individual responsibility for sin. On the last day, what gives God justification in condemning a sinner or rewarding a saint is free will. The sinner consciously chose to do evil, just like the saint consciously chose to do good, and so both are justifiably dealt the hand they deserve. Indeed, the concept of free will is needed to explain the existence of an imperfect world created by a perfect God.

 

Some social scientists, philosophers and theologians on the other hand endorse determinism. They insist that even what appears to be like the free exercise of rational will is simply determinism at play. So for example a person walks into a shop and can choose to have either a bagel or a muffin. They choose to have a muffin. Free will advocates would say, "There you go, you see - they made a free choice!" Determinist scholars conversely would say, "Now hang on a minute - the reason they chose muffin over bagel was owing to the presence of a number of intervening variables: for starters, the fact that there were only two choices, bagel and muffin; if there was say, cake, they might have gone with that instead of muffin. Also, they might already have had bagel for breakfast and wanted a muffin for midday snack. Besides, their doctor might have warned them that they could develop a medical problem or another if they did not refrain from eating muffins.

 

Determinists stretch their argument further by saying that God would not be justified in condemning anyone to hell, or rewarding anyone with heaven for that matter, because no one can actually be held responsible for what they do on earth. The environment alone should be blamed. Yet this argument is inconclusive because two individuals presented with exactly the same environment can behave differently. Take a set of identical twins for example. They are born to the same parents, go to the same school, live in the same house, are taught the same things - everything about them, the same; yet, one could become a good person and the other could be sinister. In such a case, can we not conclude that it was free choice at play? The determinist would say no. We cannot be sure that the two individuals, twins though they may be, had exactly the same experiences. On a certain day, the food one of them ate might have been accidentally poisoned, while the food the other ate might have been sound. Also, some accidental biological mutation occurring in one but not the other could lead that one to do evil, while the other persisted in doing good. If we do not know exactly the biological, social and environmental programming of each, we cannot say for certain that determinism was absent.

 

Again free will advocates would say, "But in a certain instant, two ordinarily good people may choose to behave differently. So for example person A and person B both got slapped across the face. While person A slapped back, person B did not. Is that not free will at work?" Determinists would say not necessarily. It may be that person A ordinarily would not slap back, but because they had been slapped very many times already that day alone, they had reached their limit, whereas for person B that was their first slap of the day and so it was easy for them not to react. Determinists could also throw in the concept of self perception, whereby person A may see themselves as morally justified in that specific instance to retaliate, while person B might think the contrary. So, the arguments keep going back and forth between determinists and free will advocates.

 

Let's transcend these two schools and see if we can find a way to explain what shapes our ends without resorting to determinism or free will. This transcendent explanation will give God the justification for rewarding the saints and condemning the sinners. It will also make it easier for us to want to do good all the time. This explanation will glorify our rational capacity and make us believe that we are greater than animals, and have the joy of participating in the divinity. I developed this explanation for myself. It is teleological, and I obtained it by mixing a few teachings from Dianetics, Iyanla Vanzant's concept of the soul and Christian theology. It is neither determinism nor free will. Yet it somehow nods to both.

 

Now, imagine conceptual reality as a broad field. Let us take for granted the existence of God. I know in saying this I've already lost those who do not believe in God or the afterlife. A philosopher once said he saw the souls of atheists sleeping deeply at the mouth of hades. They neither entered into paradise nor into hell, because they were conscious of neither. Anyway. For those that believe in God and the afterlife, we shall start by taking for granted the concept of God, and ascribe to this divinity all the attributes accorded by Anselm, Aquinas and Bonaventure. In short, the divinity is infinite in perfection, above which can exist nothing of superior merit. God, the creator of the broad field of conceptual reality has a purpose for it. For the divinity this purpose endures, because of the absence of time in God's mind. Past, present and future - all there was, all there is and all there will be are one and the same for God. All the possible options there are, transcendent of the limitations of time and space, exist in the mind of God. The broad field of conceptual reality - of everything possible - as created by God - infinitely supreme and infinitely perfect - exists inside God oblivious of spatial or temporal limit.

 

Now, we all are made in the image of this God. Ideally then, we all participate in the omnipotent and omniscient eternal spirit, transcendent of time and space. Ideally, we know all things and see all things. We traverse all the realms there are by our participation in God's spirit which lives inside us. 1 Corinthians 6:19a says: "Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?" This spirit within us makes us God-like. Now, before God gave our souls to be enfleshed, the divinity consulted with us. Because the capacity for say, A was left unfulfilled in soul A, God in consultation with our will entrusted that capacity to us, in an amplified or a reduced state - depending on what soul A did with it previously. The new capacity B, a true part of God's eternal capacity is enfleshed in soul B. All this happens before soul B is born, and in consultation with soul B. In the parable of the talents, the master entrusted his gifts to the servants "each according to their ability" (Matt 25:15). The Greek word for "ability" as used here is dunamis, related to dunasthai, which can be loosely translated as character or will power.

 

Clearly then, the enfleshing of God's capacity is done in consultation with the pre-conceived soul. God has a habit of consulting with us before acting. In Genesis 18:17, God says: "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" All through the bible, we see God consulting with common people about the divine plan, to get these people on board: Moses, Joshua, Jacob, Maria Regina Angelorum, and so forth. In view of the foregoing hence, we can argue that the very fact that we were conceived by agreeing to God's enfleshing of part of the divine spirit means that we become ultimately responsible for whatever we do. This reality is both deterministic and free-will-situated. It's like entering into a contract with a firm. At the start of the contract, you append your signature to the legal document on which the contract is written, making a nod of will and intellect to the provisions of the binding agreement. As life goes on, those provisions begin to determine behavioral outcomes.

 

And so if someone were to ask me for example, "Samuel, are you sure you are acting of your own free will in this instance?" If I said yes, I would be right, because from the get-go, even before I was conceived, I freely agreed to become human, so as to do God's will. If I said no, I would also be right, because my soul's circumstances are fashioned in such a limited way as to ensure I do God's will and learn my soul's lesson. By being conscious of that eternal purpose and its lesson, freedom of choice is increased, and vice versa. This situation of yes and no being both correct for a yes-and-no question is called the no-wrong-answer situation, and it reminds one of a classic statement made by Henry Ford: "Whether you think you can or you can't - either way, you're right."

 

So, if you wonder why such and such a bad thing happened to such and such a good person, the answer is that the very fact that they agreed to become a human being made them responsible for the hazards of the form, humanity. Think of the Holocaust, which we talked about yesterday. Imagine a young Jewish girl - imagine say, Anne Frank. On the day the Nazi eventually surprised her and her family, they were probably doing everything right, "choosing" all the right actions: making less noise, conducting their affairs in quiet, and so forth, but the police-folk came for them still. Or take the example of Job in the bible. He did everything right. Whenever his children had dined together, he would perform their cleansing ritual. He always walked blamelessly and prudently, and yet God sent him vicious plagues; plagues so painful that he cursed the day of his own birth. Yet all he was doing was unknowingly participating in the divine plan, having previously signed on to become human.

 

But you may ask: What possible lesson could the 6 million Jews that lost their lives in the Holocaust be slated by God to learn? I don't know. Each soul's lesson is unique, and the path each takes toward learning it is similarly unique. Some lessons are also attained in community, and some people learn by observing the fortunes or misfortunes of individuals or communities. All of this is in the mind of God who, though we humans do not know everything, does know all there has been, all there is and all there will be. Aquinas sees the universe in all its ramifications as being perfectly adequated to the mind of God, albeit imperfectly adequated to ours, with some human minds being more in tune with the universal truths than others are. For Aristotle, the gradation of the human intellectual capacity for abstraction from particulars to universals is ratified by what Aquinas would call the "degrees of perfections of things," his fourth thesis in his proofs of the existence of God.

 

The broad concept of reality perfectly contained in the mind of God, whose spirit dwells within us, and to which we subscribe willingly through faithfully participating in God's plan for creation is temporally delimited for each individual soul by God - and is in that sense deterministic - but is also freely chosen ab initio by us and God, for our own good, and is in this sense free-will-situated. Regardless of what happens to us in life, through faith, as long as we are doing our best to tow the path God wants for us, we may rest assured that it is for our own good and in keeping with the agreement we entered into with God even before we were "formed in our mother's womb" (Jer 1:5). Recall in this regard that "all things work together for the good of those that are called to God's purpose (Rom 8:28). The broad concept of reality that we can never fully know as humans is made manifest to us through faith in God that can and does know it. Our task is therefore to ask the divine will for guidance in prayer, and strive to satisfy ourselves that to the best of our limited knowledge we are doing its will. Jesus said several times in the Gospel that all he was concerned about was to do the will of God. This also should be our paramount concern. I think it was Augustine that said: Love, and then do as you please. Similarly, with a foundational desire to do God's will, all our actions, proceeding from this place of cooperation with the divine will, will be good to the best of our knowledge. And God will judge us based on this, our conscience bearing witness to the same.

 

So, ultimately for me the argument is not about whether it is determinism or free will that prescribes our destiny. For me it is our agreement with God, whose all-knowing spirit within us guides our actions, and our faith in the divine will plus our willingness to do its bidding that shapes our destiny for the good. Conversely, our refusal or disdain for the divine will means that we perennially grope in vain for illumination; that we deny the presence of the abiding intellect, Augustine's inner teacher, Aristotle's agent intellect, and Aquinas' perfect adequation. We may excuse sin as simply a product of determinism; we might say that our actions are only beholden on us if they fall into the category of profligate human will and not mistakes or indiscretions made due to limited knowledge or ontological actions determined by forces external to our souls. But whether we want our souls to sleep for eternity at the mouth of hades, or join the saints in heaven or the sinners in hell, we can be sure I don't know whether determinism or free will determines our ends. All I have is faith in a perfect God.

 

 

A Brief Reflection on Universal Peace

Visualize the world as free from pain. Imagine there was no more dispute, and everyone lived together in love and tranquility. Imagine that nations co-existed in diplomatic oneness. The world would be perfectly peaceful. The fourth verse of the second chapter of the Book of Isaiah describes such a world, where “nations will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; not lift up sword against one another and never again learn dispute.”

Such a world would defend the rights of all minorities, and be perennially just. It would be a happy and blessed world. There would be equality and mutual trust. There would be economic surplus; everyone would have enough to eat and spend on other needs and luxuries. There would be stability, egalitarianism, legal protections, environmental conservation and the advancement of trade, the arts and other multiple humane concerns. There would be enduring respect for human rights, and a ubiquitous advancement of self-hood. It would resemble what the leading organized religions have called paradise, nirvana or simply heaven.

Peace is a universal concept. Different people can imagine for themselves what peace would translate to in concrete terms and, in so far as the term makes sense to them, these individuals can describe their own perfectly peaceful world. My idea of a peaceful world is what I have described. The ideas of a peaceful world for ten different individuals would probably be as many as they are – ten. Yet, there would necessarily be overlap. There would be at least one universal benchmark for what a peaceful world would not have, and this is dispute.

Viewed as the absence of dispute in a simplistic sense, this conception of peace serves to show how the status quo does not yet merit the appellation peaceful, regardless of the capacity of the term to lend itself to subjective definitions. In other words, it is accurate to state that the world today is not as peaceful as it can be, and this is so simply because there are disputes. There is also still despair, poverty, bigotry and deprivation. In short, there is still need for peace. The need is informed by the gulf separating what could be and what is.

Peace is a large concept, difficult to unpack. Yet if peace is ignored there would be continued human suffering. In reflecting on the wars that have plagued humanity historically, the late Pope John Paul II observed in numerous speeches and writings that disputes themselves never bring about peace. He severally asserts that it is negotiation that secures lasting peace. The communicative endeavors that people engage in to try to assuage differences have been seen to be the courses for peace. In other words, it is the understanding reached through talks, referenda and meetings that leads to peace.

Pope John Paul II is a model champion of peace. According to the ABC News documentary released in 2004, entitled Pope John Paul II, His life and legacy, the Pope used his office as global leader of a powerful organization, the Catholic Church, to campaign for human rights, for example by helping to tear down the Berlin Wall in 1989, thus helping to end communism in most parts of the world. He also helped to end the Catholic Church’s previous anti-Semitism. ABC News sees his role in interreligious relations with Jews as deriving from having witnessed the Holocaust as a youth, and his striving to end Communism as deriving from similarly having endured Communist oppression as a youth. His ideas helped the Catholic Church to open itself up to ecumenical avenues to push for international peace, for example by striking out of Catholic Easter Liturgy the words, "The Jews killed Christ." He also toured the world more extensively than any other pope in recorded history. He used his office as "a national pulpit," as ABC News asserts, in his global campaign for human rights, and to secure world peace. He was very instrumental in the advancement of interreligious dialog. His charisma, charm, speeches and other communicative efforts helped to push for global peace and the accommodation of the differences among peoples. I am an avid admirer of his.

There are a number of other individuals that have worked for peace through their speeches and other communicative efforts. Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Yunus, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King Junior, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa are notable examples. It is worthy of note that these individuals, except for Mahatma Gandhi, are all recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Gandhi nonetheless is referred to as Mahatma, “Great Soul,” because of his efforts at securing civil rights and independence from colonial powers for his fellow Indians. He was also known for his nonviolent methods of protesting injustice, methods which he used extensively in South Africa to mobilize for civil rights for the Indians there.

He was famous as well for his simplicity of living, his concern for the poor and marginalized, and his enduring campaign for egalitarianism. He used his legal training as well as his writing to challenge institutions that were oppressive to marginalized groups in South Africa and in India. One quotation of his that I consider uniquely clever is: “An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.” The Government of South Africa unveiled a statue of him on October 2, 2003, at Gandhi Square in the city center, in commemoration of his work for civil rights.

Muhammad Yunus, an economist, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts at providing small loans to poor people with business ideas, where the more traditional banks refused to, owing to the inability of these indigent individuals to provide sufficient collateral. According to the Nobel Institute, Yunus received the Nobel Prize for his efforts at helping individuals gain self sufficiency, as well as by contributing to the emancipation of the world poor. Yunus has explained his incentive to establish the Grameen Bank, a financial institution committed to the social responsibility of alleviating poverty, to be a desire to improve the lives of common folk. According to the Daily Star, the first loan Yunus gave was from his own pocket to 42 village women who were interested in starting small scale businesses. The loan yielded a modest profit.

In the following years, he progressively became a channel of credit from the more established banks to individuals with business ideas, but without capital to float them. In this way, the Grameen Bank got a head start, and endures to the present day. In a speech he gave to the University of California, Berkeley, Clinton called Yunus a “great Bangladeshi economist” who “long ago should have won the Nobel Prize. I’ll keep saying that until they finally give it to him.” He showed how Yunus’ ideas can help to lift up entire communities from poverty and help to make the world a more level economic playing field for all peoples everywhere.

Desmond Tutu is a South African bishop of the Anglican Community. He was an instrumental voice in challenging the segregationist policies of the Apartheid Government of South Africa. He won the Nobel Peace prize in 1984 for his peace efforts, and has received countless other awards, such as: the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986, the Pacem in Terris Award in 1987, the Sydney Peace Prize in 1999, the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2005 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

Martin Luther King Junior, according to the Nobel Institute, was a noted civil rights leader, and a “Negro leader of the first rank.” Schlesinger, political scholar and biographer, says of Martin Luther King that: “He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Martin Luther King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1964.

Nelson Mandela was leader of an egalitarian South Africa from 1994 to 1999. According to the Nobel Foundation, he was instrumental in bringing about the fall of apartheid. He was a leading member of the African National Congress, on whose ticket he ran to become president of his country after his release from a 27-year incarceration. He won the Nobel Prize jointly with Frederick de Klerk in 1993, three years after his release from prison in 1990. He perennially mobilized for racial equality and human rights, and deserved the appellation by the Nobel Foundation as “the most significant black leader in South Africa.”

Mother Teresa, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, of Albanian descent. She became an Indian citizen and founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. Although she began her religious life as a teacher, she was progressively drawn to the plight of the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, and described her inspiration to help them as a “call within a call.” She was beatified by the late Pope John Paul II, and given the name Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Furthermore, Mother Teresa excelled in conflict resolution and humanitarian services. For example, she once rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas, at the height of the Siege of Beirut in 1982. She was accompanied by Red Cross workers, as she traveled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients. More so, Mother Teresa set up 517 missions in more than 100 countries by 1996 and through these missions was providing food, medical care and dying support for the large numbers of people that availed themselves of her Order’s services. She received the Nobel Peace prize in 1997.

Influenced by all these champions of global peace, I choose today to reflect on global peace. Like everyone, I have grappled with the issue of dispute. I am aware of the potential for resentment among peoples; I am aware of the potential for dispute to develop, and for situations to be misconstrued based on the differences of outlook among the participants in those situations. Simply put, I have struggled with understanding how opportunities for peace can easily be lost when individuals do not take the initiative to seek it out in spite of human differences.

In Sometimes in April directed by Raoul Peck, ethnic discord between Tutsis and Hutus led to genocide which lasted for months, until the intervention of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) by Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In the movie, Augustine played by the British actor, Idris Elba, remarks that haunting emptiness descends on his heart “sometimes in April,” following the genocide. He says he recalls “how quickly life ends,” and bitterness builds. He bemoans the loss of innocence and the lasting grief occasioned by the loss of his wife and children and his resultant estrangement from his brother, Honore, played by another British actor, Oris Erhuero.

In the movie, God on Trial, a heart-wrenching story is told of a young gentile boy that befriends a Jewish boy at a nearby work camp at Auschwitz. They meet frequently across a barbed-wire fence, through which the gentile boy gives his newly found friend food and company. Soon, the gentile boy dares to sneak past the fence and wear the work-camp uniform. He however does this on an unfortunate day. Unknowingly, he is led along with those slated to die to the gas chamber and is similarly killed. His father, a soldier in the Nazi Authority, is struck by the hurtful irony.

Reflecting on his own experience many years later, in an exclusive tour-interview at Auschwitz with Oprah, Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Laureate and author of the best-selling Night, bemoans the unimaginable cruelty of hatred and bigotry. He says of the Nazis: “They intended for their crimes to be unthinkable.” He reveals how the Nazis so tortured and tormented the Jews that even reflecting on the Holocaust alone is sufficient to benumb anyone: shaving the heads of the Jews for winter clothes; conducting pseudo-scientific tests on Jewish people to add lie to eugenic theories; confiscating Jewish property, including boxes and children shoes, all in the war effort – Elie Wiesel told Oprah he could not even begin to make sense of it all. He said it made him want to “shout.”

Furthermore, Elie Wiesel exclaims: “Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.” This statement dramatically and quintessentially captures what conflict does do to a human soul. It “murders God and soul.” As a religious person myself, if my God and my soul were murdered, the very desire to live would be similarly murdered, and would inevitably lie in the same grave as did they.

The Cambodian Genocide is another example, which I won’t go into here. Suffice it to say that history is not lacking in number of conflicts experienced. Dispute is not the preserve of one race or nationality or continent or class – it is a human phenomenon. It has led to universal human suffering, loss of life and property. Yet, as Pope John Paul II has averred, dispute has never resulted in tangible good. For it needs be recalled that the late Pontiff did state that peace has historically been brought about only by positive communicative actions, especially as done by the champions of peace we have mentioned, most of whom have received the Nobel Peace prize.

Explaining "The Secret" Behind the Universe

Some of you have probably read Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. With Oprah's help, it sold over 19 million copies and has arguably become part of contemporary zeitgeist. I haven't read the book myself, but I've watched the movie it was based on, and I've got to say I was pretty inspired by it. I've begun to apply its message in my own life and, because I feel it has helped me, I want to share the message with you today. If you open your mind to it, The Secret will help you to overcome some of the emotional and spiritual challenges you face, and give you tools with which to craft for yourself a better future. So, pay attention and learn.

 

The Secret behind the universe is the law of attraction. We have the power to obtain or be anything we want by attracting these desires to ourselves. Wealth, health, success, relationships - whatever we want, we can get by attraction. The starting point is to think about what you want. Don't think about what you don't want, but only about what you do want. The thoughts in your head - which should be about what you desire - create a frequency, you know like sound waves and stuff. This frequency goes out into the universe around you and begins to create the situations that enable you to obtain your desires as contained in the thoughts. Think of ripples. They start at a central point and then spread out into the surrounding space. Similarly, your thought frequencies spread out into the universe and compel the actualization of your desire-filled thoughts.

 

All this may sound like mumbo-jumbo I agree, but there's a deeper spirituality to it. The thoughts you send out into the universe experience a time lapse. Nature delays the actualization of your thoughts in order to give you time to rethink and be quite certain that what you're thinking is actually what you want. We all agree that we've often changed our thoughts and desires and have sometimes regretted wanting certain things. At such times we've been grateful these things did not come true. With new information, we begin to see that the things we wanted in the past would have screwed us up big time. So, for our own good, it's not as if we just wish something, think about it for a short while and hey presto - there's our wish come true. No. The universe is not like a shopping catalog.

 

Besides, we have very many desire-filled thoughts. Thousands actually. None of us can keep track of them all, and they don't all match up. Teleologically speaking, our destiny or purpose sifts out our piles of thoughts and keeps those that are congruent with itself. As time goes on, the desire-filled thoughts that are incongruent with our life-path gradually fade away, leaving those that are. We can help this process along if we are conscious of what our destiny should be. Then we can consciously drive away the thoughts inconsistent with it. Now, even the thoughts that do stay, the ones that are in keeping with our life's purpose, are still too many for us to keep track of. So, nature gives us a mechanism for knowing if the thoughts we're thinking are good. This mechanism is emotion.

 

By being always conscious of the way we feel, we can estimate the quality of our thoughts. If we feel good: love, joy, peace, excitement - then we know the desire-filled thoughts we have are proper, and we are on course toward achieving them. If conversely we feel bad: anger, resentment, depression, anxiety - then we know the desire-filled thoughts we have are improper; or that we, even though we have proper thoughts, are not on course toward achieving them. When we feel good, because this means we are thinking and acting positively toward the realization of our dreams, we should ramp up the good feelings. But when we feel bad, because this implies that we're falling away from the path toward achieving our dreams, we should alter the bad feelings. Recall that we've already explained in a previous post the three-step method proposed by Descartes for dealing with bad feelings.

 

Now, bad feelings have a way of attracting more bad feelings. Imagine you wake up on the wrong side of the bed on a certain day and, feeling shitty, you keep doing things angrily or testily, you will find yourself feeling worse, and people will respond to you in defensive and possibly unpleasant ways; and your experiences will keep being unfortunate. But if you change your attitude and begin to feel good - maybe by applying Descartes' three step method - you will begin to attract good and positive experiences and people to yourself, because good feelings also have a way of attracting more good feelings. And the more you feel good, because feeling good signifies that you're thinking properly and are on your way to the actualization of your dreams, the more you succeed in getting and being all you wish.

 

There's more. The resources contained in the universe are in unlimited supply. It's good to know this because some people argue: Well, all this sounds fine and dandy, but if we all keep getting what we want in this way from the universe, won't it just run out of stuff to give us? No. Apart from the fact that the universe is limitless, commonsense tells us that we don't all want the same things. For example - funny as this might sound - I actually don't want a car; or to be wealthy, or to marry a super model like Tyra Banks. These things are not in keeping with my life-path, which is to become a priest. Plus they will not help me to learn the one lesson God has for my soul, which is humility, as consists in simplicity, sensitivity, selflessness and sanctity. But someone else may desire them because they are in keeping with their own life-path and purpose. This reminds me of the story of a woman who went to visit an African Traditional Religious priest in his humble shrine, wanting a potion for wealth. After the priest had concocted one and given it to the woman, she asked him, "Wait a minute; if this thing actually works, why haven't you used one yourself?" The priest said to her: "Because I'm not meant to be rich, silly woman!"

 

So, if we have wishes that are in keeping with our purpose and we continually think about these wishes, and feel good because of them, we progressively journey along to their actualization. So, I for example want to be a religious priest. It is the one thing I want the most in life, especially because it will help me to learn the lesson of humility marked out for me. Applying the law of attraction, the secret, I begin to think of being a priest everyday. It becomes the first thing I think about as I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about when I retire to bed at night. I also allow myself to feel good about being a priest, ramping up all the good feelings it inspires in me and dispelling every bad feeling that creeps into my heart. If I can do all this, I will ontologically speaking be well on my way toward actually becoming a religious priest.

 

Is it that simple? Well, no actually. There's more. You see, it's not sufficient to simply want something, think about it, feel good about it and zuptalo! - you get it. No senor. You have to act. You simply gotta get off your lazy arse and work toward it. The thought frequencies you send out into the world and the good feelings inside you will help you and give you the strength to work toward the realization of your dreams. This is why when you're doing what you love, what is in keeping with your purpose, work feels lighter and pleasanter. Indeed, we are encouraged to do only what we like, what we feel passionate about. Why do you think Oprah is so successful? Because she is doing what she loves - talking. Do you imagine writing this blog is hard for me? Not at all. I actually look forward to doing it everyday, because I love to write - and by the way I love to talk too. When I think of the prospect of giving homilies as a priest, I actually envy the congregation that will be blessed to listen to me talk. And this is not boastfulness.

 

Let's do an internal summary of what we've learned so far, because there's more still. So far, we've said that the secret behind the universe is the law of attraction, by which we can get and be whatever we want. It works by our thinking constantly of what we want - and in this manner sending out frequencies into the universe that set in motion the conditions for the actualization of our thoughts - and engendering good feelings based on our thoughts within us. These positive feelings - unlike negative ones - indicate that our thoughts are proper and that we are underway toward bringing them about. Because the universe is limitless and people want different things, the possibility of success in the attainment of our dreams is high, especially if they are in keeping with our purpose and we work passionately and assiduously for them, helped by our proper thoughts and positive feelings. Now that we've summed up what we've learned so far, we can proceed.

 

What happens when we think about what we don't want? When we think about what we don't want, we similarly attract these unfortunate things, events and people to ourselves. You see, the universe doesn't hear that you don't want this or that. It just hears this or that, and brings it to you. It's like a dumb waiter. You think of something; it brings it to you. Simple. So for example you say, "Oh, I don't want debt!" And you find yourself deeper and deeper in debt - now that I think about it, I think the reason I've never been in debt, not even a cent's worth, is that I actually never think of it - debt is not even in my consciousness - now how about that! Amazing, isn't it? If something isn't even in your consciousness it cannot begin to manifest itself in your life. So we must fill our thoughts and our consciousness with positive material. Think about all the good things you want and they will come your way. Don't think of bills coming in the mail; think rather of checks. I for example never get bills in the mail. I only get checks - ask anyone that knows me personally.

 

Furthermore, it means that we should never style ourselves as anti-something. It only intensifies such a thing in our consciousness, in our world. So, don't be anti-abortion; be pro-life. This means you don't go about "fighting" abortion by rallying, making noise and stuff, but actively mentor pregnant women; help with family planning workshops, and so forth. Don't be anti-poverty, by bemoaning losses in the stock market or starving kids in Africa. Rather, be pro-wealth by teaching financial skills, organizing accounting workshops and doing much to help the less fortunate wherever you find them. Mother Teresa knew this. The late Pope John Paul II knew this as well, and said: "Whatever you fight against, you become." Another scholar put it differently: "Whatever you resist persists." I remember that when I used to be unforgiving of the Angela in my life (the person I blamed for everything bad that had happened to me) I had unkind thoughts toward him, and felt bad most of the time. And all I was thinking and feeling simply perpetuated the realities I had blamed him for creating - you know, because that was the content of my consciousness at the time. But since I completely forgave him and now think and feel positively toward him, the realities I no longer blame him for creating actually no longer exist for me.

 

Excited yet? There's more. You might ask: Is the universe some kind of genie, who simply says, "Your wish is my command"? The answer is yes, the universe is actually some kind of genie that says that. If you wish for something, think about it all the time; feel good always, and work toward it, the universe at the appointed time will give it to you. You don't need to know how. It's like driving in the dark night and not being able to see past a short distance with the help of your headlamps. If you keep going, regardless of the fact that you cannot see all the way ahead, you will get to your stop. Martin Luther King Jr said concerning this: "You don't need to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." This implies believing. And so, the law of attraction - all what we've said so far - can be rearranged this way: ask (or want, desire, wish), believe, and then receive. Jesus himself said: "Therefore I say to you that whatever you ask for when you pray, believe that you get it, and you will definitely receive it" (Mark 11:24). This is verbatim what Jesus said! It's almost as if Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret, plagiarized Jesus - she didn't by the way. It's just that truth is universally recognized by those who have the proper illative sense for it.

 

How come all of this is that simple? Because we are God. That's what The Secret and a few other authorities say. Aha, that reminds me - I said in an earlier post that I will explain the theology of how it is that we mortal humans are God in some sense. So here goes. At the simplest level - you know, when you want to explain this kind of stuff to a child - you may say that we are God because we were made in the image and likeness of the divine (Gen 1:27). Also, in John 10:34b, Jesus says: "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods"'? At a more complex level, however, we are divine-like because we share in God's rationality. Scholars say that we are examples of the way by which the universe becomes conscious of itself. The presence of reason, of the rationative faculty within us, makes us - unlike animals and other living things on earth - most like God. More so, our ability to consciously craft artifacts, plan businesses and live in communities, and raise babies after bringing them into the world are divine attributes; plus the fact that we share a universal teleology with the enduring potentiality of God's spirit in us, evidenced by our talents and ambitions, and the boundless possibility of actualization we are capable of.

 

Therefore, we can attract to ourselves everything good, everything that will actualize us: money, relationships, security - anything. We just have to wish it, think it, feel it, work toward it and believe that we have it. All this will bring it about. Thoughts do become reality when they follow this process. Philosophers call it epistemological realism - the event of a thing that started out as a thought in our head actually becoming three-dimensional. Impressive. Architectural plans on paper becoming actual buildings; book proposals becoming best-selling literature; menu plans becoming gourmet dishes - the list is endless. One more thing though before we wrap up, and that is visualization. When we wish, and think, and feel, and act, and believe, we must express all of this via visualization. It is the artwork of belief. We must paint a picture in our mind of what we hope to receive. The picture concretizes the reality before we actually touch it. Without visualization, it is hard to mentally hold on to the substance of our belief - this is probably why we use statues and artworks in Catholic liturgy, but that is another matter - and so to keep faith in them alive.

 

Anyway. Today, we have learnt about The Secret, Rhonda Byrne's contribution to our intellectual culture. This secret, which controls the universe, is the law of attraction. It states that whatever we want, through thinking, feeling and acting positively toward it, we can achieve. Put differently, it states that if we ask and believe, we can receive anything from the universe. This is especially so if what we desire is in keeping with our life purpose and contributes to our learning the life lesson we were created to learn. All of this is possible because we are divine-like, and because the universe is limitlessly serving diverse desires. We also need to visualize our dreams so as to mentally hold on to their substance. The Secret, in short, coveted over the years, teaches us to be positive, and to feel good and hopeful about the goodness the world is eternally capable of.