EVIL + DISEASE SUFFERING + DEATH

Donna, a parishioner, told me that someday she is going to ask God,

“Why so much Evil, Disease, Suffering, and Death?”

“Why Alzheimer’s, blindness, premature death of a child, and life’s endless woes?

I thought,

“Why Wait? Ask God… Now!”

The 3 things that priests, doctors, and chaplains have not been able to solve

or provide a satisfactory answer:  Evil, Disease, and Death.

+++

THE 1^ST PROBLEM: EVIL?

Where does Evil come from?

 Why did Evil penetrate the heart of Cain beneath the Gates of Paradise?

What is the solution to Evil?

 Does the potential to do Evil lie “in-wait” within the human heart?

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THE 2^ND PROBLEM: DISEASE | SUFFERING?

The age old question: “Why do we suffer?”

Have you ever met a person who did not have a problem, illness, or worry?

+++

My son tells me that technology and science are accomplishing great things.

 We have the knowledge to “postpone but not cure” the

 destruction of the body and the mind from disease and depression.

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THE 3^RD PROBLEM: DEATH?

Betty, a Centre student, asked me:

 "What is the biggest surprise of your life?"

+++

 “The biggest surprise of my life is the "brevity of life"- it passes so soon and is so fragile.”

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How often we witness, sitting at the deathbed, those agonizing moments

 when the person before you was scared to death?

 Only a few weeks earlier - death never crossed their minds.

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Who can guide us through all the uncertainties of life: Evil, Disease, and Death?

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 Christ calls us to the Eucharistic Altar.

Christ wrote the manuscript of our lives in our hearts.

Christ knows that we will think, struggle and doubt.

Christ waits with a listening ear in the silence of our heart.

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Only The Goodthings

deacon robert r. lackney, 4^th Day journal (Luke 9:34-36)

+++

EVIL:  The Church says: Good or Evil … is our choice  … defines who we are & who we will become.

SUFFERING: St Therese Avila teaches: “… suffering has meaning only as we unite with Christ.”

DEATH: Catholics know: We long for Christ's Touch ... that drwas us into Eternal Life.

MY PATIENT SEARCH

Holy Hour: 2013 The PATIENT SEARCH

We have existed in God’s mind from the beginning.

Total. Complete. Perfect. 

God the Father has prepared the manuscript of Eternal Life in secret

and published it in the human heart.

God teaches Life is a Patient Search that satisfies the inner yearning of all our desires.

I come into contact with troubled people each week. 

Grady, in Lexington, Frank in Frankfort, phone calls with Julie, Diana, and Thomas.

Most of these conversations end: “Good luck- take care- God bless!”

But, with Tom’s situation drug-taking is beyond

The “good lucks” and  “pats on the back”. He is in deep trouble with his second divorce.

::

We live in a time when many assume that the Light of Christ does not exist.

Large numbers of people believe that a higher meaning or any kind

of spiritual truth has disappeared.

This view maintains that the only hope left to us is the meaning of the individual life:

career goals, personal objectives are the only cares in life.

This pre-occupation with self and careerism keep people from recognizing

the emptiness and loneliness in their lives.

Those that persist to seek satisfaction through

self-absorption, through power, money, deceit, promiscuity will, in the end,

destroy themselves and their way of life.

This would be Christ’s way of indicating that such a way of life is not viable.

::

There is a fundamental truth that we search for something and we do not know what it is. Our hearts are restless, lonely, and empty.

We want to be of value. We want to be worthy. We long for eternity. 

We look for meaning and we seek purpose: this is our Search for God.

::

We are never safe from this longing for “eternity” that

God has placed within the human heart.

This is the core of our “ Search for Purpose and Meaning ” that only

 Christ has promised to satisfy

We awake and embrace what God has written in our hearts.

To continue the search as the Saints teach us to do  “Go to God”.

><

Only the Goodthings

deacon robert.r lackney, My 4^th Day journal 2013,The Patient Search

PS:  Catholics search for Purpose  & Meaning, the Light of Christ,

experienced in the Gift of Eucharist.

SPOOK!

r.r.lackney, intergal expressionist

How do we live our short lives and learn to enjoy all we experience?

Every feeling, thought, idea, and decision:
every friend and foe, every cup of coffee drank or ice cream cone eaten has placed us here in this moment of the here and now.

I ask the question “Why?”

How did you and how do you, currently, schedule your time?

Time is that ever present NOW,
relentless, mindless, and tyrannical thing we experience until we slip into serious illness, suffering, and disease regardless of the event we are on that steady path to our Death.

It may be that the only question we are asked by the angels of the afterlife:

“What did you do with the time we gave to you?

My human cry since birth,

I want light, I want life, and I want love.

Whatever the cards we have been dealt to live the authentic, the true, the real life and avoid the negative life we must somehow rise above the program we have been given first by our mothers, reinforced by our fathers, and disciplined by our family, friends, and strangers who have and who continue to appear in our individual lives. The ruthless "Dualities"!

As a child, who looked into a Rainbow on a mountain in West Virginia,
70 years ago, and heard a voice:
“You shall be a person of value.”
A vision some would say, others would say a purpose, and
a few would describe as My Life Plan.

For certain, as I look back in time to recall my best memories my life script has never failed to guide me to a life of
 independence, creative imagination, spontaneity, and curiosity.
 

The negatives, of course, have had their way with me confusing my feelings, thoughts and decisions  from time to time with anger, fear, anxieties untold here, wanting to belong to this group or that, wanting to be included, to be recognized: 
distractions that deceived the individual in me- sidelined some dreams- yes but,
I have never succumbed  to the call of the group, the collective, or the cooperative and its sirens who offer the promise of  “togetherness”,
in which there can be no hope for authenticity.

Who knows the number of fairy tales, tooth fairies, or fantasies

that my mind and body has been exposed over the past 75 years, deceptions of truth?

And, who knows the damage they have incurred on

an unsuspecting and struggling worker as myself.

 

I matters not. I remain sane and spontaneous still.

only the good things
robert r. lackney, permanent deacon

EUCHARIST

Some of us were taught by Catholic grade school nuns  that:

The 7-Sacraments

are Mysteries too complicated to understand

So why try?

Eucharist: r.r.lackney, permanent deacon

+EUCHARIST +

+BAPTISM + CONFIRMATION +

+ RECONCILATION + ANOITING THE SICK +

+HOLY ORDERS + MATRIMONY+

Last month, my wife Barbara and I spent an evening with

St. Peter and Paul’s

2013 Confirmation Class. We heard:

Sarah and Bryan’s presentations on:

+ Death + Purgatory + Heaven +

•

Sarah shared several writings and quotes from the great saints.

(Very “scary stuff” …  I might add)

Bryan developed key themes from the catechism.

•

One bright student asked a question

(He must have eaten light bulbs for breakfast!)

•

“Can we experience heaven while in this life?”

His question is so profound.

For each of us.

•

Bryan shared his personal experience of heaven

‘… At Eucharist, during the Holy Mass,

We “experience” 

The Presence of Christ

And, the songs and melodies of heaven…’

•

Eucharist is something to be understood certainly,

but more importantly Eucharist is to be experienced.

•

Over the years I have interviewed over 300 Catholics of their experience of Communion.

The most memorable definition came from my Confirmation Sponsor:

•

“Robert”, she said,

“ … going to communion is a moment of wonder, for me, it is as if I have  …

Diamonds on my tongue!

… I feel as if Christ has scattered Light through my entire body …”

•

Only the Goodthings, deacon robert r.lackney

My 4^th Day Journal, February 2013

PS: What is your personal experience when receiving the Eucharist?

As we are gathered into community to receive Christ : “… Taste and see the goodness of the Lord! …”

THE MANISFESTATION OF LOVE

St. Peter, Rome  and Assissi  sketches

robert r. lackney, liturgical architect

Thomas Merton, in his book “The Seven Story Mountain”, describes his experience of Christ while visiting the great worship spaces in Europe.

 

This trip led to his conversion to Catholicism.

Thomas was attracted to the visual imagery of the sacred spaces: stained glass windows, symbols, sanctuary smells, the glitter of gold, and the flashings of silver that frame the Byzantine icons.

These images have also deeply inspired me.

We Catholics have discovered the sacred language that speaks silently within our basilicas, cathedrals, and churches.

“Sacredness”; it would seem, is somehow concentrated in symbol, form, image, or geometry and many are attracted to its presence.

The parish worship space becomes our personal sanctuary for:
Mediation, Contemplation, and Creativity.

Within our sanctuaries we “hear the whispers”  that reveal the images of the Divine:

Christ is present. Christ is teaching. Christ is with us.

 

Embraced by Christ we enter into a wonder beyond imagination. 
 
The Presence of Christ calls us forward into Eucharist and into the community that prays, worships, and serves one another.

Each of us an echo of God’s creative act:  The Manifestation of Love.

Embraced by Christ we enter into Loving and being Loved.

A wonder beyond our imaginations.

Only the Good Things

Deacon robert r. lackney, Lauds: Gethsemane, January 2013

PS:
The mysteries of  “ The Holy Presence”, “ The Divine ”, and “The Sacred” remain common experiences among Catholics, as they should.
We are taught by Holy Mother Church, that events, things, places, and people can be “consecrated” and manifest the Divine Presence in our midst.
Some believe that Sacred Art and Architecture is somehow “in-tune” with the rhythms of supernatural love and sacred space becomes a “resonator” of the Divine.
Whatever, our personal experience, our faith teaches that we receive the Presence of Christ in our daily lives within our chapels and most importantly within the love present within a loving heart.