Sunday, January 18, 2009

WE WIN!!!

The day you learn to surrender yourself totally to God, you will discover a new world, just as I am experiencing. You will enjoy a peace and a calm unknown, surpassing even the happiest days of your life. - Blessed Jaime Hilario (1898-1931)
***************************************************

I remember comforting a friend of mine when Mr Obama won the election. She is a faithful Catholic woman here in Modesto and she saw his winning the presidency of the United States as a sign of the Apocalypse. I don't - no, I did not vote for the man but I cannot give into the depressive showing of a lack of faith by thinking that his being the Leader of the Free World means its imminent end. The reality is, God is either all or God is nothing. The Holy Mother Church teaches that nothing happens in God's Universe in error - He does not CAUSE evil but from it He can bring forth great good.

No, that does not mean I think Mr. Obama is evil; far from it. I believe he thinks like most people brought up in a culture that has taught for the past 50 years that our bodies belong to us, that what we think is the truth because truth is relative and not objective, and that a woman's freedom can only be measured by how many men she has sex with and how many babies she decides NOT to have - that any acknowledgement of my womanhood is somehow giving in to a male dominated society that devalues me as a human being.

We have made a lot of progress in the past 50 years. Ask any woman who has had to go to a shelter in the middle of the night because the old man who sits next to her in the pew every Sunday came home drunk and beat the crap out of her. Ask any child who had their camp counselor force them to perform oral sex on them, or any kid sold to their mother's drug dealer for the price of a rock who was able to say to a teacher or friend, "HELP" and get it.

Sure we have a long way to go - and in typical human fashion we have a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater (so to speak). There is a legitimate question as to why we are charging a girl in Turlock for killing her baby by letting it die and not blinking an eye at legalized abortion. There is a legitimate question as to why men who say to a woman in the 4 month of the pregnancy,"Nope, I have decided that this is my life and I do not want to be a father. Good luck with you and it...I am out of here" are dragged into court and made to financially support that child but that a woman who turns to her husband or boyfriend at that same point in time and says, "It is my body and I don't want this kid....out of my way, bucko" is considered liberated.

Today's readings at Mass says it all, doesn't it? St Paul wrote to the first members of The Church "our bodies are not our own" when he taught how hurting ourselves physically hurts every member of the Body of Christ. What a trip! What a concept! In other words, what I do matters. What I say, how I say it, what I wear, what I do to my body MATTERS because the way I treat myself affects the BODY OF CHRIST. Why would I want to add more suffering to Him, who gave His life for me so that I may live in eternal glory praying constantly "Holy, Holy, Holy"?

I finished the movie treatment and I have ordered the software Susan suggested so I can try to write my first screenplay. While I am pretty sure I will not win an academy award or get to kiss John Cusak, if I sell this I am going to use the money for a neck lift. I am developing a turkey throat and I am just vain enough to HATE that...so, my contribution to making sure the Body of Christ stays beautiful will be to get rid of the wrinkles in my neck.

HEY - we all have to do our part, right?

2 comments:

chimakuni said...

I give thanks every day that God, and not we, are in control!!!

I just have to remind myself on that point every day...

Turkey neck? Say it ain't so!!!

Leslie K. said...

OH IT IS SO...and it is NOT pretty....hahahahahahahahah...oh stop it, Leslie.