Harlem Shake and Jesus

I would like to first start off with a Harlem shake video that was made at Steubenville on the Bayou this past weekend.

Now on a more serious note:

This past weekend I witnessed one of the most incredible things in my life. I was in a room that was dead silent with 3,000 teenagers. On top of that, not one teenager had a phone out to text and no one was getting up to go to the bathroom because they were bored. There was no music playing and every teenager was kneeling. Why? To gaze at a simple piece of bread. 3,000 teenagers completely captivated by a piece of bread.

This past week I went to be apart of Mercy Crew which helps with anything and everything in order to make Steubenville on the Bayou run more smoothly. I had the time of my life. I myself spent most of the weekend working to spotlight for the conference. Like every job it had it is a rose but it still has its thorns. I was able to be apart of almost the entire conference but at the same time I was separated from everyone.

He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.”And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”Luke 19:1-10

Here I was up in the tree. I was a spectator, not a participant. I felt disconnected and lonely but God was still with me and I still had purpose. I was separate from everyone yet God used me where I was. In fact I had possibly the most important job of all. My job was to put the spotlight on Jesus, the single most important person in the universe.

What's the point to all of this? I'll tell you. Something cool about the picture of the Eucharist at adoration is that it was in the same place where the penguin had been dancing in the harlem shake video. The Lord grants us the ability to be in his presence through the Eucharist yet so often we blow it off as just a piece of bread. The same goes with anything in our lives. We forget that Jesus is always with us and present in our lives until we meet him in adoration. I did not come to Jesus because I was hanging in a tree. Jesus in his power and love came to the tree and said “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” Let us never forget that even when he is absent he is present and he is coming to be with us.

The Harlem Shake may have seemed silly and unnecessary but when Catholics can do something so normal, so cool, it speaks to teens and they become more intrigued by the Catholic church. That simple act may seem like nothing but to a teen it may have been the only thing to open up their hearts to the Catholic church. Even though Jesus wasn't present in the Eucharist during the Harlem Shake, he was still present desperately calling out to us.

Show Me the Love

We spend our entire lives searching for one thing. Love. There are many forms of love such as the love for a spouse, love of science, love of art, love of music, love for a brother or sister, love of sports, etc. In every place where love can be found sin can be found.

Music can be beautiful when it expresses God's love and love for one another while at the same time, in today's culture, music is often the expression of a life of sin. Sports show the beauty in which God has created the human body and we see God's love in our abilities to push the limits. On the other hand, sports drive competition which can lead to pride and jealousy. Science shows the intricate work of the hand of God but science is also used to try and discredit God.

There is a song by Rihanna called We Found Love. If you have never seen the music video DON"T. The music video is one of the most sinful and depressing things I have ever watched in my entire life. However, if you have never seen the cover of the same song done in Africa by Lindsey Stirling WATCH IT. It is the most hopeful beautiful things I have ever seen.

We can't escape sin because it is the sinners who need God the most. For those of you who don't know, the song God of This City was not written by Chris Tomlin. The song was actually written by an Irish band called Bluetree. Bluetree actually wrote the song in a brothel. In this video Chris Tomlin tells the story of the song. (The video is kind of long so feel free to skip to the 2:40 mark)

We find love when we bring the light of Christ to those who need it most. When we lead a sinner to the light we are seeing love flow from us, love is shown to us from them, and best of all God's love for us is magnified. The Father's love for us is magnified because we have brought his child safely back into his arms.

If they had been thinking of the land from which they had come, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better homeland, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 

Hebrews 11:15-16

Speed Limit 65

Today I made my way home for the summer after a year of hard work at school. As I was driving home for the first leg of the trip I found myself following the general rule when it comes to driving on the highway. "Don't be the fastest, don't be the slowest, and go with the flow of traffic". Then it dawned on me, a speed limit is more that just a suggestion it's the law. At which point I slowed down so that I could be sure I did not even slightly go over the speed limit.

Once I did this I began to notice the behaviors of other cars around me, while also becoming more aware of my own driving. I came to the conclusion that you have 3 types of drivers: the grandma slow types, the "popular kids" or peer pressure type, and the carefree maniac type.

I noticed that before when I would be going over I was constantly having to check the speedometer to make sure I wasn't going TOO far over the speed limit because if I was going SUPER fast then I would get pulled over. I was trying to get away with as much as I could without getting a ticket. However, when I slowed down I seemed to instinctively know where the limit was without having to watch the speedometer.

When I did slow down many cars began to pass me. At first I felt as if I was being rude by slowing other drivers down and not going at the speed as the rest of them. Some cars would get inches behind me on my tail trying to get me to go faster. If I was close to 5 mph under I would speed up right to the speed limit but I never went any faster. No matter how fast I went the ones tailing me were never satisfied. Even if I was going over they would still be on my tail trying to get me to go faster. I eventually just had to ignore anyone who was tailing me until they passed me. There were also some drivers that were going so fast and going in between cars recklessly that I just had to avoid these cars all together even if it meant slowing down a lot. With cars like that I was just trying to not get hurt. This is kind of what I felt whenever I encountered those specific drivers:

(notice how tense the man his, his tight grip on the wheel, the stress on his face,

and how calmly Jesus is guiding him while letting the man do the driving)

All of this got me thinking about how much we push the limits with our actions. Some of us just speed past everyone without caring if we get a ticket or not. Some of us will go slightly over the limit but not too much in order to avoid any "real" punishment. Lastly, there are those who seem to be an old grandma, sticking to old rules and customs that don't "fit" with today's times.

What we forget is that those limits are there for a reason. Limits are there to protect us. The government's job is to set these limits to protect us from harm. Things like speed limits, stop signs, health codes, etc. are all there for our benefit. For that reason, even though there are some laws that are unjust, God still calls us to respect government authority.

Obedience in Authority.Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves. Romans 13:1-2

Obviously things like limits on religious freedom are unjust but that is another topic for another time. My point here is that, whether we like it or not, we should obey the law even with something as simple as a speed limit. This is to be extended to more than just limits from the government but also limits given to us from the Authority above. God loves and cares about us and he does not want to see us hurt. I mean seriously why shouldn't we obey both God and the law?

That being said, I can proudly say that, though a car that I parked has been hit a couple of times, I have never gotten a ticket or been in an accident and I have God and speed limits to thank for that.

On a more personal and final note:

Last April my home parish dedicated a new church. It was sort of strange with it opening just before I left for college because it no longer felt like home. One day in the chapel during my last adoration before I left for school I remembered God telling me that I needed to leave for a while and then later down the road I would come back and share what I had learned with my hometown. At the time I assumed that God meant maybe 10-20 I would come back as a youth minister. I was really nervous about coming home afraid I would give in to many temptations and slack off on my Catholic faith. Most of this semester in college the weather was cloudy, rainy, and cold. However, as I made my way home the clouds were overcast and somewhat dark but the direction where I was headed, though it was cloudy, it was as bright as the sun. Clearly God was saying that what was awaiting me was something beautiful. As I crossed the city limits into my hometown I could hear one voice coming from my father up above, "Welcome Home".

The "Catholic Bubble"

During my sophomore year of high school at colorguard practice (artistic form of ROTC) one night, I tossed my rifle up in the air for a double flat toss (a double flat toss is when the rifle spins around twice in a helicopter like fashion) but when I caught it my left hand missed and the rifle hit me in the face right at my left eyebrow. It felt like I had walked into a door, there was obvious pain but after a second I knew I would be able to shake it off. However, my coach immediately yelled for everyone to stop and urgently waved me to the sideline. It was then that I noticed my hand was wet with the blood dripping from where I had been hit. I went to an urgent care facility where they gave me 10 stitches.

The doctors told me I could practice the next day but for the first 24 hours it could not be to the extent of sweating which could possibly infect the wound. I went back the next day and my friends showed me where they had washed the blood off of my rifle. The problem was I knew what toss had hit me in the head and the blood was in the wrong place. It was a month before I finally figured out that I had twisted my rifle just slightly during the part before so the rifle was flipped the wrong way when I tossed it. That little mistake led to me miscalculating where to place my hands and therefore lead to me getting hit in the face.

Anyways, after the first 24 hours I went back to practice like normal but naturally when it came to that toss I would choose not to throw the toss out of fear. Slowly I worked my way up to tossing a single flat toss and I did that for a couple weeks. It wasn't until I had figured out the mistake I had made before I finally worked up the nerves to throwing the toss again. To this day I still flinch every time I see someone throw the toss.

Now there is a point to this. Many of us Catholics I feel sometimes have a tendency to live in a "Catholic bubble", I too am guilty of this. By "Catholic bubble" I mean that we have become so focused on our faith that we surround ourselves constantly with other Catholics. This is not a bad thing, in fact it is a wonderful thing to be around such wonderful people all the time. The problem with the "Catholic bubble" sometimes is that there is a certain level of spiritual fitness that we can never reach if we never leave the bubble. In the "Catholic bubble" life is easy, right and wrong are clear, temptation is little to none, and everyone around you supports and agrees with you.

"A lot of people view faith in God as something that binds you, places outdated rules on you, and most certainly isn’t worth all the hassle. The reality is the opposite: we’re made free in surrendering our lives to God – free from sin, from chains of addiction, from baggage, etc." Aaron Hostetter

It is much easier to be a good Catholic when you are surrounded by other Catholics than those who are not.

An example of this done beautifully is the life of Saint Vitalis of Gaza. Saint Vitalis was a monk who spent his days working as a day laborer. Every night Saint Vitalis would hire a prostitute for the night. Instead of having them "work" he instead would ask them to spend the one night free of sin in turn he would often pray with the women and bring them the gospel with his words and his actions. This man lived a life of holiness and chastity despite the fact that he was surrounded by such an immense amount of sin and temptation. After his death, many converted prostitutes came out of hiding processing with candles and lanterns as his body was taken to the grave.

It is the ultimate goal to have the strength to do what is hard without getting injured, or if you will, the lantern on a hill to the rest of the world. This is also similar to a gymnast who perfects technique before attempting a difficult stunt. The "Catholic bubble" can be extremely beneficial because you can avoid injury but, at the same time, I feel as though we ought to strive for more. I have a few specific friends that I can say are some of the most devout Catholics I know although many would never know it because of who they spend their time with. These friends of mine have many friends who make poor decisions but by living a wonderful Catholic life in a non-Catholic environment they have been able to bring the word of God to those who otherwise would never hear the name of Jesus. The lives that these friends live is so beautiful because they are strong enough in their faith that they are able to go into the darkest places without injuring themselves.

I would like to close with a quote:

"Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart." - Saint Vitalis

God of a Colorful People

So I woke up today and I was going to put up some nice elegant post of some sort but something in me just said that I needed to share this reflection I had written 2 years ago while in physics class when we were taking notes on light. I have made a few modifications since the original version simply to make it more theologically accurate because at the time I lacked in knowledge that I now have. Still the message stays the same.

In science we are taught that black is not a color, it is just the absence of light. God tells us that he is in the light. In Genesis it says how before God created light there was nothing it was darkness, does this mean before light there was no God? but yet in order to have black darkness (the absence of light) there had to be light in order for there to be the absence of light.

Before Jesus, was hell not hurtful but just black darkness? When Jesus went to hell to save us did he bring light in that moment creating fire? This fire being not absence but ultimate desire to be with him? After all God describes his heart as burning with desire to love us and for us to love him. Is this not like a desperate girl after a break up? She wants the guy so much that it hurts her and after a while she forgets why shes hurting, she just hurts with the desire to be with him but she has forgotten it is him that she wants and desires.

Did God not exist before the light? or did he exist but not yet been revealed until the love and desire for human life was created? Could that be what created light? Does light consists of two parts? God's love for us and the essence of what we are as humans, could it be that when the God's love and God's desire for human life were brought together they create a big explosion and in return we were created? and when we were created a white pure light was made, thus revealing God to us? Is God not light without the essence of human life?

Therefore, if God is light then one must think we must have been created to absorb the light. White light is pure it's made up of all light but we as humans are colorful beings, we absorb light and what we reflect off of us is what we don't absorb, what we don't absorb keeps us from being white perfect light, what we don't absorb is reflected and goes to waste. So by being colorful as humans we are showing our imperfection, were not absorbing all the light, all the colors.

What colors we reflect are the colors we don't absorb and when we become blackness and go into the dark we would be refusing to absorb, refusing to absorb the great white and pure light that is our God.

Wedding By A Glassy Sea

So lately I've found myself praying a lot about this call to love that we all have. There are so many amazing ways I could tell you about all of what I have come to discover but I think first I should back up and give you a little background of how I came to understand love the way that I do now.

This past summer at a Steubenville Conference during adoration I  remember at one point picturing myself standing on a beach and at a distance Jesus was facing the land looking upon all of his creation and he held his hand out for me. The problem was, when I tried to step forward there was this glass barrier in front of me. For the longest time that night I fought with that barrier but eventually Jesus appeared next to me on my side of the glass (so now there were two Jesuses one at a distance and one next to me) who also held out his hand for me. I was hesitant to take his hand but eventually I did and I do not remember much else after that, just the inner peace that filled my heart. It occurred to me then that, even though we place these barriers between us and God, he still loves us and will do everything he can to ensure that he is there for us.

Now fast forward to this past Sunday. No big revelation of any sort just an inspiring homily. The visiting priest spoke to us college students facing finals. He said that Jesus made it easy. Jesus told us there will be one question on our final in life. When we come to the end he will simply ask us, "How well have you loved?" That's it, Jesus made it easy.

This may not make much sense but I promise it all connects in the end!

Now fast forward to last night at a praise and worship event that I helped lead. Most of what I do to help out is the set up and clean up so during the night I was able to enjoy the praise and worship as a participant. I was in wonderful meditation last night when again I pictured myself on that same beach as before when I was at Steubenville. This time I was on the other side of the glass but I was still holding on to the glass, trying to reach for Jesus but refusing to let go of the glass. When I would reach my hand would be within 6 in of Jesus' hand which frustrated me. I tried to let go of this glass but I couldn't. To me the glass was stable, it was secure and I knew the physical properties of the glass. With the glass I knew what to expect but if I let go so that I could take the hand of Jesus then I would not know what to expect.

-I can imagine this is what might have gone through the mind of Peter when Jesus walked on water.-

Then out of nowhere I remembered seeing someone at my feet who needed my help and I bent down to help them. Then there was another person a few steps away who needed my help when I finished with the first person. This continued to happen till eventually at the end of the line of helping people I found myself at the feet of Jesus. He asked me, "How well have you loved?" I looked back and saw all the people that I had loved on my journey to Jesus. Only then did I notice that I had let go of the glassy wall.

Now what would one of my posts be without a super cheesy analogy?

Very few people will probably know what I am talking about but when I was younger I loved watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch with Melissa Joan Hart. In the series there is an eppisode when Sabrina is being tested to find out if she or her twin is the evil twin. During one of the questions the proctor asks, "what is your career objective?". The twin answers beautifully saying that she wanted to be a vet and help animals. When Sabrina is asked the question she gets distracted by a random dog that appears and because she plays with dog she missed the question and answers, yellow.

This is sort of what happened to me. I wanted to love Jesus so much but I was focusing on what I needed to change. In reality though I did not need to change I just needed to love. That was it.

Another thing this reminds me of is Grey's Anatomy (maybe this one will make more sense, since I assume more would be familiar with this). There is an episode where all of the residents are bickering. In order to stop the bickering (and to establish dominance in the group, though that is besides the point), the attendings give them a patient with many complications. As the person is open on the table the doctors just stand there arguing until one doctor out of nowhere just starts operating without even thinking and is able to save the patient. This doctor in the more recent season (spoiler alert if you haven't seen this season) ends up becoming the head of the hospital board. (He becomes head because his well known mother essentially buys him the job. HEY LOOK! That advocacy thing I mentioned before!)

So what is the point of all of this? We can't fight to be with Jesus, we can't earn it, we can't even try to be the best person ever. All we must do is find ways to love. I want to close with the lyrics of the song, Holy Wedding Day by The City Harmonic, that was played last night. Just the pure irony put a big smile on my face.

This is the story of the Son of God
Hanging on the cross for me
But it ends with a bride and groom
And a wedding by a glassy sea
O death where is your sting
Cause I'll be there singing
Holy Holy Holy
Is the Lord 

This is the story of a bride in white
Waiting on her wedding day
Anticipation welling up inside
While the groom is crowned as king
O death where is your sting
Cause we'll be there singing
Holy Holy Holy is the Lord 

....... 

This is the story of the Son of God
Hanging on the cross for me
And it ends with a bride and groom
And a wedding by a glassy sea

This is the story of the a bride in white
Singing on her wedding day
Of the God who was and is to stand before a bride who sings
Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty

A Call to Advocacy

Advocate- person who pleads for or in behalf of another

We all desire to be loved. Many people experience that love through words of encouragement, someone telling us that we are awesome. Although, for me personally, words of encouragement never did much. I sometimes wonder, why is that? I don't think I hate myself and I want to believe it but for some reason I still struggle with it. While reflecting on this thought today I thought back to the scene in Mean Girls when Regina tells a girl in the hallway how good her skirt looks but the second the girl walks away, Regina says how awful it really looks. I then thought to myself maybe that is why words of encouragement don't mean that much to me. At times I think I do have a hard time trusting that people truly mean what they say. On the other hand, we shouldn't matter what people think of us.

Although we should never measure our value by what others think of us, that doesn't necessarily mean that we are not obligated to do more to show how much we care about how much we value one another. Regina tells the girl she is pretty but she never boasts to another person about how beautiful this girl is.

I think that sharing with others is the key difference between being just being kind and truly loving something about someone. Our faith should be no different. If we go to church, youth group, praise and worship events and tell God how awesome he is but we never tell a soul, do we really think he is that awesome?

How about I say it another way. If God truly is all of the things we say that he is, how could we praise him but not tell others? If God is truly all of the things we say that he is, how can we talk with our church friends all day about the things he has done for us but not tell someone who has never known God?

Mark 16:19-20 

Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

We are called to be advocates for both God and one another. If a person truly is the good that we say they are, we should be feel obligated to ourselves to tell others. I'll admit, although I feel happy when people say kind things to me I still doubt if they really feel that way or not. However, when people tell others what they think of me I KNOW it's true.

If I were to look at all of the people in my life and pick one person who did this more than anyone in my life it would be my mom. I've Mom's are the best advocates there are because they not only do they tell us how awesome we are, they brag about us to every single person they ever meet. My mom, second only to Jesus, is the best advocate I've got because no matter what I say or do she still believes in me. When I am hard on myself she is the one to speak up and say that I can do it. During a fight her exact word's were, "Stop giving yourself a pity party and do something". It sounds harsh but the fact is even when she is mad at me she still believes in me.

I want to close with one final thought. It is because of my mom that I can fully understand the complexity of the Wedding at Cana and what it means to advocate for someone.

John 2:1-5 

The Wedding at Cana.
1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 [And] Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”

I think another way to translate what Jesus tells his mother would be, "Why should I? I can't do that yet." At which point Mary ignores his statement and puts Jesus in a position where he can't say no.