Word Wars

Constant Mayer: Recognition: North and South

All wars begin with words.

You want to destroy a society? Attack the meaning of their words. Insinuate that words don't really mean what people think they mean. Tip the axis of human communication on its head. Use wordsmithery to craft new words that place a positive spin on things previously considered sinful or unacceptable.

Distort the meaning of their words and you'll twist their worlds at the same time. Conflate some words so that they mean more than what they should and tear down others so that they mean less than they should.

You want to brand a person as "evil"? Simple, really. Assign evil intent to their words and actions. Instead of calling them "pro-life" call them "anti-choice". Imply that their acts of goodness are inherently evil and against "love". Impute guilt where there is no guilt so that the person begins to have difficulty trusting in his ability to discern what is of value and what is not.  You want to disfigure truth by making it unrecognizable. Better to unravel the meaning of it than an attempt to destroy it directly. No one would be dumb enough to fall for that. At least not at first.

 A man is not going to march directly onto the path of evil if he clearly recognizes that thing as bad, horrible, destructive. No, no, you have to deceive him first and make him believe he is working for "the good team". Once man is deceived he's very malleable and you can use him as you will.

Consider abortion. Abortion didn't really become "acceptable" until the humanity of the baby was first called into question. It's a lot easier to kill something that's just "a blob of cells", isn't it?  It's a heck of a lot more difficult to kill something called "a baby".

Call lust -"free love". Call euthanasia -"mercy killing". Spin. Spin. Spin. Call those who disagree with your values, "haters". If possible, attempt to aim your word bombs directly at the person. Remember your ultimate goal is to destroy reputations and distort truth because the nature of truth itself is such an integral part of the human spirit that, ultimately, it cannot be fully destroyed. It can only be disarmed. Disarmed by the destruction of the person holding truth as his weapon, not the destruction of the weapon itself. Weapons are useless if they cannot be wielded . You must focus on invalidating the person if you can't invalidate the argument.

Your most powerful weapon is the understanding that human beings can handle all kinds of hardship but they can never accept being tagged as evil. So, your greatest weapon is to ascribe evil to good acts and assign righteousness to evil acts. This is simply the only way to destroy the human spirit. The innate goodness of humanity insists upon this. If not, they will just rise up stronger than ever.

All humans long to be accepted by others. Destroy this predilection for unity by the creation and promotion of many, many different groups and then make sure those initiated into it kowtow to the "group think" therein. Do not, under any circumstances, allow any diversion away from the norms set before the group. Immediately put the dissenter in his place by threatening to withhold your approval of him as a human being. That works far more quickly than addressing the behavior itself.

Don't allow interaction with those who think differently. Make it so they are afraid to communicate with each other. Work to create a "walk on eggshells" culture by the consistent and forceful application of labels such as "misogynist", "racist", and the like, even if the dissenter's argument is  valid. And if you can't get others to join with you, shame them into agreement.

You can't directly attack the truths that all cultures have held close to their hearts for thousands of years so you must first distort those truths that they hold so dear. Start by gently insisting that many of their truths are subjective and not objective. "Your truths are not my truths, dear." Sway the court of public opinion by appealing to their emotions instead of sound reason. Impute guilt by assigning evil motives to all those who oppose you.

Destroy their heroes and give them anti-heroes instead. Make them think the courageous  - "loud and obnoxious" and the insipid - "peaceful and humble". Turn their virtues upside down and society will turn upside down with it.

But remember, it's not always strictly necessary to require the complete capitulation to a cause for it to prevail.

Sometimes, simply purchasing the silence of the majority is enough.


It is hard for many in the free world to believe that there are not only bad men, but evil men. Bad men steal, rape, ravage and plunder. Evil men may not always do these things, but they seek to destroy goodness, virtue, morality, decency, truth and honor. Bad men who steal admit honesty; evil men who do not steal, call dishonesty "honesty," totalitarianism "democracy," slavery "freedom." Evil men can be nice at table, polite with women, courteous in Washington, refined in London and calm in Geneva.
                                                   Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Faith versus "positive thinking"

One of the things I have learned over the years is that the disposition of the heart is extremely important when it comes to our spiritual lives. A few years ago, the Holy Spirit, in a very pointed manner, showed me how anything and everything (and everyone for that matter) can be used as stepping stone to Him. Even situations that seem to be quite awful in our eyes need not be a stumbling block and can actually be HUGE stepping stones to God. We know by faith that God brings good out of everything and I've seen this at work in my own life in remarkable ways. Illness, deaths, trials of every sort, attacks, little daily irritations - every single one of these things can be springboards into the arms of God.

It's very easy for us to see how the joys in life can bring us closer to God but at times it's a bit harder for us to see how the "not so good stuff" can do the same - at times in more powerful ways than the happier aspects of life can. The conversions of most of the people I know came about through what  people would consider a bad experience (or a series of them). I'm not saying that the wonderful things in life don't bring us closer to God, I'm simply stating that many people I know turned to God wholeheartedly after a series of painful events or circumstances. God transformed their pain into something good.

They "allowed" Him to.  We always have a choice in our response.

When it comes to suffering of any sort the disposition of the heart can be the difference between allowing bitterness to enter the heart or allowing the Lord to  transform our pain and suffering into something beautiful. We can wallow in bitterness (I spent years in this "spiritual state", unfortunately) or we can trust that God is not "picking on us" (obviously I thought this at one point...lol) but allowing certain events to happen knowing that He is going to use these events for our good. This isn't what I would call positive thinking but rather "trusting in the God of all truth and goodness".  The words "positive thinking" make me a bit wary in our days because they can be used as blinders or a refusal to see truth. They can even be used as a way to avoid correction or as a way to avoid responsibility. I'm not so sure the term  means the same thing as it used to. Jesus was a truthful thinker not a positive thinker. He was often very blunt in His manner of speech. When He cleansed the temple He didn't put a positive spin on it "Oh, everything is fine and dandy here in God's house so I'll just leave things be." No, He saw the "truth" of what was going on and did something about it.

Look at the Crucifixion of Our Lord. God changed the world for all time through His death and resurrection. All things were transformed through Jesus who suffered so painfully for our sake. 

Jesus never said we would not suffer here on earth. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke the "conditions for discipleship" are taking up the the cross and following Jesus. After each of these Gospel passages the next passage is about the Transfiguration of Christ. A coincidence? No way. 

Picking up our cross and carrying it transforms us because God made it so. 

Father Gordon MacRae - Scaling the Walls of Injustice

Seems strange to write a post about a priest imprisoned for sexual abuse of a minor a few days after posting about Diane and my horror of crimes of this nature but after pondering it for a while I came to the conclusion that the timing is actually perfect. Truth trumps emotions every time. Regarding the bizzarre case of Father MacRae, I had to throw out my leanings toward those suffering from the effects of abuse and try to look at his case through the eyes of truth... wherever this might lead. And it led me to some strange places indeed.

You cannot live in N.H. and not be aware of the sexual abuse scandal in the Church. This state was hit hard by it. When I first heard about Father MacRae many years ago I  automatically assumed that this man was guilty of the charges against him. After all, he was tried by a jury of his own peers, wasn't he? Surely no one would convict an innocent man, would they? I really didn't give his particular case much more thought after this, other than to be relieved that a pedophile was off of our streets and in prison where he belonged.

Until last year. I started coming across articles about Father MacRae proclaiming his innocence of the charges levied against him. I ignored them for the most part but a niggling little doubt about his guilt planted its seed in my brain and I couldn't quite shake it for some reason. I visited his blog These Stone Walls a few times but that was the extent of my interest at the time. Many guilty people claim innocence. As a matter of fact, it seemed to me that when it came to being accused of a crime, unless they were caught red-handed, MOST people claim innocence. So I kept pushing the "little niggling doubt" to the back of my mind.

It kept returning. I started praying for him and I started thinking more and more about this priest imprisoned 30 minutes away from my home and decided to do some research about his case. I didn't want to start by going through his blog because I didn't want to be biased one way or the other. I tried to clear my mind of any preconceived notions of his guilt so that I could look at the facts of his case honestly, as if this was information I was reading for the first time.  I read a number of newspaper articles and posts by other bloggers but, as convincing as some of these sounded, they still didn't tell me enough about his case. Life works in a funny way though. One day I decided to read his police files and, oddly enough, these very files that damned him so much in the eyes of others had the opposite effect on me...I started to become convinced of his innocence. There was something wrong with the report and right from the start I picked up on it. It became apparent before I was even midway through the report that the officer in charge had no interest in the truth. In his mind he had already condemned this man and was zealously searching for any little bit of dirt he could find on Fr. MacRae regardless of whether that "dirt" had substance or not. It almost seemed as if this officer was pushing the boys interviewed into making comments on the "queerness" of Father MacRae and often putting two and two together and coming up with five. (I'll write a bit more about this in a future post.) I found his manner of investigating very disturbing to say the least. There was little to no regard to the possibility that this man could be innocent. This really bugged me because truth is important to me and a man's honor, good name, and freedom were at stake here. Impartiality is a must when it comes to something so serious. I regretted my own assumption of his guilt when I first heard about him... though in my case I assumed the police department, the state, his defense, and the jury had all done their jobs with the integrity necessary when a man's freedom is at stake. My mistake. The more I read about Fr. MacRae's case the more I see what a travesty of justice the investigation and the trial were. That the Church basically "washed their hands clean" of him distressed me even more. "What is truth?" It began to remind me of  Pontius Pilate washing his hands of the matter of Jesus' guilt or innocence and "handing Him over to the crowds". We all know what happened after that. An innocent man was crucified.

What is truth? I know the "Who" of truth but have not completely learned the what of it. I do, however, know what truth is not:

Truth does not twist information until it fits your own "take" on the matter.
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Truth does not abandon a man to his own fate during his time of deepest need.


Please join me and my fellow bloggers in a Novena for Father MacRae starting this Monday, August 22nd and let us also ask Jesus to send the light of HIS truth and mercy upon Father MacRae and all involved in his case.

Bared - pt.1

Back in October I wrote a post titled, "What if things are worst than we think?" and I'd like to address this subject and give some of my reasons for writing it:

 Over the years one of my biggest prayers has been, "Lord, grant me the light to see the truth about myself and the truth about this world we are living in." I have always had this certainty that we are WAY off kilter these days and that our spiritual perspective is skewed. I've never known what to do with this sense of  the world being off course in a significant way, despite tackling the issue in prayer over and over and over again. "What is going on here, Lord?! Please show me the truth. I cannot live here like this knowing that things are so awry and yet being unable to pinpoint what troubles my spirit so much. Please, Lord! Help me!"

Well, I'm sure you've all heard the saying, "Be careful what you pray for because you just might get it. " I GOT IT alright and there's a teeny part of me that wishes I had never asked. I had no clue that it would cause me more suffering in some ways and that I would have a tough time coming to grips with it. I have spoken a lot about the physical healing I received but less so about the spiritual one. The spiritual healing actually began a month or two before the physical and continued for months afterward. I walked around feeling as if my soul was completely bared to the Lord. Like Eve stripped of her fig leaf. And it was painful. Excruciatingly so. Why? One of the reasons is that I had compromised with the world to a degree. After all, I had to live here. Though I have made tremendous progress over the years and this pleased the Lord, there are areas where I was still compromising the truth. In my defense, I often did this because I hate hurting people. There's so much suffering in the world today that I couldn't stand adding to anyone's pain. Even in my writing I would hold back to a degree for fear of causing anyone hurt. I  found myself "toning down" what the Lord laid on my heart to spare others pain or fear. This is one of the reasons I take time off regularly now, it gives me extra time in prayer and allows the Lord to give me an "adjustment" in my thinking. In posting about the serious times we live in, the key isn't to say "Well, okay, maybe things aren't so bad after all."  The key is to be truthful about this era and remind people that God is yearning to show them a better way. "Dying" to show us a better way is probably more appropriate when you consider that this is exactly what He did. It's about revealing his mercy without soft-soaping the reason why we are so in need of this mercy. The reason we need his mercy is SIN, plain and simple. You can't sugarcoat sin - though we certainly do try.

If the Lord had only revealed my own sinfulness I might have borne it better than I did. After all, this was something I could correct with his grace. What caused me tremendous grief was seeing the sin I was surrounded with in the world at the same time. I cannot force others to correct their own lives. Every person has the free will to choose right or wrong and, unfortunately, much of the world is on the wrong path right now. My consolation is the understanding that God is at work correcting this because He loves us very much.

The sense of being surrounded by sin (while still having to deal with your own) is extremely painful. I can't help but be glad that the Lord lifted this from me when it became too much to bear. But I know it's still there  hidden from my senses. As much grief as this has brought me, I can't disregard what a  tremendous grace this also is as it brings clarity about sin, especially ones that are hard to discern such as false compassion and the little (and big) ways in which we compromise the truth in our world today.  It doesn't take a great deal of discernment to see that this world has gone off path so I'm not absolutely sure why many people are unaware of this fact. Not only are many unaware, but many people EMBRACE the world today and consider the human race "enlightened".

Scary, our ability to deceive ourselves.

God have mercy.

What if things are worse than we think?

What if sin in this world is a lot greater than even those who love God are aware of? What if are own vision is too clouded by the world we were raised in to notice? What if we are way, way, off the mark without even fully realizing it due to the slow increase of both personal sin and the sins of society as a whole?

 Personally, I believe this to be the case.

Most of us have heard the story of the frog and the pot of water. If the frog is placed into a pot of boiling water it will immediately jump out but if the frog is placed into a pot of cold water and the water is heated up slowly he will be unaware of the danger and never even try to escape. A simple analogy but perhaps the most fitting one for the situation we find ourselves in these days. We are becoming a world inured to sin. Inure means to habituate to something undesirable by prolonged subjection. An even better definition is: to harden somebody to something; to make somebody used to something unpleasant over a period of time, so that he or she is no longer bothered or upset by it.

Can you see this happening? Things that would have horrified our ancestors are "no big deal" today. People have been immersed in this pot of  increasing sin for so long that they often do not even recognize the danger this puts them in spiritually. God, being cognizant of our ignorance, is pouring out his light as never before in hopes of setting our feet straight enough to take the leap out of this deadly pot. He also sends out "pot stirrers" so people will not sit comfortably in their sin but will be shaken out of their apathy a bit. One of these "pot stirrers" that comes to mind is Mother Angelica but there have been many over the years. "Pot stirrers" are those who speak the truth clearly, without the wishy-washiness and political correctness of our current age and we need to listen to them. These courageous souls that God continues to place in our midst are often thought to be fanatics and overly conservative but perhaps the problem really lies in the rest of us who have become apathetic and too accepting of compromise in an area where there should be no compromise. After all, what kind of legacy do we want to leave our children?

"Do not conform  yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect."     Romans 12:2

Because I don't want to do it

This is a bit embarrassing to admit. I am very thankful that the Lord healed me but it's been quite an adjustment. I don't have the "outs" that I had while I was ill. Before, if something was hanging over my head and I didn't want to do it I could honestly say that I didn't feel well. Now, I can't say that. For instance:

If my house is a mess it's because I don't want to clean it.
If I don't go to Mass during the week it's because I don't feel like it.
If I don't exercise it's because I'm lazy.

It's pretty difficult to admit to the Lord that I am not doing certain things on some days just because I don't want to. 

I bet the Lord is smirking up there.

What does God see?

When God looks around this beautiful world He created what does He see? It saddens my heart to imagine what He must think of the false reality that we have made for ourselves.

 "Show me, Lord. Take off these worldly lens I am viewing the earth through and show me the truth."

There is not an area of our lives that has escaped corruption. Though there are pockets of goodness and beauty still, the majority of the human race has given themselves over to lies of every kind. May the Spirit of Truth pierce our hearts and lift the blinders off our eyes. If you think I am being overly harsh I ask you to pray and look around you with honesty. If someone from 100 years ago saw how we are living today I think they would be apalled. Instead of rejecting evil we have accepted it into our society and some have even embraced it. Our governments, banks, major corporations, schools, the film industry, our books - you'd be hard-pressed to find an area that hasn't suffered internal rot. It started slowly...but sin snowballs. The more a society gives in and accepts sin the more vulnerable they become. Abortion, pornography, rampant crime, disrespect , adultery,  corporate greed, dishonesty.... need I go on?

And so I ask an honest question:
If Jesus stood in front of us and gave his opinion on the shape of the world today, what do you think He would say?

A silent void

Truth is very important to me. By this statement, I mean the great truths of life. I have noticed in our days that truth has been replaced by grayness. Nothing is black and white anymore. If you speak the truth you are considered judgmental. Since when is speaking the truth judgmental? Aren't we all called to live in the truth?
If I call abortion, murder, I am judging or so I am told. Who am I judging may I ask? I am simply making a truthful statement: abortion kills a baby, therefore it is murder.

If a person robbed a bank and I said, "Wow! That person just robbed a bank!" Am I judging or just stating a fact? I am not judging the person, I am speaking the truth. Speaking up is not politically correct anymore. Well, since I am not politically correct I might as well take this one step further:

Abortion = murder. Jesus and his apostles were quick to speak up about injustices. When we don't speak out about injustices and evil [such as abortion], our silence speaks volumes about ourselves. The silence on the abortion issue is deafening and in this case :  Silence is deadly. 

"Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth."   Jn 17:17-19

O Author of Life, please heal our country and the world. Pour your light into all hearts that abortion may be seen for what it truly is. Grant the grace of repentance to all who have committed this sin that they may be forgiven and receive your healing touch. I cover them all with the Precious Blood Of Jesus and I ask this in His Name. Amen

Utterly Thine O Lord!

Love

When I was a child, I was in awe of God. All of creation astounded me. I felt His Presence always. I lost this sense of God during my teenage years. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen put it, "We would like to get back to our innocence and joy, but they are cold and sepulchered." I find myself, as an adult, yearning for this profound sense of love and trust in the Lord. A good part of it has returned, but not all. I am not the innocent child that I once was and yet, still, I find myself awestruck. I like to contemplate the greatness of God:

From all eternity Love spoke. And from this Word came all that is. Every creature has their being through Him and in Him. And He is always with us, even if we don't sense it. In faith we know it. There is no escaping this all-consuming fire of God's Love. It simply is....as HE IS. The Author of Life called all things into existence. There is no being without Him. When we walk away from Him it is our loss. We lose sight of Him. God never loses sight of us. Sin can sometimes lead us back to Him by its nothingness and the misery it causes us in our spirits. I think of it as kind of a "reverse grace".

If you seek the Lord, you will find Him, because everything points to Him. If you search for truth, He will show you. All truth lives in Him.

"Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth."    John 17:17-19

Truth

I love praying the rosary and the chaplet of Divine Mercy but there are times when I cannot pray formally. Sometimes I am going through a dry period, at other times He just wants me to be in His presence (or perhaps I should say...to remember I am in His presence since that is where we all are). I know the dry periods happen to many people and I try to just wait on the Lord. What seems to help me through these periods is this:

I place myself in the light of His Truth and I speak heart to heart with Him about the great truths of life and then I meditate on them. One truth I like to think about is " I AM WHO AM." And He is. This never fails to inspire great awe in me. It also amazes me that we can call Him "Abba". I love calling Him "Abba"; it always touches my heart that fallen human beings like us may call Him this! I place myself before Him just as I am (covered in the blood of Christ) sins and all because there is no hiding from His Truth. He is so gentle with us that even when He shows me my sins I still know His immense love for me.
Thank You Abba for sending us your son, Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer.