The Greatest Lie Ever Told: Created for Love

Human beings were created for the purpose of loving God and being loved by Him. Everything which God created is given to mankind to use as tools in our quest to fulfill this purpose. We please God when we show appreciation for His gifts by appropriately using our tools. We offend God when we are unappreciative of His gifts and misuse those tools.

The greatest of the gifts which God has given us is life. It is the greatest gift because it is required to fulfill our purpose and it is the gift from which all others derive their meaning. Without life, all other gifts cannot be received. Without life, there can be no free will. Without life, there can be no love. Without life, there can be no happiness nor pursuit of happiness. This is why murder is a sin, as it robs men and women of their ability to fulfill their purpose and to receive the gifts which God has intended to give them. This is why abortion and embryonic stem cell research are sins, as it cuts short the ability of the unborn to fulfill their purpose and to experience the fullness of God’s many gifts. This is why God does give permission to kill in defense of our own lives, although certainly care must be taken to do only as much harm as is strictly necessary when defending life.

Conception is the starting point for new life. Biblical accounts of a child being born are usually sequenced as man has relations with woman who conceives and gives birth. This links action (the relations) with result (conception), thereby establishing that children are conceived through marital relations and that conception creates a new person. Psalms 139 talks about God knitting us in our mother’s womb before we were ever born and even before . Indeed, Christ was Christ from the very moment the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and she conceived, as demonstrated by the fact that even though she was not showing evidence of bearing Christ within her yet, both Elizabeth and her unborn son, John the Baptist, reacted to His presence when she visited them. Moreover, this is not merely a biblical principle but has been proven by science. When sperm and egg are joined, a totally unique individual is created from that union. We no longer have the excuse of ignorance. We know this for a fact.

God created man and woman as fitting partners for one another and He commanded them to be fertile and multiply, subduing and filling the earth. This commandment introduces the gift of sexuality, which permits human beings to participate in the creation of new life and permits the expansion of God’s great love to every part of the world. The sexual act is pleasurable to both the man and the woman, encouraging them to engage in it often. Each time the man and the woman experience the pleasure of this union, chemicals are released in the brain which bond the pair closer together. This gift of sexuality is intended to be used solely within the bounds of matrimony. In matrimony, the couple vow that they will love one another unconditionally throughout their entire life and that they will accept children from God lovingly, bringing them up according to the law of Christ and His Church. The proper use of this gift of sexuality ensures that new life is created and raised in an environment of stability and love. This is why marriage is sacred, carrying with it specific responsibilities and duties, and must be protected from misuse. It is also the reason that rape, prostitution, masturbation, fornication, adultery, oral and anal sex, homosexuality, and bestiality are all sins. They are perversions of the gift of sexuality and do nothing to further the purpose for which the gift was granted: to participate in the creation of new life which will love God and be loved by God. It is also the reason that contraception and sterilization is a sin, since it is a deliberate attempt to prevent the gift of sexuality from fulfilling the very purpose for which it was created.

Confession is Good for the Soul

Tonight was St. Ann's Lenten Penance Service. As Catholics, we are called to confess our sins to a priest at least once per year. This penance service involves a communal reflection on the two great commandments (To love the Lord God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength; and to love your neighbor as yourself), reflection on when we have failed to live up to those commandments, private confession of those times when we have failed Christ to a priest, the receiving of absolution of those sins, and specific actions which are taken to demonstrate our intention to change.

During reflection, I came to the conclusion that the root cause of my sins was that I did not trust God to provide for me. I was spending too much because I didn't trust God to provide and I was being impatient for the same reason. I also realized that I had many talents and gifts which were just not being used, and that this is something I need to actively work to change. What good is a talent or gift if the Body of Christ does not benefit because of it?

Now, when I confessed what I believed my sins to be, the priest pointed out to me that I have plenty of trust in God. My problem is that I don't always like the WAY God chooses to provide things to me. He was exactly right. It isn't that I think God isn't going to give me all that I need, it's that I don't think He's going to give me what I want that causes me to overspend. I'm not willing to accept His will, and when He does choose to provide me with gifts if they aren't what I expected, I tend to reject them.

After doing the penance the priest prescribed of three Our Fathers, three Hail Mary's and three Glory Be's, it struck me how to share with others what I had just learned. I will call this the Parable of the Tin Can.

A man was lost in the desert. As he wandered, he became thirsty. He prayed to God to provide him with water that he might not die of thirst. Soon afterward, he spotted a rusted tin can. The can, however, was not the water he had prayed for and so he continued on, leaving the humble can behind. Frustrated and miserable, thirstier than ever, the man again prayed to God, “Lord, I am so very thirsty. Please give me something to drink that I might live.” After several more hours like this, the man gave up and sat down. Weeping in misery, the man turned to the Lord in anger. “Lord, I prayed with all my heart that you would send me something to drink and all that I found all day long was a rusted tin can. Why do you ignore my pleas?”

When the man had ceased his crying and was too exhausted and thirsty to complain any longer, the Lord at last spoke. “You asked me for water, yet you had nothing in which to hold the water. If I had provided you water when you asked for it, you would have had but a single sip and then you would have had nothing more to drink because the water would have seeped out from between your fingers. That rusted tin can was no small gift from me. It was everything you needed, for in it you can not only hold water and drink your fill, you can also use it to gather and cook food, and the parts of the can which are not rusted may be used to signal for help so that you may be rescued from this desert. In your urgency, you sought to take care of but one need. In my love I have provided for all of them. Go back and retrieve your can, and the next time you pray remember that what I send to you may not be what you have asked for, but it is assuredly exactly what you need.”