An altar boy in the Catholic Church from age nine – twenty five, many people ask me, “How can you say you believe in God and do the things you’ve done?”
If simply believing in God cleansed us from wrong-doing, we would sprout wings, fly, and sing hymns. The fact is faith in God satisfies the spiritual component. Original sin – at issue (as Christians believe) the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses believers from the stain of original sin, clears a peaceful path to the Father in heaven, and grants the believer eternal life in the next world, along with power to overcome in this present world.
But Paul says clearly in Romans chapter seven, the things he wishes to do, he cannot. The things he wishes he wouldn’t do, he does! Faith is a process, not a systemic panacea. I remember the rooms of AA. Someone once said “what do you have if you take alcohol away from a drunken horse-thief? A horse-thief.”
My problems were psychologically rooted, imbedded so deeply, repressed for too many years. I found myself doing things I dreaded afterwards but at the time could not stop myself.
Scaling back – around age five I heard my mother screaming in Chicago. My big, burly, southern step-father was beating her in a drunken rage. My mother is a saint. The woman has been fighting MS for twenty years, along with a plethora of maladies, but her faith keeps her strong.
I ran out to help her, only to see her kicked in the stomach, doubled over crying. He yelled at me. Mom told me to go back to my room. There I sat, crying my eyes out, helpless for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, he left. Mom found me huddled against my headboard in a ball crying – put her arms around me – trying to be strong herself, for her little boy.
What do you do with those experiences? Who do you share stories like this with in 1970? So much technology today erodes the memory rudimentary post-apple days demand. The simple question: who did you talk to about heinous incidents pre-Jerry Springer and his pantheon of reality followers?
The answer is – you didn’t. You kept your personal business and elegiac tales as this private. Boys were taught – men don’t cry. There was no such thing as a sensitive man. In fact, if someone called you a sensitive man, you were obligated to fight.
Would that the pain stopped here at age five. The truth of the matter is we are just getting warmed up.
Prince
If simply believing in God cleansed us from wrong-doing, we would sprout wings, fly, and sing hymns. The fact is faith in God satisfies the spiritual component. Original sin – at issue (as Christians believe) the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses believers from the stain of original sin, clears a peaceful path to the Father in heaven, and grants the believer eternal life in the next world, along with power to overcome in this present world.
But Paul says clearly in Romans chapter seven, the things he wishes to do, he cannot. The things he wishes he wouldn’t do, he does! Faith is a process, not a systemic panacea. I remember the rooms of AA. Someone once said “what do you have if you take alcohol away from a drunken horse-thief? A horse-thief.”
My problems were psychologically rooted, imbedded so deeply, repressed for too many years. I found myself doing things I dreaded afterwards but at the time could not stop myself.
Scaling back – around age five I heard my mother screaming in Chicago. My big, burly, southern step-father was beating her in a drunken rage. My mother is a saint. The woman has been fighting MS for twenty years, along with a plethora of maladies, but her faith keeps her strong.
I ran out to help her, only to see her kicked in the stomach, doubled over crying. He yelled at me. Mom told me to go back to my room. There I sat, crying my eyes out, helpless for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, he left. Mom found me huddled against my headboard in a ball crying – put her arms around me – trying to be strong herself, for her little boy.
What do you do with those experiences? Who do you share stories like this with in 1970? So much technology today erodes the memory rudimentary post-apple days demand. The simple question: who did you talk to about heinous incidents pre-Jerry Springer and his pantheon of reality followers?
The answer is – you didn’t. You kept your personal business and elegiac tales as this private. Boys were taught – men don’t cry. There was no such thing as a sensitive man. In fact, if someone called you a sensitive man, you were obligated to fight.
Would that the pain stopped here at age five. The truth of the matter is we are just getting warmed up.
Prince
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