Now versus To Come

My Lay Dominican study group discussed living in the moment.  Doc was facilitating and he was waxing poetic about the joys of living in the present.  Some of my "cloistered brethren" could see where he was coming from, and agreed with Doc.  However, some others, including myself,
disagreed.

My personal mantra has always been, "All is passing.  God alone abiding."  And if you're cloistered as by brothers are, I would think that would be the only hope you have.

I think, life has to be pretty good, in order for one to live in the present, to savor the present.  If your basic needs aren't met, how could anyone say, "Enjoy the moment."

Doc's life is too good.

Hardwired for God

You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless, until they rest in You.  This famous quote is from St. Augustine's Confessions.  My Dominican Study Group is reading Confessions.  This quote is in the beginning, when Augustine starts to prove that his entire life was a search for God.

He begins in infancy and describes the self absorbed baby.  Childhood proves to be selfish and instant gratifying, also.  Sounds like kids today.

Augustine is showing his readers that he might have thought he was happy, but he wasn't.  One has no idea what happiness is, until they've fallen in love with God.  That's the only thing that will satisfy us.

We get it.  I get it.

Forgiveness and Ego

AQ says that honesty is being open to the truth. This idea was more or less the theme in Study Group Tonight. We were discussing "forgiveness." We were honing in on what makes it difficult to forgive. And you know what I attribute the difficulty to be?

Ego

Yup. If you personally were hurt by someone, it is nigh near impossible to forgive. You really need the grace of God to forgive.

My brothers related many stories. Someone told one brother, "I hope you rot in hell." Another was told that he would never be forgiven. These victims feel deeply hurt (ego). It's ego that won't let you forgive.

Just try to give up "ourselves," and try to see the other point of view, is a start to forgiveness. Give up our egos and look at the other side. It's not about me, or us.

Tim told a humorous story about coming home at 2 AM and making a lot of noise. His next door neighbor peeked through the blinds and hollered for Tim to be quiet. Tim gave some rude comment and was angry at his neighbor.

Like it was the neighbor's fault? Tim was the one making all the noise at 2 AM. See, Tim was corrected, and rightly so, but he didn't look at himself; he blamed the neighbor.

Tim it's not all about you. Be honest and open to the truth.

How do you tell if a Question is Worthwhile?

Last night, in Study Group, my "cloistered" brothers pounced on a question I posed. It doesn't matter what the question was. That's not my point. My point is what they said to me because I asked a question.

I was accused of being a pharisee.

Yes, because I question.

You can tell that this bothered me because here I am blogging about it. After a good night's sleep, and reflection, I've come to the conclusion that questioning is not wrong, and I'm sure they'll agree. It's the type of question.

But that's so subjective!

How to tell if a question is worthwhile is the question! :-D

Some teachers say that all questions are good questions. All students know that's B.S. because we've all been bored by stupid questions by the some "stupid" students. Some people just like the attention and so ask questions. Some want to side-track the instructor so he won't have time to cover the material and so postpone the assignment or test. Some students truly ask dumb questions.

Do my "cloistered" brothers think my questions are dumb?

Mmmm, possibly?

Nah! Perish the thought.

Though, come to think of it, in this particular group, quite a few think some things are NOT to be questioned, i.e., Eucharist, Trinity, BVM, etc.

Ah......that's the rub. It was a question on the Eucharist. Actually it wasn't. I was looking for suitable responses to a question on the Eucharist. But they took my question as questioning the dogma. I wasn't questioning the Eucharist, but a question on the Eucharist. Get it?

They didn't.

Teachers encourage questions. Even teachers who want students to hold their questions to the end. (And I use to do that.) It's a method of gauging how the material is going over. So of course it's good to question.

What separates dumb questions from good questions is the value of the question. Brother Augustine Marie Reisenauer, O.P. (above picture) encourages questions. He uses questions to engage everyone in the learning process. A good question is one that is of value to the group as a whole.

That was the problem last night. My question was not of value to that particular group.

That particular group is challenging, in many ways.

Dominican Study Group

Tonight was my turn to facilitate the Study Group. I chose to do a poetry workshop. We worked on:

Creativity--something different, something that'll stay with you.

Cohesiveness--does everything relate, all the metaphors tie together all the way through the poem?

Impact--intuitive response.

Craftsmanship--use of metaphor, assonance, alliteration, form and structure.

Voice--attitude, personality, mood, rhythmic effectiveness.

We all enjoyed it. We laughed a lot. Some wrote silly limericks. Some were serious. Then we judge them all. The winner:

Foxwoods

Slot machines galore
and poker's downstairs
roulette spins lure
black jack's over there.

Ka-ching, Ka-ching

And the senior citizens
play on and on,
sorry can't join you,
money's all gone!

Told you we had fun.

Satan

The other night, in Dominican Study Group, we were discussing God's mercy. One of my "cloistered brothers" said that sometimes, when talking with others they'll confess that they feel too unworthy to ever be forgiven. The things that they've done are just too evil to be be forgiven. So he said that he tells them about God's mercy and stresses the point that if Satan, himself, were to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness, that God would forgive him.

This just didn't sit right with me. I recalled that Fr. Aniello once told my prayer group not to waste their time thinking about Satan. He chose to be lost forever.

Fr. Aniello is only an email away. I wrote and he responded: "The biggest difference between human beings and Satan (and his devils) is this: we are still on the way and we are free to say, yes or no; instead the evil spirits made their final choice long ago.

Any human being can repent till he/she lives on this earth. There is no sin that God does not forgive to a human being who repents! God gives us time on this earth so that we can repent...He is very happy when we repent...he makes a feast for a repentant sinner!"

I also wrote to my Chapter's Spiritual Promoter, Fr. Wayne, who responded: "One of the issues is that Satan was never human(mortal). He was an angel who rebelled against God. I think you are thinking where the rich man repents only after he has been judged, too late to help Lazarus, and so too late to change his judgement. Angels don't have mortal lives and therefore can't lose them. It's not clear what the nature of their lives are or how judgement applies to them. It would seem that by analogy, Satan would be in the same boat as the rich man. However, what can we really say with certainty about the lives of angels? Still, I think our "cloistered brother's" basic insight is correct: there is no limit to God's mercy...only the limits we put on receiving it. It would seem unnecessary to correct his hyperbole as long as the point he was trying to make remains the focus, as it should do."

Both responses are food for thought.

Fr. Aniello would say I was wasting my time--thinking about Satan. Since I don't know what to think, I'll take the easiest road.

Forget about Satan. He is a waste.

Dominican Study Group

Tonight the Dominican Study Group met. The discussion was led by Dr. Marina McCoy. Dr. McCoy teaches philosophy at Boston College. Tonight we discussed Nicomachean Ethics. I was "wicked lost." I just don't have the time to read the material that my "cloistered brothers" do. Maybe I should quit the group. I do love it. It's just that I feel that I can't contribute to it.
What would Aristotle do? Since we seek the virtuous good, then I'll stay. I like Aristotle and I can readily see why Aquinas was attracted to his philosophy. "The good of man is an activity of the soul in conformity with excellence or virtue, and if there are several virtues, in conformity with the best and most complete."
Aquinas takes Aristotle and pushes it up a level by applying God as the greatest Good. I like Aquinas better than Augustine. Augustine isn't as happy and optimistic as Aquinas.
See, I am learning. I guess I'll stay in the group. It is a "good."