Oh, so you know already…

Luke 1:26-38. Twelve measly verses out of thousands. Most people probably read these verses and don’t see much meaning to them. At a glance, all it looks like is an announcement of the coming of Christ, but the bible should never just be glanced at. So many people read the bible over and over and over again and think they understand all there is to understand about it. Oh how wrong they are! In these 12 little verses is a cornucopia of meaning to those who choose to see.

At the beginning of these verses, we see the angel Gabriel greeting Mary with “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” In some translations, full of grace is instead rendered as “highly favored one,” but the gist remains the same – something is very important about Mary. You’ll notice that the angel also says that she will conceive, not that she has already. This conception is future tensed. And yet, she is still revered by Gabriel. Much like God lowered himself to our level and became man, Gabriel, an angle, lowers himself by honoring Mary. If such a higher being can do it, then surely so can we! In fact we should! Satan would not give honor to Jesus the man because he was higher than man on the “celestial ladder.” That Jesus was special did not matter to him. How much worse an offense would it be to refuse to give honor to a special creation of God that is on the same rung as us? She is highly favored by God. So, too, should she be favored by us.

It was mentioned above that some translations refer to Mary as “highly favored one.” This is not entirely accurate. In Greek, it is “kecharitomene.” There isn’t really a way to translate this well because English doesn’t have a perfect passive participle and kecharitomene is in such a form. What does perfect passive participle mean? Basically that Mary was that way from the get go – when she was first created, she was created in this state of Grace. And what does that mean? From the moment she was conceived, she was filled with the grace of God and so had no room for sin. While we are saved by being lifted out of the pit of sin, she was saved by being kept from falling in in the first place. This again indicates her importance to God and reiterates her status of importance and the necessity of showing her respect.

Lastly, we see a great testament of Mary’s faith here in these verses. Gabriel told her that she would become pregnant, bear a son, and name him Jesus and he would be king of all. But was she really listening to the rest of that? Would you notice anything else if you were single and just found out you were pregnant? I know I wouldn’t, but that might be partly due to me being a man. I can imagine her stopping Gabriel mid sentence and saying “I’m going to be what now?” And she doesn’t live in today’s world that is generally accepting of unwed mothers. She lived 2000 years ago when sex outside of marriage meant stoning. I doubt the general public would have been wiling to accept her “Goddidit” explanation, especially since even Joseph was preparing to leave her quietly until an angel made a visit to him too. Sure the angel said that he would be born and she would get to name him, suggesting that she gets to live for now, but you can’t say the thought wasn’t going through here head – “I might be killed for this.” By her words “be it done to me according to your word,” she not only accepted God’s call, but knowingly put her life on the line doing it. There is simply no greater example of obedience to God than is found in Mary!

While many people pay her no mind, or even belittle her by thinking of her as no more than the wrapping paper that Christ came in, we should be looking to her as an example to us all of what it means to follow Christ.

Random movie quote: “Hello? 911 emergency. My car’s been stolen! I’m in pursuit! I need the whole squadron, bring everyone! No, no don’t ask any questions, my father’s the head of the neighborhood watch!”

What is the Catholic Church?

However odd it may sound to say it, the Catholic Church is like Kansas.  I pretty much lived there all my life up until six months ago.  It’s still only a 15 minute drive away, but even so, I miss it.  And it was this that made me realize that the Church is like Kansas.

To an outsider, Kansas is boring.  I get that.  I saw an article in a newspaper a few years back that talked about how Kansas is literally flatter than a pancake.  Some mathematicians and such sat down, did the math, and figured out that Kansas is quite literally flatter than a pancake.  To people who live in places like Florida, California, Colorado, or Maine, that can’t look too interesting.  If someone drives from one end of the country to the next, the most notable thing about Kansas is all of the adult superstores along Interstate 70.  That’s actually fitting, though.  I mean, what’s the first thing that comes to a person’s mind when they hear the word “Catholic”?  Probably something like “pedophile”.  Ironic because the person thinking that is statistically more likely to be one than a priest is simply by virtue of being a parent.  But I digress.

See, those people have heard about Kansas, and they might have even driven through Kansas, but they don’t know Kansas.  Honestly, I wouldn’t expect them to.  Even people who have lived there all their lives can find it boring.  But that’s not because it is – it most certainly isn’t.  That’s because they never bothered to look around.  I lived there most of my life and I actually did look around.  But not just look, I explored.  It grows on you.  I can say to you with complete honesty that I find a wheat field just as beautiful as a mountain peak.  It’s like the ocean.  It’s just one really big expanse of blue.  Beautiful in its simplicity, except with a wheatfield, it’s not simple.  It just looks that way at a glance.  Look closely and you’ll discover that it is extremely intricate.  And if no matter how hard you try, you still can’t see the beauty there, just visit the flint hills – as green in the summer as Ireland has ever been.

That is the Catholic church.  You can pass through it and never really see it.  You can even be a part of it, and never really get it.  Sometimes if you want to see the beauty in something, you actually have to look for it.  Even pancakes are a beautiful thing – at least soaked in syrup.

Random movie quote: “We’re in Italy. Speak English”

If you don't know what John Candy has to do with pancakes, you have a problem.

You can’t win

Rule number one in debate – you can’t win.  No, this isn’t a conceited decleration of my superiority to you in this regard.  If you go up against the wrong kind of person, you just can’t win, even if you’re right.  In debating online, especially in the realm of religion, you will meet people who have convinced themselves to such an extent that they are the righteous one that nothing you say will ever change their mind.  They will simply come up with excuse after excuse after excuse.  Be prepared for this and when you meet such a person, my advise is the same as Christ’s – shake the dust from your sandals and move on.

Lots of you likely know who Jack Chick is and what his tracts are.  Not quite as well known is the source for most of his “facts” – Alberto Rivera.  The man claimed to have been not just a Catholic, but a Jesuit and a “secret bishop”, whatever that is.  He was exposed as a fraud several years back by a couple of Christian publications equally as anti-Catholic as Chick is.  When they did this, Jack Chick, as the story goes, instead of accepting the evidence, accused these publications of being part of the “Catholic conspiracy”.  Sound silly?  It gets worse.  About a decade ago, Alberto Rivera passed away.  Jack Chick immediately accused the Catholic church of assassinating Rivera to silence him.  In fact, more than Chick holds this belief.  The thing is, Rivera died of cancer.  When Chick and his ilk learned of this, instead of retracting the assasination accusation, expanded on it.  They – get this – claim the Catholic Church invented a cancer giving poison and used that to assassinate Rivera.  One account that I’ve seen of this situation claims that they believe this poison was passed on by a simple handshake from a Catholic “agent”. (who managed not to die from his own poison)

So you see – there will be people out there who will argue with anything and everything you say.  No matter how far into the corner they run, they will simply claim that it is you in the corner instead.  Sometimes they run away.  In fact, they do that a lot online.  Don’t worry about it.  Remember that in most forums and such online, there are always people watching.  From their vantage point on the outside, they see you making a point and your opponent unable to respond.  To the observer, you have won.

So how do people end up being so stubborn?  Well, admittedly, the example above is a somewhat abnormal situation.  And I can honestly only speculate, but here’s how I think it happens.  I’ll use another somewhat ridiculous example – the King James bible.

It’s a fairly popular version of the bible for Christians.  The one’s that use it often think it’s the most popular, but they don’t seem to realize that over half of all Christians are Catholic and we don’t use it.  Anyways, it’s a version translated into English in 1611.  Contrary to popular belief, it was the 9th, not the first, English version.  Even the Catholic Douay Rheims bible precedes it.  It’s not exactly a quality translation either, as anyone who can read Greek knows.  But many people consider it the best – and to varying degrees.  At the lowest point, there are people who prefer it simply because of the language style.  A little above that are people who think that it’s obviously the most accurate because it’s the only version that hasn’t changed in 400 years – but as is relatively common knowledge, it most certainly has.  Check a KJV sometimes.  You’ll be hard pressed to find one with the apocrypha/deuterocanon in it, but they sure as heck were there in 1611.  At the other end of the spectrum, you will find the radicals.  These people believe that the KJV is not just the most accurate translation – it’s further revelation from God.  That’s right.  To them it’s better than the original manuscripts written in Greek and Hebrew.

How the heck does someone take it so far?  Brainwashing.  That’s how.  It starts out simple enough.  Someone convinces themself that the KJV is the best – but doesn’t really have a logical reason.  They just really like it. They happen to be a very eloquent speaker and the spread this idea to others.  If you’re eloquent enough, it doesn’t matter what you’re trying to say – people will believe you.  Just look at Hitler.  And so, his audience will come to accept this.  Repeat it enough, and they become closed to differing opinion.  And eventually, they try and spread this info to others.  But not everyone is an ignoramus.  Eventually they’ll try and convince someone who actually comprehends Greek and Hebrew that the KJV is the best – but of course they’ll have none of it.  They’ll sit the guy preaching down and explain in detail why he’s wrong about his claims.  But remember – the guy has literally been brainwashed.  He can’t just up and change his mind, even in the face of proof.

So what does a man do when they’re backed into a corner and unable to admit defeat?  They break the rules.  Literally – that’s the law of gravity.  In the instance of bible accuracy – they break from logic.  They make the jump to “further revelation”.  And there’s nothing you can really do about it.  Sometimes, you can’t win.  The sooner you realize this, the better.

Random movie quote: “Looks like Phil Donahue throwing up in a tuba”