Strait from the Heart of Lent

From the conversation I mentioned earlier, a word from the heart of Tyson, who has answered us all in the spirit of Truth:

Greetings Eric and Dom (et al.),

I agree that there is not need for dichotomy theologically, but it was hard yesterday speaking with a mother of a friend of mine. She lives a 7 hour bus ride outside of the city and is only able to afford a visit once a year. Her son, Alfonso, is disabled and is in a boy’s home attending an American school. She is a mother, and though she speaks Spanish with limitations (she is indigenous and speaks Quechua), she was able to express what any mother would feel, the sadness at being so far from her son, who after 5 years in this home is bored to go to the village where he grew up. We spoke about their lives, the hard work and the small pay (a family with four kids living with them earning under $2 a day), and about Canada, the cost of a flight from there to here, and how shamed I was. Sure, I am trying to make my way through this country scouting for the footprints of Christ and where they will lead, yet we are separated by my Love which does not extend far enough to those so inflicted by the injustice and inequality present in our world.

It is a good and fine thing, I suppose, to discuss whether or not my post was creating an unfair dichotomy. My philosophical / theological communication is not the greatest.I will then post some new questions, plain enough I hope for clear understanding. While there needn’t be a separation between a belief and life, why are so few Christians leaving behind their wasteful lifestyles in the north? Why do they waste on coffee in a week what some entire families survive on in a month? Why do the sermons preached about our neighbors and Love rarely lead to extreme shifts in our lifestyles?

This post is about the Church’s responsibility, right? In the context of sharing the truth which is in our baptismal confession:

“Do you reject sin so as to live in the freedom of God’s Children?”- What is this freedom? Does it not bind us with all of God’s children who are suffering? Do we then ache for their pain and poverty?

“Do you reject the glamour of evil, and refuse to be mastered by sin?”- Glamour? Vanity? Excess? Covetousness? Inequality?

“Do you reject Satan, father of sin and prince of darkness?”- He also gave birth to the gap between the wealthy and poor, to entire nations crippled by disease…

“Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?”- creator of all, Lover of all, as a father it would hurt me so see so many of my children living high at the expense of my other equally-loved children

“Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?”- born into a poor family, a life of emptying and solidarity, is this Life our leading, or it is a one-time break?

“Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting?”- This drives us to bring the Good News, but to whom? To all, to those who know it not perhaps as a tradition, but more so to those living in the results of what its lack has done in this world. The prostitutes, the glue-sniffers, the abusing fathers, the … sick.
No, there needn’t be a dichotomy between belief and loving works, but there is because the two are very often not in accord with one another.

I post emotionally, not with a very sound or calm mind. This may be something to count against me and my perspective. But it is very hard, very very hard, to be living here and engaging people whose struggles are very much against the results of sin, and very often the sins of others.
I
love my spiritual director, a Catholic priest with an incredible heart. When I first came to him, I was thinking about becoming Catholic, he was focused on me following Christ more closely. They can be found in the same place, but it is the latter that is most important.
True belief in the heart may often express itself in different words and traditions - even faiths - but it is declared true not by these but by its fruits. Our lives should be those of gardeners, some sowing, others tending, others harvesting, all working.

My thoughts.

Peace in Christ,Tyson

It is easy for us in the West, especially the rich, educated, and comfortable, to fester in an opulence that we are blind to. We must not only recall the beatitudes, not only pray them, not only reference them to those who live them, but we must conform our lives to them. And we must always remember the story of Lazarus and Dives.

But, most of all, we must trust the Lord, as much as we are able.

And remember, that justice necessitates the eschaton, the end, the final judgment. There will be a reckoning.