Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Golden Calf

I think I've talked about this before, but here it is again: The problem with many traditional Catholics is that they mistakenly place the pope above God Himself. It escapes them that they fail to worship God directly. They worship the man who worships God. The pope is the golden calf.

In the following article I bolded in red the problematic attitude of the Catholics cited. They lose faith and once the pope appears they re-gain it? Does anyone else see the spiritual dilemma here? It feels like the pope is the representative god for a God who is the real God. I feel sad for those whose faith was lost due to 9/11 but crediting a single man for a single PR visit because it is in his job description to maintain good relations with the extension of his business ventures abroad is hardly a reason to re-gain faith, but, hey, whatever it takes I guess. I just hope when those with revived faith kneel down to pray, they don't forget just who they're praying to.

I also find it troubling that people found it disappointing that the pope didn't publicly pray for specific things during his visit. To them I would say: So the pope doesn't pray for something YOU want....WHY DON'T YOU PRAY FOR IT? Your prayers are no less powerful than another human being's. Yes, the pope is a FALLIBLE HUMAN BEING. He is not valued any more or any less in the eyes of God than you or I. And what does the Bible say about praying in public - let's see:

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." --Matthew 6:5-8

And finally, while I am not a family member of anyone lost at Ground Zero, it is with utmost respect that I say I still think that asking for unfound pulverized and anonymous remains to be cleared from the site for the reason that you don't think the soul of the person will be at peace in that location because they were not buried with respect or dignity is really, well, a non-reason. Respect and dignity are foreign to this world as it is, but once a person's soul discorporates from the body, I honestly don't think that the soul stays in, around or about their remains. I know it is difficult to psychologically disconnect the two - body and soul - but my own personal past experiences with a couple of my loved ones who have died and have, for lack of a better descriptor, "visited" me really relays to me that even through the most violent means of death, that break from the human plane is just that. I can't think that their "being at peace" is representative on the way they died...but rather on how they lived the life that they had.

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Pope's visit to ground zero offers hope to 9/11 families

By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer Sun Apr 20, 2:14 PM ET – Yahoo! News

NEW YORK - On the day his firefighter son was lost, killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Deputy Fire Chief James Riches also lost some of his Roman Catholic faith. On Sunday, when Pope Benedict XVI visited ground zero to pray at the site of the twin towers, he felt like he got it back. "Our faith was destroyed that day. We said 'Where was God?' on 9/11, but he's come back here today and they've restored our faith," Riches said after the pope's visit.

All of Riches' four sons became firefighters, including Jimmy, who was killed at age 29 in the World Trade Center attacks along with more than 2,700 others. Another son, Tom, who became a firefighter after his brother's death, was among those invited through a lottery to join the pontiff in the pit where the towers once stood. "When the pope came down, it was very comforting," he said. "I'm glad because it's always been sacred ground to me." Benedict invited 24 people with ties to ground zero to join him Sunday morning, a group that included survivors, victims' relatives and rescue workers. After arriving in the popemobile, the pontiff knelt in silent prayer for a few moments, then rose to light a memorial candle. He prayed for peace, for the 9/11 victims who died in New York, Washington and in Shanksville, Pa., and for those sickened in the aftermath of the attacks. "God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance as we confront such terrible events," Benedict said. "Grant that those whose lives were spared may live so that the lives lost here may not have been lost in vain." Some victims' relatives had hoped the pope would specifically bless the hundreds of people killed at ground zero whose remains were never identified. They also wanted him to pray for the removal and burial of any remains that may have been taken to the Fresh Kills garbage dump on Staten Island. The pope's prayers weren't that specific, however, disappointing some of the victims' relatives. Rosemary Cain, whose firefighter son George perished on Sept. 11, 2001, wanted Benedict to address the desire of some families to keep searching for remains at both ground zero and the dump so they can be buried properly. "Nothing about Fresh Kills was addressed. Nothing about the inhumanity to the remains was addressed," she said. "I know the souls will not rest peacefully until they are buried with respect and dignity." The World Trade Center Families for Proper Burial sued the city in 2005, claiming that officials rushed the cleanup at ground zero and failed to deliver on a promise to sift debris taken to the dump to find body parts, remains and personal belongings. More than 1,700 bone fragments have been recovered in just the past two years in and around ground zero. While Cain was appreciative of the pope's visit, she also was saddened at not being able to attend in person. "It broke my heart not to be there," she said.

4 comments:

jmKelley said...

Here's another example of how the hierarchical church is in conflict with the Holy Spirit.

The Pope visited Ground Zero on Sunday and met the sister of the late FDNY chaplain, Father Mychal Judge, "the Saint of 9/11," the first official casualty of the attacks.

Mychal was considered a living saint by many even prior to his heroic death. His extraordinary works of compassion have been compared to Mother Teresa (see http://SaintMychalJudge.blogspot.com )

Ironically, Fr. Mychal Judge would be barred from the priesthood today because he was openly gay, though celibate. Benedict says that men like Mychal Judge are “objectively disordered.” Mychal often asked, “Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love ?!”

We have no illusions that this pope is going to change. But most Catholics affirm two truths -- that God created and loves gay people the way they are, and that the pope does not speak for the whole Church, the Ecclesia, on these matters.

Indeed, nearly two-thirds of U.S. Catholics-in-the-pews reject the pope’s homophobic views and support either civil unions or full marriage rights, according to numerous surveys.

As Fr. Mychal also said, "Don't let the (institutional) church get in the way of your relationship with God."

SM said...

Thank you so much for reading and commenting.

I remember watching hours and hours of 9/11 coverage and bawling at the photos of Fr. Mychal's body being brought out of the rubble on a gurnee by firefighters as he died giving last rites to another who had fallen. Gay or not gay, this man exhibited the hands-on compassion of Christ. Now, had it all happened all over and the Pope was nearby the action, I would be hard pressed to believe that HE would push up his sleeves and undertake the same risks to jump in and serve someone last rites.

The pope's comments do not reflect compassion and understanding and love of those whose lifestyles he is in disagreement with. How un-Christlike. If we typify the persona of the devil as being the evil that infiltrates society, where the best hiding place for the devil to walk but amongst the very flock that thinks it is immune from it.

Thank you again for commenting - keep reading and God bless!

Anonymous said...

I agree with this blog entry. The Catholics from my area who went to see the Pope are practicing a sort of celebrity worship that is not becoming. The Pope, with his entourage, servants and in all his expensive finery or furs and brocades and Italian shoes, analogous or the papal evquivalent to the latest expensive fashions worn by Hollywood Celebrities, does not resemble the humble carpenter Christ of the scriptures.
And he made a point to speak on obedience...we should be obedience to this? Golden calf...yes!

SM said...

Thank you for reading and for commenting. It is so true that Jesus lived and served in poverty -he did not have the distractions of so many possessions. Thank you for pointing that out. I think its an interesting dichotomy that there are groups within the Catholic Church, especially the more Vincentian-focused groups(i.e. The Daughters of Charity) who take vows of poverty. Monks also take vows of poverty. I think the Pope and the upper echelon of the Vatican took vows of "excess" instead.

God Bless!