Christ Crucified – Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament – Hanceville, AL
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” John 5:30
My friend called me this morning. She had gotten in her car to take her children to school. Her husband had left the radio on a sports station. The advertisement came on for one of those drugs like Viagra, and the announcer stated, “because you deserve intimacy.”
We deserve it.
According to the ways of the world, it is something we deserve. It isn’t a gift, a free gift from God.
Still all these years after the fall of man, we don’t get it. Everything we have is a gift from God. In the garden, Adam and Eve had everything, they lacked nothing. They lived in the Divine Will. But the serpent, convinced them they deserved to be like God, and so they ate of the fruit and brought sin into the world.
My friend adeptly pointed out that even in their sin God continued to give. Adam and Eve had clothed themselves in fig leaves once they “knew they were naked,” but God gave them “garments of skins” to clothe them. What God gifts us is lasting. What we think we deserve is usually fleeting and will leave us naked, ashamed and empty.
In our day and age, Lust has actually become one of the deadliest of the seven deadly sins. Why? Because lust is catapulting us into grave sins that allow us to dehumanize other people. Once we dehumanize them, all the other sins can follow. We are using people for “deserved” pleasure, which really isn’t intimacy at all. Intimacy is knowing someone to their core. We are called to be intimate with God. The world has everything disordered.
I read an article in Good Housekeeping that was essentially accepting of incest. The logic was that these were siblings who were not raised together and had a Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA). Incest has long been outlawed because of the genetic mutations it can cause in children. But in a society that “deserves” pleasure at any cost, we now have contraception and abortion to take care of that issue. Once you morally accept one disorder that takes you away from God, it becomes very easy to start accepting all kinds of things.
I felt like God was asking me if I live in Sodom and Gommorah. I couldn’t answer. Can I find 10 people that don’t accept at least one of these things;
Contraception, abortion, divorce, gay marriage, IVF, surrogacy, pornography, prostitution, masturbation, co-habitation, fornication…
I hope I can, but I know most accept at least one of these as something they “deserve,” just look at all the screaming among feminists about birth control being a right that they deserve. Everyone thinks they deserve pleasure, children can be bought and sold as commodities, woman are denigrated, families are torn apart, children are murdered in the womb, and all because we want immediate satisfaction which we think we deserve. I don’t say this to minimize the struggle individuals go through, but to show as a society the direction we are headed.
Remember, Jesus took all of this on. If you want to know what you deserve, look at the cross. There lies your sin. Your sin looks like bloodied death and destruction. That’s actually what you and I deserve. But what Christ wants to give you is a gift. Love doesn’t ask what I deserve. Love is thankful for the gifts given. Love sacrifices. Choose love, and order yourself rightly to God, even when it’s hard, even when you don’t get what you desire, because what God desires for you is much bigger. And when we fall, which we all do, repent of the sin, confess the sin, and do penance. These are the things that order us back to God.
Love is patient. Our society doesn’t seem to understand the concept of waiting anymore. Love is kind. Just look at social media and see if you see kindness. Love is not jealous. Can you think of a person who isn’t currently desiring what someone else has? or isn’t offended by what someone else has? Love is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on it’s own way; it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrong, but rejoices in right. Does this sound like our society? And lest you start pointing fingers at others, we must pull the planks out of our own eyes first. Transformation of society actually begins in your own heart. Rightly order yourself towards God, people will notice the peace in you and will ask, how do I get there? You can answer, through Jesus Christ.
This is not meant to condemn those who have participated in the sins I listed above. This is a call to conversion, for the Holy Spirit to convict hearts and order you towards love. Jesus said to the adulterous woman, “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” John 8:11. Let’s at least try to take the second part to heart so we don’t end up condemning ourselves.
Veil of Veronica 
As I was reading a thought crossed my mind. Often people say … Treat yourself you deserve it….. It is a very common comment which I have only noticed in recent years!
I have noticed that to. I think I am just astounded at what I see as entitlement. No thankfulness, just an ungrateful expectation of things deserved…
I want to weep daily because the entire human race is totally fixated on sex….the human race has become totally debased.
EVERYTHING is about sex, sex WITHOUT procreation…..a human race that has become totally sensate and lust-driven.
And the worst if it is that now they want to turn the Church upside down so it caters to their sexual preferences, whether it’s to condone unlawful marriages, unnatural marriages, or no marriage at all.
It used to be that God and His Church informed and guided human sexuality toward morality; now human sexuality, and even unnatural sexuality want to inform and guide the Church toward immorality, and it’s happening!
Now those in unlawful marriages or even unnatural relations even want to kerp their immoral sexuality while also receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion, as though their sexuality is too important to give up, yet feeling they “DESERVE” Holy Communion.
They make their sexuality and Holy Communion to be of equally compelling importance!
It makes me want to weep everyday, to see the human race has descended into a cesspool of disordered lust, driven on by blind passion.
And now Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist is dragged into it like an “entitlement” and badge of “inclusion” they “deserve”, so no one feels left out or offended by not being able to receive Holy Communion – without any regard for What and Who the Eucharist actually is: the Lamb of God who came to call us to conversion, who died blooded for our sins, the Second Person at the Most Holy Trinity.
This is the sense of entitlement brought to its most outrageous depths: “I am living in an adulterous union according the words of Christ, ‘Whosoever divorces and remarries commits adultery’, but I am offended if I’m not permitted to receive Holy Communion anyway.” So now the Church – turned on its head by what everyone thinks they deserve so they won’t be offended – permits it!!!
Our Lady of Fatima said more souls go to hell for sins of impurity than for any other reason. Even the Church has become silent on this grave matter because everyone thinks they “deserve” to have sex whenever and however they want it.
When will God intervene….?
Our Lady of Sorrows is with you. The Lord is letting all become transparent before He purifies. We can make reparations and we should. Remember do not despair or be afraid. The gates of hell shall not prevail. Saying a prayer for you Marie.
Thank you so much. I draw comfort from your blog posts. They are a quiet, prayerful respite of love for God and adoration of His designs in a world that’s lost its reason.
Yes, this is a great winnowing between those who are truly in the City of God and those who pretend to be, but who serve Belial.
I was praying about it once with God, fearing that so many are being led astray by compromises in the Church. But Our Lord made me understand “No one can be deceived unto damnation….Only those will follow error who prefer it to My Truth and My Laws….”
I understood that Our Lord always enlightens souls of good will, even though we may be mistaken for a time. Ultimately all souls of good will will find and embrace the Truth if they seek and want to love God more than their sins.
Nevertheless, it is heartbreaking to see human beings so debased beneath the dignity for which God created them in His image and likeness…..especially children, who lose their innocence almost before they gain the light of reason in these times.
I know. And it is for all the reason you stated that Purgatory is God’s greatest mercy. We must pray for the souls in purgatory this month.
My goodness, I just came upon an interview on Catholic World Report with an exorcist that addresses the topic of this blog post precisely.
The Exorcist said that “Those who seek a self-centered happiness belong to Satan.”
He discusses the influence of Satan in the world today. It’s a very powerful article:
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2017/10/31/london-exorcist-all-of-society-is-subject-to-a-demonic-deception/
Self centeredness is at the core of making a god of yourself, so yes I think that’s correct. I will take a look at the article. P.S. even insecurity is a twisted form of pride. Thanks. God Bless you.
Fire those who may not have the chance to read the whole interview with the Exorcist this was a very revealing quote:
Father Davies described how people at certain moments of their lives will weigh a decision about a matter—often, though not exclusively, in the realm of sexual mores—and then make a decision, or accept an argument, that moves them away from Christ.
In so doing, they have subtly changed from being a child of God to living a lie.
This motion, thankfully, is not irreversible, but he says that many of the people he encounters in this work of deliverance are able to point to that moment when they made such a choice and, thereafter, their lives were changed…..”
Deliverance ministry deals with tons of sexual sin. It’s what broke the covenants. Sexual sin is insidious.
Yes, you are right; it is a sin which completely darkens the intellect, so as to debase the human person to the level of an animal who is no longer capable of judging their actions rightly and who is driven by the basest of instincts; a helpess slave to sensuality, instead of being its master.
Yet….even animals normally only use their procreative capacity in accord with God’s plan for bringing forth new life. Humans wallow with complete abandon in their sensuality without any thought for its unspeakably noble purpose — which they actually try to prevent more often than not: the co-creation with God of immortal souls who can choose to spend an eternity with Him!
The Dialogues of St. Catherine of Siena (an exchange she has with the Eternal Father while in ecstasy) are phenomenal on so many points.
God the Father speaks to her of the nature of man and the nature of sin. He discusses the state of a soul which falls into mortal sin and does not wash itself in the Blood of Christ: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/catherine/dialog.iv.iii.xv.html
I hope EVERYONE discovers the marvelous treasure to be found in the Revelations we receive directly from God through St. Catherine (a great Doctor of the Church!) in her Dialogues They are very purifying and instructive to read.
Pornography has totally ruined our culture. Debased human dignity and turned people into animals. It’s the scourge of our time.
Pingback: The Marriage Covenant | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: It’s about Identity | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: The Goodness of God | Veil of Veronica