Psalm 139

It has been sad and depressing to hear all the ignoble talk recently about gender identity issues and who can go in what bathroom. 

I recommend contrasting all that chatter with the beautiful, uplifting, heavenly words of Psalm 139:

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall[a] on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.[c]
Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

You may just be better off stopping here.  I think those words speak for themselves, and have no need of any further commentary from me.

Yes, we are "fearfully and wonderfully made".   God made us.  We did not create ourselves.  This means God made our gender.  We did not decide our gender, just like we did not decide our parents.  If we can choose our own gender, why cannot we not choose our own parents?  If we can change our gender, what else can we change?  Can we change our spouse at will?  Can we change our children at will?   

No, some things are not meant to be changed. 

 

God does not make mistakes.  If He created you male, your masculinity is a part of why He made you.  There is a reason it exists, rather than not exist.   If He created you female, your femininity is a part of why He made you.  There is a reason it exists, rather than not exist.  Discovering the reason of our existence is what makes like so dramatic and so interesting.   Trying to create our own reason for existence ultimately just means we decide for ourselves what life is all about.  Limiting life to our own vision and purpose serves to make life banal and devoid of meaning.

I pray for those who feel they have to change their God-given gender.  The reality is that no matter what, they cannot change it.   No surgery, no change in registration can alter who God made us as, nor His Dream for us.  The more we run from whom we are meant to be by God, the more frustrated we become, even if on the surface we may say things are OK.  No one who is a man who is living as a woman can say he has complete inner peace.  No one who is a woman who is living as a man can say that, either.  Why?  Because they are living in contradiction to the beautiful and exalting words of Psalm 139, which exalt and praise both God, and His pinnacle of creation, man.   Anyone who lives a life that conflicts with those noble words cannot ever have inner peace.

I pray people read and meditate on this beautiful Psalm everyday and realize that God, the Master Design, designed us all out of love, and for a purpose.  He knows us through and through, much better than we know ourselves.  He never abandons us.   We need to have faith and trust that God had a reason for creating us as He did; we all are "fearfully and wonderfully made".

Joseph, renowned offspring of David, pray for us.

 

Mother Angelica

I join the many in mourning the loss of Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, the foundress of the Eternal Word Television Network.   Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon her.  

I always enjoyed watching her.  She had an "edge" to her.   She loved everyone, but that does not mean she was always "nice" to everyone.  She sometimes said tough words.  She often made people uncomfortable.   Whatever she did or said, though, was always out of charity.  Sometimes, the loving thing to do is indeed to say something that a person or persons may not want to hear, but need to.  There can be no truth without love.   There can be no love without truth.

I think in the years since she had to give over control of her network, EWTN, that that network has lost some of the "edge" it had when she was at the helm.   The Church overall has lost a lot of Her "edge", too.

We need to get that "edge" back.

What do I mean by that?

1) We need to not be afraid.   We need to not be afraid of things that we should not be afraid of.   The only thing we should fear is the Lord.   We should not fear anyone or anything else.
2) We need to hold ourselves accountable.   We excuse our behavior with every excuse in the book; "my family was this way, so that is how (or why) I am".    Mother's parents divorced.  Her father abandoned her.  Her mother had mental illness.  Yes, she came from a broken family.  Rather than let that stop her, though, she embraced her situation, and made it ever fruitful for her and so many.
3) We need to hold our leaders accountable .   If people in authority are not speaking or doing as they should, they need to be asked to do so privately.  If they continue not to, they need to be asked to publicly.  Mother certainly challenged Bishops on more than one occasion when she felt it necessary.
4) We need to be warriors for Holy Mother Church.   Mother defended the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, with a passion.  She defended the Magisterium.  She defended the Holy Father.   Her weapons were the Rosary, her Crucifix, and the Child Jesus.
5) We need to call sin sin, and nothing else.  Mother was always pleading with people to go back to Confession.  She spoke about it seemingly on almost every one of her shows.  She spoke of the beauty of a good Confession, how "light and free" it made you feel, and how you should reward yourself with an ice cream, or some other delicious food, afterward.  I have taken her advice on more than one occasion.:)  Like her, we should learn to be positive, not by affirming people in their sinful behavior, but by speaking about the beauty of repentance and mercy.
6) We need to stop taking ourselves so seriously, and take God seriously instead.   She cracked a joke seemingly every few minutes on her show.   At a cable convention one year, she approached the Playboy booth and she said that the girls turned around when they saw her coming.  As she said, "I didn't think their back looked any better than their front."    When one of her writings was panned for grammatical errors, she said her writings were the words of "one dummy to another.", and left the errors in there.
7) We need to love with all our heart.  Seeing the way Mother clutched her Bible, her crucifix, and any image of the Child Jesus she had nearby, and hearing her speak, revealed that Mother had such a deep love for Our Lord, and His Church.   Jesus was her Bride, her Spouse.  When she felt He was disrespected, such as when He was portrayed by a woman at the Stations of the Cross at World Youth Day in 1993, she defended Him with a fiery passion.  This love is what gave her the strength to do all she did.  She really didn't "do" much.  She loved much.    She loved till it hurt.   So should we.  Do we love Jesus so much that it hurts?  Do we love the Church so much that it hurts?  If not, we should pray for the grace to love more, as Mother did.

Mother suffered a lot in her life.  She was misunderstood.  She had strokes.  She fell several times.  She had to wear braces until she was healed.  She had to beg for money.  Indeed, she had a lot of Good Fridays.  Yet, she died on Easter Sunday, almost like she was vindicated in her sufferings, like Our Lord was and is.
If we do the right thing, no matter how difficult it is, we can be confident that we, too, will be vindicated before the judgment seat of Our Lord.  But we must get our "edge" back.  We must be willing to suffer.  We must be willing to speak the truth.  We must defend like warriors the Sacred, in the person of Christ and in His Holy Church.  We must be willing to suffer and offer our sufferings, as Mother did, for the good of souls.

Mother had a great devotion to the Child Jesus.   Maybe only Saint Joseph and the Blessed Mother have had greater devotions to the Child.   Mary and Joseph knew what it was like to live "on the edge".  
May Joseph intercede for Mother, for the whole universal Church, for all of us, to lead us all closer to the simple trusting, loving pure heart of the Child Jesus, and help us become more pure, and the world a safer and better place.

Joseph, Head of the Holy Family, and Protector of Holy Church, pray for Mother Angelica, and pray for us.