Cubs Win and Discipleship

The Chicago Cubs finally have won the World Series and their fans are rejoicing. As I write this, hundreds of thousands of people are flooding the streets of downtown Chicago to continue in the merriment. The long wait is over ... blah, blah, blah.

Don't get me wrong. I am a Cubs Fan. I was 10 years old in 1984 when the Cubs fell in the NLCS against the San Diego Padres sending me to bed in tears. I followed them closely in 1989 when the San Francisco Giants topped the beloved. Together with all of Cubdom, I screamed at Steve Bartman in 2003 while the Florida Marlins stole another shot at glory from the hometown heroes. I know the pains of being a Cub fan and have enjoyed the success of my team.

I just wanted to share something that surprised me after the last out was made on Wednesday night. I didn't feel the overwhelming joy that I thought I was going to feel. As I remembered my father-in-law, a huge Cub fan who passed to his eternal rest in March, I shed a few tears, but I expected a transcendent emotional rush that never came. What I did feel was the same kind of comfort and elation that I feel when I receive the Lord in the Eucharist every time I am at Mass. 

Then, looking at the thousands of fans cheering, singing "Go, Cubs, Go" and crying after the big victory, I realized that this rejoicing multitude was made up of souls who are already pre-discipled. They fully understand the mechanics of discipleship. Of course, many of them could already be fully active Christians, but as research would indicate, most of them are likely unchurched. 

As we look to make disciples of Jesus Christ and consider how to build bridges of trust we should use the latest big sports victory as an opportunity to point out that elated fans already understand what a religious experience feels like.

Consider the experiences of the exuberant sports fan and how they parallel religious practice.

1) Getting together to watch a game - at a bar (church) at Wrigley Field (cathedral)

2) Singing songs - "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", "Go Cubs Go", people will even sing the National Anthem and God Bless America (hymns)

3) Learning more about their team in the newspaper (Bible)

4) Knowing about the All-Stars and Hall of Famers from the past (Saints)

5) Attending rallies and parades (Pilgrimage)

Of course, the Cubs victory didn't bring joy to non fans, just like showing up to church doesn't automatically bring you to a state of ecstasy. It requires hours of watching games, trips to the ball park, and arguing about the best player and mistakes the manager made. The big win becomes even more savory if big losses weigh heavy on your heart and years of waiting create anticipation. 

I posted on my Facebook:

"The celebration is on.
Many of my friends wonder why I am religious.
My answer to Cubs fans: The joy that you felt after Kris Bryant made that third out was only a glimpse of the joy I feel when I go to Mass.

Sharing a common hope, suffering with fellow believers, and celebrating together are elements that make that kind of joy possible.

God created us with the capacity to feel His joy."

Next time you encounter a die-hard sports fan who sincerely questions you on why they should be religious, ask them to remember what it felt like when their team won the big game and invite them to come share that joy every week. Most sports fan has someone in their life that hooked them to their favorite team. Their father or mother, grandparent, uncle, best friend, or coach, someone made a difference. Can you be that person that hooks them on Christ? Pray for me, so that I can.

Live Like Hillary Won

In his first homily, Pope John Paul the Great uttered words that he would echo throughout his papacy: "Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Help the Pope and all those who wish to serve Christ and with Christ's power to serve the human person and the whole of mankind. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid."

"Do not be afraid."

I have read countless Facebook posts, Tweets, and articles about what horrors await Christians if Hillary wins.



Well, for a moment imagine it is Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 and the headlines say

"Hillary Makes History." 

What are you going to do?

Will you cry? Will you draw the curtains and call off from work? Will you stay away from all media to avoid watching your enemies gloat?

or

Will you pray? Will you go to church more often? Will you reflect on what you can do to fix the world around you? Will you find the courage to spread the Gospel? Will you organize others to do the same?

If the answer is a little of the former but more of the latter, then why wait?

Why spend your time between now and November fretting about how the media is corrupt, or how Supreme Court justices might be chosen, or how Catholic politicians cause scandal by openly dissenting from the magisterium. Why waste your time? What difference will it make?

The government has never been the answer to the world's problems nor will it be.

Our Lord did not tell Pilate or Herod, "The Kingdom of God starts with better bureaucracy."

He sent the apostles out two by two and said, "Go and make disciples of all nations."

A discipleship group that I am not a member of id9:16 base their name off of Intentional Disciples and Corinthians 9:16:

“If I preach the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for necessity has been laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.”

They lay out their own set of 4 pillars of discipleship
Initiate Conversion, Foster Communion, Embrace Orthodoxy, and Arouse Mission.

There are more and more websites and avenues to foster discipleship, but in this disaster of a political season, start living like the government will always be against us

Do not be afraid, and go make disciples.

Twitter Bern

"This political season has been made possible by Twitter... Twitter, for those who can only think in 140 character chunks"

If you get a chance, read the transcript of Bernie Sander's speech. There you will find the usually promise to the American voter of unabated government gifting. He probably could have tweeted out the freebies he and Hillary propose to his Twitt(er) fan base. In order, it goes like this

• government representation for more than 1% (that never gets old)
• the struggle for economic, social, racial (is that segregated from social?), and environmental justice (how can justice be wrong?)
• the future of our children (won't anyone think of the children?)
• the middle class is shrinking (we wouldn't want them to move up to upper middle class)
• wealth and income equality (there is a fixed amount of wealth, you have to spread it around) grow)
• the greed of Wall Street (bankers MADE people buy houses they couldn't afford!!!)
• we need a leader who brings people together (one who doesn't start race wars)
• minimum wage is too low (let's just raise it, businesses will be just fine)
• Donald Trump is bad (okay, I totally agree there)
• don't let billionaires buy elections (except George Soros, he is totally cool)
• everyone should have free college (i said college right? not indoctrination centers, phew)
• let's stop climate change (every place on Earth should be just like San Diego, nothing should ever change)
• everyone's got to have health care (the money will just show for this, I swear)
• we will break up large Wall Street banks (except the ones that give Hillary money)

The problem with politics now is that the country has a Twitter mindset. People can only think in sound bites. Conservative thought and perspective like anything worth having takes time to appreciate and understand. You have to learn history. You have to appreciate mathematics and logical reasoning. You need to obtain and fulfill responsibilities to appreciate how hard work is necessary for advancement. These are not easily expressed in 140 characters, but both invective and platitudes can. Hence we have the Bern-meister. Young people (read as ignorant) flock to his Twiiter friendly bullet points along with the Oprah fans who like to see things given away to people at the end of shows.

To top everything off, Twitter hungry America ends up with the two candidates who have the least amount of substance of anyone who has ever run for political office.

Tim Kaine and Freemasonry

Out of the gate, I apologize for the deceptive title. I will not be presenting any evidence that Hillary Clinton's VP choice, Tim Kaine, is a freemason, if that is what you were hoping to find.

If you know anything about the Freemasons, you would know that that kind of information would not be easy public knowledge.

If you don't know anything about Freemasonry or very little, that is because that is what they want you know. Most people will ask, don't they drive those little cars? Yup.

I will provide more links at the bottom of the page for further reading but to get back to Tim Kaine. He professes to be a Catholic and that his "faith is very important to what he does." He is staunchly pro-abortion (100% rating from Planned Parenthood) and fully supports gay-marriage which are positions clearly in contradiction to the Catholic church.

From wikipedia
In 1983, Cardindal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the personal approval of Pope John Paul II, issued a Declaration on Masonic Associations, which reiterated the Church's objections to Freemasonry.^[5]The 1983 declaration states that "faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion. ... the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association(s) remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church (emphasis added) and therefore membership in them remains forbidden.^[5]

THE POINT:

If you read up on Freemasonry, you will see that the underlying philosophy which guides its practices is a naturalistic deism/humanism. That humans can reach their full potential through harmonious living and service to each other. You might read this and think, "What's wrong with that?" The Christian SHOULD answer, our full potential is only obtained through salvation by Jesus Christ. The ultimate aim of life on Earth is to serve Our Lord and His Church according to Her precepts to face the final judgment.

This is where the Freemasons have infiltrated our church. Not by some grand conspiracy (which I can't completely rule out), but by a piece by piece obfuscation of the essential truths of Christian life. There is a God. He has been revealed. His Truth is eternal. We don't get to pick and choose which truths we will espouse, and finally IN NO WAY will providing for the common good ever be a substitute for faith in Jesus Christ and the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Tim Kaine, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, etc. are all symptoms of the disease caused by bad preaching, bad formation, and bad discipleship. Being a Good Samaritan does not supercede the Gospel.
#1) Love the Lord your God (if you're Catholic, it means you also love His Bride, the Church)
#2) Love your neighbor as yourself

http://www.cuttingedge.org/free004.html (a little over the top, but informative)

You can spend forever on google reading and watching videos on both sides of this issue.

The Pro-Life case against Donald Trump... and of course, Hillary.

I have followed and participated in many Facebook arguments about why people who believe in the sanctity of human life have to vote for Donald Trump. The most common arguments are

• Open Supreme Court seats
• Trump's pro-life self proclamation
• The death of America

I would like to refute each in a little detail.

"If Hillary gets to fill the court, we will lose a generation of opportunity to reverse Roe v Wade"

We had a whole generation to reverse Roe v Wade and it didn't happen. Why not? Because of a little thing called PRECEDENT. If you don't know what that is you should look it up and stop beating your head against a rock. To put it in a nutshell, the real problem is activist judges, like the ones Democrats appoint, have no problem using their robes to make up new laws, but constitutionally sound justices, respect judicial process and would reluctantly overturn a decision from an inferior court let alone one that the Supreme Court made, in the past, without proper scientific information, out of thin air. Simply, Ruth Ginsburg would do and say anything to promote her politics, John Roberts actually has a conscience.

The only abortion will ever be illegal in this country is through a constitutional amendment. This is not out of the question, but you would need a truly pro-life leader who walks the walk and can talk the talk. Which leads us to the next argument.

"Donald Trump says he is pro-life, that is better than knowing for sure that Hillary is pro-abortion."

To answer this I offer you the following fable:

ONE WINTER a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold.

The snake said to the Farmer:
    "If you pick me up and hold me to your stomach, your body will make me warm."

The Farmer said:
   "If I do that you will bite me."
The Snake answered:
   "Why would I do that if you save me?"
The Farmer had compassion on the Snake, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom.
The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound.
   "Oh," cried the Farmer, "Why did you bite me after I saved you?"
   "You knew I was a snake when you picked me up," answered the Snake.

Donald Trump is so disconnected from the pro-life movement, he actually thought punishing women who procured abortions would make him popular among us. He clearly has never read a pro-life book, been part of a pro-life organization, walked on a picket line, or talked to a genuinely pro-life person. He praises Planned Parenthood. He praises his pro-abortion sister as a great Supreme Court option. He proposes killing the families of terrorists.

If you are supporting Trump you picked up the snake and you've been bitten. You just don't know it yet. Which leads us to death and the final topic.

"Hillary will kill America once and for all. The country will never recover from it."

After Obama's 8 years the country is in dire straits. I agree with anyone who says that. You need only look across the Atlantic to see where we are headed with more progressive leadership. Moral vacuum, whites not having children, Muslims immigrating and procreating at 3 to 4 times rate of whites.

The part I don't agree with is that the country can't recover from it. I think it can, but it is going to take a principled honest man or woman to be a servant to the people. Ted Cruz could have been that person but Americans are too stupid to look for substance, they rather have the glitz of a shiny object like Trump or Bernie. Unfortunately for ignorant college students everywhere, Bernie was doomed because Hillary has the DNC and the media in her pocket. She is a mafia queen par excellence. The usual RNC waste of space (e.g. John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, etc) couldn't gain traction because Obama's horrific failure fueled so much anger that everyone (even people with no political was awareness, i.e. Trump supporters) was out for insider blood.

This election is over. The future starts now. Be a disciple, go to church, evangelize, be prepared to suffer, sacrifice so much that others want to know how you can give so much of your time, talent and treasure for others. Then answer because my God suffered and died for me, what else can I do?

Only then will Christianity thrive and America be great again. STOP LOOKING TO WASHINGTON.

It's a Wonderful Life Part I

Last year, I forced my ten year old son to watch It's a Wonderful Life for the first time.

"It's black and white?" he said.

"Yeah, so?"

"That's means it's boring." Oh, the whining.

"We are watching it for twenty minutes, if you don't like it at that point, we can stop."

I would put the first twenty minutes of It's a Wonderful Life up against any other film for flat out captivation and I was right. Two scenes of George Bailey as a child and he was hooked.

We enjoyed the film so much as a family that we sat down a year later to watch it again. Had to rent it through Amazon. Why do I not own a copy?

Like any good film there is something new to glean every time you watch it. Whether it be a nuance of a character or a good quote, or the fact that life events in between viewings alter how your mind and emotions react to stimulus, the movie affects you differently.

This is Part I of my reflection on this classic, and I will start at the very end of the movie.


When George Bailey opens Clarence Odbody's copy of Tom Sawyer, he reads the inscription:

Dear George, 

Remember no man is a failure who has friends. 

Thanks for the wings! Love Clarence.


I am not going to expound on the non-Catholic theology of people becoming angels if you were hoping or afraid of that.

Instead I will say, for the first time, I was brought to tears when reading the text on the screen. It immediately brought me back to the wake and funeral of a family friend who lost his battle with cancer this past November. The stories and tears that many friends from childhood, college, and adult life shared showed everyone present what a wonderful life this man had lived and how he had left a wake of touched hearts during his walk on this Earth.

Since it is the season for resolutions, this experience increased my resolve to commit to building my company of friends, rekindling the zeal of my faith during college, and exposing my children to families who share my desire to keep our kids close to Jesus as they become adults.
Peace and love,
Mark Andrews

Mary, the Mother of God

As history has built a moat between Catholics and Protestants, it is up to all Christians of good will to build bridges to recreate the unity that Our Lord intended. With this intention I put forward the following opportunities that arise from the celebration of this Solemn Feast in the church's calendar.

First, the Blessed Virgin was the first disciple of Jesus. She was the first to say yes to His call. When Gabriel told her that she would have a son called Emmanuel she accepted the invitation to discipleship thirty years before the apostles would agree to be "fishers of men". Despite her youth and the threat to her very life, she began a journey with the Lord.

Several years ago, the bracelets with WWJD (What would Jesus do?) were very popular. I always found this to be an unfair question. For one, not being divine precludes me from his exact ways to be sure, but more over it was Our Lord's mission to make disciples to Himself. I am not called to make disciples to myself but to Him that John the Baptist spoke of. To this end the church presents us Our Lady as a guide. Wouldn't What Would Mary do? be a more fair question. The Annunciation gives us our first hint of what Mary would do. At the Visitation, Mary praises God in the Magnificat with words that all Christians can echo with confidence. Our songs of praise can only attempt to match those which the Blessed Mother spoke in scripture. When Jesus is lost for days in Jerusalem and Mary is without His companionship, she is spiritually lost. Do we drop everything in our lives when we lose touch with Our Lord? And finally her words at the wedding feast in Cana, instruct us on what we should say to all we encounter. "Do whatever He tells you to." These are the final words of Our Lady in scripture. What remains to be to said for any disciple?

The second bridge which perhaps is further down the road for those are distant from the Catholic Church is the Real Presence in the Eucharist. 

As Jesus intended Mary to be the first disciple and dwelt within her, would it not follow that He would intend to dwell within all of His disciples in the same visceral way? Looking at His words in John 6, we see His intent to give all of His followers the same Life within them that Mary had. Mary physically had Jesus with her for thirty years, We can share that intimacy for short amounts of time through Holy Communion.