Response: “Illumination, Systems, & His Will”
Written by an Anonymous Laity of Our Lady of Sorrows, South Orange, NJ
January 20th, 2024
Chapter 1
An interesting analogy with the tower of Babel. I have often thought on these lines, because I see a sort of tower of Babel happening right now with the proliferation of programming languages. I mainly only speak Java and still have a hard time reading JavaScript, though they are somewhat similar. But there is a plethora of other such programming languages. Some, I might understand through some Googling, others I might not have a clue of at all. When men became arrogant, God confused their language and the Babel project was abandoned. We are already in that phase of confusion with so many languages out there. So, in a strange way, this ought to give us hope, because it is almost a guarantee that God will laugh (Psalm 2:4) when man thinks he can overthrow his anointed (Psalm 2:2). We are his anointed (1 John 2:27). So, we need not fear if any AI, any new development in technology, should turn against us, for this history of Babel will repeat itself over and over, though we are called to endure to the end (Mark 13:13).
Chapter 2
Yes, how blessed we are to have the gift of the Holy Spirit, for he brings to our mind what Jesus taught us, and helps us navigate life in circumstances that may never before have occurred in history. He it is who makes us call God our "Father". He it is who illumines our mind and gives us understanding into the works of God. However, sometimes we cannot understand, and this is by design, so that we can show if we really trust God, like Abraham did. Abraham, perplexed with the commandment of God to kill his son, "considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead" (Hebrews 11:19), and therefore took a step in faith. This type of reasoning was itself an act of faith. As we know, things did not happen the way Abraham reasoned, but God was pleased that he reasoned in favor of the goodness of God than succumbing to the original temptation of Adam and Eve who reasoned that God could not be trusted and didn't have good intentions for them.
This idea that God's will is THE BEST THING for my life AT ALL TIMES is something we all have to struggle with, because we often lack the understanding of how that is the case. We often want God to align his will with ours! I reason like this - God is a non-contingent being, by definition. Because he is not contingent, he does not need anything. If he does not need anything, then he cannot possibly be evil, for evil by nature lacks something and needs to "feed" upon something else to satisfy it. This reasoning has helped my faith in difficult situations, and on one occasion even completely altered my very strong and tending to month-long-depression negative emotions and made me joyful again. The power of that truth changed my emotions in a way no amount of medication could have.
"For fear is nothing but surrender of the helps that come from reason" (Wisdom 17:12), and fear is opposed to faith, and "whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).
The state of "prayerful awareness", as the writing mentions, is absolutely the key to living the BEST (by God's standards!) life.
Chapter 3
The quote from Wisdom 17:12 is so applicable to courage. We give in to fear when we simply fail to ask logical questions like "so what?" and see what logical conclusion reason leads us to. Of course, faith is presumed in such reasoning, or we could reason like Adam and Eve and not like Abraham. The assurance that "in all things God works for good" (Romans 8:28) should give us courage and hope, like in the case of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by his brothers and then God made him second in command to Pharaoh.
Chapter 4
It seems to me that God is like an artist who holds a little child's hand and yet makes a magnificent painting, even despite the child's manifest imperfections. I do think the sin of Adam and Eve affected our DNA in some way, but God said, "fine, if this is what you offer me, I'll work even with this." Healthy and flawless human bodies were God's original purpose for mankind, but we lost it. And that ushered in various kinds of imperfections in human beings. While it is true that God fashions each and every human being in the womb (Psalm 139:13, Exodus 4:11-12), I think that humans, with their inherited defects, are necessarily co-creators with him in this process. He lets the defects manifest themselves, for his plan is to manifest his own work in the person who has that defect, as in the case of the man born blind (John 9:3). I would not say that we ought to embrace the defect, but we ought to embrace the one who unites himself with us in our experience of that defect. The apostle Paul rejoiced IN his sufferings, and not FOR his sufferings!
He says, "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church" (Col 1:24). How amazingly God turned around the sin of our parents, and its negative effects, for our own glory! Our suffering now becomes a means of union with Christ and a means of glory, for in patiently enduring this suffering, like Christ did on the cross, we increase our merit. And it is this "treasury of merit" (CCC 1478) that is a key to unlocking the graces we receive for salvation. Now if only we did not waste our sufferings, but in faith united them with Christ! "Pain without Christ is suffering; pain with Christ is sacrifice." - Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen
The marital love and union between a man and his wife reflects God himself, because he created us in his image. When a married couple unite themselves in sexual love, this union can sometimes result in the conception of a third person. This is as close an earthly image of the Holy Trinity as we can get, 3 persons in one being. God created us in his image, and this was his plan for human beings and their sexuality. Anything other than this is either an aberration or falls short of God's original plan in creating us in his image. God is one, but not individual. He is family. He is a communion of persons. We ought to see human beings and human sexuality in that light, especially in today's individualistic world.
Chapter 5
Science can describe the way things are, but describing how things ought to be is outside of the domain of science, and especially medical science; some of whose practitioners today tend to play God in deciding how things ought to be. Good is that which ought to be, and evil is that which ought not to be. But what ought to be and what ought not to be depends upon the intent and purpose behind it. Human beings did not intend this world to come into existence; God did. Therefore, we ought to discern what the intents and purposes of God are, so we know what is good and what is evil.
Doctors and medical professionals do well when they acknowledge that they are not the author of good and evil, but God is. Without God, and without an acknowledgment of his intended design, which is plain for those with eyes to see, practitioners often go astray in their thinking and redefine good and evil. Woe to them who call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20)!
It is not without reason that we consider it right, an often a moral obligation, to take a "second opinion" if we do not like a doctor's "opinion". And yes, that is exactly what it is, an opinion, an interpretation of what is good and what is evil for you. If we do not think in our hearts that this opinion aligns with God purposes, then we should all the more ask for a second opinion, and ask God to make it clearer to us.
A similar thing happens with other types of worldly systems, especially economic ones. Some systems are blatantly based on stealing from the "rich" to give to the "poor". This, once again, goes against God's design. God created us with free will, and his intent is for us to give "freely" (Proverbs 11:24). If anyone does not give freely when he has received freely from God, God himself will punish him, as the parable of the unforgiving servant shows us. The proponents of these economic systems, however, play God, and they think they can decide who to steal from and who to give to! Fools!
Instead, we ought to "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5-6).
The restlessness we have has a remedy. Sometimes we are restless even trying to serve God! But, as Jesus told Martha who fell into this, "one thing is needful" (Luke 10:42). We should never forget this one thing, which is to simply be with God, and enjoy the rest that comes from him.
-An Anonymous Laity of Our Lady of Sorrows - South Orange, NJ
