RIP Pope Benedict XVI

 Hope everyone had a great Christmas.  As I read about Pope Benedict I was struck by his deep faith.  While he was pope I actually hadn't heard much about him.  I knew he was conservative in his views but that was about it. His decision to step down I felt was courageous.  I looked up quotes in preparing for this post and there were many good ones.  Here are my top three:

"We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.  Each of us is the result of a thought of God."  

Wow.  This summaries my Christmas post perfectly.  God sending His son down proves the above statement.  " I am a thought of God!".  I like that.

"If we let Christ into our lives we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great.  No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide.  Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed.  Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. "

Faith is liberating.

"The world offers you comfort.  But you were not made for comfort.  You were made for greatness."

I really like this one  Need to remember it when the going gets tough.  

RIP papa.

Pax

Joe

 

 

A Child is born in Bethlehem

 Have you ever wondered why God sent his son into the world?  To teach us?  To show He loves us?  To forgive our sins and reunite us with the Father?  I have been given all those answers and they all make sense to a point.  But God, being God, didn't need to send His son to accomplish all that right?  

As a surgeon I have learned a great deal of science.  Now science teaches you how wonderfully complicated and orderly every thing in nature is.  As you learn about all this wonderful stuff that explains how everything works you can look at it in one of two ways; either " see there is no magic.  Science can explain everything." or " look at how complex yet orderly God set everything up."  

As we learn more and more about the universe we are learning just how BIG it really is.  It staggers the mind.  Scientists calculated there are 50 billion planets, that is billion with a "b".  When I read this I thought of God as a scientist with 50 billion petri dishes each as a special experiment.  " Gee I thought Earth was big but it is not even 1 in a million.  What does that make me?"  Then I remembered, "God does care about this particular planet.  He sent his only son here to save me!" I get it now.  As we learn more and more how small earth is and how vast and magnificent God is what better way to say,

 " No, this is not just an experiment and I am not a heartless force of nature.  I am a living God and I so loved this world that I gave my only son."  

Thank you God for caring enough to send your son to us this Christmas!

     Merry Christmas!

Joe

Do dogs go to heaven?

 Shortly after my dog died my mom asked me if I thought Turner was in heaven.  I immediately said "yes".  I admit it was an emotional response rather than a theological one and I have since given it a lot of thought.  If you google "Do dogs go to heaven?" you will find a fair amount out there.  It breaks down into two main thoughts.  

The first is the traditional Catholic view which says "no" at least not on their own accord.  This is because heaven is for mankind.  Mankind has the capacity for greater understanding of God and freewill so therefore has the capacity to either be closer to God [heaven] or farther away [hell] than animals when they die.  Animals, by acting in their nature, praise God automatically and therefore lack the capacity to be closer or father away.  One of my heroes, St Thomas Aquinas, was a big proponent of this in the Summa.  

The second view says "yes" dogs will be in heaven.  The thought here is if we are in paradise of course our dogs will be there; otherwise it wouldn't be paradise.  For people very close to their dogs [ like me] this makes sense and is actually not at odds with the traditional catholic view.  The dog is not there on its own accord, it is there to make us happy.  I think this is what Pope Paul VI meant when he told a little boy that we would see our animals in heaven.  [ Pope Francis is often mis quoted as saying this.]

The bible is pretty silent on this question. We know for humans heaven is suppose to be awesome, hell is suppose to be bad and that the lion and the lamb will lay down together.  Not much to go on.  

So after a week of meditating on the subject here are my thoughts:

When we die we are invited to be closer to God and to praise Him like never before.  If we accept that is heaven and sounds awesome.  If we decline then God grants our desire and moves us far away from His presence. [ hell]  Now if I am that close to God will I need Turner there?  Maybe not, but I think it would be nice.  At the resurrection we will raise bodily so should be able to talk to people and animals. 

But I am not sure Turner would need me there to be in heaven.  If God is all loving and he created Turner, why would he not allow Turner some form of heaven when he died?  If I would do that how much more would a God that knows "when a sparrow falls from the sky."    

So to answer my question, "Yes I am confident dogs go to heaven."  I just can't see how a loving God would not allow animals who have done His will to not continue to experience His love when they die. And my buddy Aquinas before he died said of the Summa, " Burn it, it is straw."  He was referring to the Summa as compared to a personal relationship with God. For theology, like everything else in this world should lead us to God. And I am confident a loving God would love Turner at least as much if not 100 times more than I do.  

Pax

 

Joe

 

My dog died monday; Turner RIP

 I apologize about this blog.  It is suppose to be about helping others but too often it is about what is happening to me.  I apologize because here we go again.  I mentioned in Oct that my dog had terminal cancer and how I was trying to deal with it.  I think I did pretty well realizing that Turner was a gift from God and it was part of God's plan for him to die.  It is still very sad at the end and that is part of the plan too.  To accept the grief and go through it.  

It of course reminded me of Lao Tsu.  In chapter 14 of Tao Te Ching he is talking about the Tao.  What we christians call God the Father, the Alpha and Omega.  He states,

Stand before it and there is no beginning

    Follow it and there is no end

Stay with the ancient Tao

    Move with the present.

 

That is what I am doing, "moving with the present."  Being alive in the moment, accepting the grief knowing I am not going through it alone.  It is still sad though.  

Turner my friend you were a great dog!  I will never forget you.

Pax

 Joe

A Grateful Thanksgiving

 I hope everyone has a wonderful, grateful thanksgiving tomorrow.  The holidays can be hard for many folks as our lives don't live up to what we see in movies and in books.  I think that is where people with faith have a huge advantage.  Life has inherent meaning and purpose.  Also faith gives one a sense of gratitude.  After all, George Washington set aside a day for "Thanksgiving and prayer" which has become our Thanksgiving.  My favorite quote of thanks is:

 I love this quote!  It is so full of faith.  Can you actually imagine thanking God for everything that has happened to you?  All those bumps in the road?  I think not.  

And to unabashedly tell God, "Yes God, Bring it.  Your will be done."  Wow, scary stuff.  

Intellectually I get it and am fully onboard but I confess this is aspirational stuff for me at this point.  So I pray for God to deepen my faith and work at it everyday.  But I am thankful that I have enough faith to truly be grateful this Thanksgiving despite all those bumps in the road! 

I hope each of you have a grateful Thanksgiving.

Pax

Joe    

I need to Listen better

 No post last week because my mom had the flu and I was quite busy as she was pretty sick.  Happy to report she is getting better.  I did get to read about St Loyola though and how he was a terrific listener.  Apparently instead of correcting people he would hear all they had to say.  "When he would get to know the person better and the person felt more at ease, the Father would slowly proceed and, without any violence, change the whole game."  from Fr Goncalves de Camara.

In an earlier post I mentioned the importance of "being right" in an argument and as I got older that became less important.  I think the older I have gotten the better I have become at listening as well. It is still hard if we are busy or stress about something else.  To actually try to listen and understand what someone is trying to tell us takes concentration and commitment; it is hard.  

 It is much easier to tell someone your ideas,problems and stories than to try to understand where they are coming from.  That is why I love the above proverb.

I think I am pretty good at listening to people in the clinic.  It's what I have been doing for 30+ years and have received an awful lot of training in how to do it. But with my family it can be hard sometimes because I want to help but they aren't ready to listen; or perhaps I am not listening well enough to understand them.  That is why I need to listen better.

 

Pax

 

Joe 

Let us not be distracted

 Sorry I did not post last week.  I moved my mom into her house and there was no time for meditation.  This week it was chapter 12 of Tao Te Ching. It still amazes me how closely this a lines with the Judeo-Christian message.  Here it is condensed:

The five colors blind the eye.

   The five tones deafen the ear.

        Precious things lead us astray.

Therefore the wise are guided by what they feel and not by what they see.

    Letting go of that and choosing this. 

 So let us not be distracted by things of this world.  As we have talked about before, things are meant to bring us closer to God but they can also have the opposite effect.  A nice car may bring us pleasure but if it becomes an obsession or us coveting it leads to bad decisions/interactions then it becomes a, "Precious thing that leads us astray." 

 

It is so easy to fall off the path with marketing and all the material goods we are blessed with in the US.  I need to constantly remember that "My ways are not your ways" says the Lord.  I need to constantly be reminded to stay on the path and play the true long game.  

Pax

Joe