E
edwest2
Guest
So, what does it mean to be living in modern times? The date on the calendar? Not so. The average person goes to work each day, in the same car, along the same route and pays the same bills each month.
Modern actually means someone has done something and made it available to a lot of people. A man created the means to light up the country and power electrical appliances. Before that, your alternatives were candles, kerosene and, in some places, natural gas lamps. Someone invented the telegraph and then the telephone. Someone else, the radio. Then the wax cylinder and steel tine players, which were further developed into the 78 RPM and then 33 1/3 RPM vinyl record albums, along with the 45 RPM single.
Ideas and words created a reordering of some societies. Karl Marx and Das Kapital, Chairman Mao Tse Tung and the little Red Book. Adolph Hitler and Mein Kampf.
These words and ideas led to the Russian Revolution, the fall of China to Communism and World War II.
I think it would be best to look at our present world, local and global situations, with the wisdom of the Catholic Church. In the West, Europe and North America, there has been a decline in living out the faith. One priest on Catholic Radio noted that many Catholics were actually living as Agnostics. A mostly black and white morality has been replaced with relativism. This has led to indifference, where people who know longer want to endure sound doctrine just do what they want, without much thought to the consequences. And if there are consequences, to not stand and endure but to find the easy way out. The Church, if they go at all, is just a building. The doctrines, and statements made today go in one ear, wander a bit, and then exit the other.
I think I speak for most human experience when I say that something really worth doing is difficult. It takes strong, continuous effort. If something is pursued half-heartedly, one is inclined to give up, or the results are mediocre, falling below their potential. Anyone who has been through any sort of training knows that 101% is expected of you. It is not easy. As the great philosopher Arnold Schwarzenegger once said: “No pain, no gain.”
So if people are interested in making such a commitment to say, bodybuilding, or their jobs, why not their marriages? Why are so many young people avoiding the hard road and just getting jobs at fast food places? And when you ask them, all you get is, Hey, it’s enough to get by. That’s all you want? To get by? You only have one life and you just want to squeak through?
Further, what were once considered “use only in the case of emergency” solutions have become common why-bother-going-through-the-hassle solutions: abortion, no-fault divorce, using illegal drugs to ‘solve/cope’ with problems or alcohol. Lost your job? Go on welfare.
Catholic or non-Catholic, we all should be living to our potential. I know some people who are indeed doing what they can but are hindered by real problems. Others, however, are not hindered. Yet they are not challenging themselves. They are not looking, not knocking on doors, not being a little adventurous.
I encourage all of you. Make a little list, set some some modest goal or goals. Look on the bright side and be optimistic, since being pessimistic will certainly not help you.
God bless,
Ed
Modern actually means someone has done something and made it available to a lot of people. A man created the means to light up the country and power electrical appliances. Before that, your alternatives were candles, kerosene and, in some places, natural gas lamps. Someone invented the telegraph and then the telephone. Someone else, the radio. Then the wax cylinder and steel tine players, which were further developed into the 78 RPM and then 33 1/3 RPM vinyl record albums, along with the 45 RPM single.
Ideas and words created a reordering of some societies. Karl Marx and Das Kapital, Chairman Mao Tse Tung and the little Red Book. Adolph Hitler and Mein Kampf.
These words and ideas led to the Russian Revolution, the fall of China to Communism and World War II.
I think it would be best to look at our present world, local and global situations, with the wisdom of the Catholic Church. In the West, Europe and North America, there has been a decline in living out the faith. One priest on Catholic Radio noted that many Catholics were actually living as Agnostics. A mostly black and white morality has been replaced with relativism. This has led to indifference, where people who know longer want to endure sound doctrine just do what they want, without much thought to the consequences. And if there are consequences, to not stand and endure but to find the easy way out. The Church, if they go at all, is just a building. The doctrines, and statements made today go in one ear, wander a bit, and then exit the other.
I think I speak for most human experience when I say that something really worth doing is difficult. It takes strong, continuous effort. If something is pursued half-heartedly, one is inclined to give up, or the results are mediocre, falling below their potential. Anyone who has been through any sort of training knows that 101% is expected of you. It is not easy. As the great philosopher Arnold Schwarzenegger once said: “No pain, no gain.”
So if people are interested in making such a commitment to say, bodybuilding, or their jobs, why not their marriages? Why are so many young people avoiding the hard road and just getting jobs at fast food places? And when you ask them, all you get is, Hey, it’s enough to get by. That’s all you want? To get by? You only have one life and you just want to squeak through?
Further, what were once considered “use only in the case of emergency” solutions have become common why-bother-going-through-the-hassle solutions: abortion, no-fault divorce, using illegal drugs to ‘solve/cope’ with problems or alcohol. Lost your job? Go on welfare.
Catholic or non-Catholic, we all should be living to our potential. I know some people who are indeed doing what they can but are hindered by real problems. Others, however, are not hindered. Yet they are not challenging themselves. They are not looking, not knocking on doors, not being a little adventurous.
I encourage all of you. Make a little list, set some some modest goal or goals. Look on the bright side and be optimistic, since being pessimistic will certainly not help you.
God bless,
Ed