LAUDATO SI: Care for Our Common Home Requires Heartfelt Conversion

by Susan Fox

“Mary, the Mother who cared for Jesus, now cares with maternal affection and pain for this wounded world...now she grieves for the sufferings of the crucified poor and for the creatures of this world laid waste by human power.” (Pope Francis in Laudato Si, Paragraph #241)
Pope Francis visited the United States this week, Sept. 22-25, 2015. He spoke again about our common home, the planet earth. Few understood the point he was making. 

I was born into a great hot basin in the heart of Los Angeles, California, in 1953.

The air settled there, and collected all that was noxious from those years of rapid industrialization. This was before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cracked the whip. “People take sick ... from breathing high levels of smoke from fuels used in cooking or heating. There is also pollution that affects everyone, caused by transport, industrial fumes, substances which contribute to the acidification of soil and water, fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and agro-toxins in general.” (Laudato Si, Paragraph #20)

As a child in that toxic mix, I’m sure I would have greeted Laudato Si, the new encyclical by Pope Francis on the environment, with great joy. Finally, somebody was going to defend me! I spent much of my childhood sick, really sick because the dentist put massive mercury in my jaw and because I couldn’t breathe clean air. My bronchial tubes have never recovered!

However, the new encyclical by Pope Francis, “On Care for our Common Home,” which has many beautiful things in it, will probably never be read in its entirety because he choose a supposedly false science, that of man-made global warming, to illustrate the problem with the environment.

Conservative Catholics in the developed world are outraged, saying he has bad science advisors. Crisis Magazine – reading a leaked version of the encyclical before it was released June 18 – warned that Pope Francis’ supposed consensus of scientists claiming man-made global warming has already been debunked.  

Conservatives are outraged because the pontiff attacks consumerism. And consumption creates jobs and a robust economy – as long as the economy is producing something besides fast food and coffee!

But Pope Francis is NOT anti-business. Look what he told the U.S. Congress on Sept. 24, 2015:
"It goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive and sustainable. “Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good” (Laudato Si’, 129)." 

The pope may have poorly chosen the scientific viewpoint he put in the encyclical, that of man-made global warming,  but he wiggled out of it in paragraphs 61 and 188.

“On many concrete questions, the Church has no reason to offer a definitive opinion; she knows that honest debate must be encouraged among experts... But we need only take a frank look at the facts to see that our common home is falling into serious disrepair.”( Laudato Si, Paragraph #61) This is true.

And in paragraph #188: “There are certain environmental issues where it is not easy to achieve a broad consensus. Here I would state once more that the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics. But I am concerned to encourage an honest and open debate so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good.”

I know some Catholic-hating person will say, “Susan how can you be Catholic with a pope that thinks like that?” I’ve been asked it before. But this Church document does not attempt to force any scientific viewpoint on us. We are free NOT to believe in man-made global warming.

And on the issue of consumption, he is really attacking unfettered shopping. Don’t you know anyone who shops to overcome depression? Well, they are not living in harmony with God, their fellow man, themselves nor their natural environment, according to the pope. Unfettered shopping leads to unfettered waste in time, money and materials. And I agree. I constantly fight the same temptation. The question I ask is “Do I need it?” If I don’t, I don’t buy it.

The other problem with the document though is that it presents true Catholic thinking on our relationship with nature. This thinking is not well understood unless you are already in a very high level of union with God. Think St. Francis.

St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio

Few of us are ready to deal peacefully with a man-eating wolf. Most would prefer to shoot it. But the whole town of Gubbio hearing  of St. Francis’ relationship with nature called on him to save them after several people were killed by a local wolf. St. Francis met the wolf, spoke to him, and found he was lost from his pack, injured and hungry.

So he brokered a deal with the town where they would feed the wolf, and he would harm no one in the town. Now this probably seems fantastical to you. We are not used to thinking in these terms at all.

Luckily, for many years I have been involved in  Disciples of Jesus and Mary (DJM), a Catholic formation program in Prayer, Discernment and Discipleship,  and we all try to live in harmony with nature.

We take St. Antony of the Desert (251-356) as our model. Vexed with the crowds that constantly asked him questions, Antony went to live in the desert. Since food was not readily available, he planted a garden. But the beasts of the desert came and damaged his crops. So he grabbed one of the beasts, and said graciously, “ Why do you harm me when I do not harm you? Begone, and in the name of the Lord do not come near these things again.”  (St. Antony of the Desert by St. Athanasius)

The creatures obeyed him. This is what it was like when man lived in harmony with nature in his original innocence.

Believe it or not, many of us in DJM have found this form of prayer works. The other day, a big fat fly flew into my office. He was so annoyed he wanted to go outside. I looked at

him and thought of a geometric map to the screen door. And in the name of Jesus, I told him to go there, and he would get out.

Later I walked past the screen door, and the impatient fly was there. I opened it and he flew out. It doesn’t always work, but it’s better than immediately grabbing a fly swatter.

“For Christians, believing in one God who is Trinitarian communion suggests that the Trinity has left its mark on all creation. Saint Bonaventure went so far as to say that human beings, before sin, were able to see how each creature “testifies that God is three.” The reflection of the Trinity was there to be recognized in nature ‘when that book was open to man and our eyes had not yet become darkened.””  (Laudato Si #239)

Imagine that! That big fat fly had the mark of the Holy Trinity in its nature! I always tell God He’s an alien because some of his creatures are ugly! Really ugly.

He just laughs.

But some animals do make themselves to be pests and they don’t respond to prayer so we DJMs use pee. Applications of Coyote pee save our flowers from rabbits; fox pee causes skunks to exit our decks. We put chicken wire under our gardens so underground pests won’t burrow up and eat it. We plant low-water eco-lawns that don’t require much mowing. We even have gadgets that make noise that spiders don’t like. Our Catholic spirituality translates into a more harmonious relationship with nature.  That’s what Pope Francis is getting at: “We are called to recognize that other living beings have a value of their own in God’s eyes: ‘by their mere existence they bless him and give him glory,’ and indeed, ‘the Lord rejoices in all his works.’” (Ps 104:31). (Laudato Si #69)

I distinctly remember my mother sitting in our big picture window gazing at the lush green forest in Washington State as the rain poured down. Everything was luminous green.

Tora Hutchison: "Isn't God good?"

She said, “Isn’t God good?”

Pope Francis echoes such spirituality in Laudato Si.  He writes about St. Francis, who would burst into song when he would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals. “His response to the world around him was so much more than intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection. His disciple Saint Bonaventure tells us that, “from a reflection on the primary source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, he would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister.’” If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.” (Laudato Si #11)

Image of African family planning from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, and his wife Melinda, do some good charitable work, but they have fallen into the trap of thinking that reducing population will benefit the poor. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation states that their goal is to “bring access to high-quality contraceptive information, services, and supplies to an additional 120 million women and girls in the poorest countries by 2020 ... with the longer-term goal of universal access to voluntary family planning.”

Unfortunately, birth control pills pollute the water supplies especially in rural areas that depend on wells, causing fish, frogs and other small animals to develop abnormal sexual organs, and it also affects human children because the drinking water is polluted with hormones.  But nobody wants to look at that. “Instead of resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different, some can only propose a reduction in the birth rate,” Pope Francis says in Laudato #50. “At times, developing countries face forms of international pressure, which make economic assistance contingent on certain policies of “reproductive health.” To blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues.”  In other words, contraception and abortion do not solve poverty and will not save the earth.

 

Ocean Front Condo in Downtown Malibu on Billionaire's Beach 

Fifteen years ago, my 12-year-old son and I attended a family get-together in Malibu, California. My dear cousin, who lived there, rented a hotel room downtown on Malibu Beach. We had a view of the ocean and a small balcony on the beach.

We home-schooled and it was our practice to say Morning Prayer every day, so we opened our breviaries, sat down on the balcony in that lovely environment, and started to pray.

The Invitatory (beginning) of Morning Prayer usually  starts with Psalm 95.  “Come, let us sing to the Lord and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us... The Lord is God, the mighty God, the great king over all the gods. He holds in His hands the depths of the earth and the highest mountains as well. He made the sea; it belongs to him, the dry land, too, for it was formed by his hands.”

My son and I were praying that when I suddenly realized that the beach below our balcony was restricted to people staying at the hotel. The private beach was only 30 feet long (Malibu property is expensive), but from each direction our hotel had put up a sign that said, “Stay out. Private Property!” California joggers politely ignored the signs and crossed “our” beach anyway. My son and I burst out laughing. God made the sea. It belongs to Him! The dry land too, for it was formed by His hands.

This understanding is the basis of Laudato Si. “A spirituality which forgets God as all-powerful and Creator is not acceptable. That is how we end up worshipping earthly powers, or ourselves usurping the place of God, even to the point of claiming an unlimited right to trample his creation underfoot. The best way to restore men and women to their rightful place, putting an end to their claim to absolute dominion over the earth, is to speak once more of the figure of a Father who creates and who alone owns the world. Otherwise, human beings will always try to impose their own laws and interests on reality.” (#75)

Pope Francis also points out the hypocrisy of the Left, which seeks to buy and sell carbon credits to justify a lavish lifestyle while killing unborn children, who are deemed unwanted. “A sense of deep communion with the rest of nature cannot be real if our hearts lack tenderness, compassion and concern for our fellow human beings. It is clearly inconsistent to combat trafficking in endangered species while remaining completely indifferent to human trafficking, unconcerned about the poor, or undertaking to destroy another human being deemed unwanted. This compromises the very meaning of our struggle for the sake of the environment. It is no coincidence that, in the canticle in which Saint Francis praises God for his creatures, he goes on to say: “Praised be you my Lord, through those who give pardon for your love.” Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.”

In my youth, I lived for a short time with two other young women in a big house in Spokane, Washington. One had a big beautiful and kind white dog. The other got a nervous female Doberman puppy and left it unsprayed when it came into its menses, which was a mess.  Both dogs were left in the basement all day and their leavings were almost never cleaned up. The laundry room was in the basement, and I had to dodge dog droppings when I tried to do my laundry. My roommates were negligent in the care of their pets.

Unsurprisingly, the spiritual lives of these young women were also disordered. They went bar hopping on the weekends and brought men home. I used to shove a chair under my bedroom door at night because I never knew when I would find a man passed out drunk in our bathroom. One roommate went to Seattle, had a one-night stand with a married man and got pregnant. She smoked dope as she prepared to have an abortion. The other was an alcoholic, and suffered from depression. She had a close relationship with a man, but they kept breaking up because of her promiscuity and drinking. I wrote poems about both of them: Skid Row Profiles 3: Betty the Alcoholic   and The Choice

A nun rescued me. Realizing I stayed there because of the low rent, she asked, “Susan, what do you pay in monthly rent?” I answered, “Sister, I pay $125.” She found me a small house that rented for that amount exactly. It was across the street from a good Catholic family with six kids. She even got me furniture. I moved out of the disordered household. Sadly, after I moved out, I heard a car killed the beautiful white dog we all loved.

This story illustrates one of Pope Francis’ points: “It follows that our indifference or cruelty towards fellow creatures of this world sooner or later affects the treatment we mete out to other human beings. We have only one heart, and the same wretchedness which leads us to mistreat an animal will not be long in showing itself in our relationships with other people.” (#92)

And in Paragraph #117, he said man cannot care for nature when he fails to see the worth of an unborn child, the elderly, the poor or a handicapped person. “Neglecting to monitor the

harm done to nature and the environmental impact of our decisions is only the most striking sign of a disregard for the message contained in the structures of nature itself. When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected.”

Finally, Pope Francis understands that man is a bodily creature, and we find our ultimate meaning in the Incarnation. “For Christians, all the creatures of the material universe find their true meaning in the incarnate Word, for the Son of God has incorporated in his person part of the material world, planting in it a seed of definitive transformation. ‘Christianity does not reject matter. Rather, bodiliness is considered in all its value in the liturgical act, whereby the human body is disclosed in its inner nature as a temple of the Holy Spirit and is united with the Lord Jesus, who himself took a body for the world’s salvation.’” (#235)

I wondered how is Pope Francis going to change the hearts of everyone in the world with this message? Only parts that support the liberal mindset will be broadcast. Well at the end, he gave us a couple of prayers to pray....

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe

and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,

hat we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor,

help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,

so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives,

that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts

of those who look only for gain

at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,

to be filled with awe and contemplation,

to recognize that we are profoundly united

with every creature

as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle

for justice, love and peace.

A Christian prayer in union with creation

Father, we praise you with all your creatures.

They came forth from your all-powerful hand;

they are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love.

Praise be to you!

Son of God, Jesus,

through you all things were made.

You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother,

you became part of this earth,

and you gazed upon this world with human eyes.

Today you are alive in every creature

in your risen glory.

Praise be to you!

Holy Spirit, by your light

you guide this world towards the Father’s love

and accompany creation as it groans in travail.

You also dwell in our hearts

and you inspire us to do what is good.

Praise be to you!

Triune Lord, wondrous community of infinite love,

teach us to contemplate you

in the beauty of the universe,

for all things speak of you.

Awaken our praise and thankfulness

for every being that you have made.

Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined

to everything that is.

God of love, show us our place in this world

as channels of your love

for all the creatures of this earth,

for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.

Enlighten those who possess power and money

that they may avoid the sin of indifference,

that they may love the common good, advance the weak,

and care for this world in which we live.

The poor and the earth are crying out.

O Lord, seize us with your power and light,

help us to protect all life,

to prepare for a better future,

for the coming of your Kingdom

of justice, peace, love and beauty.

Praise be to you!

Amen.

Did you enjoy this piece? Perhaps you'd like to read   Poorly Catechized World Misunderstands Pope Francis

Wrong Way to Paradise: The Bible Watchtower Society

Reformers of the Reformation: Jehovah's Witnesses

by Lawrence Fox

Author Lawrence Fox's copy of "The Way to Paradise" 

Somewhere during my life’s journey I received a thin and delicate book titled, “The Way to Paradise,” by W.E. Van Amburgh with an introduction written by John F. Rutherford, who is one of two key founders of the Bible Watchtower Society, also known as Jehovah's Witnesses.
 

The JW movement, first founded by Charles T. Russell (1852 – 1916) and Rutherford (1869 – 1942), remains in my honest estimation an assent of intellect and will to imagination under the guise of religion with no attempt of understanding the past.

It inherited this abhorrence of the past from the reformers who created Church history as a triptych: First came apostles, then (Roman Catholic) apostasy, and finally the Reformation later reformed by reformers and again reformed by even later reformers until you arrive at the Mythical Watchtower Movement. 

The unchanging truth handed down to the apostles from Jesus Christ, known as the Deposit of Faith, has been jealously guarded by the Roman Catholic Church for over 2,000 years, but the reformers chipped away a little truth here and there until the Watchtower Society emerged as a totally non-Christian church that pretended to be Christian -- sort of. Even their Bible -- the New World Translation -- is different than all other Christian Bibles. As a result, the movement is a cradle for newly minted atheists -- so badly abused by what they think is a Christian movement that they are unable to find another Church. A branch of my wife's family joined JWs decades ago, and she has noticed her cousins stripping all religion from their lives upon leaving the organization. 

"The Way to Paradise" was copyrighted in 1924 and published by the International Bible Students Association, Brooklyn, New York in 1925. The purpose of the book was to narrate for bustling members of the Watchtower Society, “A brief history of the 7,000 years of sin from the time when sin was unknown to the time when again there will be no sin along with Scriptural biographies of Michael who became the Christ and of Lucifer who became the Devil.” What follows is a brief summary of the doctrines, themes, and notions describe in the delicate book along with a few personal observations. It is not my intention to answer every belief of the Jehovah's Witnesses in this piece. 

Way to Paradise in Summary

Jehovah's Witnesses taught that God is a monistic (solitary) being who dwells in a specific place where flesh and blood cannot enter. This is one of the arguments made in the book against the Christian Doctrine of Jesus’ Resurrection from the Dead and Ascension into Heaven. Jesus’ physical Resurrection is also rejected by Atheists, Modernists, Materialists and Muslims.

Contrast the tender image of St. Thomas, the doubter, touching the wounds of Jesus in the upper room after the bodily Resurrection of

The Apostle Thomas touching the wounds
of Christ after His Bodily Resurrection

the Incarnate Christ. Witnessed by John and the other apostles, they heard him passionately say to Jesus,  "My Lord and my God!"  

But the Modernists deny the Resurrection since the spiritual (non-material realm) does not exist. Modernists identify the gospels as being expressions of faith, but not history. In other words, the Jesus of Faith is not the Jesus of History. Muslims deny Jesus’ Resurrection since they don't believe that Jesus actually died on the Cross. Islam borrows this notion from Gnostic sources: Jesus did not take flesh and therefore could not be put to death.

Jehovah's  Witness deny Jesus’s Resurrection due to an imagination which dictates that God is a solitary being who lives in a place that flesh and blood cannot inhabit; therefore Jesus Christ Incarnate cannot enter heaven with a Resurrected Body. 

So what's wrong with that?  God is not locked in a place that flesh and blood cannot enter. He is transcendent, outside time and place. God's inner life is not solitary like man's. He is one divine nature in a Communion of Three 

Persons. This is demonstrated by God saying, "It is not good for man to be alone." A solitary God could not dream of a communion of persons existing within humanity as a good. 

According to the Watchtower, Michael the Archangel was Jehovah’s first creation and all things were created with the assistance of this  creature also identified as God’s Word. This Michael was not divine and immortal until he first proved his worthiness to receive such honors. 

He agreed to a plan given by Jehovah to serve as a man. The example the author gives for this change is as follows:  “Suppose a farmer owned a sheep that had been bad and was condemned to die. Suppose the owner of the sheep also had a fine shepherd 

dog. And after explaining (to the dog) that the disobedient sheep 

Christ is not -- according to the Watchtower Society  --
the Good Shepherd. He is a just a sheep.  

must die unless some other sheep die in its place, (he) would make this proposition to him (the dog): 'Trust if you will agree to let me transform you from a dog into a sheep, and then consent to die in the place of that sheep. I will then transform you into a man like myself.'" 

The dog ceases to exist and is made into a sheep. As a sheep, it dies and no longer exists. Then it wakes up recreated as a human without an abiding spirit or soul. The farmer knew the dog when it was a dog, as a sheep when it was a sheep, and now knows the sheep as a human like himself. This is not Christian incarnation, it's not even Hindu re-incarnation since with each transitional state nothing of the previous state existed except the farmer's memory of each transitional state. The analogy given by the author is completely rooted in his imagination. It is not rooted in Divine Revelation (oral and written) nor is it rooted in reason. 

The Watchtower Society professes that

Jesus once was St. Michael,
according to the Watchtower
Society 

Michael was once a created angel and then re-created into the human Jesus of Nazareth, who died and was then was re-created into a divine spirit. Jehovah Witnesses hold that human’s do not possess a living soul. The Watchtower clings to the idea that the understanding of the human soul is the work of Satan. Modernists, Atheists, Sadducees, and Jehovah Witnesses share a common notion: that the human person is a machine and not a hylomorphic being consisting of body and soul. Jehovah Witnesses somehow attribute Neo-Platonism - which taught that souls exist prior to the body - as formal Christian doctrine. The Watchtower demonstrates time and again a willful ignorance of Church History and Sacred Scripture.

They argue that humans have a physical mind capable of imagining spiritual thoughts, concepts, and abstractions without owning a soul or spirit. In this sense, they share the same faith as an atheist and materialist. Strange bedfellows. 

In other words, the material mind of man is capable of deluding itself into thinking that it possesses something spiritual. Jesus the man was capable of knowing the thoughts of men. It seems that the Witnesses believe that Jesus was interpreting human

electromagnetic waves, much like a lie detector measures physical responses to questions. Or possibly Jehovah interpreted men’s electro-magnetic waves and transmitted their meaning back to Jesus by

The Materialist's view of how Jesus reads
others' thoughts using electro-magnetic waves!

another set of electro-magnetic waves. Atheists -- locked in the same material world -- have defined soul, spirit and moral goodness as “The God Delusion” or “The Selfish Gene.” 

Jehovah's Witnesses also believe the human does not possess a spirit or soul and therefore what goes back to Jehovah upon death is simply Jehovah’s memory of that person. In other words, what Adam (the first man) received from Jehovah was life giving air and “that mechanism” (my words) which recorded everything Adam would do or say. Jesus the new Adam received from Jehovah this life giving air and “mechanism” capable of recording everything Jesus did and said.

Jesus of Nazareth was a man without a soul, who performed miracles by the will of Jehovah. Jesus was put to death and utterly died on the cross. Jehovah’s recorded memory of Jesus is what was committed back into the hands of Jehovah at the cross. Note that without a soul, there is no self-awareness in God's creatures.

According to the Witnesses, Jesus’ body was taken from the tomb by Jehovah and hidden so that Christians would not worship his body. This is the same reason Witnesses argue Jehovah took and hid Moses’ body, which was never found by the people of Israel. It is unclear -- in the Witness theology -- what Jesus and his Apostles saw when they saw and heard Moses and Elijah on the Mountain of Transfiguration. One can only assume that both Moses and Elijah were spirit creatures at that point in time. Jesus’ Transfiguration is a mystery in the Jehovah Witness theology since Jesus was a man without spirit or soul and bodies generally do not become brilliant on their own. I speak sarcastically.


Heaven is a place in the Witnesses's theology where a  flesh and blood resurrected body could not enter. Therefore, after his death, Michael/Jesus was  re-created as a divine spirit.   In other words, what Jehovah's Witnesses do not understand is that Jesus had a glorified  body after His Resurrection, therefore He was able to enter into heaven. 

In the "Way to Paradise," Jesus death on the cross was only meant to substitute Adam’s human nature as a means of avoiding punishment. Jesus’s death really had nothing to do with justification and sanctification (nor could it). Men cannot save men; only God can save men and since Jesus was not God Incarnate, nothing was really reconciled, justified or sanctified by Jesus through the Cross. In a material sense, amnesty was awarded to Adam’s sinful humanity by the actions of another man. So in a strange manner, Jesus provided an excuse for Adam's sin.

Divine Revelation demonstrates, however, that as a result of the very real Incarnation of Jesus Christ, humanity now participates in God's divine nature. Men and women are now adopted sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus. This is because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) No detours, no Michael, no sheep nor dogs.

"Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." (1John 3:2) This means that we cannot see God face to face until we have received the Spirit of Christ. 

The "Wrong" Way to Paradise teaches that familiar anit-Catholic diatribe that after the death of Jesus, the true followers of the bible were persecuted by the Catholic Church and the world entered into Dark Ages. Yes, the Bible, which was formed and canonized by the Catholic Church, was hidden and burned by the same Catholic Church. It is again an abysmal reading of Church History. These Dark Ages remained in place, the JWs say,  until the 19th century when bibles (by the Watchtower Society) were made available to peoples everywhere. The author noted that in 1924 a great Spiritual Enlightenment is growing in the world as a result of so many bibles being printed and distributed. A bible here and a bible there all translated and read and interpreted by everyone to mean just about anything one wants paradoxically devolves into a spiritual deadening, not an awakening. 

According to the author, Van Amburgh, Satan managed to convince Emperor Constantine of Rome to form a council of Bishops in 325 AD for the purpose of identifying Jesus as God, the Holy Spirit as God and the Father as God; all three Persons as "one Person," the Witnesses explain. Constantine apparently did this so that Christians would become heathens and fight for the Roman Empire. I am not sure what the abysmal interpretation of the Council has to do with Christians becoming  soldiers. Anyway, it is argued in the most sophomoric sense by JWs, that 1 + 1+ 1 = 3, and 3 is not equal to 1 and that the son cannot be as old as the father. And therefore, Constantine created the doctrine of the Trinity so that the empire would have more soldiers.

This has to be the most ignorant reading of Church History and Church Doctrine ever devised. In reality, Christians were put to death because they confessed Jesus to be "Lord and God" long before Constantine's Council. Yet the Watchtower Society believes that all Christians were Arians -- precursors to  Jehovah's Witnesses -- from the beginning.  So much for history.  

I guess the plethora of epitaphs, homilies, sermons, apologetics, epistles, and tessera sent between dioceses which identified the various martyrs as Catholic Christians is simply fiction. So sad.

Now, according to the Watchtower,  the various epochs of the world can be interpreted from various tunnels and caverns located in the Pyramids. 

Watchtower Pyramid Memorial at Gravesite of JW Founder Charles Russell 

God’s plan for humanity was written in stone in the Pyramids. It is possible that Shem, the son of Noah, a faithful servant of Jehovah, was in charge of the construction of the Pyramids and detailed within them the deepest secrets of geometrical, geographical, astronomical and mathematical science. The tunnels supposedly tell the dates of the Exodus from Egypt, the date of the birth and death of Jesus and the date of the French Revolution and the great World War I. But this is pure pagan imagination. 

According to the Watchtower, Christ returned invisibly in 1914. He had to come invisibly because it was foretold in the Bible in Stone (the Pyramids) that he would come, and then he failed to show up. 

Yes, the bible and Bible in Stone  tell us that 1914 AD is the beginning of Jehovah’s Invisible Kingdom on Earth. Yes, the Bible and Bible in Stone together confirm that by 1925-1926 there will be a great ouster of Satan’s Kingdoms from the Earth, ushering in a new era. The tragedy is this is a literal written prophesy within the Watchtower Society. But instead of what they expected, what emerged were the atheist materialist movements of Nazism, Communism, Liberalism and Socialism. It seemed like the Bible in Stone predicted the return of Satan, not Jesus.

According to the Watchtower, there are two separate contracts with mankind. In one, some  humans will live in heaven as spirit creatures. And in the other, the remainder of men will live as a perfect Adam on earth. Those living in heaven will number about 144,000. 

Humanity will one day live on earth under the protection of Jesus (the spirit creature). In this state, man will learn not to lie, not to steal, not to murder, and begin to live longer because they will be living purer lives. Mankind will eventually be restored to Adam’s original human perfection before the fall. Though how this will happen is a mystery as it's a materialistic religion, and people do not experience conversion of their hearts. 

All those who died in previous ages will then be resurrected. They will be surprised, of course, to see airplanes, cars, telephones,  lights and they will wonder what has transpired, “One moment we were sick and dying and the next moment we see such wonderful technology.” Since they do not have souls they have no memory of death or being placed in the grave. The Way to Paradise then states, “We who are alive prior to their resurrection must prepare our homes and places to  welcome all our loved ones who will come back to life.”

Just like Atheism, Islam, and Mormonism, in the Watchtower Paradise, humans were not created to know, love, serve and be happy with God forever in Heaven. In other words, God is not the final end of His creatures. Like the 72 virgins in Islam, JWs look forward to a carnal blessedness. 

That is because Jehovah is locked in a specific place and is not omnipresent, nor transcendent and man does not possess an eternal soul, nor any self-awareness (except in a mechanical sense). And everything in the Bible is not really clear unless first interpreted by the Watchtower Society.

This ends the "Wrong" Way to Paradise.

Did you enjoy this piece. Lawrence Fox has written more. You might like Genderless "Marriage" Threatens the Foundation of Civilization 

Corpus Christi: Reconciliation between Man and God

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

Corpus Christi, June 7, 2015

Saints Peter and Paul Parish, Tucson, AZ

Today, we celebrate the greatest gift ever

given to the world. This gift that our Catholic Church celebrates is the tradition and belief in the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. 

The feast of Corpus Christi was instituted by Pope Urban IV in the year 1264, but in reality it is a feast that the Church has been celebrating ever since the Last Supper -- the moment Our Lord turned  bread and wine into His Body and Blood.

This occurred on Holy Thursday,  the day before He was sacrificed. Since this first institution of the Eucharist, the Church has firmly believed and taught that the bread and wine used in the sacrifice of the Mass become the Body and Blood of Christ while still under the appearance of bread and wine. 

My brothers and sisters, as we celebrate today’s solemnity of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us reflect on the sacredness of what it is we are receiving when we come to our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. 

Today’s readings (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26) remind us that the celebration of the Eucharist is a sacrifice. Ever since the 1960s, we don’t often hear that term “sacrifice” when it comes to the Mass. But this is what the Mass is. It is a sacrifice. This understanding of the Mass as  sacrifice goes back to the time of ancient Israel when Biblical Jews would go into the temple to offer sacrifices to God.

The Jews would take a small part of God’s creation such as lambs or bulls and offer it to God as a sign of thanksgiving, communion, and reparation for sins. This act by the Jews was given to them by God in order to separate themselves from the rest of the nations who worshipped other gods, including cattle.  

We hear a description of this ancient sacrifice in today’s first reading (Exodus 24: 3-8) where Moses erects an altar and offers holocausts and sacrifices young bulls to the Lord. Moses takes blood and splashes it on the people and on the altar. This sprinkling of the blood, half on the altar and half on the people, signified the union between divinity and humanity. So the whole purpose of the sacrifice was to become one with God. 

As we look at today’s second reading (Hebrews 9:11-15), we can see that all of the Israelite sacrifices find its fulfillment in Jesus and His great sacrifice on the cross. In today’s second reading we hear, “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.” 

Fr. John Paul Shea 

My brothers and sisters, Our Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the primitive sacrificial promise of the Old Testament. Jesus offers His Body in place of the old sacrifices of lambs or bulls. He is now the victim whose Blood seals all sacrifice.

Jesus Himself is the offering made to God to express thanksgiving, communion, and atonement! He gives His blood not to be sprinkled on the people and the altar as in the sacrifices of the Old Testament. His blood is given to us to ingest into our very bodies. Our Lord is the sacrifice who reconciles between divinity and humanity!

When we receive Our Lord in the Holy

And I, when I am lifted up
from the earth, I will draw all men
 to myself."(John 12:32)

Eucharist, we share in His sacrifice. As Jesus offered Himself to us as a sacrificial offering. He calls us who receive Him in His Sacred Body and Blood to offer ourselves to Him as a sacrifice by surrendering our lives to Him. 

We must be willing to lay aside our own desires and follow the teachings our Lord has handed down to us… We must be willing to sacrifice our own will and desires and pick up our cross and follow Our Lord. 

Parents sacrifice for their children… Husbands and wives sacrifice for one another… Children sacrifice themselves in love for their parents through obedience.
Many today in our culture do not want to

sacrifice… We want to live for ourselves. Our culture teaches us to indulge. Our society tells us to do whatever we want even if it is against the laws of God. But as Catholics we are called not to live for the waywardness of our culture. We are called to live for God.

As Catholics, we are to celebrate the sacrament of the Eucharist with much sacredness and much reverence. The celebration of the Eucharist is most sacred because the Eucharist is a true sacrifice. This is why the Church is and should be concerned that persons seek to receive Our Lord worthily.

When we eat our Lord’s Body and Blood worthily, the Eucharist makes us sacred. We

become what we eat. We become holy because Our Sacred Lord lives inside of us.

This is why we do not want to come to receive Our Lord if we are conscious of grave sin. This is why Our Lord has given us the sacrament of confession. It is an act of pride and arrogance when we receive Our Lord knowing that we are living a lifestyle that contradicts the teachings of Our Lord’s Church. 

My brothers and sisters, the gift of the Eucharist is the greatest gift ever! In the Eucharist we receive the True Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us never ever take this sacred gift for granted!