“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

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From today’s Mass Reading:

John 6:60-69;

Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said,
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.”
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer walked with him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

I’ve written about this passage before. The disciples and Jews could not accept the teaching that Jesus was putting forth. He was speaking literally, and not figuratively, and they understood that or else He would have corrected their misunderstanding that had caused them to return to their former way of life. He was telling them that they had to literally eat of His Flesh and drink of His Blood in order to have eternal life, even though He was referring to His Body and Blood in the form of Bread and Wine. This was all too confusing, or disgusting, and so they left Him. And He allowed them to go.

When you are confronted with Scriptural or Catechetical truths that are too hard to understand, what do you do? Do you work to understand them, knowing that aince these are Divine Mysteries it will never be possible to fully comprehend them? But you accept them anyway in all humility like Peter? Or do you respond like Jesus’ disciples and the Jews in the passage above and turn away and leave? Perhaps refashion the teachings in such a way that are more acceptable to human understanding, despite their contradicting the Divine truth?

Humility is understanding your relationship to reality, adjusting your perspective to fit that reality, and being content with the results. Reality is that Jesus is God, not you, and that the only way to eternal life is through Jesus, (This does not mean that non-Christians do not attain eternal life, just that Jesus, the Just Judge, determines your admittance to Heaven based on the choices you’ve made in life. To continue on this track, then why be Christian? Because Christianity is the sole guaranteed roadmap to achieving salvation. Guaranteed by God.)

Now, many Catholics in AA and other Twelve Step Movements end up leaving the Church or accepting an illegitimate diluted Catholicism because the recovery movements offer an easier and softer way. Easier concepts to accept. Do not sellout or take the easier path. The richness of the Catholic Faith and Her spirituality offer far greater rewards than merely “staying sober”. Consider the teachings of Jesus and His Church to be a mountain that you have to ascend. The higher you climb (the tougher the Divine Mysteries you’re trying to grasp or the tougher the teachings you’re trying to live by) the more character defects you need to shed are cast off. Catholicism liberates you from the restraints of being merely human.

Go mountain climbing.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Road to Damascus

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The First Reading from today’s Mass (Acts 9:1-20) is the story of Saul’s trip to Damascus where he was going to arrest the followers of the Way (of Jesus).

Acts 9:1-6

Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus,a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
He said, “Who are you, sir?”
The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.”

And so Saul goes to the city and stays.

Meanwhile the Lord has a message for another, Ananias, who is supposed to fetch Saul so the blindness that beset Saul can be healed. Ananias had little desire to do that as Saul’s reputation for persecuting the followers of Jesus had preceded him.

Nevertheless, The Lord prevailed and Ananias did as the Lord asked.

Acts 9:15-16 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites, and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name.”

Now, there are a few important lessons observed here that can be applied to us sober alcoholics. Ananias is an intermediary, he was chosen as an instrument by God to perform a certain task. The fact that he didn’t want to is relevant. His fear of what he knew of Saul was overcome by the importance God imparted to his mission. This is something we can all relate to. We need to do a certain thing, and would rather not. Perhaps because of what we know, or don’t know, but nevertheless there is resistance to doing it. The lesson here is that fear can be overcome by an awareness that it is God’s will that we are carrying out. Granted, it would be real convenient if God made His will known to us by a vivid dream or a booming voice heard in daylight, but He can make His will known in much quieter ways, if we only knew how to listen. Prayer is the best method of listening, and knowledge of Scripture and the Catechism can assist in guiding one’s mind (Is it really God’s will, or a self-delusion?).

The other important lesson is the obvious one. Saul’s conversion. I wrote about it once before, here.

God had a plan and a purpose for Saul (now Paul). That He picked a vicious persecutor of the followers of His Son is an indication that God’s assessment of His needs bear little resemblance to human reason. The Faith needed to spread out from the Palestinian Jewish lands where it wasn’t accepted and move out beyond, into the then known world. The early followers certainly would not have thought to seek out Paul, try and convert him to their agenda, and send him out. But for reasons known only to God, Paul was the perfect person for the task God chose him for, and he became the greatest convert Christianity ever knew, and was a major force for its eventual spread around the planet. God confounds the ways of the world.

Our own conversion from misbegotten drunks into sober alcoholics in the Catholic Faith may not have been momentous as Paul’s (but from a personal perspective it indeed may have seemed so), but nevertheless it did signal a change in our lives. What we once were, we no longer are. Our life path has changed and we are now on a new course. How we use this new opportunity depends on our resolve, our faith, and our openness to do God’s will. We can take a cue from Ananias, and toss aside our fears and go and do His will. We can also be like Paul, and embark upon a radically different life (remember, Paul was not just persecuting Christians, he was a well-educated Jew, a Pharisee, a keeper of the Law of Moses) and embrace what we previously opposed and abandon our old life entirely (not by any means equating Paul’s previous observant Jewish life with our drunken past. The symbolism of a complete turning away from old ways is meant here.).

We are on our own Road to Damascus. By whatever means that it occurred, we were disrupted from our old path to destruction and are now on a new path. Same road, different vehicle.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist

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Today is the Feast Day of St. Mark, the author of the second Gospel. Also the shortest Gospel, can be read in one sitting.

From the Gospel of today’s Mass:

Mark 16:15-18
Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

One easy and obvious take on this Gospel passage is that if believers can do all these things, well then certainly they can stay sober. Well, certainly, and that is the whole point of this blog. But a much deeper examination is called for and asks, “Why can believers do these things?”

The answer is: faith. Faith is belief in the unknowable, of things unseen by human eyes and instruments, and as the old hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas declares, “What our senses fail to fathom let us grasp with faith’s assent.” God is unknowable, at least by the limitations of human reason.

With faith we can bridge the chasm created by our fears, previously drowned in alcohol, and connect with the unseen God. Our faith tells us that He exists, and is there to aid us in being fully human. Alcohol robs us of the capacity to be fully human.

Faith is belief. You believe. An all-encompassing, marrow-tingling, world-view shaking life change. When a Christian believes, he or she just doesn’t (or shouldn’t) believe at the surface, a Christian allows that faith to make them new, different than before. An all-encompassing transfiguration from a person broken and beaten and used up by the world into someone born anew in Christ. This re-birth is sustained by the sacraments, from our baptismal renewal every time we use holy water, to our partaking of Holy Communion and Confession.

If we apply this to our recovery from alcohol abuse then we believe that we no longer need alcohol and exchange it for our love for Jesus. Faith in Jesus renders our need for alcohol to nothingness, and therefore our faith sustains us. No matter how good or how bad, drinking is no longer an option for us. It is no longer desired.

The passage “if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them”, I cannot explain as I am not a Biblical scholar, except that it probably isn’t to be interpreted literally, in much the same sense that one doesn’t actually pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin. It more than likely is a symbolism of Jesus’ victory over death, and how powerless the evils of the world are against Him. All who believe in Him will achieve eternal life with Him in Heaven. I felt the need to address that verse considering the focus of this blog.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

You Belong to God

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I like to read the New Testament writings of St. John the Evangelist, the mysticism always reveals something new (to me at least). I was perusing through the First Letter of John during meditation recently when this verse popped out at me:

1 John 4:4 You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

The first part of the fourth chapter of this letter concerns itself with how to discern whether spiritual “truths” come from God or from the spirits of the world (Satan, perhaps, or competing ideologies that fall short of Christian Truth). Basically, if the spiritual truth is rooted in the Trinity, observing that Jesus is God Incarnate (God made human), then it is True. Anything else is false.

This passage can be adapted to our needs in sobriety. We have given up alcohol and by whatever path we took, now have embraced, or are seeking to embrace, Catholic Christianity as our means to stay sober. We have accepted Jesus into our lives and as a result have started out on a radical approach to living that rejects the world’s moral values and customs. Values that say it is OK to diminish others as mere means of economic production or consumption (the capitalist/consumerist “ethic” that erodes the soul of human culture). Values that regard human life as disposable (abortion, sexual permissiveness, along with the already mentioned economic ethic). We have Christ within us. We are baptized into His Body, and if we are Catholic we can partake of the sacraments, especially Communion and Confession. We are no longer our own but it is Christ who lives within us (a Scriptural reference, and for the life of me I can’t find the passage) who is our guide and light.

Since he is now dwelling within us, we can “fill our soul” with Him, who will never abandon us, and who can satisfy us like alcohol cannot. We can use our devotion to and love for Jesus to repel the spirit of the world, which calls us to satisfy our pleasures and cravings here and now at the expense of our well-being and future.

Jesus is our protector and guide. We have conquered our alcoholic past, it is in our history. We have Him now. He lives in us, and we are changed. We embrace our fundamental dignity as human beings, and start to care for others about us. “The one who is in the world” would seek to have us remain selfish and unconcerned.

You belong to God, move into the world and transform it. Don’t stop at your own sobriety, work as best you can to meet the world and change it.

There is a criticism of AA’s who spend all there time just living soberly. They have families and jobs, attend meeting and such, and stop there. Compared to their alcoholic past, this is an improvement. Their response to criticism that they should get active is usually along the lines of “Hey, if all I’m doing is raising a family, holding down a job and staying out of jail, then that’s better than most.” This may be true, and for perhaps most, quite enough. But if you have all these things, why stop? If you have it within you to use these things for something greater than just being normal and ordinary, then do it. At your job preach the Gospel, not with words, but with your actions. Don’t just be a Christian during prayer time and Church. Live the Faith on the job. Get your family unit organized around a spiritual and religious life. Too many families are broken or breaking, too individualistic with the group. Lead by example.

Get outside allow your “belonging to God” to renew the world.

Get radical.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Broken Hearted

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The Responsorial Psalm from today’s Mass has two verses of note:

Psalm 34:19-20
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, saves those whose spirit is crushed.
Many are the troubles of the just, but the LORD delivers from them all.

We are all wounded and broken to varying degrees. I previously wrote here about our wounded condition, and how the Lord’s mercy is available to us.

The two verses imply much. God IS close to the broken-hearted, but in my experience and knowledge, such a closeness may be a mutual endeavor, a relationship between God and ourselves. The broken hearted do not forsake God in their brokenness, but turn to Him, and He in response uplifts them in some way. This does not necessarily mean that those who do not seek out God are ignored by Him, for He may choose unique avenues to show His concern. He may place certain people, places and things in their path to direct them towards Him.

The second verse refers to the “just”, again, in my readings (I forget the actual source) “just” refers to those who “walk with God.” They allow their minds and actions to be guided by Him, and through this they are delivered from their troubles.

Believing in God and being a Christian does not exempt anyone from suffering. The verse even states that “many are the troubles of the just”, perhaps because they “walk with God” they are walking counter to the ways of the world.

The above Psalm readings made me think of another set of verses (not from today’s Mass). These are from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians:

Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

There is a clue as to how the broken can survive. The Lord is near, Paul says, we should rejoice over that and allow that goodness to be known to others. Our anxieties and fears? We can simply offer them up, turn them over to God. Pray (get close to God), petition (ask Him for stuff) and be thankful (all good things come from God), and the peace that endures will get you through the bad times.

Will it be easy? No, of course not! Will all be sweetness and light? No, of course not!

But you will endure and get through it.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Be sober and vigilant

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There was a recent reading in the Liturgy of the Hours (a daily prayerbook used along with the liturgical season, there’s a big link above the posting area that takes you to Universalis, where they explain the LOTH) that I like.

1 Peter 5:8-9 Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for (someone) to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings.

The “sober” doesn’t refer to “not drinking” or a “state of sobriety”, it means to be clear and emotionally level-headed, the better to be vigilant about what is going on about you. But nevertheless, I cannot read the word “sober” without thinking of “not drinking” and how to keep to it. “Avocational hazard”, I suppose.

Anyway, there follows a warning that the devil is also vigilant, constantly on the prowl looking for victims to devour. All Satan needs is a weakness, a lack-of-resolve in your Faith that he can use to exploit.

I’ve written before about how easy that can happen. One needn’t relapse when the alcohol goes down your throat. The relapse happens before the actual event. Once the thought process starts that accepts the safety of drinking, that thought needs to be rooted out and tossed on the spiritual compost heap to wither and decay. Otherwise a type of parallel thinking occurs in which the thought of a drink lurks and waits until a vulnerability opens up. This may be the “cunning, baffling and powerful” refrain heard so often in AA meetings about drinking again sneaks up on people. This is mentioned in AA’s basic text: Alcoholics Anonymous in the chapter entitled “More About Alcoholism” (page 37) “But there is always the curious mental phenomenon that parallel with our sound reasoning there inevitably ran some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink. Our sound reasoning failed to hold us in check. The insane idea won out.” In the last paragraph in that same chapter: (page 43)“The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense.” It concludes with the declaration that such defense must come from a “Higher Power”, and from the perspective of this blog, that HP is God.

God can provide the effective mental defense against drinking, if you turn your reliance on alcohol to solve things over to Him. Make your Faith your automatic reaction for when things go bad. Jesus is there for you, if you’re Catholic He’s accessible directly through the Eucharist, either in receiving Holy Communion or in Adoration. You can also go to confession and receive powerful graces from that sacrament. Being steadfast in your faith offers a strong resistance to the temptations of the Devil.

And Satan exists. It is said that Satan’s greatest victory these past few centuries is the growing conviction that he’s a medieval Catholic fairy tale, and therefore doesn’t exist. For if he doesn’t exist, why do you need any defense against him? He exists, and the Faith is your only weapon.

Be steadfast.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Magnolia

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I just joined another social bookmarking site, this one is “ma.gnolia”. Take a scroll down the sidebar and you’ll see two graphic links, one for just “ma.gnolia”, and the other for the “Alcoholism” group I manage on the site. So far I am a group of one. Hopefully other sober alcoholics will join.

I joined “Ma.gnolia” for the same reason I joined “del.icio.us” and the feed sites: the ease of distributing Sober Catholic to readers and the option to meet others on similar journeys. Also, in case anyone does not have private access to the web, they have an additional means to store links online.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Octave of Easter

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This week we are in the Octave of Easter. This means that Easter is celebrated for eight days. This is evident to anyone who prays the Liturgy of the Hours (link from Universalis way up above posts) as parts of Morning and Evening Prayers are taken from Easter Sunday.

Imagine a holiday that last for 8 days.

As sober alcoholics we do not need to drink during that holiday. Imagine back in the days of our drinking the very idea of us celebrating anything for 8 days and doing it without drinking. Impossible.

This is the new life we have, the new life as sober alcoholics. Just as Christ’s Resurrection on that Easter morning 20 centuries ago gave all of humanity the potential for eternal life in Heaven, our Resurrection on our own Easter morning, whenever our last drink was, gave us the freedom to choose that eternity with Him. We have a new life in Christ.

Live it wisely, and soberly.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Mass of the Lord's Supper: a Model to Follow

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From the Gospel Reading in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, celebrated during the evening of Holy Thursday:

John 13:12-15
So when he had washed their feet (and) put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

We have the image of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper commemorates the establishment of the Eucharist and the ordained priesthood. Jesus is telling His disciples, the eventual Bishops of the Church, that their vocation is one of service, not power.

Despite the seemingly exalted position that the Bishops of today rightfully have (after all, they are the legitimate successors to the Apostles) theirs is one of service to the faithful.

Setting that catachetical and editorial moment aside, what can we take from the actions of Jesus during this moment at the Last Supper? That of service. We are here to serve. No matter who we are or our position and state in life, we are called to serve others. It is a basic Christian duty, and one of the major methods we have at our disposal to cooperate in building up the Kingdom of God. That Kingdom awaits us in Heaven after we die, but we start now, building it here on Earth, in the present.

Service, or doing things for others without financial compensation or any material reward, contributes to our growth as individuals, both on the personal and spiritual plane.

This giving of ourselves, helps us to get outside of ourselves. It helps develop humility by permitting us to see the world through the eyes of other people. In service, it’s about the other person, not yourself.

In our alcoholism, we were selfish, putting ourselves and our needs and desires, if not fantasies, before anyone else. Service work, regardless of what or where it is, is applied medicine for our continual recovery. It goes beyond meeting attendance or reading and the like.

It is Faith in action.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Morning Prayer

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What do you do first thing in the morning? (I mean after the immediate basic…stuff.) From Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”

The following pasage from the First Reading of today’s Mass (Wednesday of Holy Week): Isaiah 50:…4-5:

Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; And I have not rebelled, have not turned back.

If you awaken in the morning, that means you’ve been given another chance. Once again, you’ve got another day to do whatever it is you feel called to do. To function properly you need to start the day out right. Your body needs to be nourished as well as the mind. Breakfast and a shower energizes you and shakes off the old.

But your soul needs nourishment and a cleansing, too. And for this you need prayer. Prayer, perhaps the thing to do before the body and mind rituals, is important to get properly oriented at the start of the day.

I’ve written before, both here and here about keeping to a regular daily routine of morning prayer. Getting your mind situated in the proper direction helps everything else fall into place. You lessen your chances of rebelling, and turning back.

When morning after morning the Lord opens your ear, do you listen? Prayer is an act of communication. You pray and mediate, and you listen for a response. Just rest in the space of prayer.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)