Taking Responsibility in a Modern World
Introduction: Bearing Our Own Burden
For everyone shall bear his own burden and let him that is instructed in the word communicate to him that instructed, but instructed him in all good things. We are supposed to bear our own burden. Now, this is something that is repugnant in our day and age when we look upon how the world is. There is such a criticism, almost disgust, for the very idea of actually working for one's own benefit and taking responsibility for one's own life.
The Purpose of Life
And that is the whole purpose of why we are alive. God gives us life. He gives us grace. He gives us certain powers and abilities. He gives us certain capacities, blessings, whatever you want to call them, so that we are able to stand on our own two feet with his help and serve him through his labor. That is the goal that each and every one of us should have.
Moving Away from God
But throughout history, we have tried very hard to get further and further away from God. At first, the goal was to serve oneself first and then God. So came humanism. And it was to find the solution or the perfection of humanity in that service to oneself, beginning to leave God out of even that. And so forth and so on. Until now, we have a neo-agnosticism and neo-paganism, which effectively cuts God out of the loop altogether, has rejected nature, the very nature of labor and perfection, and instead has created a world that is entirely false and fictitious, creating our own image and not representing God.
Nature vs. the Artificial World
One thing about nature is that it represents God, and we can see God in it no matter what. But in the artificial world, whether it be the culmination in artificial intelligence, the digital age, electronic music, or whatever else, any number of other things, there is a striking departure from nature. It is something that is man-made almost entirely, not something that is based upon God and his nature.
The Consequence of Original Sin
Everything that God generated to reveal himself to us, man does not find any sort of satisfaction in the labor and the sweat of his brow. When God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden, His punishment to Adam was that he would have to work by the sweat of his brow, and everything that we would have to do would have to come at a cost.
Rejecting Responsibility
And of course, the modern world prefers everything to be free. We try to do everything as painlessly as possible, comfortably as possible, with as little labor as possible. It's an impressive feat in the modern world where we have so completely distanced ourselves from reality that we don't have to live by the rules that God has given to us. We have tried to eliminate the punishment for original sin as much as possible. This is one of the reasons why we see such a shocking lack of complete responsibility in every aspect of modern life.
Freedom Through God's Grace
People do not take responsibility for their actions because they do not take responsibility for their lives, because their lives are not their own. Their lives are a fabrication. The only way that our lives can be our own is if God sets us free from ourselves and from the bonds that the world, the flesh, and the devil hold upon us. That is the only way they can become ours.
The Three Enemies of the Soul
As such, we have to fight against those three enemies constantly. We have to do everything in our power to make sure that we are serving God through fulfilling our duty of state. That is why we are here: to know, love, and serve God. And how do we do that in the very concrete circumstances in which we live? No other way. But we have to sit up and take responsibility for that to happen.
The Schism Within
The situation we find ourselves in, whatever it may be, whatever may be the occurrences we see around us, we must live up to that standard. We must take possession of what we are. We are already creatures that are thoroughly schizophrenic because we are body and soul. We belong to heaven, and yet we live here on earth. Our way to heaven is our life here on this earth. Our soul is the dominant part of our being. And yet it is at the service of the body because the body is the one who feeds it and guides it, and whatever else helps it to understand things.
The Dangers of Fragmented Minds
The soul is the one who's supposed to reign. It is supposed to rule, but receives all of its information through the senses, as therefore it is. It's a symbiotic relationship. But if we do not use it as such, if we do not use it as supposed to be, then what it does is it creates a schizophrenia or a schism within us. So we become creatures who begin to subdivide ourselves into little pieces, which is one of the reasons why there is so much confusion, depression, mental illness, and everything else that goes on in our modern world.
Learning to Take Responsibility
One of the reasons why we are unable to take responsibility is because we do not know how to. We do not understand or appreciate what it means to stand on our own work and to accomplish something of our own, by our own hands or with our own minds. It is harder and harder to do so, to take possession of something by actually accomplishing it, because we do not understand for what we do it. Why are we doing these things? Well, we have not answered that question yet, at least not as thoroughly as we should.
Avoiding Responsibility
So therefore, we don't take responsibility. Rather, we try to point fingers. We try to avoid responsibility. We try to do everything we possibly can to not actually stand on our own feet and put ourselves before God and offer what we are doing to Him, whatever it is that we are doing. We need to give it to him.
Understanding Our Purpose
As such, we need to focus. We need to understand and appreciate. What am I doing here? When I go to work, when I get up, when I see my family, whatever it is we are doing each day of the week, we must appreciate and understand that we have a responsibility before God to do this as our work for Him, or rather to do this as His work through us. That is the responsibility we have.
The Role of Each Member
And each and every one of us has a distinct responsibility. Each member of the household has a distinct responsibility, but they all need to add up to the sum total of what it means to serve God. For the entire member, for the entire cast of characters that is in the family. However many there may be, there may be. The weaknesses and struggles that we confront must also be clearly understood that God allows us to suffer and He allows us to be weak, and He allows us to be blind and foolish and whatever else.
Serving God Through Our Challenges
He allows those things so that we can take responsibility of our lives, so that we can serve him with those things, so that we can overcome them and find him, whatever that may be. Whatever our weaknesses, whatever our goals, whatever everything, we have to use it to serve God. That's what it comes down to.
Taking Ownership of Our Lives
And again, the way for us to do that is to take responsibility. It is our life. These are our temptations. These are our weaknesses. This is our family. This is our chapel. This is our church, our country, our everything. And we have to actually stand up and take responsibility for it.
From Talk to Action
One of the main problems with the modern world is everybody is a talker and nobody's a doer. All you have to do is go out and look at how much production is actually done for all the amount of chatter there is. That's truly obnoxious. Everybody's a critic. Nobody's a producer. Everybody talks and everybody criticizes and everybody has something to say about darn near everything. And very few people are actually doing the work themselves.
The Wisdom of Action
When Socrates was on his journey of trying to find the wisest man in the world, he got to know people of all walks of life, and he tried to learn from each and every one of them. He found that when he went and talked to a carpenter, the carpenter was able to teach him many things about carpentry and about how to actually work with wood. But then once the carpenter started opening his mouth about anything else, he'd find out that he was severely deficient in knowledge of other things.
The Dangers of Superficial Knowledge
If he started to try to philosophize with him, he would find out that the carpenter didn't know much about philosophy. And the more the carpenter would try to talk as though he were a philosopher, the more that became painfully obvious. Carpenters can be philosophers, too. It's just that there are two very separate things, and that is the danger of our world. We have mountains of information at our fingertips and not a single brain cell to assimilate any of it. So unfortunately, everybody talks a lot because they have a lot to say without actually knowing a thing.
Listening to God
And this is something that is very, very, very dangerous, because how can God speak to a mind that is that divided on itself? How can a mind that is so split apart and fragmented and confused with so much information? How can God speak to that mind? The answer is with great, great difficulty, because, among other things, they're not receptive because, among other things, they actually think they're very wise and very smart, and therefore they're not listening. They're picking up so much other chatter all around that they don't have the idea of how to listen for God.
The Result of Distraction
And so what is the result of this? No one takes responsibility for a thing because nobody is a whole, entire person who is trying to make sense of their life. Rather, they are so completely focused on everything else but what their life is really about, that they cannot actually be a comprehensive person.
Avoiding Modern Pitfalls
We need to avoid falling into this trap. As much as we would like to say that's for them, we're not like that. Be careful. This illness of agnosticism and everything else has been around for hundreds of years now. Our society is soaked through with it. These poisons and these errors are an absolute part of every facet of our culture. And unfortunately, yes, even within our church.
Recognizing Our Own Flaws
And so, therefore, if we think that we are free from these errors and these problems, we're devastatingly wrong. We need to appreciate the fact that we are children of this world. And so, therefore, we are tainted by some of the errors. In the same way, that does not mean that we're as bad as everybody we're talking about. However, that disease is still there, and by being aware of it, we can fight more perfectly against it.
Starting with Small Steps
How do we do this? Well, we start with one thing. Let's start taking responsibility with one or two things. The most basic, the most fundamental. So those of you with families, those of you with homes, go home and take responsibility for them. The order, the structure, the schedule, lifestyle, all of those things. That is your job. That is your responsibility. God has given it to you so that you can give it back to Him in order.
Taking Responsibility in Church
So that's where you start. And the second place you start is right here in church. So, to continue on the aspect of what I talked about last week with people being able to help and contribute in the church, this is a way that we can actually show that we want to take responsibility. God has given you this Mass, this chapel, this community, and we need to stand up and take responsibility. Each and every member of it needs to stand up and take responsibility.
Moving from Complaints to Actions
It's easy for us to point fingers. Something isn't right. Something isn't good. I don't like how the ushers do this. I don't like how this part of the building is falling apart. This building project is going slowly, etc., etc., etc. Now, one, I find it interesting that I hear about the chatter secondhand. So if you have a problem, please come talk to me. That's what I'm here for. I try to make myself as available as possible to answer questions and doubts and problems. And trust me, I know it's not nearly enough, but I try. I can't give a lot more time, but I'll try.
Committing to Church Community
And the second thing is, part of taking responsibility means stopping the talking and doing the doing. So there were a lot more people here to clean the church yesterday. And I very much appreciate that. So thank you all very much. But this is something that is going to need a long-term commitment from people. People are going to have to keep coming. There are going to have to be more people involved in the cleaning. And there were, at the beginning, at the very least, only two men here for maintenance. Now, there's a lot of work that needs to be done here. More people would be a lot better.
Encouraging Involvement
So instead of complaining about the many issues we have in the chapel, maybe ask how you can help that. And maybe just doing a trip to Home Depot and buying something, which you get paid back for, by the way. Or maybe it's just holding a ladder for somebody or a flashlight or whatever it is. Just find some way to help. Join one of our many groups: the Lady's League of Our Lady of Victory, the Men of the Holy Name Society, the servers, the choir. There's always room for more. We need help in a lot of different ways around the chapel.
Generosity Beyond Money
However you can help, your generosity is absolutely necessary in every possible aspect. And of course, when everybody hears that from a priest, their first thought is he's asking for money. That's actually not the case, though I'll never turn it down. But the question is much more simple than that. This is your church. God has given it to you. It is his, absolutely. But he has let you in. This is your responsibility to make sure it has everything it needs to be as perfect for God as possible.
Striving for Perfection
So we're never going to make it perfect, just like we're never going to make our own souls perfect. But we can sure as heck try. And we can give everything that we have to make it as close as possible, and we can give more to the church because God gave it to us just as we can give more of our life. Because God gave it to us. Give more to our family because God gave it to us, and our home and our jobs, and every part of our lives and being because they all belong to God. They are his. We are his.
Giving Without Expectation
And so, as he has given everything to us, we give him everything back, but in the best possible order that we can do. So be generous. God will never be outdone in generosity, but understand that is not why we give. God does that as an incentive because he understands that we're weak creatures. But he also wants to make sure that we are giving for the right reasons. So we don't give for the compensation. We don't give for the money or for the good job or whatever else. We give to God because it is His due.
The Example of Saint Teresa
Saint Teresa of Avila famously said, "If it were possible to love God in hell, I'd be happy even there." It's not possible, by the way, according to that same Teresa. But that's the mentality we should have. We should strive to have. We're not going to get there anytime soon. She's up there. You know, we're not. But that is the point. That is what we are supposed to shoot for, that kind of generosity of handing God a blank check and letting him fill in the amount and not asking for a receipt and not asking for something back or in return.
A Call to Generosity
It's not a transaction. It's a donation. God does not force us to follow him. He does not oblige us to be his. He does not oblige us to serve him. He invites us and he introduces us to his home so that we can learn how to do so. And he invites us to participate in the sacrifice so we can watch the master at work and join in. But he does not oblige. And we need to have the same response of generosity when we give to God.
Starting with the Basics
When we give to God, it is in every part of our lives. But let's start with those two. First, let's put our homes in order and let's put our time in church in order. And let's start to work on those two things. And everything will continue to grow and flourish within our lives. The more powerfully that takes root in our souls, the more God can work with us to overcome the ills and ails of this world.
Serving God Perfectly
So that we will be able to more perfectly serve him in every part of our beings and our lives. And we will be able to be eternally happy with Him in heaven. Being the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, Amen.