Building a Civilization of Love

The Catholic Church helps build a civilization of love by sharing the good news about Jesus Christ: that a relationship with Jesus transforms a person's life in ways that have eternal consequences. But the "eternal consequences" don't just start after your biological body dies. The beautiful and wonderful consequences start now, and the consequences enable people to make the best possible contributions to building a civilization of love.

What does this civilization look like? It's a society and culture that is the most humane, just, and compassionate possible, and one which is the most conducive to the flourishing of human life. To make all of this possible, the Catholic Church also administers the seven sacraments (Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick).

The sacraments literally contain the power, the energy and the love of God (grace). For example, when you get baptized, the same energy that powered Christ’s Resurrection becomes infused in you. That power and energy is what lifts you up from being a mere biological human to a child of God that can attain the fullest possible relationship with God Himself.

When you receive the Holy Eucharist at Mass, the actual body, blood, soul and divine nature of God penetrates your biological body in a unique way, unlike all of the other sacraments. The Eucharist is “the sacrament of sacraments” and, if you are predisposed to receive the power and energy contained in the Eucharist, your life will be transformed and raised to a more God-like level every time you receive it worthily. (Isn’t that a great reason to go to daily Mass?!)

The sacrament of Marriage gives you the power and energy of God you need to truly love your spouse (to put the needs of your spouse before your own needs). When you see so many Catholic marriages falling apart, that’s because one or both spouses are not keeping the fire of the Holy Spirit kindled in their Marriage.

Maybe someone stopped going to Mass every Sunday and on Holy Days of Obligation. Maybe someone stopped going to Reconciliation (Confession) even though they really need it. And maybe someone just “fell away” from the Catholic Church because they were never properly educated (catechized) about the immense beauty, wonder and power available within the Catholic Church. If that sounds like you, well it’s time to come back! Visit CatholicsComeHome.org to learn more!

Building a civilization of love is also about helping poor people get the basic things they need to survive and even thrive. It’s about reaching out to people who are disabled or who are sick and need your help to get along in life. And most importantly, it’s about protecting the lives of the unborn and the lives of elderly people who are in jeopardy of being killed because their rights aren't recognized by the government’s laws.

When you actively participate in the Catholic Church and actively embrace the official teachings of the Catholic Church, you are playing a huge role in building a civilization of love. If you consciously reject any part of the official teachings of the Catholic Church you’re at big disadvantage in your ability to grow as a Catholic Christian. Your growth is stunted. You’re like a physicist who studies subatomic particles but doesn’t agree with Einstein’s famous equation E = MC2 because it doesn’t “make sense” to you.

If some official teachings of the Catholic Church don’t “make sense” to you, it’s because you haven’t fully explored them. Really.

For example, if you don’t understand E = MC2, you should try to understand it because that “learning process” will help educate you – help catechize you – about how and why the truth about reality isn’t always so obvious or so easily understood.

You can watch a movie called Einstein’s Big Idea or read an easy-to-understand book called E=MC2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation – and then start to think about the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the spiritual equivalent to E = MC2 (that is, if you find it difficult to agree with the official teachings of the Catholic Church).

If E = MC2 is too mundane for you, then just apply the same process to String Theory while reading a great little book called The Elegant Universe.

The Purpose of Purgatory

Most people aren't "evolved enough" to go straight to Heaven when they die. You have to be "holy" to enter Heaven. (Holiness is just spiritual evolution. Holiness is just growing in love and compassion.) 

While we’re on Earth, we’re stuck in these biological bodies, and biological bodies make it difficult to be holy. People, for the most part, run around as if they were sophisticated animals. Animals are selfish creatures. Humans are selfish creatures too, but with the grace of God (with the power and energy available from God), humans are able to “rise above” their selfishness and “rise above” being sophisticated animals and become “spiritual humans” (that is, “fully human”).

Because humans tend to be very focused on the biological aspects of their lives (instead of being focused on the spiritual aspects of their lives), most people just aren’t evolved enough to enter Heaven. Most people are clueless about how sinful they are because they’re spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, and just plain spiritually clueless.

That’s why Christ established His Church – the Catholic Church – to help educate the clueless human race about the reality of God, to help people become more receptive to the reality of God and the reality of “the spirit world” (it’s impossible to love and become holy without the Holy Spirit).

When you die (and if you’re not going to go to Hell), and you come face to face with the incredible power, energy and love of God, you just want to go to Heaven as fast as possible because God and the environment in Heaven are totally and unbelievably irresistible (unless you’re one of those people who are going to Hell).

Anyway, Purgatory is the environment you have to “pass through” on your way to Heaven because you have to lose any desires or attachments or attractions you have to being selfish and sinful. That process involves suffering, but it’s a suffering based on love. You love God and you love the people and the angels and even the animals in Heaven so much that you’re willing to suffer through the process of evolution in Purgatory to get to Heaven.

You can skip Purgatory if you like and go straight to Heaven, but to do that you have to finish your process of evolution while you’re still on Earth. You’ll know when you finish your process of evolution on Earth (and be able to avoid Purgatory) when it becomes crystal clear to you that you will endure ANYTHING for the love of God. That’s asking a lot, so don’t be discouraged if you can’t get to that point before you die.

The important thing is to COOPERATE with the Holy Spirit, who is continually trying to communicate with you and give you the inspiration you need to a) perceive the reality of God and b) become more like God.

Learning to discern the communication of the Holy Spirit can take time. Some of the things you can do to become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit when He’s trying to communicate with you are things like a) going to DAILY Mass as much as possible, b) receiving the Eucharist in a state of reverence and recognizing that the Eucharist is truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of God in His entirety, c) going to Eucharist adoration, even if it’s only for (at least) 15 minutes and one time per week, d) praying the Rosary DAILY, e) going to confession if it’s been more than a year since your last confession, f) praying DAILY for at least five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the evening and g) slowing down.

Yes, you have to slow down. Whatever you’re doing (and whenever you’re doing it), try to do it a little more slowly so you can a) think about what you’re doing and b) focus on putting the spirit of God into whatever you’re doing (regardless of how mundane or how important the activity is). The Holy Spirit is constantly trying to communicate with you. Your guardian angel is constantly trying to communicate with you. And you won’t be able to perceive and sense the messages from the Holy Spirit and the messages from your guardian angel if you’re too preoccupied with “finishing a task.”

You’ll know when you’re close to avoiding Purgatory when you feel like you’re already experiencing Heaven on Earth (even in the midst of difficult times). Getting to that point requires being sensitive to messages from the Holy Spirit (so you can more fully follow the direction of the Holy Spirit). You can’t cooperate with the Holy Spirit unless you can “sense” the Holy Spirit. It’s not necessarily a “sense” that comes through the five senses – it can also be a “sense” that bypasses the five senses entirely and penetrates directly into the core of your being.

Sometimes it involves accurately interpreting the information coming through your five senses. It's so easy to misinterpret the information coming through your senses, which is why it’s important to trust in God even when things don’t seem to be going the way you want them to. Often God teaches us how to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit by allowing difficulties to happen in our lives, so that we more fully understand that there is so much more to reality than the “sense perceptible” world.

The Saints are Role Models and Dear Friends

Canonized saints are role models, showing humanity what’s possible when people dedicate their lives to knowing God, loving God and serving God. There’s a process of evolution that occurs after a person is “saved,” and that process (hopefully) is growth in holiness and growth in evolution to become more like God.

To become more like God involves getting to know God, but not like knowing a fact written in a book, but by having a relationship with that person. To have a relationship with a person you have to spend time with that person. That’s where prayer comes in.

Prayer is just having a conversation with God. There are lots of ways to pray, including praying just by thinking about God. And there’s also “praying without ceasing.” To “pray without ceasing” isn’t only about saying prayers (formally praying), or just thinking about God. “Praying without ceasing” means to live your life—however ordinary or extraordinary your life may be—in such a way that whatever you do, even the most mundane things you do, you do those things in a spirit of love and selflessness.

A lot of people go through their “holiness growth spurt” after they die, and they find themselves in Purgatory shedding away any remnants of their selfishness and their attraction to sin. Then there are those who go through their holiness growth spurt while on Earth. Most of these “Earthly saints” are never formally recognized or even informally recognized. But regardless of whether a person attains sainthood in Purgatory or while on Earth, November 1 is the day set aside to recognize every saint who is not in the list of canonized saints.

The process of being canonized by the Catholic Church has changed over the years, but one thing is certain. The canonized saints are the people we should look up to as role models, as examples of the highest levels of “human potential.”

There’s a lot of diversity within the ranks of the canonized saints, perhaps not enough diversity to please some people, but there is definitely a lot of diversity. Just pick up any book of the “Lives of the Saints” and you’ll likely see stories of people who will capture your imagination and give you the inspiration you need to become more dedicated to knowing, loving and serving God, to become more dedicated to evolving in holiness, in love and in selflessness.

Don’t hesitate to have a relationship with saints who you feel drawn to, who you feel attracted to. And just like developing a relationship with God through prayer, you can also develop deep relationships with the saints through prayer. Praying to saints involves having a conversation with them, thinking about them, and loving them (not worshiping them like you worship God, but loving them and venerating them for giving their lives in such a beautiful way so as to give all of us the inspiration we need to become more like God, to become more “fully human”).

I have had so many wonderful conversations with saints – not always audible (messages coming in through my ears) or visual (messages coming in through my eyes), but nonetheless very perceptible in the depths of my being. The messages are so real that they cannot be denied. How do I know they are real? I know they are real because they reveal truth that is a) always in alignment with the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and b) always promoting one or more of the “gifts” or “fruits” of the Holy Spirit:

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations. (Catechism 1831)

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity. (Catechism 1832)

Pope Benedict XVI stated that “nothing can bring us into close contact with the beauty of Christ Himself other than the world of beauty created by faith and light that shines out from the faces of the saints, through whom His own light becomes visible.”

Every day I grow more deeply in love with the saints who are personally accompanying me on my pilgrimage from this Earthly “valley of tears” to my destination in Heaven.

Above all, I am so deeply in love with Mary. She has absolutely transformed my life and my understanding of the “communion of saints” – a communion that enables me to actively participate in the amazing and wonderful events in Heaven, where there is indescribably joy of being in the presence of God.

My beloved canonized partners on this journey of faith are, first and foremost, Mary, as well as Saint Joseph, Saint Therese (The Little Flower), Saint Faustina, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Padre Pio, Saint Francis, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony of the Desert, Saint Dominic, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Timothy, Saint John of the Cross and Saint Augustine.

My non-canonized partners are my mom and dad, who I regularly converse with in Heaven, and Mother Angelica, who although is still with us on Earth, gives me the inspiration to keep proclaiming the splendors of the Catholic faith even though I often find myself with one foot in the air and a queasy feeling in my stomach.