An "Upside Down" Faith

One of the most beautiful revelations about Catholicism, is that since Christ’s establishment of this Faith over 2,000 years ago, it has turned everything in this world upside down. This Faith is so contrary to anything in the history of human thought, and so far away from any religion that could have been established by the human mind, it must have had a Divine origin.

It is a Faith that strips away all the distractions and materialistic prizes treasured by our world. It, in its true essence, denies everything of this world for the Divine. I believe a saint once said being Roman Catholic prevents you from being a slave to the ages. Society will change around you with every flux, fashion and desire, but your Faith will remain a constant through the ages based on its inherent Truth.

In this backwards paradox that our Faith has established, a homeless person who sleeps under a bridge and whom society mocks and shuns, may have a better reward on judgement day than a Hollywood actress, or a billionaire that our society fawns over.

Two of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s quotes come to my mind and should be touched upon in this post.

He pointed out that our Almighty God humbled himself and became vulnerable to join us in our mortal existence. He bled and felt pain. He had head colds and the stomach flu. His body became fatigue to the point that He craved sleep. He had to overcome all the human shortcomings that we wrestle with each day. Sheen beautifully pinpointed this Immortal God taking on a mortal form and the unfathomable nature of this event (paraphrasing the Archbishop), "A totally helpless baby lying in the poverty of a manger who also controlled all the stars in all the galaxies." What an "upside down" concept. What a great Faith!

Another one of my favorite Archbishop Sheen quotes spoke of this "upside down" incarnation. He said the reason why violent storms raged when Christ dropped his head in death on the cross was that "Nature could not tolerate Deicide." A God who would allow His Creation to kill Him in order to save His creation. We will never be able to fully grasp this "upside down" concept.

I thought of these quotes today when hearing PZ Myers’ despicable actions. An Almighty and All-Powerful God who created and controls everything in existence but allows a scurvy of his creation to sacrilege Him without just fury raining down on him (and all of us). This event is definitely "upside-down"; as our Beautiful Faith.

Two scripture passages came to mind to make sense of this horrible event:

The first shows who is really in control of this and every situation despite what Myers and his minions think:
Matt 26: 53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels [to protect Me if needed]?

The second passage shows the same exact incident millenniums ago - - of another (Pilate) desecrating the Body of Christ - - and our God’s similar response, with all of His Almighty power and glory as intact back then as it is today:
Matt 27:12 And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. [He stood silent in the presence of his accusers].

This logic of this silence was understood a few days later at the Resurrection, as the logic of His silence now will be understood someday as PZ Myers stands in front of Him.