TOS002 Supernatural Answers When There is Carnal Chaos
For Audio
Second of the series “Working Through the World’s Chaos to Find Supernatural Peace”. Thomas Aquinas said: “No one can live without joy. That is why a person deprived of spiritual joy goes after carnal pleasures.” If we are not growing in one area, it is like fertilizing and tolerating the other, so that the other grows. In our culture today, it seems like the carnal is growing by leaps and bounds. It doesn’t have to happen. God gives us the grace to rebalance our scales.
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We need “Supernatural Answers when there is Carnal Chaos”! First, what do we mean by the word “carnal”? Carnal means fleshly. The word flesh refers to the body or our earthly desires but it also refers to our ‘sin nature’ that constantly rebels against God. Man has dual natures: Our spiritual nature and the carnal or the flesh nature.
Paul wrote to the Galatians 5:17 “For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want.” NAB “You may not do what you want.”
In the summer of 2017 and into the fall, I didn’t realize how true that scripture was. Everything in my life seemed to be going pretty well but I was in a slump, a spiritual slump. When I’d stop off in adoration to pray a few minutes after mass I couldn’t focus on anything the Lord might have had to say. I had responsibility to provide spiritual formation for others but I was so dry I couldn’t progress at all with the work. Every time I sat down to work on it, I had an agitation and pretty soon found several other things to do. Not better things, just things to take my mind off the work. I spent more and more time by myself on myself. I took it to prayer, complaining to the Lord, as if it was His fault. I went to confession and confessed ‘laziness”. The “sin” word for laziness is “sloth”. Finally, I took inventory of my time and realized I was spending more and more time binge watching Netflix. So, like any addict, I thought I could just cut down. Nope, that didn’t work. I tried to fast from it–that’s a great way to change a bad habit. Like most habitual sin, it continued to creep into my life when I was tired or felt a need to isolate myself. I continued to watch as I was tempted.
In the bible Jesus tells us how to overcome temptation. I shared the scripture with you last time from the Gospel of Matthew 5: 29-30 “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away… 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” NAB
Luckily, I didn’t have to pluck my eye out but I decided to discontinue my subscription to Netflix. When I finally told them to disconnect imagine my disappointment when they told me: You still have a month to view and to change your mind! Aaargh! After I finally got rid of it, the longing remained. So I took Netflix to confession. Immediately afterwards God gave me an opportunity to fill the void with something holy.
So how did this addiction to Netflix , this stealer of my time, cause a spiritual slump? Why was it so hard to overcome? It has to do with the dual nature of man.
One of the first paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #29, says the “intimate and vital bond of man to God” can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man.” The catechism continues: “Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.” Maybe that last one was what I was doing: hiding from God’s call. We are in a struggle in this world with two opposing powers: the life in the Spirit and the life in the flesh. Understanding this can help us to understand the chaos in the world today. Jesus told us in the Gospel of Matthew 6: 24 “No one can serve two masters” NAB Like weights on a balance scale, if we add stuff to one side the other side is affected. If we remove a weight, then the other side loses its balance. If we are not growing in one area, it is like fertilizing and tolerating the other, so that the other grows.
Thomas Aquinas said: “No one can live without joy. That is why a person deprived of spiritual joy goes after carnal pleasures.” Do you know someone who is going after carnal pleasures because they have no spiritual joy? I think this is why there are so many movies about supernatural characters. The void of God’s presence in the media and in our culture has caused movie makers turn to other supernatural phenomena like super heroes and ancient gods and the occult. They are filling the void with junk. In our culture today, it seems like the carnal is growing by leaps and bounds. It doesn’t have to happen. God gives us the grace to rebalance our scales. St. Thomas Aquinas also wrote, “There is nothing to prevent human nature’s being raised up to something greater, even aftersin”. Our hope is in the truth such as the scripture of Paul to the Romans 5:20 “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more”. NAB
Previously we talked about time and how busyness is a peace stealer. Let me ask you this: Why is your life busy? One hundred people will have a hundred different answers. Now, I ask: Why is your life full of peace? Ah, the answers narrow to Trust in God. Why should you not have peace and still take care of the duties the Lord has given you. When the Lord sets the pace of the day the day no longer rules over you. It falls into ‘place’. It appears to me that in today’s culture most people set the pace of their day by their own understanding and power. When we rely on our own understanding and power, who do we turn to for help? If we are in charge? There is no one and we sink into panic mode. If we rely on a spouse or a parent to rescue us we are alleviated some. This shows us part of the answer. Our loving God the Father reaches out to help us when we run to him in time of trouble and chaos. There is a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. Soldiers turn to God and pray to Him in the trauma of battle. But is there a better way? Instead of rescue in trauma –could not ‘relationship and trust’ be a simpler way? Being aware of the magnificent benevolence of God allows us to turn to God in large and small things and avoid the panic. We can choose to live life in the Spirit rather than a life in the flesh. With God’s grace we can choose to live with spiritual joy and not keep seeking unfulfilling carnal pleasure.
There is a George Gershwin song, “Summertime, and the living is easy.” When we live in the supernatural mode, ‘The living is easy”! How do we live in the ‘supernatural mode’? Jesus taught us the Way.
Jesus taught people to ask for repentance and healing. The first thing Jesus preached when he began his public ministry was: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17 NAB He was teaching us that to have the supernatural peace of the Kingdom of God we first have to repent! We have to choose to change. We make the decision and he provides the grace to follow through.
Next He taught us to seek His healing – we need healing from the effect of the sin around us and in us. Jesus applauded friends who were loyal in helping others seek the Lord. Remember the four friends who lowered their friend down through the roof to ask Jesus to heal him? [Mark 2:1-12]
He rewarded parents who sought him for the benefit of their children.
In Luke 8: 41-56 Jesus healed the dying 12 year old daughter of Jairus who fell at the feet of Jesus and begged him to come to his house.
In John 4:46-53 A royal official left his dying son’s side to travel to beg Jesus to come to his house. Jesus told him: “You may go; your son will live.” His son did live, “and he and his whole household came to believe.”
Jesus has shown us the way. Turning to the Lord should be an everyday and perhaps every moment occurrence. He never tires of your seeking his Presence and help. God loves you and when you deeply love someone you want to spend lots of time with them.
Does life have problems? Yes. Are solutions found in the world? Sometimes. Are solutions found in the supernatural kingdom of God? Always.
Do not use God as a last resort. “I could have had a V-8” –does that sound familiar? It is an old commercial that played on the regret of our decisions. It is never wrong to seek God first for our answers and help.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew 6:33 to “ seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness.” NAB
Are we fixing our eyes on the spiritual, the unseen? We pray, “I believe in the visible and the invisible”. In Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians he wrote in the fourth chapter: 2 Corinthians 4: “18 we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.”
This summer I decided to seek a supernatural answer when I was having a carnal problem as I took my granddaughters to St. Louis. We were sitting in a restaurant, waiting on our food as those around us came and went, and came and went. Realizing a problem, I invited my whole family to pray with me for the cook and our waitress—I told them we were seeking a supernatural answer to our problem. As I turned around wondering if I should also go find our waitress–she appeared with our food. Supernatural answer! In a little thing. Our God is so faithful
Our Lord is the Giver of gifts. He loves us perfectly. He shows us the Way. Jesus is the Way. In the Gospel of John chapter 14: verse 6 “Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” NAB How do we take the Way? Trust is key. Let’s discuss the key of trust.
A key unlocks that which is hidden from sight. It does not create a treasure but merely reveals it. We who believe in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist know that He is present behind the ‘veil’ of a closed tabernacle.
What about a closed heart? In the sacrament of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist Jesus is given your heart to dwell within. He remains with you until the end of time as long as you don’t kick Him out through final hatred.
Through the gift of freewill we can reject God. Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life. How painful it must be for Jesus for us to reject his love and kick him out. He never stops loving us no matter even if we show hatred of him by our actions. Even so Jesus returns to the repentant heart quickly.
What is the key that allows His return? Trust. The repentant heart trusts that forgiveness is possible. The repentant heart trusts God that God will not hold this against us for eternity. If we can trust God for eternal forgiveness, what about lesser things? Can we trust God and surrender our carnal lives to him to live life in the Spirit?
Let’s discuss ‘surrender’. In Alcoholics Anonymous, there is no recovery until members admit that they are powerless over alcohol and need help from a “higher power”. Our God is the highest power!
To surrender is to lay down your will. The Apostles laid down their will as they cast lots to replace Judas with Mathias as the 12th apostle. Human beings put the dice in the bag but what emerged from the bag was the Lord’s decision.
Dennis Holt taught, “Put your intellect under the power of God otherwise ‘reason’ will talk you out of it. God has all the power. When we try to usurp God we get in the ‘carnal’.”
When you are willing to lay down your ‘will for winning at all costs’ and are willing to submit to a greater power, the turmoil and battle gives way to peace. It takes humility to admit you need God’s help. Often Pride keeps the battle going too long and casualties and injuries occur that affect what should be an exhilaration of peace.
Why do we struggle with surrendering to God? He is not an enemy who seeks to destroy us. No, He is a loving Father who knows what is best for us. Yet, we hold on to control. Control is a part of our free-will choices. Perhaps our struggle with surrendering to God has to do with our lack of knowing the Power of God.
When you look at the intricacies of the world around you, it is difficult to comprehend the intelligence of God who formed the earth and all things upon it. Our God is smart! But as intelligent as God is, this pales, however, when compared to the Power of God. Life! The power of God provides life itself. The amazing thing is that God shares this power with a man and a woman as they cooperate with God in providing life to their children.
It is the power of God who sets eternity as the opportunity to be one with God; since God is eternal the only way to be one with him is to also be eternal. Our soul and glorified body embraces the power of God for all eternity. We do not have to wait for eternity, however, to know God’s power.
As the Holy Spirit descended upon man after their redemption through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s power also entered the hearts and souls of his people. Baptism is a means of accepting the power of God. Outward signs of God’s power include the many charisms accepted for the benefit of all the Church. The charisms, the gifts of grace, given by the Holy Spirit–they testify to God’s power.
Each time a saint is beatified and canonized there is an acknowledgment of God’s power manifesting in their lives. Even in martyrdom there is a witness of power. How else could someone lay down their lives for an intangible belief in an ‘invisible’ God?
Are you in a low-watt power stream? Do you limit God’s power in your life? Trust in God’s breaker box instead of providing your own. Allow the power of God to shine forth in your lives. Thus you shall be as a lamp put on a hillside for all the world to see. Jesus said in Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world.” … “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” NAB Are you aware that the Lord has made you to be a lamp? –A brightly lit city on the hillside for all the world to see?
He has done that and so much more. The Lord helped me recover from my spiritual desert by recognizing what the Lord has already done.
You only know part of what God has done for you. As you count your joys—God has done them. As you count the healings and supernatural events in your lives, God has provided them.
As you read the Word of God or watched a sunset—God provided them. You cannot list nor count them all. God gives the sleep that refreshes and the food that nourishes and the ‘babes in arms’ that continues man upon the earth. Fear not acknowledging what God has done for each of you.
One time we attended a church service in Florida that was known as the Brownsville Revival and heard Lindell Cooley sing the Karen Wheatly song “Look What the Lord has done”. [sing]
“Look what the Lord has done, Look what the Lord has done , He healed my body, He touched my mind, He saved me, just in time.” I’m gonna praise his name, each day He’s just the same, Come on and praise him, Look see What the Lord has done!
Truly, you have eyes to see and ears to hear and thoughts to think. God did this! God gave you these things. Those who are in a dark place in their lives have only need to recognize God’s provision. When evil stands firm it seeks to hide the joys that the Lord has given. Dreariness, depression, grief—these only note what has been taken from sight or the feeling when comparing what others seem to have that you do not.
These hide truth. These hide true life and the multitude of gifts that God has given.
Just look at your thumb. God formed each thumbprint that you might recognize the uniqueness of His love for you. Look at the trail of the generations before you that have paved a way for this moment in your lives.
Moses knew the benefit of reminding the people of how great God is. When the people lost heart wandering and struggling in the desert he helped them have an attitude adjustment by witnessing God’s glory and recognizing their blessings. You wonder how they could have forgotten. They focused on the half empty glass. They filled their hearts with complaining about their struggles and what they didn’t have and forgot all they had.
In 1 Deuteronomy 4:32-40 Moses reminded them of the supernatural glory they had experienced. God took them as a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, Egypt,, by signs and wonders, by war, before their very eyes? All this they were allowed to see that they might know the LORD is God and there is no other. They heard the voice of God speaking from the mountain. On earth he let them see his great fire, to lead them personally out of Egypt by his great power, and more. Yet they forgot.
This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is GOD in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. “Ask His help to open your eyes to recognize what He has done. God is calling us as his children to be aware. The supernatural realm is hidden in plain sight when you have spiritual sight to realize the greatness of the Lord. Like stars that are in the sky all times but are revealed to natural sight when the air is crisp and the night is upon you.
Sometimes you can even see the moon during the day. What you must remember is that these twinkling stars shine all the time. All the time! You await the sunrise to see the sun. It does not disappear. You believe this even though you cannot use your five senses to see taste or feel it.
Enter the supernatural realm in the same way.
Listen to those who have experienced the ‘supernatural’ power of God when they speak truth. Reading the Word of God reveals much. The saints experienced much. But even those around you can be affected by God in the supernatural realm as they are taught by the Spirit how to see.
“Recognizing what God has already done”? What has God not done? Only through the gift of freewill has the ‘deceiver’ lead you to unbelief of God’s power and grace. See what the Lord has done! [sung]” See what the Lord has done!
Let’s discuss Remembering. A major issue today is that we don’t remember what God has done! A good way to remember a fact is to repeat it. Witness, witness, testify the goodness of the Lord. When you share the good things the Lord has done for You it gives hope and expectation that allows faith to grow and love to manifest. Continually take note of the Presence of God in your life. When the extraordinary takes place, remember it. Write it, speak it, share it.
The Church was built on the testimony of your brothers and sisters in Christ. The Church was built on the testimony of your grandparents, and your parents who took you to the Church for Baptism. The Church is built on your pastors and teachers of the faith, The Saints, the martyrs, the Fathers of the Church. They testified their wisdom and knowledge. They also testified to the power and love manifesting in their lives through the Holy Spirit.
God the Holy Spirit is God the Testifier. That sounds ‘funny’ doesn’t it! God the Testifier! The Holy Spirit testifies within our spirit. It is through the gifts of boldness and witness that Peter was able to speak to the 3000 new ‘converts’ on the day of Pentecost. It was the Holy Spirit the Testifier who grabbed a hold of Paul and gave him an experience that rocked the world: an experience that testified into Paul’s spirit of the Truth of his Lord Jesus and the Testament of the prophets and writers of the scriptures.
It is important for us to know about Paul’s conversion. It is set forth three times in the book, Acts of the Apostles. First in chapter 9 :1-19, then in chapter 22:3-21, and then in chapter 26:9-18. His witness of the greatness of God, meaningful in his life personally, was also a key testimony of the power of God and brought many believers to the faith Paul was a man who hunted down the new Christians to kill them because he thought them to be blasphemers.
By the power of God, Paul supernaturally received the truth, the life and fullness of the Holy Spirit and became one of the greatest Catholic evangelizers of all time! He established churches in many towns throughout the Roman Empire despite becoming hunted and persecuted himself. Do not fear remembering the bad along with the conversion. It is this that proves the glory of God. “I was a sinner—God made me a saint” is the witness that could be spoken by many—most—of the saints in heaven. St. Augustine, Father of the Church, was a ‘terrible sinner’. Remember what God did for him!
Augustine turned away from the church of his mother and used his brilliant mind to promote false religion/ heresy. He fathered a child out of wedlock. He gave himself up to pleasure and pride in worldly things. Through the intercessory prayers of his mother, Monica, he had the opportunity to hear the great preacher Bishop Ambrose. Hearing the truth changed everything! Augustine not only embraced his Catholic faith, he became one of the doctrinal Fathers of the Church. Augustine, his mother, and Ambrose have all been named saints by our Church.
Sharing your own experiences great or small edifies the body of Christ. It builds your own faith and it glorifies your Father in heaven–who, because He loves you so dearly, sent his Son to redeem you and his Holy Spirit to dwell within you to sanctify and to testify.
Jesus promised us in the Gospel of John 14:26-27 “The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” NAB
We live in a chaotic world, ruled, it seems, by the nature of the flesh. I’m going to leave you with some great advice that Paul gives us in Romans 12: 2 “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” NAB
Next time we will continue to Find Peace as we Work through the World’s Chaos and discuss Letting Go of Internal Chaos. Thanks for listening. See you next time on the Truth of the Spirit. Amen.
