"Forty-Two"

"I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is." - Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The struggle is real.

And in all honesty, I realize how ridiculous it is for me to believe my brain has the capacity to even remotely understand God’s reasoning. I don't even have the capacity to know what the correct question is.

So, whenever someone says "Hey, I have a question for you."

I will always answer, "42."

Now you know why.

But, more deeply, I often wonder why God chose to dangle free-will in front of Adam & Eve and the subsequent millennia of pain and suffering that has come about as a result.

The fires in Malibu, war in Europe, famine, plague, etc.

Yet, for a moment, when I held my son & daughter for the first time, I had absolute clarity: love. Pure & true love is totally worth it.

The Bonnells

But, on yesterday’s Rogan, around the 37-minute mark, the eclectic Mel Gibson was talking of allegations of apostasy and Pope Frances.

Apostasy is a sin only forgivable by God Himself.

For those of you who are not Catholic, the long-story-short is that back in September, Pope Francis was in Singapore and made a claim which on its face is outright heretic:

“All-religions are a pathway to reach God.” - Pope Francis

From a secular perspective, this sounds like a fairly innocuous statement, but it contradicts the most basic of Catholic (Christian, & Jewish) beliefs dating back to Moses.

It has been defended that, contextually, the Pope was attempting to show that all religions offer an opportunity to communicate with God.

Maybe. I don’t know. I’m not here to make a declarative claim either way.

I’m more interested in Mel Gibson’s continuation: He reveals a project he’s working on which will examine the struggle between good and evil and present it in story-form as a movie.

A gazillionaire making a new movie isn’t all that interesting, but his explanation has occupied my mind all day:

“Little old flawed humanity, why are we important in that process where the big realms are slugging it out over us? And I think there's bigger things at play here. And institutions that purport to touch on the divine are necessarily going to be affected by that slugfest that's going on between good and evil.” - Mel Gibson

Maybe, just maybe, this ‘struggle between good & evil’ exists on a plane well beyond our perception and our role is not insignificant therein…

Something on which to chew.

Have a great weekend!

-BONNELL

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today's devotional & reflection (usccb)

Friday after Epiphany

• 1 John 5:5-13

• Mark 4:23

• Luke 5:12-16

Luke 5 shows how simple it is for us to proclaim our faith in Jesus.

The leper believes in Jesus.  He does not hope. He does not wish. He simply believes.

“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

…and so he did.

Sometimes, I find that I hope & wish that this is all true. Doubt casts into my heart.  I struggle to believe that I deserve such a love.

Like the leper, I am unclean. I sin much more often than I would like to admit.

The struggle is real.