Category Archives: Humility

Truth vs. Opinion

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Admittedly some of the teachings of Catholic Christianity can sound bizarre, if not ridiculous. For example, the Trinity is about 3 Divine Persons in one God, yet not three gods, only One, but they’re all One Being, and yet still Three. You get a headache trying to figure it out.

Jesus is one of those Three, fully human (except in sin) and fully God, but not half of either. Not a demigod like Hercules. All God, yet all human.

Mary! Herself immaculately conceived, and also remaining a virgin after giving birth to Jesus. Just how is that possible? A virgin birth is a contradiction.

The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is another. How can something that looks like a little white cookie be Jesus Christ, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity? Just because the priest says a few words, exactly like Jesus did? Looks like a cookie…

The Resurrection of the dead is another. You die, and perhaps centuries or millennia later, you will come to life again?

All this is either true or the biggest con game invented. So much seemingly ridiculous illogical beliefs all gathered together in one philosophy should have died out centuries ago, collapsing under the weight of it own silliness.

But it didn’t. In fact, people have shed their blood for Christianity, convinced of its Truth.

Philosophies that are inherently illogical and irrational tend to die out. They may persist for centuries, but never attracting a large sustainable following for long, relative to other ideas.

But nearly a third of this planet is Christian. That’s about 2 billion people.

Are they all nuts?

No, because as incredulous as Christianity sounds, most of those 2 billion believe in the fundamental Truths of Christianity. There is an underlying conviction of the truthfulness of Christianity’s teachings.

This conviction is that God Himself is teaching us through Christianity things about Him and how to live in accord with His will.

This is where Christianity (along with its elder brother Judaism) differ from all other world religions. Judeo-Christianity is the only revealed religion, all others derive their teachings from wise, intelligent and charismatic people.

But, all the other world’s religions are fully understandable by humans. Their philosophy may be extensive and eloquent, but they never contain anything that’s virtually impossible to wrap one’s mind around like Christianity does.

This inability to be fully understood, the idea that seemingly irrational concepts can be true is, in my opinion, the Truth of Christianity.

In short, IF IT CAN BE UNDERSTOOD, IT IS FROM HUMANS; IF IT CANNOT, THEN IT IS FROM GOD.

What does that mean? A human-originated philosophy can be comprehended by humans. A philosophy coming from God will contain the essence of God’s nature and His ways that can never be completely understood by people. It is illogical and not very humble to presume that mere human intellect can probe the mysteries of the Divine and comprehend it. Our ability to comprehend is limited by our physical and temporal nature. We exist only for a limited period of time and our physical powers are not omnipotent. God is eternal and is not subject to the laws of science and reason that He created.

Science is like this. Science is the rational and logical study and exploration of nature, from the vastness of space to the minute levels of the subatomic world. God created the world and everything else, He laid down the laws of science to keep it in motion. Is science easy to understand? No. If you study science, then you study God, through His works. Science explores God through the physical realm; religion and spirituality explores God through the non-physical realm. If you find it difficult to comprehend science, why would you feel it easy to understand God and His ways?

How does this relate to sober alcoholics? Try the next time someone tell you that you don’t need God or organized religion. Just think of what you know about Jesus and ask, “What is a better way to achieve sobriety and salvation? A human idea that can come and go, shift and change with the passing fancies of human whims, or an idea revealed by God Himself, the eternal and perfect?”

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside.”
Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish?
For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Edited 10:26 PM 12 June 2007

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Why did God make you?

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And the answer to that question from the first volume of the old “Baltimore Catechism” (the 4 volumes of which educated millions of American Catholics until the 1960’s) is:

“God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.”

God made you because He loves you and wants you to return that love now and forever. Period. That’s it. That is why God made you. He didn’t make you to be rich, to be knowledgeable in the “ways of the world”, or to be materially successful. Some of those things are good, depending on how they are used. But those aren’t contained in the question nor it’s answer.

The question and answer is rooted in Sacred Scripture, if you read Genesis 1 and 2 and understand what happened in Genesis 3. God made us in perfect union with Him, and loved us so much that He gave us Free Will so that we can freely return that love. Under the deception of Satan, we decided that we can find fulfillment outside of that love and that we can be “just like God” in determining what is good and evil. This ruptured our relationship with Him, and the World and it’s ways largely became our focus. We are not God, and our stewardship of this planet proves that. Only Jesus Christ repaired our relationship with Him, but the effects of Satan’s deception still afflicts our planet.

Now, back to the question and its answer. Our sole reason for being is to know, love and serve God here and now, and then to be happy with Him forever in Heaven. The pursuit of worldly glory and material power and advantage are contrary to this reason. Even, in my opinion, the need for satisfaction on a more ordinary and mundane level.

Think about that question and its answer next time you feel unloved, unwanted, unneeded, irrelevant. The next time you feel like a loser or a failure, or because you are an alcoholic or drug or porn addict and that you are unworthy of God’s love, or anyone else’s, consider that question and answer.

I quite often feel as if I am a failure, a loser and a screw-up. That is because of my alcoholism and its derailment of my life and career and the financial cost, and the stigma associated with it. If I never picked up that first drink, I would be a few tens of thousands of dollars richer (cost of booze, lost income, hospitalization, etc.) and probably a homeowner (of my late parent’s house, or maybe some other purchased by myself and whomever I might have married had I not preferred vodka, tequila and rum to blondes, brunettes and redheads).

But I cannot dwell on that. That is the world talking. Focusing on the question and its answer takes me away from those feelings and helps me get more oriented on my value merely as a child of God. That as long as I “know Him”, meaning I pray to Him, meditate on Him and read His Bible; “love Him”, meaning I keep His Commandments and follow His Church; “serve Him”, meaning that I do His will in all things (put God first, other people second, and myself last), I will stand a good chance at “being with Him forever in the next.”

All the struggles and failures in this life will have some enduring meaning as they form the person I am now, but if I nail them to the Cross of Christ they will be transformed from the miserable things the world says they are into something else.

We don’t know why any one of us is an alcoholic or an addict. There are theories as to genetics, upbringing, psychological disorders and such, but that is irrelevant. We are what we are and God permitted it for a reason. Evil is permitted because of free will, but God’s influence in the world draws good out of evil. Evil may be in the happening, the event or the occurrence, but good lies in the response.

We can be defeated by whatever it was that happened, we can be defeated by how we are made, but we can rise above it and make the most out of it. I started this blog because of my alcoholism and as an attempt to help others who are Catholic (or seeking Catholicism) deal with their alcoholism in accord with the Faith. I hope to do more than just this.

Regardless of how miserable you think you are, the basis of that misery is temporary. It is not what you are. It will not endure, unless you allow it. It is not insurmountable. Some people resort to suicide because they think it is the way out. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Trust that the seeds of your own “resurrection” lie in the dying and death of your addicted life. The old life dies and a new one is born. We alcoholics and addicts are lucky in a way: we have two lives contained in one lifetime. It is our responsibility to makes certain that the first lifetime bears some meaning in the new.

The entire Baltimore Catechism is available from Gutenberg. Go to here and the Catholic Digital Studio will take you there. At CDS see under “Catechesis: Learning the Catholic Faith”, under “Basic Catechesis” you’ll find Volumes 1 & 2, under “Intermediate Catechesis” you’ll find Volumes 3 & 4.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Turning your ear to wisdom

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Today’s “Daily Wisdom Dose” involves an act of humility, that of turning to another person and listening to their words and commands:

Proverbs 2:1-2

My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands,
Turning your ear to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding…

Such a person must command respect and legitimate authority if he expects another to accept their advice and to listen with one’s heart (“incline your heart to understanding”).

We alcoholics have proudly felt that we knew what was best for ourselves, and for others. Our alcoholism fueled a fantasy life in which we rewrote the day’s events, blotting out failures and setbacks. We swelled up in our own puffery, oblivious to our impending demise.

Now, in our sobriety, no matter how long it has been, do we have the humility to acknowledge that we don’t know everything? Do we have the humility to seek out people with greater knowledge of sober living, greater knowledge of the Catholic Faith, and struggle, despite how difficult, to live by that knowledge? Or are we are own self-declared and self-styled Pope or Bishop? We declare that we know better and will live by our own guidance and judgement.

True humility enables us to recieve true wisdom. Whether it is insight inspired by prayer and Scriptural readings, or insight learned from another, wiser person, humility enables us to get ourselves out of the way, and receive what we need to learn and know.

Incline your heart to understanding, listen to the wisdom with your reason, to intellectually grasp what is being said, and listen to the wisdom with your heart, to absorb the meanings of what is said. Do not fear being changed.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

A graceful diadem

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Today’s Daily Wisdom Dose, from Proverbs 1:8-9:

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching;
A graceful diadem will they be for your head; a torque for your neck.

This may be difficult for those of who have had problematic relations with parents. (Mine were OK. No complaints. Not perfect, but everything worked out.) So for those who regard the very idea of respecting your parent’s instructions and advice to be difficult, if not impossible, read on. Other male and female iconic figures in your life can be picked to serve as “parents”, if needed.

Aside from a being a follow-up to the Commandment on “Honor your Father and Mother” this can be considered a plea for respecting legitimate authority. Parents are the first authority figures in a child’s life, and perhaps their relationship with parents form the basis for their relationship with authority overall. Perhaps a generalization, but how parents exercised their authority determines a child’s attitude toward authority later on.

We alcoholics notoriously have a challenged relationship with authority. In our recovery from alcohol, we can no longer use the excuses of a childhood environment to defy authority or run from it. In our recovery from alcohol, we now have an obligation to govern our lives with responsibility. One of the positive outcomes of the 12 Steps is that it allows us to clean up the wreckage of our past, or at least come to terms with it. One of the marks of our responsible living, if it is still possible, feasible, and necessary, is to repair and rebuild our relationships with the parents. Once they die, it is too late. Once gone, the opportunity is forever lost.

The Fourth Step involves the individual making a “fearless and searching moral inventory”. This is identifying those areas of the past that need to be cleaned up. This is what we did wrong, and now we are going to redress it. Even when we were wronged, we analyze the events to determine what, if anything, we might have done to contribute to the situation. This is personal responsibility, we committed serious wrongs (“sins”) in the past and now we shall try and clean those up. Later on in the steps, (The Ninth) we make our amends to those we have wronged.

Granted, by the time we are old enough to make these amends to parents, we may be well past the age where we need instruction and advice from them. (Personally, I don’t think anyone is ever too old for this.) Nevertheless, we do have the Commandment to “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother”, and if repairing and restoring a relationship with ones’ parents puts us in accord with that Commandment, then we are showing our willingness to carry out God’s will in our lives. We are also restoring a more balanced relationship with authority, or at least legitimate authority that exercises its power with due consideration for the rights and privilege of those under it’s purview.

The relationship with parents, if it can be restored, now opens up the promise of the passage from Proverbs. “A graceful diadem” will they be. A repaired relationship with parents is a major healing in an individuals life, so great an influence (for good or for bad) have parents had in early life that the promise of a more equitable and healthy relationship later in life may bring tremendous benefits.

Parents are the pillars upon which out life is built. They formed us. It is only right that a conscientious and sincere effort be made to repair the relationship with them. If possible.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Fear of the Lord

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Today’s Daily Wisdom Dose:

This is the introduction to the Book of Proverbs (Chapter 1:1-6):

The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel:

That men may appreciate wisdom and discipline, may understand words of intelligence;
May receive training in wise conduct, in what is right, just and honest;
That resourcefulness may be imparted to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
A wise man by hearing them will advance in learning, an intelligent man will gain sound guidance,
That he may comprehend proverb and parable, the words of the wise and their riddles.

Now, for the actual dose (Proverbs 1:7):

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and instruction fools despise.

“Fear” doesn’t mean cowering in terror, it means the proper reverential respect due to God, recognizing His supreme sovereignty over the Universe and your life. Starting out from this necessary act of humility, you are now open to receiving God’s wisdom and inspirations. Your human self and its attachment to things of the world, no longer get in the way. Excess attachment to the self and satisfying its worldly desires blocks off the streams of God’s grace. It is through His grace that we grow spiritually and are better able to accept the commitments and obligations of Christianity. And subsequently, we are able to grow stronger in our sobriety as we cast off (or better cope with) our human weaknesses. We see them in light of God’s plan for us, and we adjust and adapt to our circumstances. We are stronger, and fear less as we know we are continuing to walk with God.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

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From today’s Mass Reading:

John 6:60-69;

Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said,
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.”
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer walked with him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

I’ve written about this passage before. The disciples and Jews could not accept the teaching that Jesus was putting forth. He was speaking literally, and not figuratively, and they understood that or else He would have corrected their misunderstanding that had caused them to return to their former way of life. He was telling them that they had to literally eat of His Flesh and drink of His Blood in order to have eternal life, even though He was referring to His Body and Blood in the form of Bread and Wine. This was all too confusing, or disgusting, and so they left Him. And He allowed them to go.

When you are confronted with Scriptural or Catechetical truths that are too hard to understand, what do you do? Do you work to understand them, knowing that aince these are Divine Mysteries it will never be possible to fully comprehend them? But you accept them anyway in all humility like Peter? Or do you respond like Jesus’ disciples and the Jews in the passage above and turn away and leave? Perhaps refashion the teachings in such a way that are more acceptable to human understanding, despite their contradicting the Divine truth?

Humility is understanding your relationship to reality, adjusting your perspective to fit that reality, and being content with the results. Reality is that Jesus is God, not you, and that the only way to eternal life is through Jesus, (This does not mean that non-Christians do not attain eternal life, just that Jesus, the Just Judge, determines your admittance to Heaven based on the choices you’ve made in life. To continue on this track, then why be Christian? Because Christianity is the sole guaranteed roadmap to achieving salvation. Guaranteed by God.)

Now, many Catholics in AA and other Twelve Step Movements end up leaving the Church or accepting an illegitimate diluted Catholicism because the recovery movements offer an easier and softer way. Easier concepts to accept. Do not sellout or take the easier path. The richness of the Catholic Faith and Her spirituality offer far greater rewards than merely “staying sober”. Consider the teachings of Jesus and His Church to be a mountain that you have to ascend. The higher you climb (the tougher the Divine Mysteries you’re trying to grasp or the tougher the teachings you’re trying to live by) the more character defects you need to shed are cast off. Catholicism liberates you from the restraints of being merely human.

Go mountain climbing.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Mass of the Lord's Supper: a Model to Follow

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From the Gospel Reading in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, celebrated during the evening of Holy Thursday:

John 13:12-15
So when he had washed their feet (and) put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

We have the image of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper commemorates the establishment of the Eucharist and the ordained priesthood. Jesus is telling His disciples, the eventual Bishops of the Church, that their vocation is one of service, not power.

Despite the seemingly exalted position that the Bishops of today rightfully have (after all, they are the legitimate successors to the Apostles) theirs is one of service to the faithful.

Setting that catachetical and editorial moment aside, what can we take from the actions of Jesus during this moment at the Last Supper? That of service. We are here to serve. No matter who we are or our position and state in life, we are called to serve others. It is a basic Christian duty, and one of the major methods we have at our disposal to cooperate in building up the Kingdom of God. That Kingdom awaits us in Heaven after we die, but we start now, building it here on Earth, in the present.

Service, or doing things for others without financial compensation or any material reward, contributes to our growth as individuals, both on the personal and spiritual plane.

This giving of ourselves, helps us to get outside of ourselves. It helps develop humility by permitting us to see the world through the eyes of other people. In service, it’s about the other person, not yourself.

In our alcoholism, we were selfish, putting ourselves and our needs and desires, if not fantasies, before anyone else. Service work, regardless of what or where it is, is applied medicine for our continual recovery. It goes beyond meeting attendance or reading and the like.

It is Faith in action.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Solemnity of the Annunciation, Part 2 (On Humility)

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In the previous post I started out by discussing the Annunciation, and the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary that relates to it. Now, I’ll conclude with a bit on what actually was announced.

An angel appeared to Mary and told her that she was to bear a child and that He will be the Messiah, the Son of God. OK, now here we get into the whole thing about humility.

We are basically saying that God, the creator of the Universe, from the largest galactic super cluster and all the trillions of stars, down to the smallest subatomic particle, and everything in between, was going to be born into humanity. As a baby.

Think about that.

Why? Not about the thinking part, but why as a baby?

Because God wanted to teach us about humility. He became born into humanity so that He can eventually die for us, thus paying the price for our Original Sin. The only other way for its price to be paid would be our extinction as a species. The Original Sin was the Fall of Adam and Eve as told in Genesis, Chapter 3. What exactly happened is unknown, it probably wasn’t literally Satan posing as a talking snake conning some naked lady into the idea that if she and her husband ate an apple then they would be like God and possess His wisdom. But something occurred that convinced our Original Parents that they could find fulfillment outside of God’s will. That they could be like God and determine for themselves what is right and what is wrong. That is Pride, the opposite of humility. And such an evil thing was this expession of pride that we almost died as a species.

For God to teach us this lesson on humility, along with redeeming us for our sin of pride, He bacame a little baby.

He could have come down from Heaven as a mighty force laying waste to enemies of His will, but that would serve no teaching purpose. Humility is learned.

You learn humility by being humbled. By accepting little humiliations and getting stronger as a result.

By these ways we learn that humility is accepting reality for what it is, adjusting your life to that reality, and being content with the result.

We can accept all that more easily by thinking about the result of the Annunciation (the birth of Jesus nine months later). If the God of the Universe can incarnate (become flesh, as opposed to remaining a Spirit) Himself as a baby, and suffer all sorts of indignities as a part of His human-ness, then who are we to complain about the ordinaries of daily living? Of course, He was God, and knew it, and therefore probably had superior coping mechanisms, but He was fully human, and still suffered the ordinaries of being human. Exactly how this is so is a puzzle not comprehended by 20 centuries of Christians, but it was so.

Meditate on this next time you have a lousy day. Like I said at the end of Part 1, stuff like this keeps you sober. It also brings you closer to God.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Solemnity of the Annunciation, Part 1

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On March 25th the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation. (In the United States and perhaps other countries, it is moved to the 26th of March when the 25th falls on a Sunday as it does in 2007).

The Annunciation is the event in which the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary, an innocent little Jewish girl in 1st Century Palestine, and tells her that she has been chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus, the Son of God.

It is perhaps an understatement to say that this is significant on many levels. And the significance involves humility, a topic of so many 12-Step meetings. I’ll get into that in Part 2 of this post.

Set aside the less-than-every-day occurrence of a messenger from God telling you that you’re going to give birth to His Son. According to the Gospel accounts, Mary handled it rather well, better than most perhaps as she merely wondered how it would come to pass as she is a Virgin.

All she needed to say was “Yes”, and the whole epic of salvation would continue on its intended course, and the world would be liberated from its enslavement to sin.

So, we have the humility of Mary accepting the stupendous role of being the mother of the Son of God. Her perfect humility enabled her to bear the responsibility of this role, for if pride played a part she would not have been suitable. Pride is a tool the Devil uses in convincing us that we are responsible for our own talents and achievements, as opposed to a humble acknowledgement that we were placed here by God and we cultivate our talents to the best of our ability.

Mary’s purpose was to be the vessel through which the world received the Savior.

Such a vessel has to be free of all stain of sin, hence the angel’s greeting to her with the phrase “Hail, Mary, full of grace” (or “Hail, Highly Favored One” in some translations.) Mary was preserved from Original Sin by the anticipated merits of Jesus’ eventual death and Resurrection. This is the Catholic Dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. If she had Original Sin, then Jesus, by being in her womb and sharing her body and blood, would have shared in her Sin, which is impossible as God is sinless. One could argue then that why couldn’t Jesus have been conceived immaculately? He could have, but the difficulty in that would be that He still would be in Mary’s womb, and what would be the barrier between Him and Original Sin? His own sacrifice on the cross, decades later? He is divine and sinless, so His own death was not for Himself, He died for humanity. So Mary, by sharing her body and blood with Jesus in her womb, would benefit from the eventual sacrifice of Jesus. Mary is the physical barrier between Jesus and her ancestral line, caught in Original Sin like the rest of humanity. The physical barrier protecting Mary from her mother’s state of Original Sin was Jesus, operating from the fullness of time, as God dwells in Eternity.

I believe it was done in this manner to signify the importance of the sacrament of Baptism. Original Sin is washed away by Baptism, which is the sacrament signified by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. By His Blood we are redeemed of Original Sin and born into the Body of Christ (Christianity). Baptism enables us to receive the Holy Spirit. Mary could not have conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit if she was trapped in Original Sin. If she could have, then there would be little rationale for Baptism. Baptism is so important in our being born into the Body of Christ (well, it’s the only way to accomplish that) that this rather confusing and impossible to fully comprehend method occurred. Her “baptism”, so to speak, was Jesus’ eventual shedding of His Blood during His torture and Crucifixion. Through it, she was preserved from inheriting Original Sin. If Jesus was conceived immaculately, solely by God the Father’s will, then there would be no real need for Baptism. It would be purely symbolic, as the Father could make us into his own by use of His own will.

God asked for Mary’s permission, her acquiescence was key. The whole epic of salvation hinged upon her saying “Yes” to God. God loves us, and needs our cooperation to fulfill His plan.

Phew. I’m tired just writing that. And I still have Part 2, later. (The “Incarnation”.)

She accepted God’s will for herself, as so should we. Her acceptance was necessitated by her being a sinless vessel to bear the Lord. While we are certainly not sinless, we should to the best of our ability resist the tendency towards sin by humbling ourselves before God and willingly accept Him into our lives. We must live out our Baptismal life by being Catholic Christians, fully participating in the sacramental life of the Church. For ordinary rank-and-file butts-in-the-pews Catholics this means going to Mass and recieving Holy Communion. And to recieve it properly by previously going to sacramental Confession and having our sins forgiven. (This is so that we can be a proper receptacle for receiving Jesus into ourselves, as that is what Communion is, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, in the form of Bread. (Read, “Does this shock you?” )

What does all this have to do with recovery from alcoholism? Well, this is “Sober Catholic” and the intended purpose of this blog is to help you realize the richness and fullness of the Catholic Faith. Giving you things like the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception to mentally munch on is supposed to get you to start thinking of less mundane things. If you can spend some time every day wrapping your mind around such concepts, things tempting you to drink won’t sstand a chance.

Worked for me.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)