Fr. Timothy Barr

Healing from Addictions

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

There has been a lot of confusion in our society and culture in general about the role drugs take. This confusion has affected how we may use them, and makes us vulnerable to using them in a way that is bad for the person using them and those around them. Often, addictions can run rampant and hurt many families and marriages. Children grow up without a parent, either through divorce, or simply because the parent is absent in mind and/or in body.

In the past couple years there has been a big push to legalize recreational use of marijuana. No Catholic could endorse such a thing. When we deal with drugs, we are dealing with a substance that changes the thought process so much that it weakens the will. The Church teaches that God designed our souls to have three powers: the intellect, passions, and the will. When we take a mind-altering drug, our perception of reality does not coincide with reality itself. The intellect can easily be brought to ignorance or deception. In fact, the intellect is so damaged in the duration of the drug’s effects that many who are addicted cannot remember the pain they caused or, even if they do remember the events, they do not comprehend reality correctly and the hurt caused.

Over time, the intellect can get malformed. The habit of bad thinking makes a home so that even when the person is not high, the mind is still not in reality. For those who are in reality around them, this can make their lives unstable and, therefore, upsetting. This is particularly true for those who suffer physical and emotional abuse.

As an addiction progresses, it also malforms the passions. The person with an addiction slowly prefers the drug of choice over the family or loved ones. As much as they may emotionally ‘love’ their family, in reality, they do not have the ability to love them in deed (works). This becomes particularly hurtful for children when the parent is not there because they chose to be on the drug, rather than with the child. People with addictions to the harder drugs may even steal from family members, destroying the trust that God wants to be there, but can no longer justifiably be given.

The will, which has been given by God to do the good, has by then been so weakened that a person cannot will to stop the drug or the choices they make otherwise. God made us with free will. Free will is how God made us in His image and likeness. It our glory as God created us, before our baptisms. Yet a person with an addiction cannot save themselves because they have become so weak. They need God and His grace.

God can save such a person. Many doubt that God would save such a person.  I can tell you yes, He would. It starts with taking one step at a time, sometimes falling and learning how to use the will again. It takes time to reform the intellect and learn what is true and right based on reality. Looking at reality can be scary, because it means looking at the evil done, yet we have a merciful savior to trust in. it means dealing with our demons and putting them in the past with the help of God’s mercy.

Addictions are no fun. They end up enslaving so many people. Drugs have legitimate uses for those suffering cancer and other real medical purposes. Yet they are not for recreation without regulation or care for the person and their families. Moreover, if we have faith in Christ, why would we even go there? It would have no place in the life for those who believe.

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

Paul continues with his understanding of the resurrection. It is not just a spiritual understanding, but the spiritual is necessarily linked to the body. He explains that each body is different (v 37-39). First explaining animals are different from humans, implying they will be very different in the resurrection. Many people will ask, will their pet be in heaven. The short answer to that is that they will be according to your desire for them to be there as a gift to you, not on any merit on the part of an animal, because they do not have free will by which to be judged worthy or unworthy of heaven.

Then Paul segues into “heavenly bodies” (40).  Paul is not talking about something that is living and has free will. He is referring to things that have physical existence. That is why he refers to the sun, moon and the stars as heavenly bodies. Those are physical things above the sky. Since they are above the sky, they are considered “heavenly.” Nonetheless, it is something to meditate on.

Paul comes back around to make the full point, when a farmer tills the ground and plants, he sows a seed, not the full plant (37). What is planted does not look like the plant that has all sorts of fruit. What is many times less than a quarter of an inch big becomes a full plant maybe eighteen inches high and eighteen inches in diameter with leaves and vegetables. But that seed must die before it becomes the full plant (42). We are weak now, we are ignoble now, we are subject to decay now, but after we have been buried into the ground, what will come to be will be incorruptible because Jesus has conquered death and corruption; our bodies will be glorified, no longer subject to sin or human limitations. Our bodies will rise strong in mind, body and soul. We will understand God, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

We will have access to the knowledge of God without the hindrance of sin that separates us. We will have a bodily strength beyond the strength our human bodies can provide by themselves. Some traditions in the Church teach that we will have a body as if we were 33 years old. The reason for this is that it is presumed Jesus died on the cross for us at the age of 33 years. It is therefore presumed to be the perfect age and God would want that for us. Many will look forward to that.

Paul continues to expound that the natural body is our body before our death, whereas the spiritual body is after our resurrection. This spiritual body is very real and has a physical quality, but not limited to the physical quality. Humans have a body and a soul. We participate in the physical dimensions of existence and we also have a spiritual existence as well. Heaven would bring about the perfection of the whole person, body and soul. Body and soul, we will “bear the likeness of the man from heaven” (49), Jesus, in all His glory and power.

Paul reminds us that we cannot save ourselves “… no more than corruption can inherit incorruption” (50). Our natural bodies are subject to sin, corruption and death. I do not know anybody 120 years old. We all die at some time. No mortal being can obtain immortality. But God, the immortal one, can provide for us, and does so. He not only can, but says yes. Not only does He give us everlasting life, but life to the fullest. We are invited to participate in His kingdom where love, mercy and good company is everlasting.

Therefore, be “steadfast and persevering” (58) for our hope is in Him who has loved us, and pursued us. We have hope!

Black Communities Targeted

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

The injustices that should concern every Catholic is when any group has been relegated as non-persons. We as Catholics have seen it happen many times. We know that when one classification of people are denied their human person status, that we could be next. About two thousand priests were killed in the NAZI concentration camps for standing up for the Jewish people. We are a people who have a concern for the poor and helpless. There is nobody more helpless today than those citizens who have not yet come from their mother’s wombs. But it seems that there are specifically some women who are targeted for surgical abortions. The segregation battle was given a severe blow in the 1960s. It seems those who lost that cause are still working to reduce those they still deem as non-persons, the black community.

So how is it that those who tout to be for the little guy promote the ideology of non-persons? Check out some statistics below.

Fr Timothy Barr

Black Abortion Statistics

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

Paul continues that our faith that Jesus rose from the dead in bodily form is a necessary part of our belief. In fact, he states, “…if Christ was not raised, your faith is worthless” (v17). Paul spends eight verses on this very point. Jesus really did rise from the dead. The death of Jesus reveals His love for us and His resurrection reveals that this love can save us.

He does what we do, “Death came through a man,” so that we could do what He does, “hence the resurrection came through a man also” (v21). In raising the body of Jesus, God raises His humanity up. He has grafted us onto His divinity. Wherever he is, we can be also. We have become one flesh with God. So when the humanity of Jesus is raised from the dead, we will also be raised. He does what we do (suffer and die) so that we can do what he does (rise to life in the fullest).

This is the promise of the Gospel message. It is the foundational teaching to our faith. The very reason for our faith is the promise that Jesus made to His followers that we can be with Him and experience His love and compassion for all eternity, where there is nothing but peace and joy in His presence. The resurrection is an expression of His power to save. The very fact that He did raise His humanity is an expression that He does in fact raise us up. It is our hope that we will be participating in His resurrection when it comes to the end of our life here on earth. “Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will come to life again” (22). Actually, the plan is that death itself will be done away with. “…and the last enemy to be destroyed is death” (26). What is going on now in heaven will be established here on earth. God’s Kingdom will be firmly established as He, God, will be ruling over all. Since Jesus died on the cross for us, the heavenly Father has given all authority to Him, but since God is one and of one accord, they all share in the goodness of having done this redeeming work for humanity (28). Everything is made whole, because God is one. We do what He does.

We look forward to be made whole. We look forward to be healed of all division, from within and without. It is a healing that takes place so that we would be made one in Him. But only in Him can we be made whole for “without Him, nothing came to be” (John 1:3). He came that we may be made anew. The very glory of God will be made manifest in all those who are saved.

So our hope is not for some merely natural gift like a nice house. It not for an extravagant house with the super expensive hypercar. Our hope is in something greater. Our hope is not just in eternal life. Our hope is in the kind of eternal life that is life in the fullest where joy and peace reigns. This is something worth dying for. That is why Paul is willing to suffer so much and see to our salvation. That is our motivation to keep away from “bad company” (33).

Keeping away from bad company can bring about some suffering while we are here in a sinful world. Choosing Christ in everything can not only be exhausting and seem like an endless succession of saying “no” to what seems to be fun and getting rejected by peers; today, it can mean receiving actual physical violence. Your house or car could get burned or you could get beaten to death. A very real personal decision is something we are all faced with. Will we go with the flow to avoid suffering, but to our own peril for eternity? Or are we willing to hope in the promise of the resurrection that Jesus offers us? For those who know Jesus and are not ignorant of God (34), the decision is made quickly.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

Paul is starting to wind down his letter, but at the same time putting across the urgency of faith and its importance to our life and salvation. “Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you…” (v1). Go back to the basics of the faith you received and accepted. Today, we could use this same advice. It is what we proclaim in the creed.  Verses 1 through 11 is the outline of the creed that we say at every Sunday Mass and at the end of every rosary. It is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus for our “salvation,” or in the Catholic sense, “perfect beatitude.”

The catechism of the Catholic Church finds its outline in the creed. It is the outline of our teachings. It is the reason for our faith. We easily get caught up in the politics and other things going on in our life and in society. It would do us good to reflect on the creed and on the gospel message. We always need to be reminded of it. It brings us hope. Can we use some hope today! The gospel message is the story of how God came down to us, loved us, and was willing to die on the cross for us out of testimony of His love for us. This love gives us reason to trust in Him. In the resurrection, we discover He really does have the power to save us. We know that He can save us. Because He loved us unto death, He would save us. We can approach His heavenly throne and ask Him for His mercy. In response, he continues to show us that it is not just about saving us. He truly does love us and desires us to be with Him, and He with us. “Perfect beatitude.” “What eye has not seen, what ears have not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has ready for those who love Him” (2 Cor 2:9). We just wanted Him to save us; that would be enough. But He has done so much more!

The Gospel message gives us reason for hope (1 Peter 3:15) and spurs us on to win the race (1 Cor 9:24). Not just a race to win a crown of leaves that withers and dies, but to win the undying love of God in the perfect beatitude. How good it is to live in the Word of God. Thank God this Gospel message was written, that we too may believe and come to Know Him as He really is.