"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Jesus, remember me!
(Maybe this is what God sees when he looks at us) 

It is unfair, to promise Paradise to a criminal who expressed contrition during the last few minutes of his miserable life. How about all the good people who go to church on Sunday, even everyday, who pray novenas and rosaries and have bottles of holy water in their homes. How about our friends who go through a long process of Initiation to prepare for their baptism or acceptance into the Church?

Sometimes I don't understand God. God's actions seem too merciful to me, to the point of being unjust. What would happen if a person in death-row for killing innocent people, has a moment of contrition at the last minute and asks God to remember him when he gets to his Kingdom? Will God give him the Kingdom promised to the gentle, the peacemakers, the humble, the poor in spirit?

How about the politicians and business people who steal, cheat and lie? Will God take them too?

I often forget the phrase that Jesus said before the conversation with the criminal: "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing?" 

I believe this is the key. Do we know what we are doing? Do the Muslim fundamentalists know what they are doing when they kill themselves and others in the name of God? Did the Christian preacher know what he was doing when he burned the Sacred Book of Islam? Did the Crusaders know what they were doing when they killed Muslims in the name of God?

I wish I had a clearer answer to my questions. But during this Holy Week, I realize that the reason why we call Friday "Good" is not because Jesus died for us, but because a criminal entered Paradise undeservedly. 

Maybe I can learn that revenge and hatred will not get me anywhere, but a simple question might: "Jesus, remember me."

Life is Hard but God is Good. An Inquiry into Suffering.



How can a good God allow evil in the world? Is there any good in suffering? Why is God so unfair?


"A book filled with practical wisdom, Adele Gonzalez gives us a theology that makes sense to those who are not satisfied with simplistic answers to life's deepest questions." --Most Rev. Ricardo Ramirez, C.S.B., Bishop, Diocese of Las Cruces.


Buy from Orbis, Amazon or your local bookstore.

http://www.get-with-it.com/
http://www.maryknollsocietymall.org/description.cfm?ISBN=978-1-57075-926-0
http://amazon.com/

Also by Adele J. Gonzalez: The Spirituality of Community 

"At last, not a touchy-feely guide to living in community but a practical, spiritual vision of community in a real world where nothing is perfect and all are welcome."

Of Gods And Men - Official Trailer HD

If you are a depressed but also hopeful Catholic don't miss this posting

Will anyone care 500 years from now about today's debates? Women priests? Married priests? ...

Long time editor from Orbis Books, Michael Leach, has written a clear and honest article about what many of us feel and question.

Can The Catholic Church Change?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-leach/can-the-catholic-church-c_b_841971.html?ref=fb&src=sp




Pelayo in Covadonga, Asturias, Spain



I invite you to join me in this dialogue and use his wise words as a starting point.

I have been a lay minister in the Catholic Church for over 30 years. I have experienced "Camelot" and the dungeons of the Inquisition. Yet, after all this time I still remain a Catholic. Why?

Michael Leach has shared a lot of wisdom in his book, "Why Stay Catholic" and also in the above article. I invite you to read both as we continue the conversation on a subject that brings so much pain to so many Catholics today.

I will be posting my own opinions and experiences and hope you do the same so that we can all grow together. You can write in English or in Spanish.

I look forward to this exchange!

and the WORD became flesh...

Today Christians celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation

The late Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, once wrote: “By virtue of Creation, and even more of the Incarnation, nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see.”

If we believe in an incarnate God, in the Emmanuel (God-with-us), in the Divine who became human so that humanity could become divine (Irenaeus), then our spirituality must be Incarnational. Among other things, this means shifting some of our present paradigms:

• From an emphasis on Golgotha, to an emphasis on Bethlehem.

• From an emphasis on getting to heaven, to incarnating the reign of God, here and now.

• From wanting to leave matter and the body behind, to understanding that creation and our flesh and bones really do “matter.”

• From “private concerns” to social participation, and witness that violence, oppression and exploitation are never acceptable for a Christian.

• From an individual, personal and private relationship with God to a communal and relational spirituality that includes all of creation.

• From relationships based on position, role and productivity, to relationships based on the love of God who loved us first and calls us to that love.

    How does the Incarnation influence my life here and now?

SO MUCH SUFFERING...



It seems that the last few months have highlighted the suffering of the planet. No one can escape the news about natural catastrophes, genocide, nuclear disasters, wars  and brutalities against humanity, not to mention our personal problems. I do not pretend to have an easy answer for this situation, yet I would like to share some words written by Thomas Merton many moons ago. His words have given me much food for thought!

"Indeed the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most: and his suffering comes to him from things so little and so trivial that one can say that it is no longer objective at all. It is his own existence, his own being that is at once the source of his pain, and his very existence and consciousness is his greatest torture." Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain, Harcourt, Inc. New York, 1978, pg.82



Are we allowing the smaller insignificant things to torture us? If so, then the tragedies that surround us today will totally annihilate our spirits.

Is there room for hope and growth in the midst of it all?

Alaska glacier 2011







Who should cast the first stone?

(Jesus) said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone…” John 8:7 (NRSV)

Speaking on his radio show Monday, Glenn Beck said that the earthquake could be a "message being sent" by God… And that is, 'Hey, you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it.' I'm just saying."

Gilbert Gottfried, the voice of Aflac's beloved duck tweeted on Monday: "I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, 'There'll be another one floating by any minute now.'”

WNBA player Cappie Pondexter also tweeted her comments: "What if God was tired of the way they treated their own people in their own country!... "u just never know! They did pearl harbor so u can't expect anything less."

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only active deployments of nuclear weapons in war to date.

Who should cast the first stone? Why do we continue to play the blame game? Where is the American spirit of compassion?

Choose life!

A few days ago I read once again Deuteronomy 30:19-20,

"I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God..." 

Five months ago I chose life in the form of a total knee replacement. I had stopped posting because the physical pain and the process of finishing my new book did not leave me any energy to blog. Now I feel that my energy is back after a very successful surgery and the happy conclusion of my book.

Choose life! What a simple and yet profound statement. The Hebrew writer did not mean only "life" in the literal sense versus "death" in the physical way. The Hebrew word for life also means goodness; death means evil. I would say, let us choose LIGHT and do not allow ourselves to be consumed by the darkness. 

Yesterday we witnessed the destruction in Japan and the ramifications in Hawaii, California and possibly the entire Pacific coastline. What to think? How to respond to this tragedy? If we choose death we will simply add another corpse to the already long list. If we choose life, maybe, just maybe we can contribute to the collective awareness that the Christian God is also suffering this catastrophe. This gives me hope, hope that somehow all this suffering has a meaning.

In spite of all the difficulties around us, the economic and international crisis, etc. I choose to choose LIFE, LIGHT, GOODNESS...

Is there any other way to help move humanity towards the development of its full potential?