Another stream-of-consciousness piece. An elucidation of the paradoxes and futility of modern capitalism and liberal individualism, and their basic contradiction with the Gospel.

We live in a world that encourages competition and elitism.
Despite superficial exhortations to prioritize kindness and empathy, the precepts and precedents of the world have stronger influences hidden beneath these superficial words.
Capitalism and liberal individualism, working together, establish a vertical order of society, based on wealth, power, status, and property.
They say it’s good to love your neighbor but – because the world works this way – we first must prioritize ourselves.
We must seek first to claim and maintain our own position in the hierarchy. Then we can share the excess.
But didn’t Christ say, “seek first the Kingdom of God”?
Our goals in the world are not fixed. When we attain to one position in the hierarchy, we set our sights higher, drunk on the wealth, power, status, property, and prestige we have newly claimed.
And we say, again, “first I must attain to my position and secure it, then I can share the excess.”
All the way, seeking to claim and maintain our position is…
…to disregard those who need to eat, so we can hoard a surplus of food.
…to disregard those who need shelter so we can hoard funds for a down-payment on a house.
…to disregard the sick and infirm until we’ve reached our goals of health and beauty.
…to disregard environmental sustainability until the economy is sustainable.
Yet these are all conditional excuses that justify selfishness. We just don’t see it that way.
Our priorities are confused.
We are too good at lying to ourselves for our own benefit.
We are too blinded by our own perceptions and fundamental attribution errors.
We are too enraptured by self-serving biases and just world hypotheses.
They appeal to and exploit the ego,
Which, the more I think about it
the more it seems to be Satan’s countermeasure
to the gift of the Paraclete
– giving him a foothold by which to influence us.
They seem rational in the context of the world, despite the harm they do to the underprivileged and their fundamental nature to contradict the Gospel.
Satan does not rescind power willingly – anymore than our ego will.
So by the time we reach our goals
– our stores of food,
our over-sized homes,
our own beauty and wealth,
economic stability –
we are so broken by the hard-won efforts to get them that
the fear of losing them creates a greater anxiety.
So we set our goals higher and our sights loftier, and placate ourselves once more: “the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the planet… they have survived this long without my help; a little longer won’t hurt.”
And all the while we grow more attached to the world.
And further and further from the Father who loves is,
from the Son who gave his life for us,
from the Spirit who guides us.

What follows is a brief discourse. As I find my footing in my faith, again, I find these thoughts and ideas surfacing — just as they once did, many years ago — throughout the day. I take no credit for them. Should they be found to have value, may all credit and glory be given to God.

In the modern world, we have become hypocrites and blasphemers.
We claim to know the mind of God as we condemn the sins of others while we, ourselves, remain slaves to sinful passions.
We condemn the “idolatry” of Marian devotion – while we are devoted more to Mammon than to God.
We condemn the murder of children – while we participate in ravaging and destroying the planet.
We preoccupy ourselves with the faults and imperfections of others – not just to distract from, but to minimize and excuse ourselves of our own.
Faith without works is dead, but knowledge without understanding will leave us disowned.
And we justify it all with anxiety over the future – anxiety that erodes our faith, hope, and charity. Have we yet forgotten that a days troubles are enough for the day?
We cannot add one bit of righteousness to ourselves by condemning the unrighteousness of others – so why bother? To distract ourselves from humility? To gratify our hubris? To usurp God’s sovereign right to judge and condemn? Are we truly Christians, then?
Or have we become sons and daughters of Satan and his world?
Do we even realize what we are doing?
The sick and hungry suffer and we say, “we love Jesus… but we must pay ourselves first.”
And we justify it – saying, “this is how the world is, now, and we must adapt.”
But this is how the world was when Christ came in the flesh: he did not say, “adapt” – no – he said, “forsake.” Be in the world, but not of it.
To serve as one among the least is greater, to God, than to rule among the elite.
Jesus did not say it would be easy. He said the way is narrow, and few will find and enter.
Yet, he did say it is easy – if we are blessed enough, with eyes that see and ears that hear.
Let us, therefore, turn our criticism inward to perfect ourselves.
Let us, therefore, turn our exhortations outward to the uplifting of others.
And let us be found, when Christ returns, doing the will of his Father, that we may be counted as his brothers and sisters.

Many more of these will follow. I will try to be diligent and pen them as they come, and I will make my best effort to avoid overthinking them.

May the Peace of God, the Love of Christ, and the Unity of the Holy Spirit bless you. And may Blessed Mary, ever virgin, St Joseph, and the Holy Apostles, together with all the saints, angels, and archangels, pray for us.