Confused, unhappy people are often said to suffer from being “neurotic”, “psychotic”, “schizophrenic”, “depressed”, “confused”, “bi-polar”, “post-traumatic stress”, “anxiety”, “eating/drug/alcohol disorders”, “anti-social”, “narcissistic” or other names for what are “Confusion Headaches”.
Catholics are blessed to put all those “Confusion Headaches” in perspective with Today’s easily remembered reading from James 1:1-11. Catholics see that verse may be the only “Daily Reading” with four ones!
“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings.
Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
Every Catholic “joyfully” faces “various trials”. Catholics pass our “tests of faith” by “perseverance” to The Church-Creating Word of Jesus to His First Catholic Pope: “And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
Those “keys to The Kingdom of Heaven” include the Seven Catholic Sacraments: Baptism, Confession/Absolution, Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, and Healing. Catholic priests and religious who follow God’s “Holy Orders” help us cure problems in life.
Catholics are blessed to understand that every mental disorder causes “Confusion Headaches” that come from violating this Catholic Teaching: “Love God and love your neighbors as yourself”.
Return to the four ones! “And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Then, we see God’s Cure for “Confusion Headaches”! “But, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, Who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it.”
Then James 1:1-11 tells us what we must do to gain “wisdom”! “But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.” That perfectly describes the “Confusion Headaches” of those who turn to people and medications to solve what are nothing more than “tests of Faith”!
The hopelessness of those farthest from Catholic Teaching is perfectly described: “For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from The Lord, since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.”
Then, James tells us how to cure one fatal disorder, the desire for “riches”:
“The brother in lowly circumstances should take pride in high standing, and the rich one in his lowliness, for he will pass away ‘like the flower of the field’. For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, its flower droops, and the beauty of its appearance vanishes. So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his pursuits.”
Today’s Psalm 119: 67, 68, 71, 72, 75, 76, reinforces God’s Power to cure “Confusion Headaches”: “Be kind to me, Lord, and I shall live. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I hold to Your promise… You are good and bountiful; teach me Your statutes… It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes… The law of Your mouth is to be more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces… I know O LORD, that Your ordinances are just, and in Your faithfulness You have afflicted me…Let Your kindness comfort me, according to Your Promise to Your servants.”
Today’s Gospel from John 14:6 tells us that if we obey Every Word of Jesus, our “Confusion Headaches” will be cured: “‘I am the way and the truth and the life’ says The Lord; ‘no one comes The Father except through Me.'”
The Reading ends with Mark 8:11-13, which contains the “Hidden Prophecy” of what happens to those who argue with He Who Fulfilled the Prophesies! “The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from Him a sign from Heaven to test Him. He sighed from the depth of His spirit, and (then He gave us His “HiddenProphecy” of which souls would eternally condemn themselves by asking): ‘Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.’ Then, He left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.”
Sadly, some would rather suffer from “Confusion Headaches” than ask God for the faith to cure them and spend a joyful eternity on God’s “other shore”, which Catholics know is Christ’s “Hidden Prophesy” of Heaven!
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Today’s Simple Rhyme describes every “Confusion Headache” in History! “I know more than God about what is best for me/ and I know that that is not insanity.”
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