We think we see ourselves in a mirror. But, if we are disfigured in an accident, our reflection does not reflect the fact that we are the same person we were before the accident.
If we have renounced sin between one mirror viewing and the next, we are totally different, but our reflection appears to be the same.
Appearances, then, are always deceiving.
What are we? Catholic Fundamentalists think that each human being is a program with free will and the ability to replicate. Our program was complied out of all the material we received from all of our ancestors. It was compiled at the very instant of our conception by as many angels as were needed to do such wonderful work.
Our intellect (individual programming abilities) was draped around the soul that sprang into being at conception. Our minds and bodies were made out of minerals absorbed from the outside.
We each have different ideas about how to get along with other free-will creatures. It helps to understand that we are not dealing with what a person appears to be, but with their soul, the invisible nucleus of their being. Souls are targets in an ongoing war. Each is surrounded by a cloud of spirits working to lead it one way or another.
Most of our fellow free will creatures do not understand that each of our souls is a smaller image of The Programmer.
“Ye are as Gods”, Scripture says, and so, of course, we are. We have free will and a life with no end. Worldly people don’t want to hear much about eternal life. Their concern with created things keeps them from thinking, saying, or doing things that may be seen as “extreme” or “radical” to other people with similar priorities. There’s no other way to move into the Kingdom of God.
When we encourage others to move toward The Kingdom, we want to understand, but not be silenced by, their outward attitude. All of us are souls; all of us are, to some degree, lost; and all of us need to move closer to Our Father, Who is in Heaven.
A short verse sums it up:
“Behind each face a mind. Within each mind, a soul
Who’s crying out for God to make it whole.”
