Most of us are somewhat familiar with The Apostle’s Creed, an early condensation of Christian beliefs:
“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.”
Catholic Fundamentalists, like most Christians, have no difficulty accepting and believing any part of The Creed. We have a different view of the puzzling phrase, “the resurrection of the body”.
As readers know, Catholic Fundamentalism describes God as “The Unprogrammed Programmer”, or “The Loving Programmer”, or “The Programmer of Programmers”. Giving Him a name that help us understand His power helps us see each one of us as a dearly beloved “human program” who has been assigned a special mission that consists of doing what we’re doing, but doing it better.
We believe that each of our missions on earth was programmed in our soul at the moment of conception. Our soul, of course, is both a program AND a programmer. Just as God programmed and downloaded The Creation Program, our soul has the power, living within our mother’s womb, to download our spirit, mind, and body around itself. At the end of nine months, with help from loving parents, our special, human program is physically downloaded, and continues to download around itself the spirit, mind, and body that we will have throughout, and beyond, our days in the clay.
When our soul leaves our body, it is either immediately sent to Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell. If we have failed to ask for forgiveness, we run the risk of ending up in the latter for all eternity. Otherwise, at some point, there will be a resurrection of our body. At that point, our soul will immediately be supplied with what we used to have around us, but without flaws or imperfections. Our bodies, that once took decades to fully form even as they began to decay, will immediately be downloaded without flaw around our souls, and there we’ll be!
Just as we consider God as “The Unprogrammed Programmer”, The Loving Programmer”, or “Programmer of Programmers”, we may think of ourselves as “mini-versions” of Him. Each one of us is a living, individual programming principle. Our soul programs our spirits, minds, and bodies around us, and our soul directs them to do our will, hopefully with a focus on doing as we’re told, loving God and our neighbors.
We each program an outerworld for ourselves, including our clothing, workplace, and dwelling, in which we operate. We avail ourselves of the 2 and 3-D programs that others have created, whether they be carpets, paint, windows, cars, movies, etc. so that we can surround our own program with things that humans have made (programmed) that we like.
As we grow more deeply appreciative of the fact that we human programs operate within programs created by The Programmer, ourselves, and our fellow human programs, it becomes all the more compelling for us to “Get with The Program!”
