Those of you who know me, know I'm a cradle Catholic who left the church when I left home at 18. I was, as all 18 year olds tend to be, out to find my own path and just knew the Catholic church had way too many man made rules that didn't have much to do with God. I still wanted to be a child of God, I just wanted to do it my way. I attended various churches, and studied various religions. I came to the conclusion, nearly ten years later, that of the churches and religions out there, Catholics weren't even among the top 20 in man made rules that don't have much to do with God! For me anyway, the Catholic church is home. It turned out that a lot of my problems with the Catholic church stemmed from being poorly educated, and rebellious.
In the past two weeks, the Catholic church has opened my eyes to, and encouraged me to become more involved with what is going on in the outside world with regard to the abortion movement in this country. I am NOT a politics person. Politics makes zappy things going on in my brain, and then involuntary drooling starts. All joking aside, I despise deceit, outright hatred, and injustice, and in my feeble mind, politics is the culmination of those things, among other insidious things that I can't even name. I am also not a person who does well with confrontation and conflict. Therefore, stating my position on "hot topics" like abortion, is not in my nature. My beautiful friend Janice is fond of saying that God takes me out of my comfort zone so I can grow. Well, I've been WAY out of my comfort zone these past two weeks, but the only thing I feel like I have grown is an ulcer. I can tell you that I don't like it at all, and am ready to retreat back into my own little bubble and let stronger people than I deal with the issues of the world. I am way too sensitive for this stuff!
My medium over the past two weeks has been Facebook. I'm an avid fb user. Some would even call me a fb addict. Yeah, I'll go along with that. So, when I was sitting at Mass two weeks ago listening to Fr. Paul talk about how it was the 39th anniversary of Roe Vs. Wade, and how the coming week would be dedicated to prayers for the sanctity of human life, I felt a pull to use my fb addition to support that endeavour. Each day that week I posted a picture of some sort that represented my position to let the unborn live. A woman I had been friends with since I was about nine years old took unprecedented offense to my daily posts, and unfriended me on facebook, and in life. Ok, truth be told, I'd been trying to get her out of my life since we were about 19, so it wasn't that great a loss. The act did, however, open my eyes to the level of hatred surrounding this one topic. I subscribed to two pro-life organizations on fb that week. One is called 180Movie.com, the other is called Live Action. I have seen the hate on both sides of the issue in following both of these organizations for the past two weeks.
This past week has had a double slam. First, during Mass last Sunday, we were all told that the federal government is forcing us all to have insurance coverage that includes things the Catholic church, (and many other Christian churches), doesn't hold with, like contraception, sterilization, and abortions. We were urged to write to our congress person, and senators. The second thing was that probably the biggest anti breast cancer foundation, The Susan G Komen foundation, decided not to fund Planned Parenthood anymore. By the end of this week, SGK had been bullied back into PP by scores of irate, hateful people. I can't follow this stuff anymore. I'm sick to my stomach to know that hate triumphs, and in order to get anything done in this country, you have to be hateful to a degree that my head cannot be wrapped around. The hate posts I saw flying back and forth over this one single issue for the past two weeks has had me in a constant state of semi panic, and given me a headache and stomach ache.
I've been accused of finding inspiration in crazy places before. Like when I heard the Evanescence song Bring Me To Life and thought it sounded like a modern day psalm. It really does! Print out the lyrics and compare them to a psalm like 86. They have the same elements! Anyway, I was listening to a pop station on the radio, which I almost never do because I'm not a fan of pop. Bruno Mars has a song called Grenade. As I listened to it, all I could think was, "This is God singing this song to each of us on this planet!" I'll leave you with the lyrics. See what you think.
Grenade - by Bruno Mars
Easy come, easy go, that's just how you live
Oh, take, take, take it all but you never give
Should've known you was trouble from the first kiss
Had your eyes wide open, why were they open?
Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked
'Cause what you don't understand is
I'd catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I'd jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya
I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for you, baby
But you won't do the same
No, no, no, no
Black, black, black and blue, beat me 'til I'm numb
Tell the devil I said, hey, when you get back to where you're from
Mad women, bad women, that's just what you are, yeah
You'll smile in my face then rip the brakes out my car
Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, yes, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked
'Cause what you don't understand is
I'd catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I'd jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya
I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for ya, baby
But you won't do the same
If my body was on fire
Ooh, you'd watch me burn down in flames
You said you loved me, you're a liar
'Cause you never, ever, ever did, baby
But darling, I'd still catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I'd jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya
I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for you, baby
But you won't do the same
No, you won't do the same
You wouldn't do the same
Ooh, you never do the same
No, no, no, no
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