Viva La Vida

          Viva La Vida is a song by Coldplay that means "live life". But what exactly do the lyrics of the song mean? I was wondering that the other day when I decided to look up the lyrics and learn them because I enjoy listening to this song very much. It turns out that the song is about a king who was so powerful he could summon massive armies at his command. He would gamble with his power and his enemies would fear him greatly. The crowds would rejoice "now the old king is dead, long live the king!" This means that he was the one king who conquered many others. Then suddenly, after having held the key (to his kingdom) for so long, he realized that the walls were closing in on him and that his castle stood on pillars of salt and sand. I'm not an architect, but I am pretty sure that is not a good foundation for a kingdom. He was so powerful and was conquering so many other kingdoms that he did not even realize what was happening inside his own kingdom. Now here comes in the religious aspect and why I am blogging about this. The next part of the song (the refrain) talks about how he hears Jerusalem bells ringing, Roman cavalries singing, to be his mirror, sword, and shield, and to be his missionaries in a foreign field. He is using religion to conquer the kingdoms! He wants them to represent his image, power, and fortitude. He wants missionaries sent, but (unlike priests of today) in the end, as we learn in history, missionaries conquer as well! The refrain also says that once you're gone there was never an honest word, meaning that he lied to the people when he was drunk with power, and once that power was gone so was his kingdom. He then said that the people could not believe what he had become (which today people cannot believe the kings who used to conquer in the name of religion) and in the second and third refrain the part about the power changes to "I know St. Peter won't call my name". He knows and regrets what he has done, but when he was so powerful he never realized what he was doing.
          This song has a lot of meaning and explains the issue about people asking questions such as "Why is religion (especially Christianity, since in the song the king must have used Christianity as his religion since he knew about St. Peter) considered so good when it has caused so many wars?" Well, it is not Christianity that starts wars, it is the people. Specifically, it is one person or a small group of peopl
e who have great authority and seem very sure of themselves and the people follow. In order for the people to follow them and join them in conquering other nations, they need a reason. They need something that the people are passionate about and that they feel so strongly about that if they can be convinced that doing wrong will bring good to their people (and to the people they conquer), they will do whatever it takes. Christianity does not start wars; it is the kings and rulers who use whatever they can to gain power, wealth and fame, and they mask their evil with anything they can think of, which has happened to be Christianity many times in the past.

The Souls of the Unbaptized Infants

The Catholic Church is not 100% sure about what happens to those babies that were never born or that died at a very young age and were never baptized, for it is not their faults that these misfortunes happened to them. They never committed a sin and never really got the chance to reason and use that intellect and free will that God has blessed us with. But, it is certain that the souls of these infants are taken care of by our omnibenevolent God and do not experience any suffering. 

The common perspective is that the unbaptized/aborted infants go to a place called Limbo of the infants, not Purgatory. This place is not Heaven, for they do not have the beatific vision of God and are not living in communion with him. But, because they do not have any personal sin, they will not experience any suffering. They will not experience the supernatural happiness of being with God, but they will experience natural happiness. The Church does not exactly know what happens to babies that are without Baptism and die or those that are aborted. It is certain, though, that they go into the hands of a truly loving and merciful God. They have not committed anything sinful; therefore, they should not experience any suffering in their afterlife. This speculation of limbo does not have to be accepted by the members of the Catholic Church. There are other things that are believed, though. Some people count the desire of the Church to baptize the unbaptized babies or aborted babies as a form of Baptism of Desire. Some people think that the aborted babies experience a Baptism of Blood. But, this way of Baptism for aborted infants is not very accurate, for the Church has stated that Baptism of Blood occurs when a person dies from a martyrdom for his/her faith. The choice of a mom of aborting a child is not necessarily a martyrdom for the Christian faith. Ultimately, we know that God, who is loving and merciful, chooses what happens, and hopefully this involves salvation.

Ronald Davis: A Human Being

          In this video, Ronald Davis talks about how hard it is to be poor and survive each day. He does not enjoy having to shake his cup around the streets every day so that he can get some money but he has no choice because no place will give him a job. He later says that he got upset when a person came up to him and told him to get a job and stop being a bum. Davis was very upset by this and replied that he is not a bum; rather he is a human being and we are all equal. Davis said my God bless his soul, and the man came back later apologetic and said that he had been having a bad day and gave Davis thirty dollars.
          God created all human beings equal, and he loves all of us equally as well. Since we are all created by God in the image of God and created out of love, we all share in a common communion. We are like a body, and Christ the King is the head. When we hurt someone else, that body is injured and everyone suffers from the injury, whether it is minor or severe. When Davis was called a bum, he was very hurt, and I'm sure the viewers felt very sorry for him as well as I did. When we make a mistake or hurt someone in the communion (which is like hurting ourselves because we are the same body), we feel terrible afterwards, and that is why the man later came back and apologized to Davis. We are supposed to obey the Ten Commandments in order to live a holy and good life, but as long as we follow the new Commandment of Love, we obey all the commandments and can live a great life. This commandment is to love one another as Christ loves us. Christ, who is God, is all loving and forgiving, and though we can never be perfect (which Christ is), we can set our goals to be perfection and aim at getting closer and closer to those goals each day. Going back to the Davis issue, whenever someone is h
urt, the person who gave the hurting must both apologize and do something else in order to somewhat repair the rift between the two people that was formed after one of the persons had been hurt. The man who hurt Davis apologized and gave him thirty dollars, while furthermore saying he had been having a really bad day and did not mean what he said. As a Christian, this part is crucial whenever we sin (which is inevitable) and shows that we are sinners but we desire to live a Christlike life and be one body with no injuries whatsoever.

The New Commandment of Love

After the Last Supper, Jesus told his Apostles a new Commandment. In this Commandment, Jesus told the Apostles, "Love one another, as I have loved you." As children of God, we are all called to love one another as Jesus loves us and as we love ourselves. We should always respect our neighbors and treat them the way we would like to be treated. We have to realize that we are all equal in dignity as God's sons and daughters, and we should never view someone as being lower than us. We should not respect someone less than another person because of his/her status or appearance. Although created unique, we are all humans and deserve to be treated with equal respect. Now, that is not to say that we have the same roles or responsibilities in life. We do have different roles and responsibilities in fulling God's will, which is the way God wants it to be. But, we are all created equal in dignity and created in the image and likeness of God. Some ways of treating our neighbors with respect is by helping others out when they are in need and fulfilling our virtue of charity, whether that is by emotionally supporting them by giving them beneficial advice or donating money and food to charities.

In the video of Ronald Davis explaining the struggles he faces while living a life without a proper home, he states that there are many people that disrespect him and call him a bum as they tell him to get a job. But, instead of insulting our neighbors and laughing at them, we should help them out and give of ourselves, whether that is time, advice, and so on. We should not always worry about what we can receive and get out of certain things; rather, we should give and sacrifice things just like Jesus did during his time on earth. At the same time, we should be very thankful for the things that God has blessed us with. We should be very grateful and appreciate everything that God continues to do for us. Life is a miracle itself. God will supply for those who give. Also, we have to be careful to not take things for granted. We have to watch the amount of things that we use, for we are called to be caretakers and shepherds of earth. For example, we can take only what we are going to eat at a buffet or close the faucet to stop the water from running when we brush our teeth. Some of our less fortunate neighbors in other parts of the world would really appreciate all the things that we take for granted, which is why we could donate to charities that help provide food and necessities in those other countries. By living out the New Commandment of Love and fulfilling our task of being caretakers of the world, we can better grow in holiness and fulfill God's will.

The Acceptance of Salvation

I believe that there is a problem with many people becoming prideful and thinking that God should just give them salvation. Like the metaphor of the builder constructing a house with one door that grants entrance into the house, yet the owner insists that there be a door in the rear of the house, God gives us the opportunity to live in his Kingdom of Heaven with him where there is eternal life and happiness. But, many of us choose to seek what is most pleasurable in this life while disregarding what our true purpose of life is, to fulfill the will of God. We sometimes become greedy and prideful and sometimes believe that we deserve the best and should be recognized as gods in some sense. We must be careful when we choose what actions we are going to commit. We do not want to make the same that our parents, Adam and Eve, committed when they were first created by our all loving creator. We sometimes have a tendency of expecting more than what is really available and offered. Sometimes we want more than the essentials and the generous offers. For example, if a graduating high school student really hopes of getting a scholarship to one of their university choices, they cannot simply expect that university to give him/her the scholarship just like that. You have to work for it and fulfill all the requirements and standards that the college has set. You cannot just sit around and perform at a mediocre standard, and you cannot just become lazy and simply expect the scholarship to be offered to you. Salvation is very similar to the scholarship in this example. God has most certainly done his part in getting us salvation and the opportunity to go live with him in Heaven. Now, it is our turn to complete our part and live in imitation of his only Begotten Son Jesus Christ as we fulfill his will. We have to put effort into everything that we do, especially into living the life God wants us to live so that we me experience eternal life with him in Heaven.

We have to gracious to God and give him thanks for even sending his Son to open the gates of Heaven and allowing us to experience salvation. We must be very careful to make sure that we do not become too prideful. It is okay o like yourself. As a matter of fact, you should, for it is the healthy thing to do.  But, when you begin to think that you’re more important than you actually are, the sin of pride begins to take effect. Pride is the key to all other sins, because after you believe that you’re more important than you actually are, you compensate for it when others don’t agree with your judgment. You try to make everything you do, even if wrong, look okay by making excuses for lying, cheating, stealing, and insulting. You begin to believe that only you really understand yourself and your actions and that there isn't anyone else that does. Instead, the Church teaches that you should experience humility, like Christ did, so that you do not become too prideful.