I highly recommend that if you get a chance to see ACoral Reef@ which is the Omnimax movie at the science center at this point. It is rather powerful in it=s imagery in terms of the richness of life that the coral reef is and can be.  It is alive and the whole reef a number of the ones shown in South Pacific but they also show the damage.  It=s vibrant and filled with different species of fish and it=s so beautiful that it was for me an image of God=s intention for us to be alive! Of course they couldn=t possibly do all of it in a 40 minute movie. What they did do was extremely impressive.

It shows that God>s love accomplishes a fantastic marvel of life. It is such a vivid image that it can stay with us and make us realize what God is after. He wants us to be fully alive.  There are three things that are killing the reefs.  Which is too bad because they can disappear in a short lifetime - thirty years.  It would be disaster for the whole world.

The first thing is the heating up of the ocean. The heating up of the ocean is caused by global warming. Global warming is caused by the whole of the different nations, ourselves included, probably more than anyone, of pollutants into the atmosphere and therefore causing the ocean to heat up. With that in mind what is the spiritual cause of the most detrimental deadness that can prevade us? It really is a lack of belief in God. When you read the different surveys of how many people believe in God a lot of times they=ll say they took a survey and 80% of the people or 92% of the people believe in God. Then if you ask more specific questions you begin to realize that the God they believe in is not necessarily personal and if they do have a notion of God there is no relationship with God. So the real issue is not simply to believe in God but is there a real personal relationship? If I meet Jesus I have to meet him as my Savior therefore I have to be able to say, AJesus loves Clement.@ AJesus forgives Clement his sins.@ Really be able to be like the woman in the house that=s mentioned in Chapter 7 of Luke, with your willingness to wipe His feet with your tears. Personal relationship. If you have no personal relationship then it=s like the child who grows and is educated. He know two plus two is four and all kinds of stuff but he doesn=t say anything like, AMy mother loves me!@ Those are two different categories of knowledge. When we talk about personal relationship we=re talking about this kind of thing - I know that God loves me. That is quite different and very vivifying. It is the key to life, to the Christian life, to the religious life. In the life of Sr. St. Faustina there=s a number of passages where this is manifested rather powerfully. One is the Lord says, AI want to do anything you want for me I=ll give you a whole new world and everything@ and she answers him, AI don=t want that stuff, I want you!@ Another time Jesus said to her, AIf you look at another you will hurt me deeply.@ Personal relationship. In this life - now, this is the issue.

The second thing that wrecks the reefs is over fishing. In our personal life in the United States especially, there is evidence, surveys, that show us that not only are we the most stressed people but we=re the most unbalanced people. People work 60 to 80 hours a week then they wonder why their marriages collapse. We have to ask ourselves how balanced is our life? Do we really make sure there=s balance there? It=s in balance that we can be receptive.

I was just thinking, we did such a beautiful job decorating for Christmas and it=s so uplifting. But I don=t see too many people sitting around in the Calefactory just enjoying it. It=s really uplifting! Go down tonight and just sit there, don=t do anything, just enjoy it. Or even here in church, it=s beautiful. It=s just absolutely beautiful. We don=t have time for that. Why not? We went through all this trouble putting it up. I don=t even see anyone kneel before the crib - it=s a beautiful crib. It=s very uplifting.

The third point is the reefs are near the islands and the filtering of the land soil goes down the rivers and it runs into the reefs and makes the water hazy so the sun doesn=t come through and it dies.

To me this is very common. So many catholic=s don=t know their faith. It=s almost evident. The voice of the faithful people they all want to change the church but everything they do is in rebellion. Their behaviors. The people they get are people who are resenting things. They don=t have any leaders that promote some particular doctrine and try to develop it positively. No, they=ve got someone who=s knocking it. Knocking the church so everybody comes and they laugh at their remarks that knock the church. Yet they claim in their agenda that they want to do this, and this, and this, which all sounds real nice but in behavior. Which means here=s something quite clear they can=t see - they need to be filtered of their own things. Even a worse case, there=s a case in Florida this guy Sheavo, wife was damaged in the hospital with brain damage because they didn=t do something right so they got 1.6 million dollars. Now he is trying to take the life support system from her obviously for the money. He promises to do things. To know the faith and to deepen it is key.

So of these three to me the real one that we really need to work on is the first one. So I challenge you. Go through at least one day in which you really say, AJesus loves me.@ AJesus loves Fr. Joachim.@ Really let it sink in. To help you to move you toward it - remember what Jesus said, AAs the Father loves me, I love you.@ Really spend a day just letting that sink in and how do you respond to it?

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