Category: drug overdose

WHERE DO YOUR LOYALTIES LIE?

IN A WORLD WHERE MONEY IS A DEMIGOD, DO YOU WORSHIP AT THAT ALTAR?

In Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13 Jesus shows us that money is a worldly power, a law unto itself that acts in the material world but with a spiritual orientation. Power is never neutral and is often personal as reflected in the Bible. Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13 tells us, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon is an ancient terminology for material wealth.

We are bombarded with images of a lifestyle that is unattainable for the majority of individuals unless they go into extreme debt or go into a life of crime to obtain the latest thing an influencer or advertisement is peddling. The hottest must have thing around or you’re just not up to speed with the rest of your crowd! If you think long and hard about what is happening here, people are not really thinking for themselves anymore and they are more afraid to stray from the crowd as an individual. When something is nonsensical, like a pet rock, why buy it? Yet millions of them sold! That’s a small example of following the crowd but it leads into falling away from your faith, sex addiction, gambling, alcohol abuse, and illegal drug consumption to name a few more examples that are plaguing our society today.

When your loyalties lie with money and you become a slave to the almighty dollar, then you will do anything for a dollar. Your conscience will allow you to do things that you could not ordinarily imagine, including committing murder, because you believe that a human life is not as important as the money attached to it at that time. That is why violent crime in the United States has gotten way out of control. The perpetrators value the all mighty dollar higher than human life and are willing to spill blood in the streets because someone else has something they want and think they have the right to take from someone else, even if it means taking a human life to obtain the object of desire. Hollywood glorifies violence and living by the sword all to make insane amounts of money. Music and dance exemplifies thug life all to make insane amounts of money. Athletes are worshiped as heroes and paid insane amounts of money. Drugs flow freely in our streets and in our schools in epidemic proportions. Yet we think we cannot make effective changes against the evils I this world!

We make change in this world with a positive force when we pray together and follow Christ’s teachings. When we use money as a tool and use it as a force for good we can make positive effective changes in the world. When we vote leaders into office who stand strong on crime, will get mental health initiatives passed to help those with mental health issues instead of incarcerating them, and stop putting our economic power behind negative influences, we will begin to see positive influences grow in our society. We have to work together as a cohesive force for GOOD THROUGH FOLLOWING CHRIST!

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Use a Prayer or Mass Journal to record how God has blessed you and how you have worshipped at God’s altar. As you record your prayer requests and your blessings, you will begin to see how God has answered your prayers throughout your life as you read and reflect over your journals.
  2. Become an Ambassador at Dynamic Catholic: http://www.dynamiccatholic.com
  3. Pray the rosary daily.

PARRIS’ MIRACLE

A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

Revelations 21:27 states, “But nothing unclean shall enter Heaven.”

Parris and I had always been kindred spirits of sorts. He was an extraordinarily intelligent free thinker and I had untreated inattentive ADHD with a vivid imagination in my youth. We were both big picture thinkers who could think outside of the box and were dreamers who could envision all sorts of possibilities. Our spiritual connection ran deep.

Parris was a cocaine user and overdosed one night in the early 1980s. It was 2:00 am when I suddenly awoke thinking my brother, Parris, was sitting on the end of my bed looking at me. The incident startled me but did not frighten me because I knew he was reaching out for help. Not knowing where he was, I reached out to my oldest brother, Charles. When I told him about the visit, he looked rather peculiar because he had received the same visit from Parris at the same time. We instinctively knew it was a cry for help and he had better resources to reach out to in order to get results. Parris recovered from that crisis and lived for many years drug free helping numerous people in different capacities throughout his life.

However, Parris’ miracle occured in January, 1999.

He had been taken to the hospital for a drug overdose once again. Only this time the doctor had actually declared him dead after doing everything they deemed they possibly could do for him in order for him to live. Parris was taken into a hallway of the hospital on a gurney waiting for an orderly to take his remains down to the morgue. It was during that time Parris had his near death experience. He had journeyed into eternity beyond the white lights and was instructed on what he had to do in order to return to his place with our Father in eternity. He suddenly made a loud gasp for air when a nurse passing by realized that Parris was still alive and the doctor resuscitated him back to life. The doctor on duty told my parents that he had never seen a person turn “that BLUE before in his entire career.”

As told to me by Parris, he was instructed to ask forgiveness of those he had wronged and forgive those who had wronged him. Then, he had to make reparations to people he had stolen or borrowed money from. Once those tasks were taken care of, he had to pray for forgiveness from our Father. Since he was under the influence of drugs and died of a heroin overdose, mother made certain that a priest gave him the last rites. He received a full Catholic mass and burial because he needed the prayers. For most of us, we need to go to Purgatory before going to Heaven because we still have some temporal punishment to pay off for our sins as “nothing unclean can enter the presence of God.” Parris died in a state of God’s Grace after fulfilling his mission.

Parris and I had a two hour telephone conversation two weeks before he died that I will never forget. We both spoke from the heart. We were told by the sheriff’s office that Parris died with his big beautiful smile shining brightly because he knew what was waiting for him on the other side. He had completed his assignments and was cleared to spend eternity with our Father as he had been instructed.

That was Parris’ miracle!