Outline 1

The Way It Is

Outline 2

The First Key—Memory—Hope

Outline 3

The Second Key—Understanding—Faith

Outline 4

The Third Key—Will—Love

A Way—The Memory of Jesus

The Truth—The Understanding Of Jesus

The Life—The Will of Jesus

Outline 5

The Master Key

Master Key in the Faculty—

Memory

Understanding

Will

OUTLINE 1

THERE ARE THREE PERSONS IN ONE GOD

Father begets Son — Spirit proceeds from both

and

THERE ARE THREE FACULTIES IN ONE SOUL

Memory feeds Understanding — Will is fed by both

THE WAY IT IS

As human beings, we are creatures of emotions, creatures of intellectual abilities, and creatures with the power to accomplish.

Some people spend their time and thoughts in feeling, hearing, seeing, and listening. Whatever cannot be felt or experienced they will not accept. We call these people emotional.

Some people spend their time reasoning and thinking out everything,—and so—anything that cannot be fully understood, they will not accept. We call these people intellectuals.

Other people have only one goal in life, and that is to do as they please, when they please, and they impose their will on others. We call these people domineering.

When any of. these people seek God in their own way, we find the emotional person seeking the consolations of God rather than God.

The proud intellectual seeks knowledge about God, but he never knows God, because he cannot accept the mysteries that he is unable to fully comprehend.

The domineering person seeks God and loves God as long as God does his Will. He cannot accept a "No" from God.

Most of us weave in and out of these three categories all our lives, and we never succeed in being changed into Jesus.

Christianity is a way of life, and it demands a change of heart and a change of mind. It entails a lifelong struggle to change our emotions, our way of thinking, and our way of acting.

We can relate with our emotions in regard to God or neighbor, and so as we look at our Memory to see how we can change it, we will quite easily grasp its role, its weaknesses, and its strength.

And so it is with the Will. We are all well aware of the strength of our Will and the Will of others. It has been the cause of success and failure, joy and sorrow, in our daily life. And so we shall understand the Will as we see its role and weaknesses and strength.

But this is not so true with the Intellect. How we understand, judge, discern, and form opinions, is a mystery—a mystery because the very faculty by which we understand does not comprehend how it understands.

We add Faith to our Understanding, and we give it light; to see things above itself. Faith is something that we have, but it too is something we cannot explain.

And when we say that we must be humble to have a deep Faith, we add an ingredient that is positively repugnant, to something that is already difficult to grasp.

And so, when we get to the faculty of our soul that we call Understanding, we will have to plow a little deeper; so the seeds that will be sown can reap a rich harvest of a new way of thinking.

Our Christianity changes and transforms us from sadness to joy, from darkness to light, and from slavery to freedom. We must seek the way to this "spiritual revolution"' that we may be set free from ourselves and live in Him and by Him. We must be a witness to a sad world, of Heaven on earth, of peace amidst turmoil, and joy amidst pain.

So we shall look at our Memory—not to dig in, but to root out.

We shall look at our Understanding—not to comprehend but to utilize.

We shall look at our Will—not to lose it, but to redirect it.

OUTLINE 2

Made In His Image

Our Memory resembles the Father — as the Father knows Himself, we know ourselves through our Memory

Our Understanding resembles the Son — as the Son is the perfect Image of the Father, so our Understanding is the exterior image of what we remember

Our Will resembles the Spirit — As the Holy Spirit is the Love and Power that proceeds from the Father and the Son, so our Will is motivated by love and accomplishes what the Memory and Understanding give it to desire.

FIRST KEY: MEMORY - HOPE

The Apostles often found the words of Jesus difficult to understand and they told Him so. But during the Last Supper, when He spoke of His Father and the Father's personal love for them, they finally began to understand.

Jesus looked at them and said, "Do you believe at last? Listen—the time will come—in fact, it has already come—when you will be scattered, each going his own way and leaving Me alone. And yet, I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. I have told you all this so that you may find peace in Me. In the world you will have trouble, but be brave; I have conquered the world" (Jn.16:32,33)

His first words after His Resurrection were "Peace be with you! Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts rising in your hearts?" (Luke 24:37-39)

Why was Jesus disappointed in His Disciples' lack of faith? It would seem, at least on the surface, that the Apostles had every right to be sad and agitated.

Their Master was taken away from them, tortured, and crucified. Their Memories of His kindness and gentleness only made their hearts more agitated and bitter.

Their Imaginations projected fear into the future, and a feeling of hopelessness took possession of their souls.

They remembered how they thought He would deliver them from tyranny, and now it was all over.

What happened to these men that would cause Jesus to ask the reason for their sadness? What did He expect them to do? Why did He wonder at their lack of peace?

All during His public life He asked them to believe in Him, to trust Him, and to abide in Him. Apparently, they did none of these things when the test came, else He would not have questioned their agitation.

It would seem from reading the Scriptures that the Apostles were men of great ambition and imagination.

They realized by His signs that Jesus was Lord, but their concept of the Messiah was material and self-centered.

They often argued as to which one was the greatest, and James and John decided to be on the right and left of Jesus in the Kingdom.

They greatly rejoiced in the powers Jesus gave them, and imagined themselves on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

For three years they listened to His Words, but they repeatedly admitted they did not understand His parables.

They rejected the thought of His future suffering though He revealed it to them beforehand. At one time Peter tried to dissuade Him from going to Jerusalem, and Jesus called him Satan.

It is obvious from these incidents that although they had the grace to believe in His Sonship they did not as yet live a life of Faith.

They began to live on an emotional level—a level in which their daily lives were guided by their Memories and Imaginations. They no longer used these faculties; they lived in them.

When we live our daily lives in these faculties, then we live in ourselves and not in God.

We are living in these faculties

when we harbor resentments and refuse to forgive and forget,

when we worry about tomorrow to the extent that it paralyzes us in the present moment,

when we seek only our own pleasure in everything, unconcerned with the needs of others,

when normal discouragement over failures turns into depressing sadness,

when the remembrance of past sins turns into guilt complexes,

when a desire to succeed turns into greed and double-dealing,

when a normal desire to be loved turns into suspicion—and lust,

when a need to relax turns into over-indulgence in food, drink, and recreation,

when the need to be needed turns into jealousy and possessiveness.

Yes, when these wonderful faculties become the master in the temple of our souls, then we run the danger of becoming slaves in our own household—prisoners, bound hand and foot, swayed to and fro "like a reed shaken by the wind."

Jesus asked the crowds one day exactly what they expected to find in John the Baptist—"a reed shaken by the wind"? No, John was a Prophet whose Will was united to God's Will and who lived by his Understanding and not by his ever-changing emotions. He was a man who was master of his own house and he used his emotions at the right time and in the right place. The Spirit of the Lord could use him to lash out at Herod and to tell the people to repent. He did this with all the emotion of one led by God, and used his lower faculties for God's honor and glory.

We are human and we understand emotions, for they convey ideas and goals in a way that many words fail to do. This is why they were given us but we must use them for God's honor and glory.

We must put these faculties to work for us in order to live a fuller life, but we must never reach the point where we are not in control.

The real danger comes when we use these faculties to love with, for we run the risk of loving with a selfish love. We will love only those who love us. Our enemies or those with whom we have little in common, we will not love at all.

We will love only those who render us a service; and those who, for one reason or another, are not able to comply with our demands, we will ignore or treat coldly.

The things that excite our Imagination and passions will be sought after, and we will run the risk of weakening our Wills and acting in an unreasonable manner.

Living in these faculties, instead of using them, means being tossed to and fro on a perpetual seesaw. One day we are up on the heights of joy, and the next day down to the depths of despair.

As long as we permit our life to be regulated by these faculties we will never possess the Peace He left to us. The Commandment to love our neighbor in the same way God loves us will become almost impossible to obey.

A Christian does not pretend or talk himself out of his problems or pains. He faces them head on, and feels their impact, but he rises above them to the level of faith and trust. He is a marvel to behold as he accepts life and all its trials with Peace and Resignation.

We are human and we have feelings—feelings we cannot deny or negate. Each one of us is different but we will spend our entire lives eating and drinking, laughing and crying, happy and sad, succeeding and failing. But no matter what we do, it must be done for the honor and glory of God and the good of our neighbor.

We have Jesus as our model in using these faculties. We see Him during His public life receiving ingratitude and insults over and over again. Yet, He was always in possession of His soul. He held His Peace and never let His Memory of past ingratitude interfere with His kindness in the present moment.

Though He knew exactly what was in store for Him, He did not permit His Imagination to bring fear and repugnance to His soul.

He could look out into the crowd, know the thoughts of each person and still speak of love and compassion to the few who understood.

He would use these faculties for the purpose for which they were given; and all during His Agony and Death He never allowed Himself to be swayed by the jealousy and hatred of His enemies.

He used His emotions for the Father's honor and glory and our edification.

It was the emotion of Compassion that made Him raise the widow's son to life.

It was Sorrow that made Him weep at the news of Lazarus' death. He wept over Lazarus in spite of the fact that in a few moments He intended to exert His power and raise him from the dead.

He used the emotion of Anger to throw the moneychangers out of the Temple and to pronounce seven woes on the Pharisees.

Yes, He was human and He used human emotions as servants to express love, concern, sympathy; He manifested anger over the injustices that His creatures heaped upon each other. But He never lived in these faculties.

How different He was from His Apostles. They lived with Him long enough to understand, but their Memory and Imagination had not yet become servants, and they were':, disturbed very often over petty things—like which one of them was the greatest.

It may be well to look at some of these first Disciples' and learn from their mistakes.

In the Garden of Olives Jesus asked Peter to pray lest he be tested and fail. But Scripture tells us that Peter was so grieved over the prospect of the Master's suffering and death that he fell asleep.

It was perfectly normal for Peter to feel concerned ands troubled over what was to come. It is always difficult to see those we love suffer—in fact, we call this concern, Compassion. But Peter did not use this emotion to spur himself on to prayer and meditation. He permitted it to take possession of him and make him sad to the point where he became discouraged.

He began to feel helpless and hopeless and went to sleep in an effort to blot the sorrow from his memory. He failed when the test came because his faith was not strengthened by prayer and compassion.

Jesus, on the other hand, had also felt fear of the suffering to come, but He did not live in that fear even for a moment. Though the fear was strong enough to make Him sweat blood and ask that the chalice be taken away, He rose above it and lived in His Understanding by presenting to Himself the necessity of this hour for the Redemption of mankind and the acquiescence of His Will to the Father's Will.

Many times during His life He told us not to worry about tomorrow, because to worry is to project a feeling of hopelessness in the future. This is a misuse of our Memory and Imagination. (Matt. 6:33)

He realizes we must plan for the future, but we can plan without worry. God has given each one of us talents and He expects us to render an account of them. The use of these talents often entails the planning of future projects to render a service to mankind, but here again He does not want us to worry.

We use the talents we possess to the best of our ability and leave the results to God. We are at peace in the knowledge that He is pleased with our efforts and that His Providence will take care of the fruit of those efforts.

At another time Jesus said, "If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her, in his heart." (Matt. 5:28) This is a perfect example of misusing our Memory and Imagination.

Our Imagination is greatly influenced by our senses. Our eyes see, and a picture imprinted upon our Memory. Our nose smells, and our mouth waters with the aroma. Our ears hear, and we are calmed or frightened by the sound. Our tongue tastes, and we rejoice in the variety of foods that delight our appetite. Our sense of touch can make us feel warm with the embrace of a loved one or shiver from cold as we face the wind.

All these senses affect our Memory and Imagination and together they make life enjoyable and livable. They are good, and designed by God to enhance daily living with beauty, joy, and laughter. They also warn us of danger when we touch the flame of a match and feel pain. They remind us to eat by a pain in our stomach, and thrill our hearts when we see the beauty of a sunset.

These faculties render us a service by a feeling of fear sometimes—a kind of intuition that warns us of danger or pain. The memory of slipping on an icy sidewalk makes us careful as our Imagination relives the incident so vividly that we can feel the pain of the fall.

All these wonderful services are rendered by these faculties, but if we misuse them, as in the case of the man looking upon a woman with lust, then we turn these faculties against God—the Supreme Giver, and against ourselves. We use them for evil purposes and totally forget their original purpose in our lives.

It is true that we cannot always help or prevent the rapid pictures and thoughts that enter our minds, but we can prevent the entertaining of those thoughts, and the occasions that promote them. And this is what Jesus warned us of when He said the man "looked" at the woman. It was a deliberate act to excite his Memory and Imagination for evil purposes.

We must remember that to give in is to live in, and so the man had already committed adultery with her in his heart.

The statement "How will I know unless I try," has been the cause of great evil in our lives. A young girl wants t try dope to feel its effects, and it unbalances these faculties to the extent that it is nearly impossible to reestablish balance.

And so it is with every other evil. If all we think of is satisfying our sense of taste, we can become gluttons in food or drink. If we desire to experience everything there is in life to experience, then we face the danger of running these beautiful faculties into the ground and living on a animal level. Our Will becomes so weak that we live almost by instinct instead of as intelligent human beings.

We can also live in these faculties to the extent that the fire of hate is enkindled at the least provocation. We ca feed this fire with the straw of past offenses until the wind of our Imagination takes over and we are destroyed by the rage of hate and bitterness.

Even our prayer life and good deeds can be lived in this faculty—the Imagination—and instead of using our Memory to recall and realize some incident in the Lord's life that we may imitate Him, we concoct methods of showing off our good deeds and spiritual life so as to attract the attention of others.

Jesus warned us to be careful not to parade our good deeds before men to attract their notice. He wants us to witness to His Power in our lives by good example, but the motive for them must be His honor and glory, not just a way of attracting attention to ourselves.

He said that our left hand must not know what our right hand is doing. In other words, we must be careful that our Memory does not mentally rehearse our good works in a way that our Imagination pats us on the back with a wonderful, wonderful feeling that we are so very good. (Matt. 6:1,4)

Our Memory in this case should bring to mind the Goodness of God in our regard, and our Imagination be used only to invent new ways of helping our neighbor in his trials and needs. They are not to be used to compliment ourselves and show us off before men.

This is also true in our spiritual lives. Jesus said that we are not to imitate the "hypocrites who pray standing in the Temple and on street corners for people to see them." (Matt. 6:5,6) To invent ways to pray so that others can see us and think of us as holy individuals, takes a great deal of Imagination; and the. Memory of past compliments will prod us on to even greater heights of folly.

Our Memory and Imagination can be used in a most marvelous way in our prayer life, but the emphasis must be on God, not ourselves. Since all things are present to God, we can use our Memory to recall an incident in the life of Jesus, and then our Imagination can put into that scene all the visual props necessary to "see" it in our minds.

We can recall Jesus sitting on a large rock in the cool of the night, resting from a tension-filled day. Our Imagination can picture ourselves going over to Him, sitting beside Him, and taking His hand in ours to give Him comfort.

After our Memory has rendered us that service, our Understanding and Will can take over, that is, our Faith and Love. Then we can speak to Him as a friend speaks to a friend.

Our Understanding and Will are areas known only to, God and ourselves. He alone knows the light we possess and the direction of our Will, and so Jesus says, "But when you pray, go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father, who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you." (Matt. 6:5,6)

The "private room" is our Will and Understanding, and, we must shut the door of our Memory and Imagination lest they disturb us with the past or future and clamor for attention as we go into that "secret" chamber with the Bride-groom of our souls.

We must both live and pray in the areas of Understanding (where Faith resides), and our Wills (in which Love resides).

It is in our Faith and Love that we dwell with God and God dwells with us. We cannot permit our Memories to disturb our communion with God by recalling past failures or allow our Imagination to embellish those failures to make us feel unworthy to possess such a loving friendship with God.

We can misuse these faculties so that a pall of sadness falls upon us and blots out all joy as well as the power to Reason and to Will.

We have an example of this in the disciples going to Emmaus (Luke 24:13,35). They saw their Master tortured, crucified, and die an ignominious death, all of which was not in their plans for setting Israel free.

In their disappointed frame of mind they decided to g away from Jerusalem, the scene of their frustrations an lost hopes. Though all seemed lost to them, they did the one thing that saved them—they continued to speak of the Master. Perhaps we could call this a "disgruntled prayer."

Jesus drew near, and Scripture says, "something pre vented them from recognizing Him." (Luke 24:17) There were two reasons for this lack of recognition: first, the glorified body was in a new condition—its outward appearance changed; secondly, their Memory and Imagination blinded their intellect and weakened their Faith. Their minds were clouded with thoughts of disappointed hopes.

This is a perfect example of spiritual blindness. It is possible to be so weighed down in an attitude of hopelessness that we cannot see the answer to our problems—even when that answer stands before us.

We can become totally absorbed in these two faculties until our Intellect is not able to reason clearly. The disciples were living in the sorrowful past, and their Imaginations projected a hopeless future.

When Jesus drew near, they were not ready to see Him. This is a level that many people never rise above. They constantly live in an unhappy past or a miserable future.

Their only hope lies in the fact that many of them continue to pray, just as the disciples continued to speak of Jesus despite their sadness.

Before they could see Him, Jesus had to raise them to a Faith level; He had to release them from themselves so that they would not only speak of Him but begin to live in Him. Their whole minds were to be absorbed in Him. It was not enough to speak of Him in disappointed tones.

This is how many of us pray. We do not live in our thoughts of Jesus; we merely speak to Him in disgruntled tones of disappointment because our requests are not granted in the way we had imagined.

Jesus demands Faith, and all during His life He looked for the kind of Faith that believed because it trusted, and trusted because it loved.

As Jesus drew near and asked them what they were speaking about, they were a little short-tempered and said, rather impatiently, "You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening these last few days." (Luke 24:18)

When we live in our Memories we just cannot understand why everyone else cannot share our own sentiments. Our busy world of the past is so filled with ourselves, and our reasons for being sad are so clear to us, that we cannot understand why everyone doesn't feel exactly as we do. If that Memory is filled with hate for a particular person, we cannot fathom how anyone could love that person. If it is filled with sadness, we cannot imagine anyone joyful. If it is filled with resentment, we cannot imagine anyone merciful. If it is filled with bitterness, we cannot imagine anyone kind.

Like the disciples going to Emmaus, we are either intolerant or impatient with anyone who is not living in the same world we live in.

Jesus asked them what happened that caused them to be so downcast. But because they were living in the past, their answer was in the past tense.

"We had hoped," they told Him, "that He would be the one to set Israel free."

They had hoped. In other words, they hoped no longer. His death proved to them that He was not the one they were waiting for.

Once these disciples lost hope, their Understanding became completely muddled, as their next statement proves. "And this is not all," they continued, "two whole days have gone by since it all happened and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they did not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of Angels, who declared He was alive. Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of Him they saw nothing." (Luke 24:21-23)

These men had definite plans as to what the Master was to do—even His rising from the dead was imagined by them. They heard Him say several times that He would rise on the third day, and they, no doubt, imagined that Angels would blow trumpets, all the people would run to the tomb, and the Master would rise in triumph and begin to rule their nation. Yes, nothing would stop them. They would rule the world.

They had heard the Master speak of higher things, but, as He spoke they used His words only to plunge deeper' within themselves. They had definite plans and ideas and they made His words fit those plans.

They never seemed to be able to rise above a narrow level of Understanding. When the women told them the tomb was empty they became more discouraged and decided to get away from all this nonsense.

They walked away from a truth that came from God, to look for a truth that would fit their own ideas. But their power to understand was so weakened by their uncontrolled emotions that they could not see the real truth.

It is not only the cares of this world that choke the Word in our hearts, it is the invisible daydreams, neatly planned and lovingly clung to, that create a cloud of unreality around us. It can become a way of life—a life of unrealized ambitions or uncontrolled hatreds.

We may pride ourselves that all we feel is justified, in the same way as these disciples did. We can find good reasons for every ill-tempered moment of our lives. But, somehow, down deep, our inner soul cries out for release from the slavery of its passions—it seeks to rise above itself and live in the peace of His Spirit, and in the possession of His Truth.

The disciples did not understand that there was only one way to accept the Crucifixion and the Agony of the past few days, and that was to rise above it and not fall beneath it or run away from it.

They had already fallen under the weight of suffering, and now they were trying to escape from everything and everyone who reminded them of those trying days.

One thing they did not understand, and that was that their real problems were within. They were the cause of their unrestrained emotions. Even when the women assured them of the empty tomb, they simply refused to be comforted.

They nurtured their wounds by rehearsing all the scenes that were responsible for their sadness and no comforting words could enter within them.

As their problem was emotional, nothing emotional could help them. They felt the women were hysterical and not worthy of credence.

They had lived for three days in their memories and now it was time to rise above this level to the level of faith.

Jesus said to them, "Foolish men! So slow to believe the full message of the Prophets. Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into His glory?"

Yes, they understood part of the message but not the full message. As they listened to the Master, their emotions had accepted only those things that appealed to them—the honor, the glory, and the prestige. Their Understanding was never allowed to reason out the necessity of the Christ's suffering and death. This was deeper than their reason could fathom—it was on the level of faith, and to this level they had not as yet ascended.

Then Jesus began to explain the Scriptures to them. He started with Moses and went throughout the Scriptures, explaining those passages that referred to Him.

Slowly, as He explained, their minds were turned away from themselves and became centered on Him. They began to reason with their intellects instead of their emotions. They were no longer merely talking about Him—they were living within Him. As He spoke, they began to see the purpose of His suffering. They realized that it was foreseen as something necessary in order for the Christ to enter into His Glory and redeem mankind.

Suddenly, everything made sense, and after they recognized Him in the breaking of bread, they remembered that their hearts burned within them as He spoke.

Yes, they still had emotions as their Memory recalled every passage He brought to mind, but now they were free of themselves and set on God. Their Memories were being used to serve their reasoning powers to arrive at a logical conclusion—a conclusion that their Wills could accept.

Are we saying the disciples should not have felt grieved over their Master's death? No, it was human and necessary that they express their sorrow over the injustice and cruelty of His Death.

But this was not the real cause of their sorrow. They were grieved more over their disappointed hopes than the injustice of His suffering. They felt a sense of loss over His Death, but even this was for selfish reasons. To them, His Death meant more tyranny from the Romans and little chance of liberation.

Their Wills had chosen to be guided by their Memory and Imagination, and as a result their souls were cast into sadness and grief.

We see this identical thing in the case of Mary Magdalene. The Lord had forgiven her many sins and freed her of seven devils. She witnessed His suffering and grieved over His Death.

She, too, heard Him say He would rise on the third day, but this woman, who had lived her entire life on an emotional level, saw nothing in all that happened but darkness and desperation.

Even the sight of Angels could not dispel the darkness. She was completely absorbed in her loss, and her Will had chosen to live in the emptiness of a loved one gone forever.

We can look at Elias in the First Book of Kings and find one of many who succumbed to the danger of discouragement. He had succeeded in showing the people the true God as fire came from Heaven to consume the evening sacrifice. But when Jezebel sent Elias the message that he would be as dead as the four hundred and fifty Prophets he had killed, he ran away. He fled into the wilderness and sat under a furze shrub and asked God to take away his life.

In accomplishing God's Will, he succeeded only in making himself a hunted man. His Imagination drew pictures of a hopeless situation, and the man who performed miracles gave in to a depth of sadness nigh unto death.

As he slept under the tree, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him and gave him a hot scone to eat and water to drink. But, like Mary Magdalene, the sight of an Angel meant nothing. He was satisfied in his misery. His sadness was a kind of anesthetic that numbed his faculty to reason, and blotted out the next arduous course to take.

It was an easy road, sitting under a tree feeling helpless, with a perfect excuse not to do anything else to further God's Kingdom.

All three of these accounts show how we can and often do live in our Memory and Imagination. We love to hash over bitter experiences in order to justify our own weaknesses. We project the future as a continuation of our unhappy past and begin to live in a world of unreality.

We call it being realistic because we know what the past has been and knowing ourselves we can mentally predict the future. But it is all very unreal because even a bitter past can be used to our advantage, and our faith assures us that the One who brought us into the world will take care of every detail of our lives.

It seems to our finite minds, however, that God does not really know every circumstance and incident that makes us what we are. We want so much to be justified in our anger, hatred, resentment, ambition, and greed.

All these disturbing thoughts press in upon our Memory and Imagination, and we begin to actually live in these faculties. Everything that happens to us during the day is somehow related to some past incident, and tension mounts upon tension until our whole life is torn up by Memories and Imagined Frustrations.

It is as if a million tiny webs cover our being, blotting out the light of grace and the air of peace.

We are tied down and hampered by our own faculties, —and because they are so close to us we cannot emerge from the darkness.

What is the solution to this problem? Are we to become stoical and cold? Are we to pretend we have no problems or feelings? Are we to blot all feeling from our souls by some feat of Will Power?

The answer to all these questions is NO! At the risk of being repetitious, it must be said again and again that our Memory and Imagination are gifts from God and must be used as a key to unlock a depth of Faith that is hidden in our Understanding.

When we are offended we feel hurt—so hurt sometimes that tears fill our eyes to express our emotions.

When we are hurt, we do not have a problem as much as an occasion to be like the Father, who lets His sun rise on the good and the bad. But many times what is permitted by God for our sanctification becomes a problem when we do not release it the moment it happens. If anything disturbing is not blocked out by the light of Faith, it drains all hope from our souls. It becomes a problem, and a problem that may be with us the rest of our lives.

At Baptism we were given the Theological Virtue of Hope, to elevate our Memory to a higher level. We are not only to store the experiences and the accumulated knowledge of everyday life, but we can now store the living words of God's Son, His Revelations, and His life and example, in order to overcome our disturbing Memories and overworked Imagination.

The recalling and retention of these living Words permits our Memory to rise above the things of this world and to live in the Word of God.

Through Prayer and Scripture and the Sacraments, our Memory begins to store good things and to put aside the rancor that keeps it in a constant turmoil.

It begins to live on a supernatural level—seeing all things in the light of Hope. When it recalls an offense, it should substitute the words of Jesus and remember how He forgave and how He used every opportunity that came His way for the Honor and Glory of the Father.

When the Memory recalls a failure, it should immediately substitute the life of Jesus. The seeming failure of His Mission turned out to be the greatest success the world has ever known.

When the Memory recalls a past sin that looms ahead like a giant monster to devour us, it must substitute many passages of Scripture and Parables that show the Mercy of God towards His people.

When our Imagination begins to torture us with various pictures of glory or despair, our Memory must recall the humility of Jesus—to quiet our ambitions, and must recall the Mercy of God—to raise us up from despair.

When our Imagination projects a future that is dark and miserable, our Memory should recall God's Providence—to assure us of His concern and protection.

When our Imagination telescopes all our problems until they look unsurmountable, our Memory must recall the words of Jesus when He said that if we had the faith of a mustard seed we could move mountains.

We must substitute a good thought for a disturbing thought. The substitution process is a positive way of overcoming our faults and changing our lives.

If the substitution is on the natural level, it may bring a change of thought but not a change of life that will effect our union with God.

If someone offends us by some cutting remark, we can immediately substitute a mental picture of a lotus flower in a calm lake. If our Imagination is strong enough, it may change our pattern of thought and calm our anger. And if we make a habit of thinking beautiful thoughts in the midst' of chaos, it may become a habit that gives us a natural serenity. This kind of substitution may lead to control, but will not lead us above ourselves to a supernatural level.

The change we pattern for ourselves must be super natural, not natural. A change on the natural level ma make us better human beings, but will never make us radiate the image of Jesus.

One day Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me." (Jn. 14:6)

He is the Way by which our Memory and Imagination must be held in control. He is the Truth that our Under standing clings to in order to rise above its limited capacity to see the Mysteries of God. He is the Life, that is, Love, b which our Wills are made strong enough to overcome the greatest obstacles, as we journey Home.

Yes, we must substitute the Words and Life of Jesus to arrive at the truth of every situation. Our entire life is an exercise by which our souls are molded and changed, for better or worse, by the way we use every situation, disappointment, joy, or sorrow.

We must strive to live a holy life—the life of a son of God, not only a good life as a mere creature of God.

Only God can give us supernatural life. Only Jesus is the Way, the Light, the door of the sheepfold, and the Resurrection. Only through Him can we rise from a life of imperfection to a life of holiness.

This is why, at Baptism, He has given each faculty of our, soul an infused Virtue—to raise it above its natural level that it may live in Him.

To raise our Memory and Imagination to a higher level He has given us the Virtue of Hope. Hope assures us of His Love and Mercy to quiet the memories of a sinful past, and reminds us of His tender Justice to prevent us from becoming presumptuous.

To raise our Understanding to a higher level, He has given us Faith. It is Faith that raises a finite mind

with a limited reasoning power, to the heights of God —gazing upon hidden Mysteries as a child revels in the perfections of its father.

To raise our Will to a higher level He has given us Love. It is Love that spurs our Wills on to heroic deeds, to sacrifice, and to joy in the midst of suffering and persecution.

Jesus' Death and Resurrection merited grace for each one of us. Grace—a Divine Participation in His Nature, raises our souls from a natural level to a supernatural level.

As our natural life is a gift from God, so this new birth in Christ is a gift from God. It is something that must grow each day by our taking advantage of every opportunity to become more like Jesus.

The spiritual faculties of a Christian must be elevated to a higher plane. Though he fail often, the Christian ever seeks to unite his will to God's Will, and he knows how to take advantage even of his failures.

The Infused Virtues are there in seed form, ready for us to water by our effort, in order that He may bear fruit in us.

We need not fear when our emotions seem to take control. As long as we continue to make an effort to control them, Jesus Himself will come to us and bless our efforts with success.

Life is not a Utopia; it is a proving ground; and a Christian must be able to use every kind of situation to his advantage.

Jesus said, "This people honors me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me." (Mark 7:6)

To speak of our hearts is to speak of our emotions, and we must give the faculties of our Memory and Imagination to the Father, that the faculty, made to His Image and Likeness, may beget Jesus in our souls.

To accomplish this task and cooperate with the Spirit in renewing these faculties, we must look upon everything through the eyes of Hope.

It is a lack of Hope that makes our Memory retain resentments and our Imagination project fear into the future.

Our Memory will always bring back people and circumstances from our past that may disturb us, but it is only when we deliberately entertain these thoughts and encourage them that they take possession of us and we fall under their power.

It doesn't matter what kind of disturbing memory haunts us, Hope assures us that God brings good out of evil for all those who love Him.

It is because we make so many exceptions to this rule that we never seem to move forward in holiness.

We know God is with us in one particular situation, but we doubt His Providence in another. There are times in our life when our Memory completely blanks out God's past intervention, or care of us, and we are left alone on the sea of life.

Hope is that virtue that makes our Memory recall God's; Plan in our moment to moment existence. It gives us the. ability to substitute other memories more positive and assuring.

The Beatitudes are counsels of Hope that are positive aids in every negative situation. It might be well to look at the Beatitudes to see how they are in truth an example of Memory control and the fruit of Hope.

Blessed are the poor in spirit; theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. To be poor in spirit is to be detached from the things of this world, but most of all, detached from our selves.

How much control of our Memory and Imagination is necessary to be detached! Our Memory can recall past successes, and our Imagination live in the ventures to come—all of which will be as successful as the past. These II faculties can make us ambitious for honors, glory, and; riches, not for His sake, but solely for our own sake.

We can spend hours reveling in our self-esteem, and no-one can enter into that inner sanctum of self—not even God. Yes, we can become very much attached to our talents, successes, position, and petty ambitions—so much, so that we live in a dream-world, where the entire population is me, myself, and I.

But we must accept the pain of detachment from earthly things, as the Virtue of Hope reminds us of the eternal reward of controlling ourselves in this world. We look ahead, not in a dream-world, but to the next world. We can accept the suffering of a moment as we gaze upon eternal joy.

Blessed are the gentle; they shall have the earth for their heritage.

If there is one area in which our Memory and Imagination can go out of control, it is the area of anger. All our anger seems justified, but most of the time it is not. Our Memory can recall past injuries that are twenty years old; our imagination picture the scene and embellish it with every recollection. We can become angry and hateful in the present moment because of something that happened long ago. Worse than that, we can live, and continue to live for years, in that past moment of anger. It can warp our souls and harden our hearts until we become the very thing we hate.

We can even use Scripture to substantiate our anger by quoting passages out of context. And then we go our way with a false sense of security, while we forget many other passages of Scripture that tell us to be patient, gentle, and to do good to those who hate us.

We become attached to living in our hateful little world, and smug in our own complacency. And suddenly one morning we wake up to realize we are all alone in our little world. We are without friend or foe. We have been unable to love enough to have a friend, or courageous enough to take a stand on anything that would create an enemy.

But Hope comes along and tells us that if we control our tempers, anger, past resentments and bitterness,—every human being on earth will be a friend. Even enemies who render us the service of giving us the opportunity to forgive, have, in the act of offending, added jewels to our crown.

Hope keeps our Memory and Imagination from harboring resentments and gives us the assurance that no matter how dark things seem to be, our little boat is being guided by the hand of a loving and omnipotent Father.

It gives us a light heart in regard to disturbing occurrences and helps us to see God behind everything that happens.

Yes, the whole world will be our heritage if we can keep it where it belongs—on the outside of us. Then only will our innermost being be at its peak to give the world it best.

Blessed are those who mourn; they shall be comforted.

Jesus was not only speaking of compassion for those in sorrow, but He was speaking of all those who repent c their sins. The feeling of sorrow for past sins brings down upon us the comfort of God. This kind of sorrow is born c a deep repentance for having offended God, who has don nothing but good to us every moment of our lives.

This kind of mourning is unselfish. It is centered o God. But how many of us possess this kind of sorrow? Our Memory is filled with a sorrow for past sins, but it is born c guilt, not of love. We are not so much concerned with of fending a loving Father as we are afraid of punishment Sometimes our motives for sorrow are lower than a fear c punishment. We are ashamed to think we could commit such a sin, and if that sin is public, our guilt torments u even more. All of this kind of guilt is selfish and deprive: God of glory.

There is no sin, or combination of sins, greater than the Infinite Mercy of God, and our sorrow must be God—centered and not self-centered.

This is the area where our Imagination and Memory can create havoc if we are not careful. We must put into practice the Virtue of Hope that the Lord has given us in order to control these faculties.

Guilt over past sins can create a shadow of doom and uneasiness every moment of our lives. The past can torture us with feelings of guilt so great that God becomes a terrible judge in our minds, and all the fatherly and loving attributes of God are smothered beneath the smoldering fire of fear and despair.

We have a good example of the right and wrong way o using the memories of past sins in Peter and Judas.

Since denial is a form of betrayal, and betrayal is a form of denial, we can say that both Peter and Judas denied and betrayed Our Lord. Though both fell, each reacted to his fall in a different way.

Peter rose to the level of Hope and was comforted by the Lord Himself. Judas sank deeper and deeper into his Memory and Imagination and despaired; he refused to rise above himself to God.

The remembrance of Peter's sin made him humble and dependent upon God's Mercy. The remembrance of Judas' sin centered itself on it's hideousness, and he despaired.

Peter wept bitterly because he had offended such a good Master, and that Goodness made him throw himself into the open arms of Infinite Mercy.

Judas screamed at the Pharisees that he had betrayed innocent blood, but his emphasis was on himself and on what he had done. He was disturbed over his conscience but not over His Lord. He had failed in a cheap business deal and his only thought was to return the money.

Peter's Memory brought back to him his sin, but Hope used it as a rung in his ladder to God. He was sure of his Master's forgiveness because his Master was God. All his life Peter benefited by that fall as he threw himself more and more into the one thing necessary in this life—to serve God. His fall was used to protect him from pride, and with a humble heart he was capable of doing great things for the Kingdom.

Judas, however, centered all his sorrow on himself and it ended in a remorse devoid of Hope. His Memory and Imagination took such a hold on him that he could not believe in the Mercy of God. He had lived so long on an emotional level that he was without Hope, and finally despaired.

Although we may not totally despair as Judas did, many of us waste precious time living over past sins and permitting the sorrow for those sins to grow into an agonizing remorse that fills our souls with sadness.

Peter had Hope and never denied his Master again. Judas lost Hope, and destroyed himself. We must use all our past regrets as opportunities for greater things, because they have taught us to depend on God and not on ourselves.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right; they shall be satisfied.

Jesus is telling us that when we seek to live a holy life, that desire will be satisfied. He is also telling us that our Memory and Imagination must hunger and thirst for God and His Perfections in order to be satisfied.

If we are content to feed these faculties only the husks of swine, we shall find ourselves starving in the midst of plenty. We can easily lose a hunger for God by rationalizing all our actions and finding excuses for not praying, reading spiritual books or studying Scripture.

Our Memory can recall only the things we feed it, and our Imagination can visualize only those things that fill out heart, for where our heart is there our treasure is also.

It is very important that we be discerning as to what we see and hear, for what we see and what we hear are like so many jars on the shelf of our Memory. Ever so often we take a jar off of that shelf and look at it. If the jar is filled with spoiled food, and our Memory and Imagination are constantly fed that food, then they shall starve and become diseased.

A constant diet of dog food could never nourish a human body, and neither can a constant diet of worldly thoughts and desires nourish our Memory and Imagination that they may be satisfied.

Our Memory, made to the Image of the Father, must be fed by the food pleasing to Him. It can only grow strong when it is fed by the same source from which it came. We do God and ourselves a great injustice when we treat our Memory as if it were a garbage can ready to be filled with the refuse of this world.

We must make every effort to treat these faculties with the respect they deserve, for they render us a great service, and to mistreat them is to destroy ourselves.

It is in seeking for God, and remembering our past offenses and present weaknesses, that Hope manifests one of its beautiful qualities—that is—the ability to persevere,: by zealously doing our part, knowing that God will do His part. We must be careful to read good books, listen and see those things that lift our minds to a higher level, and speak the words we would not be ashamed to say in His Presence.

Everything we hear and see is recorded in our Memory,' ready to encourage or disturb us at any moment. If we hunger and thirst for the things of God, our Memory will be fed the bread of heaven and we shall be satisfied, for it will be filled with the food that lasts for all eternity.

Blessed are the merciful; they shall have mercy shown them.

The remembrance of past and present injuries, especially those that are unjust, are perhaps the most difficult to control.

If we have offended someone and they have responded with angry words, we can somehow accept it, if for no other reason than we have made someone we dislike miserable.

But if someone does or says something that we feel is undeserved or unjust, then we store it in our Memory—in a very special corner. We call that corner "just anger." We almost pride ourselves in justifying our anger by telling ourselves and everyone else that it is right and true.

In the meantime, our Memory is becoming more and more saddened by what it is being fed, and our Imagination builds up a case against the person that is so convincing that severity and injustice replace mercy and compassion. We become so wrapped up in our own injuries that we speak of nothing but truth and justice, and in justifying ourselves we refuse to forgive and forget.

It is so easy to blame others for our failure to see God's Will in everything. It takes little effort to see the injustice of every offense hurled at us. Our passions rise up to meet every occasion, and the thought of controlling them—by recalling the words of Jesus to be merciful in the same way that mercy has been rendered to us—is pushed into the background as being unreal.

We seemed possessed by the desire to call a spade a spade, and take pleasure in rehashing old injuries—like a knight in armor recalling his victories.

Yes, the world must know we have been injured—and this somehow takes away the pain. But what a great price for such little comfort. Each time we relive a past injury, it gnaws at our hearts and takes away a little more love. And, suddenly, we find ourselves cold, suspicious, unforgiving, and full of self-pity.

Jesus realized this when He told us to forgive seventy times seven times a day. Without forgiveness on our part, our Memory and Imagination are squeezed in the small area of self, unable to breathe the fresh air of love and freedom.

It is as if those faculties were compressed in a small jar, with the lid of hate so tight that it creates a vacuum of selfishness and spiritual death in our souls. Our reasoning powers are held captive, and our Wills become entrenched in the line of least resistance. It is then that we are tossed to and fro like a ship on a stormy sea.

What ability we possess to look at the situation objectively is lost in the maze of confusion constantly being stirred up by uncontrolled emotions.

Here again, Hope comes to the rescue. Hope gives us the assurance that it is not important to be positive of who hurt who and for what reason. It is only important that we seize the opportunity to imitate Jesus.

Hope does not take away the hurt, because being hurt isn't always the most difficult part. The difficult part of every offense is not so much the offense as the inability on our part to see any good reason for being offended. Of what purpose are enemies, insults, persecutions, and difficult personalities?

Here is where Hope elevates us to a higher level, for it assures us that even though we have failed, or been insulted, it has all passed through the mind of God and bears the stamp of His approval. For, how can I be merciful or forgiving if there is no-one to forgive? Hope, again, sees opportunities rather than injuries, and it develops within our souls a beautiful spirit of merciful understanding—an understanding of poor, weak, fallen human nature.

So dear is a merciful heart to God, that it brings down upon its Memory and Imagination a calm and serenity undreamed of before. The soul can truly pray for and do good to its enemies as Jesus asked, because its faculties are free.

God Himself will justify the soul, either in this life or in the next, so it need not put its Memory and Imagination into a tail spin as it acts out the part of judge, prosecutor, and jury.

Blessed are the pure in heart; they shall see God.

Purity of heart is a broad subject and includes many facets of daily living. It means having God first in our lives. It means a clean mind, and it means having high spiritual goals and values.

Here again our Memory and Imagination can build up or completely destroy our union with God. We mentioned before how Jesus warned us about having lust in our hearts, "If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:28). He also told us that where our hearts were we would also find our treasure.

This is an indication of how much emphasis Jesus put upon the emotions as being a source of harm if they are not kept under control.

People who feed their Memory and Imagination on X-rated movies and bad books are slowly committing spiritual suicide. The unfortunate part of it all is the fact that since their feelings are involved they are not aware of the danger.

It is similar to the poor people who were on the Titanic. They were eating, drinking, and dancing as they came closer and closer to a giant iceberg that was ready to tear away the secure deck beneath their dancing feet. Suddenly, the fun was over. Reality met them face to face over the icy water.

And so it will be with those who use the marvelous faculties of Memory and Imagination as garbage cans, whose odor is obnoxious to everyone except the owners. They become so obsessed with feelings that they cannot see the glacier of ice tearing away all the love of God they ever had. Though they often speak of love, it is merely a flicker on a very dark night.

Lust is not the only vice that can possess a man's heart. Worldly pursuits for the sake of personal glory can also destroy our hearts. Man can misuse his Imagination and never be satisfied with the possessions he has already accumulated. His mind can be so filled with greed for things, money, glory and honor, that he will lie, cheat, and steal to obtain them.

He imagines himself doing great things, and while he struggles he prays for help from God as he makes all sorts of promises as to what he will do for God once he has become rich and influential.

But his promises, like his dreams, are imaginary. They are merely the trick of an overworked Imagination ready to con even God. Lies are born in the Imagination, and if they are stored in the Memory, they become real.

Jesus told the Pharisees one day that they were like their father, the devil, who is the father of lies. They were proud men whose Memory and Imagination had puffed them up to the point where they began to believe they were the greatest of men.

An overworked Imagination can make our whole life a perpetual lie. We can live in a world of make-believe, never facing truth or reality—always trying to be someone we're not.

Hope lets us rise above all this fantasy by bringing to mind that no matter how beautiful or loving we desire things to be in this world, it is as nothing compared to what is to come. It gives us the courage to put forth the effort we need to overcome the lethargy that overpowers us and makes us dream of building castles without laying a stone.

Hope puts our hearts on a higher plane and permits us to persevere as we strive for a pure heart in thought and in deed.

Thoughts and desires may pester us like gnats in a swamp, but Hope blows a gentle breeze that keeps everything that is not of God, away from our hearts and souls. He has shown us the Way, and we attach our Memory and Imagination to the anchor of Hope, that they may stand still and firm during the storms of life.

Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God.

The Lord did not say that those who have peace are blessed, but those who MAKE peace. Surely we are blest by God when we have peace, but the good God was telling us that there is an effort needed: we must be peacemakers within our own souls.

We must make peace, which is indicative of effort on our part. Peace is not the end result of everything in perfect order, with nothing to disturb us. If we are to make peace, it means that peace ordinarily is not our portion.

Peace is like anything else we make. We have an idea, a plan, material, and effort, and with this combination we succeed in making anything from a cake to an office building.

Because each person has a different temperament, with its inherent virtues and faults, each one of us must make peace in a different way. But no matter what that temperament may be, it is certain that all of us must keep our Memory and Imagination under control.

People lose peace over past sins, offenses, failures, and unfulfilled dreams. Fear of the future also causes a loss of peace, fear of illness, age, financial loss, and beauty.

It is so easy to see how important Hope is in our lives. God has given this uplifting virtue to us to calm our fears, to put a reason behind every unexplainable tragedy, to give us joy, to put Him above everything, and to realize we are merely pilgrims traveling Home, and these unpleasant occurrences in life are only part of the journey.

When we put our heart and soul into things, we live in a perpetual fear of losing them, and we experience a kind of vacuum at the very thought of being stripped of them. And yet, this very stripping is part of the growing process of Hope in our hearts. We are being shown, in a very graphic way, that everything in this world is passing,—so many reminders that thus passes the glory of this world.

When we permit our Imagination to rebel and our Memory to bring back past glory, our souls are in constant turmoil-torn by what we want to be and what we are.

We must make peace between these truths—what we were, what we wanted to be, and what we are. Once Hope succeeds in doing this, we have peace. Hope puts all our desires in God who is everlasting and does not change. It makes us face reality with joy. It sees everything in the light of Eternity. Past sins are used to maintain humility, not despair. Past glory is used to maintain confidence, not pride. Past failures are used as guideposts of our abilities, not as stepping stones to discouragement.

Hope has the ability to use everything—good, bad, and indifferent—as opportunities for greater holiness. It is ever vibrant and ingenious in keeping our poor souls above ourselves and raising us to a higher level.

Yes, we make peace in our own lives, and in the lives of others, by ever seeking to bring good out of evil, doing all in our power to raise—our neighbor above those things that hamper his peace, having courage to change the things that can be changed, while having hope that others will change the things we cannot change.

Hope does not pretend that a particular situation is not serious, neither is it flippant or flighty, refusing to face reality. Hope rouses our Memory and Imagination to complete reality—seeing both visible and invisible causes and remedies.

Without Hope, we see only one side of a situation—the miserable side; but with Hope we see also the good side. We see reasons, solutions,—and we possess more and more assurance that God will make all things well.

St. Paul lost his peace one day, and every bit of Hope he ever had seemed to be gone. Everything was pressing in upon him and the future suddenly looked hopeless. He called this darkness of soul, "an angel of Satan" (2 Cor. 12:7).

The man who had spoken so eloquently on fighting the good fight, being zealous for God's honor and glory, loving enemies no matter what they did, and rejoicing to be found worthy to suffer something for the Kingdom,—yes, this man became so depressed that he could not practice what he preached.

He had always been strong; he could always see the solution to other people's problems; he could see God's hand in their persecutions; and he could see clearly how God brought good out of evil; but this day, he saw nothing but darkness, and the strong Paul became very weak.

It was something he had not experienced before, and three times He asked God to deliver him from this feeling of failure and depression.

The answer he received was not the one he expected. His Memory and Imagination had successfully brought back all the sufferings of the past and had projected worse things in the future. There was only one solution to such a problem, and that was—deliverance. The suffering and persecution must stop, or he could go no further.

And then Jesus answered his prayer and said to him, "My grace is enough for you: my power is at its best in weakness." Now, Paul had a whole new concept of holiness. It was not becoming strong in himself, but in using God's grace in weakness that would make him holy.

No matter what his Memory and Imagination told him, no matter how dark the future, no matter how weak he was, he would be strong through God's grace and not through his own herculean strength.

In fact, his very weakness was the foundation upon which God would accomplish greater things. It was through God's strength that Paul would continue to work, despite the insults, hardships, persecutions, agonies, and his own weakness. (2 Cor. 12:10)

He would use these heretofore hindrances as objects of Hope. He would boast that he suffered and was weak so that God's Power in him would be glorified.

But what was this power that would help him overcome discouragement, sadness, and depression?

What kind of power was more manifest in the midst of misery than in happiness?

What kind of power would calm his Memory and Imagination and enable him to rise above to peace and serenity?

What kind of paradox was this—power dependent upon weakness, and weakness bearing the fruit of power?

To our human way of reasoning, all the hardships Paul was experiencing were anything but graces. He could see no good in his miseries.

His Memory and Imagination rebelled against a constant diet of frustration, even though Hope kept him from despair.

The Lord was teaching His Apostle in gradual stages. Paul's zeal had caused him to persecute the Christians, and that same zeal pushed him forward to overcome every force once he was converted. His whole attitude towards life situations, good and bad, had to change. Faith demanded that he begin to think like Jesus, and to see everything in the light of Faith: he must live on a Faith level.

His convictions were strong, and he went out to make converts with the same zeal with which he had persecuted them. His emotions were on a high level as he spoke to anyone who would listen, yet there was something Paul still had to learn, and that was—to live by Faith.

The man of emotions had to see God and God's people in a different way. He was to learn how to use his emotions to express his feelings, but not to live in them—he was to live in Jesus—in Faith—in his Understanding. And this way of living was best reached by weakness.

We will look at this new way of living and thinking, and see how we can be like Jesus.

OUTLINE 3

Sharing His Nature through Baptism

The "Memory" is given Hope — to keep it from despair, discouragement and sadness, and to protect it from presumption

The "Understanding" is given Faith — to raise it above itself to see invisible reality

The "Will" is given Supernatural Love — to unite itself to God in everything it accomplishes.

SECOND KEY - UNDERSTANDING AND FAITH

Man's power to reason raises him to a level next to the Angels. He not only knows who he is, but what he is, and this knowledge gives him dignity and self-confidence. He does not run aimlessly through life, guided by instinct.

He not only knows when it is time to eat, but he can grow, produce, and prepare what he eats.

He not only responds to his name; he knows the personality, talents, sins, weaknesses, failures, and successes of the person behind that name—himself.

And so he reasons out everything that presents itself to him. He possesses an intellectual life — a life invisible to another man's eye but very real and active. Only a small portion of one's thoughts are made visible by gestures, actions, or words. A whole world of calm and storm, fear and courage, darkness and light, are experienced in that inner realm of intellect.

Battles are fought — some are won and some are lost — in that inner sanctum. And we can say in all truth that ninety-five percent of a man is within while only five percent is visible to other men.

The intellect is a faculty that is sublime and makes us master of every other form of life in this world. But unless it, too, is elevated to a higher level, it may accomplish great things in the eyes of the world but it will always be limited in its effect upon mankind. It must have something to increase its capabilities and capacity. It must have Faith to accept God.

Faith keeps alive the realization that there is a God. I has the power to bring that God into our very souls, for it is a grace, given by God's own Spirit. It makes us think like God.

Faith in Jesus elevates our reasoning powers to a level of light undreamed of before. The Understanding is no longer dependent upon visible things alone; it penetrates and fathoms invisible things—things of God—things that eye has not seen nor ear heard.

Now, we need no longer be tossed to and fro by emotions and forces that our poor souls are unable to cope with; we can see things as He sees them.

Faith, added to our Understanding, sets our souls free into those regions where the air is so pure that only the unburdened and unhampered can breathe.

Our intellect, darkened and hampered by passions, clouded by ignorance, and tied down with pride, can now roam the vault of Heaven and speak to God face to face through Faith.

Now, our souls have a place to abide in this valley of tears. St. Paul found this hidden place when he said, "There are three things that last: Faith, Hope, and Love." (1 Cor. 13:13) Our Memory and Imagination are lifted from the depths by Hope; our Understanding is raised into Heaven by Faith; and our Will is united to God by Love.

We are to be renewed, and St. Paul reminded us of this when he said to the Ephesians, "You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution, so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God's way—in the goodness and holiness of the truth." (Eph. 4:23,24)

Jesus said that He was the Truth, and our Understanding must be renewed in Him. This Spiritual Revolution must; take place as we renew our minds and elevate them with the gifts God has given us. It is often painful, always takes effort, planning, and prayer,—but the change is well worth'' the time and sacrifice: we shall be brought to the very Heart of God in this life and eternal glory in the next life.

Faith in Christ Jesus elevates our Understanding so that through it, as St. Paul says, we are made "sons of God... .

All baptised in Christ, you have all clothed yourselves in Christ." (Gal. 3:26,27)

Our finite mind, so limited by what it sees, needs Faith to lift it to those regions where its contact with Infinite Goodness changes its way of thinking and sheds light when everything is in darkness.

We often look at Faith as something abstract—an acceptance of a revelation that we cannot fully comprehend. But to Paul and the first Christians it was much more—it was something alive. It changed their lives, their minds, their hearts—it made them new men.

We can imagine Paul as he wrote to the Corinthians and said, "From now onwards, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know Him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation is gone, and now the new one is here. (1 Cor. 5:16,18)

It is this new creation, brought about by Faith, in our Understanding, that we must study, look at, and grow in, if we are to be renewed.

Our Understanding is renewed by our Faith in Jesus. This means more than an acceptance of Him as Savior. It also means, as quoted above by St. Paul, an acceptance of Him as the Word of God, begotten of the Father. That Word must ever dwell in our Understanding—it must be a source of living water and a never-ending source of light. To live by those words is Faith.

Jesus mentioned the direction our Understanding must take when He said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him and We shall come and make Our home with him."

"Those who do not love Me, do not keep My words."

"If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it." (Jn. 14:23,24-15:7),

Jesus went so far as to explain to us that it is that very word that the Father uses to prune us. After explaining to His Apostles that the Father would prune them so they would bear more fruit, He told them how this was done. He said, "You are pruned already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you." (Jn. 15:3)

The words of Jesus living in our Understanding and stored in our Memory will keep our souls in peace. Jesus was always astounded when His apostles lacked faith, when they so quickly forgot His words and signs and yielded to fear. They forgot to recall His words and live by them.

Jesus demanded Faith from everyone—a Faith that springs from humility. We must be humble to accept everything Jesus told us. Our Understanding creates doubts in our hearts because it cannot rise above its own limitations. But when it is filled with Faith, nothing is impossible, because it judges everything by the words of Jesus and not by its own words.

It may be well for us to look at Scripture and see how those who followed Jesus practiced and grew in Faith.

Since sin seems to be one thing that drags our souls down, we will look first at a sinner and see how Faith guided her through the depths.

Jesus was invited to a dinner at the house of one of the leading Pharisees. He had been invited to the feast, not out of love, but merely out of curiosity. They wanted to observe this young Rabbi at close range.

A woman came in, whose soul was overburdened with sin. Her Memory and Imagination must have tormented her for years with guilt, only to drive her deeper into greater sins, in order to forget those of the past. She no doubt had heard about the gentle Master who understood and forgave.

What struggles must her soul have experienced when she first thought of asking forgiveness. Her Memory must have brought back her past sins with great rapidity and her Imagination embellished them until she seemed surrounded with the horror of despair. But surely these faculties would not stop there. She had lived so long in her emotions that they would fight for control. They would picture to her a bleak future without the sins that had given her so much pleasure. But they would hide the misery that had accompanied every moment of that sinful past.

Her poor soul must have cried out in the agony of death as it strove to free itself from the depths of despair.

We do not know when this woman heard the Master, but what she heard gave her a spark of Hope, and that spark was all she needed to set off the fire of love.

No matter what her Memory and Imagination told her, she would hang on to His words of Mercy, Love, and Compassion. She would replace the remembrance of her sins with the parable of the prodigal son. When her Reason told her that God would never forgive her sins because they were so hideous, she would remember the woman who was caught in adultery. Those words rang in her ears, "Has no-one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you: go away, and don't sin any more." (Jn. 8:10,11)

As she struggled, rays of light broke through the darkness, and her Understanding began to lift itself out of the mire of filth and to breathe in the fresh air of peace. It, too, had to change. Her Memory told her it was hopeless, and her Understanding told her it was impossible. But the sound of His Voice planted the seed of Faith, and the look of compassion on His Face gave her Hope. She began to throw off the human reasoning of her faculties and to live in the unknown regions of the Spirit—a region in which she knew little but understood much. She longed for deliverance, and the sudden realization that He would forgive, made her seek Him out.

She heard that He had been invited to the house of the Pharisee, and disregarding all human respect she went into the house. She looked neither to the right nor left but made straight for the Master.

She knelt at His feet, and when she touched them, Mercy flowed out to her as healing did to the woman who touched the hem of His garment. Her many sins were forgiven; her struggle with her human faculties was rewarded; she was free. The relief was so great that she began to cry, and her tears fell copiously on His feet. She had nothing to dry them with except her beautiful long hair. The human beauty she had used to attract men, she would use to wipe away her tears of contrition. She would renew her whole being —body and soul—she would change—she would rise above the depths into the heights.

She would not destroy her emotions; she would redirect them into the paths of God. She would glorify His Mercy for all Eternity.

Everyone in the dining hall looked at her with disdain—everyone but Jesus. He knew her sins but He also knew her struggle, effort, and desires. She believed in His Words of Mercy, and she was there because of that belief.

She refused to believe or live in her own words; she would live by His words. She did not make the mistake most of us make. No, she put aside her finite reasoning and her unbridled imagination and believed His words.

Jesus looked at her and said, "Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace." (Luke 7:48,50)

We don't often think of faith in relation to the forgiveness of sins, and yet, the lack of faith is the real cause of so many guilt complexes—complexes that cripple and destroy lives and happiness.

Sometimes, past sins return to haunt us because we may have offended others, but the words of Jesus in which faith is grown, tell us that God can and will bring good out of evil. If we have offended someone and expressed our contrition by apologizing, and the offended person refuses to forgive, our faith tells us to leave it to Jesus. He will take care. We have only to pray for that person and keep our hearts free of resentment. That is Faith.

We see from the Gospels that all those who sought forgiveness were what we would term "big sinners." There is nothing anyone could do today that these men and women had not done.

The difference between them and ourselves is not in the hideousness or enormity of sin, but in our faith. They heard Him say, "It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.' And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous but sinners." (Matt. 9:12,13)

These words took root in the souls of these sinners; they lived by them, and they were forgiven and freed. We, today, read them but prefer to live by our own words—the words born of a finite, unforgiving intellect, and the Truth is not in us—it is only in Jesus.

Because our Understanding is so limited, it is difficult to believe that God forgives and forgets. We tend to judge Him by our standards or worldly standards, and we forget that the wisdom of men is foolishness to God.

Jesus told us that as we measure out mercy, mercy will be measured out to us. These are living words that must be lived and experienced, not just read and forgotten. Our human Understanding cannot be permitted to rationalize justice in regard to our neighbor, and mercy in our own regard.

As it is with mercy, so it is with every other virtue. We must live our lives by His example and words, and this is to live by Faith, because our own reasoning and emotions are often contrary to His reasoning and Will.

We can see this in the explanation Jesus gave to His Apostles in regard to the parable of the sower. He told them that "when anyone hears the word without understanding, the evil one comes and carries off what was sown in his heart." In other words, the Good News was stored in their Memory (heart) but never reached their Understanding. They never studied it, reasoned it out, or began to live by it, so it was easy for the evil one to push it out of their minds completely by substituting other thoughts, imaginings and desires.

He continued, "The one who received it on patches of rock is the mar: who hears the word and welcomes it with joy. But he has no root in him, he does not last; let some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word and he falls away at once." Here we have someone who has not only stored the word in his Memory but found great joy in it. But his joy is purely emotional; his acceptance of the word in the first place was because of its emotional quality. Being loved by a Great God gave him a feeling of Hope, joy, and security.

This kind of man judges the efficacy of the word entirely by his feelings, and he will do all in his power to keep those feelings on a high level. This kind of piety can be called in truth "the opium of the people." God is used as a kind of tranquilizer or anesthetic to blot out reality and life.

Because the Word never reaches the Understanding that has been elevated by Faith, this kind of man falls away as soon as some trial or persecution comes along. The reason for this is that any kind of suffering, in any form, takes away his feelings.

His Understanding, still operating on a natural level, can see no reason for trials or the cross. It is pure nonsense to him because in his emotional world he has imagined the trials God would send him. In these trials, he comes through in a blaze of glory, and the thought of carrying his cross, and following the Lord, has in his mind become just another level of emotion, not a quiet sacrifice for God.

Unfortunately, or perhaps, fortunately, the trials that come his way may be quite different from the ones his human reasoning has projected. He is given an opportunity to rise to the faith level—by accepting the trials he does not understand. Because his love for God is shallow, even his sufferings must be tailor-made and specially built to fit the shallow water in which his boat sails, and so he cannot accept the trials he does not understand.

Consequently, when any suffering that he cannot explain comes his way, or that he cannot endure with glory and attention, or understand its place in his life, he falls away from his new found faith. He tried to put faith in his Memory and Imagination level, and it did not fit. Like a fish out of water, it died.

Jesus goes on to tell us of another type of person: the one who received the word among thorns. He said that such a man "hears the word, but the worries of this world and the lure of riches choke the word—and he produces nothing."

Now here is where a great percentage of mankind live, as far as their life with God is concerned. This is the area in which our souls are in the greatest danger. The reason is that both worry and the desire for riches seem to be the things that are part and parcel of daily life. There is hardly a person alive who does not have a legitimate reason to worry. Neither are there very many of us who do not think that a more comfortable way of life would be to our advantage.

When the Lord described this category of mankind, He pulled out the comfortable rug of excuses on which we have stood so long. To our dismay, He pulled it out from under us almost with an air of disgust, and said bluntly that we "produce nothing."

At least the man in the first category did not understand the word, and the one in the second received it for a time, but those of us who permit worry and worldly ambitions to choke out the word, seem to be more deliberate in our actions and more aware of our choices. We permit them to take over.

When our Memory and Imagination are in complete control, we begin to rationalize our worries and ambitions until they appear legitimate and necessary; then it is that they begin to choke His word and revelations out of our minds.

We become so absorbed in what appears to be right and good that we can keep ourselves distressed our entire lives. We look for solutions to our problems and avenues of escape, but we never seek the answer in God. He is so far away and of another world that our relationship with Him is unreal, and we doubt both His knowledge and care of us.

Why do we insist on the need to worry? We go so far as to call it "concern," but down deep in our hearts we know it is not so much concern as a lack of confidence in the Father's Providence.

To talk over our problems with God is a form of prayer. It is also an occasion to empty our Memory and Imagination of the superfluities that have accumulated.

The Lord wants us to talk over our problems, disappointments, heartaches, and sufferings with Him. And in this area, nothing is too small or too great. He is deeply interested in each part of our lives, and wants to share in everything that concerns us. So it is His Will that we run to Him with all our needs.

To speak of them to God is to lift them from our minds and put them into His Mind. But here is the point where most of us fail. After we have given them to God, we immediately take them back, and the burden becomes heavier and more unbearable. Our Memory and Imagination, aided by our natural reasoning, tells us that we must really solve this problem by ourselves.

It is true that we must often plan moves that help solve these problems, but that belongs to the action category. To worry, however, is not to do—it is to do nothing but think negative thoughts—thoughts that drain all hope from our Memory and all Faith from our Understanding.

Indeed, worry chokes the word from our minds and leaves us to ourselves. And though we cry to God for help, we refuse to let go of our problems. We hang on to them like a security blanket that eventually smothers us to death.

The lure of riches is another danger that is cloaked with an air of legitimacy. Jesus used the word "lure" because, like artificial bait enticing a fish riches entice men to reach out for false hopes and pleasures.

A fish, looking at an artificial lure dangling from the hook of a fisherman, is under the impression that what it sees is real, appetizing, and satisfying. The fisherman has gone to a great expense to create this impression and he is satisfied to sit for hours dangling his lure, waiting for some unsuspecting fish to bite.

A bystander on the shore watching such a scene is fully aware of what is about to take place—so is the fisherman. The only one oblivious of the real consequences of his next move is the fish. And it only finds out too late.

Jesus is the bystander on the shore of life, and He is telling us to stay away from the lure dangling from the reel of the evil one.

We must rise above worry and unnecessary possessions in order to keep our Memory clean and our Understanding clear enough to hear His word and live by it. If we do not, we will produce nothing but anxiety and frustration.

It is in Matthew's account of the sower that we find an interesting addition. He says, "And the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who hears the word and understands it; he is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty." (Matt. 13:23)

Jesus is telling us very plainly that it is on the Understanding—Faith level that we produce fruit, and we do this in proportion as we understand the word because we do not always produce the same amount of fruit. The word "now" indicates that there are times in our life when we believe His word and live by it and then we produce a hundredfold.

But there are other times when, even though we understand, we still hesitate and draw back. Then it is that we produce sixty-fold.

And then, there are other times when circumstances and our finite minds join forces and tell us that this problem or difficulty is impossible, and that even God cannot help. But, somehow, we hang on to a thread of Faith and manage to survive and bear thirty-fold fruit.

What makes us draw back and permit our human reasoning to take over our lives so completely? There seems to be only one answer to that question, and the answer is—a lack of humility.

If we cannot fully understand the Mysteries of God, we will not accept them, and when we do not accept them we cannot make them a part of our daily life. They become mere "beliefs" that we reluctantly accept because we need some kind of crutch, or we reject because they are above our own Reasoning.

Sometimes we play games, and accept some revelations while rejecting others that do not suit us. And we use that very reasoning power, by which we accept some revelations, to rationalize ourselves out of believing other mysteries on Faith alone.

For example, we know God can do all things, but our human reasoning tells us that this time He can't or won't.

We know God loves us, but our intellect cannot comprehend His personal love and attention so we become just another pebble on the beach.

We know that God is present everywhere, and especially present in our souls through grace, but since our Understanding cannot fully comprehend "how," we go our way as if He were nowhere.

We know there is a God because every effect must have a cause, but since our Understanding cannot explain a Power that is Pure Spirit, we prefer to call Him "Nature."

To give credit for all creation to "Mother Nature" is to bring God down to our sense level where we can compete with Him on an equal basis. But the basis is not one of equality but pride on our part. We manage to keep ourselves from ever rising to the level of Faith because we insist on boxing ourselves inside the narrow limits of our own minds.

We remember when He said we should forgive seventy times seven times a day. But we apply this only when we are the ones to be forgiven. Our human Reasoning tells us that this is impossible when someone offends us that often.

We remember when He said we should love our enemies and do good to them. But our Intellect tells us that we cannot love anyone who hates us—it is asking too much—it is unreasonable.

We remember when He said that we should love each other in the same way He loves us. But the thought of this Commandment is perhaps one of the few times that we acknowledge an important truth, because we completely dismiss the Commandment, saying, "We can't do that because God loves with an Infinite Love and we are only finite." Yes, we are finite, but we admit that truth at the wrong time and the wrong place.

We remember how He spoke of His Father in Heaven and that He was going there to prepare a place for us. But our human Understanding rationalizes us right out of Heaven because it refuses to rise above itself to the region of God and Pure Spirits—a place where Faith alone can enter during this earthly sojourn.

Human reasoning can calm our emotions for awhile, and though they bear the fruit of self-control, it is self-centered —control for the sake of human respect—to be seen by men. What is thought to be control only drives us to a more subtle form of selfishness and pride. It does not change us into Jesus; it merely controls our emotions, leaving our Understanding still on the natural level.

Only when our Understanding is elevated by Faith in Jesus do we change and become sons of God and heirs to the Kingdom. Faith gives us a new birth. It puts away our old way of thinking and adopts a new way. We put on the mind of Christ, as St. Paul urged us to do.

As Christians, we not only believe; we think and live by those beliefs. We reason and understand by His standards, not ours or the world's. We see events, people, disappointments, trials, and suffering in a new light. We not only have Faith but we live by Faith.

Living in this light, we are unburdened and free to breathe the fresh air of joy and freedom, because we have already begun to live in Him.

Heaven is wherever God is, and though we live in a physical world, we also live in a spiritual one. The physical is outside of us, and passing; the spiritual is within us and everlasting. Since we are composed of body and soul, there must be harmony between these two lives. One must help the other towards happiness in this life and the next.

If we put an unbalanced emphasis on the spiritual, we run the risk of becoming cold, stoic, and unconcerned. If we put too much emphasis on the physical, we become selfish and greedy.

We see in Jesus a perfect balance between the physical and spiritual, and it is this harmony that we seek. Our passions and desires must be subject to our intellectual powers so that we are not tossed to and fro like a rudderless boat on a stormy sea. On the other hand, if we ignore the physical part of our nature we run the risk of killing the old man instead of renewing him and having a rebirth.

To be born again in the Spirit is to live on a supernatural plane. We must point out that the word "super" means above, exalted. So we take what we have—human nature—and with the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love, we raise what is and always will be human and finite, to a higher level—a level of participation into a life higher and more sublime than our own.

Though our human nature with all its inherent weaknesses is always with us, we can, calmly and consistently, raise it up to a higher and happier plane.

We notice in the parable of the sower that Jesus speaks of the "rich soil" into which the seed fell, to bear various quantities of fruit.

For soil to be rich in the properties necessary for a plentiful harvest, it needs fertilizer, and we must exert every effort to keep the ever-growing weeds down to a minimum.

And so it is with our souls. His Power is at its best in weakness. Our souls are rich in weaknesses that keep us constantly stirred up. We can use that rich soil as a garbage heap by piling sin upon sin, or we can keep the soil weeded and use the fertilizer of our weaknesses to, grow lasting fruit for the Kingdom.

To our human nature, God has added the ingredients of Faith, Hope, and Love to produce a plentiful harvest. But if we do not put forth the effort to cultivate and weed it, the enemy will sow more and more weeds, and the rich soil will be drained of its ingredients and become sterile ground.

God is the Sower and we are the gardeners. He has sown the Virtue of Hope in our Memory, Faith in our Understanding, and Love in our Will. As good gardeners, we use our weaknesses to grow in virtue by pulling out the weeds of sin that lessen our fruit and mar the beauty of our garden. Jesus told us this when He said, "It is to the glory of My Father that you should bear much fruit, and then you will be My disciples." (Jn. 15:8)

St. Paul realized this when he said he would make his weaknesses his special boast, so that the Power of Christ may stay over him. (2 Cor. 12:9) He used his weaknesses to grow in the image of Jesus. He was careful, however, that those weaknesses did not bear the harvest of sin. His failures healed his pride and made him depend more upon God.

We come now to a facet of the Christian life that we find difficult to understand and harmonize: weaknesses and holiness—the ridiculous changed into the sublime—the very human becoming divine.

People in the past have sometimes depicted holy people as other-worldly, unemotional, indifferent, and untouched by human passions and weaknesses—super beings set aside by God to arrive at a supernatural state unattainable by the rest of mankind.

Nothing can be more false. The real difference is that they used these weaknesses, and we try to destroy them. We find, however, that as soon as we think we have overcome one weakness, it either crops up again or something else takes its place. Then we are discouraged and give up the fight as a hopeless cause.

We' attempt to fight invisible foes and weaknesses with visible weapons, and that is often our first and last mistake.

When our Memory recalls some unpleasant past experience, we sit there as if we were in front of a television screen and enjoy the whole thing. We live and relive it until it is so blown out of proportion that we are enmeshed in a maze of fantasy.

To recall past offenses is a weakness of our human nature. Possessing that weakness is not what's wrong with us. The success or failure lies in how we handle it. And the way we handle it will determine how strong or weak that frailty will become.

If we consistently give in, that weakness will control us. If we overcome it, we will conquer it even though we may never destroy it.

It is not feeling anger that displeases God; it is giving in to anger and letting the sun go down on our anger that warps our soul. (Eph. 4:26)

When the Holy Spirit told us not to let the sun go down on our anger He was giving us a plan. We must put our Memory at rest before we retire every night. We must look back at the day's events and forgive and forget, and if we can't forget, then look at the day through the eyes of Jesus.

We must accept the events of that day in the light of Faith. We must forgive and use the unpleasant to increase humility, and rejoice in the pleasant, for both are ordained or permitted by God for our good. This is where Faith plays such an important role in our lives.

A Christian sees everything in the light of Faith, and he thinks in the light of Faith. It is here that we prove whether we are Christian in name or in deed.

When God gave us a plan by telling us what to do, namely, not to let the sun go down on our anger, He also told us how to accomplish this effectively.

In the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus said, "Be compassionate as Your Father is compassionate." (Luke 6:36) Many translations use the word "Merciful" but Mercy seems to be the fruit of Compassion, so we shall look at this passage and use the new translation to see how it fits in our daily life.

Compassion is a "feeling" that belongs to that faculty most concerned with the category of Memory and Imagination. It is not surprising then that Jesus has asked us to be compassionate as the Father is compassionate.

When we are compassionate we sympathize with our neighbor's weaknesses, and even though they offend us, we somehow understand. We are able to be objective and have an understanding heart, fully aware of our own weaknesses.

We must grow in the feeling of Compassion,— because compassion must be substituted for uncontrolled anger, impatience, and an unforgiving heart.

Scripture says many times that Jesus had compassion on the multitudes or on sinners. He felt sorry for them for they were like sheep without a shepherd. The very word "compassion" gives us a kind and warm feeling.

We are not asked by Jesus to destroy our feelings. We are asked to change and elevate them. The virtue of Hope gives us courage to persevere through the maze of bad memories, and results in the feeling of well-being that we call joy.

But for the unpleasant incident that is not yet a Memory but very much in the present moment, we need Compassion to make us Merciful.

It is here at this point that Faith must bring us to that other step so necessary to preserve our determination to rise above the things of this world.

Jesus told us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Hope, joy, and compassion belong to our "feelings" and they aid that part of our human nature in order to raise it above itself.

The word "perfect" is not at all related to exterior order or perfection, but to an elevation of our minds to a different level—a level in which perfection is more easily attained.

This is a spiritual level that we are encouraged to reach for—a level untouched by the feelings, which tend to drag us down to the animal level. We must realize that if we ignore our life with God, we run the risk of living an unrestrained life—a life directed only by our senses in much the same way as an animal is directed by instinct.

When we substitute and develop feelings of compassion for anger or hatred, we are calming our passions, but we are still operating on the lower level of the "senses." We must now add a new dimension and rise to the spiritual level of Faith and live by more perfect standards—purely spiritual standards—the same standards Our Father lives by—and that demands Faith.

As our senses and emotions are held more in control by substituting compassion, joy, and hope for dangerous emotions, we clear the way to elevate the "higher" faculties of our soul—the Understanding and Will.

As we speak of one faculty, it is often necessary to bring in one or two of the others for greater clarity. Though each faculty is different, they work together in such a close relationship that we are hardly conscious of their difference.

So far, then, we have been told by Jesus to be compassionate and perfect as the Father is compassionate and perfect. We also know that Jesus is the perfect image of the Father. That perfect Image has become Man to show us "how" and to tell us "what" to do.

To know what He did is historical knowledge, but to make it a part of our life by imitating Him is Faith. And the degree of Faith we have will be determined not by how much we know, but by how much we make Him a part of our life.

Here is where our human Understanding rebels—rebels because it is often rooted in pride. When we begin to deal with our Intellect and speak of supernatural standards, truths, and revelations, our human Understanding is at a disadvantage.

Our intellect is so dependent upon our senses and memory for the knowledge it defines and rationalizes, that it is at a loss when it is asked to deal with the purely spiritual. In the realm of the spiritual our senses fail us completely. And yet, we are asked by God, with the help of His Grace (not our senses), to rise to His level of perfection.

But Grace, too, is invisible, and so we are in need of something to enable us to comply with Divine commands on our level.

The quality that we need to accomplish this seemingly impossible task is Faith.

As our Memory is elevated by Hope, and developed by Compassion, so our Understanding is elevated by Faith and is developed by Humility and Meekness.

We have been given the gift of Faith, and Jesus has told us how to increase this gift. He said, "Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matt. 11:29) To accept the revelations of Jesus, we must be humble and admit they are above us.

If we are not humble, doubt will cause unrest in our souls. The inability to solve the problem of pain and suffering causes unrest in our souls. The difficulty of accepting truths that are within our reason, and yet above that reason, causes unrest in our souls.

The desire and inability to eradicate poverty and disease causes unrest in our souls. The unexplainable reasons for all the heartache and disappointments in daily life cause unrest in our souls.

There are a multitude of things in life that all crowd in upon our Understanding, clamoring for explanations. But our reasoning power, unaided by Faith, cannot solve these problems or answer these questions.

So our Understanding must either rise above itself through Faith or it will be in a constant state of doubt and frustration. When it is unable to cope with unsolvable problems it will either pretend they are not there or manufacture some logical solution that does nothing but touch the surface.

So we find the scientist who refuses to believe in God, making up his own explanations for the mysteries his reason cannot understand. But somehow they never satisfy him or anyone else for too long.

We find a social worker, who sees poverty, sickness, and injustice, losing his faith in God because his Understanding cannot solve or aid such astronomical problems alone.

We see those who have been unjustly offended becoming bitter because their Understanding can see no reason for persecution.

And then there are those who sincerely try to lead good lives only to be visited by tragedy and misfortune. Their Understanding questions and sometimes rebels at the injustice of it all.

Truly, our Understanding, unaided by Faith, cannot cope with, live with, or endure, those multitudes of crises that plague our daily lives.

In the Old Testament, Faith was based on the Hope of a Savior. Now, our Faith is based on a belief in Jesus as Lord and our imitation of Him as God-Man.

We are saved by this kind of Faith because Jesus is its source. "It is in Him and through Him that we move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)

This kind of Faith has the power to change us