Seek First the Kingdom - The March of Hope - Chapter 1
Heaven and Hope
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I have the most remarkable claim to make to you in this book. On the heels of The Freedom Dance, the story conveyed in my previous book Journey to Christendom – The Freedom Dance, I have been led to a land of the highest value. The panoramic view elevates one beyond joy, a place for which you would sell all you have to obtain, in fact, a destination that, if you truly grasp it, you will want to give your life to secure it.
I did not create this place, nor did I construct it through the philosophical musings of my own mind. It is objectively genuine. I have been led to it through over twenty-four years of consecration to Mary, the Mother of God, and by my heavenly friends, particularly my devoted Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and the magnificent St. Joan of Arc. I received the promise of it during my conversion to Catholicism at the hands of the Virgin Mary in 1984.
The Freedom Dance led me from the smoke-filled forest of anarchy in the modern world to the great walls of the castle that is the Catholic Church. I passed beyond the mighty gates of that castle. This journey led me through beautiful, colorful, sunlit fields to a mountaintop, and I must tell you what I see over its ridge and how I came to see it. I must tell you about a kingdom over there, the ultimate destination of The Freedom Dance. Climbing the mountain on the other side of the Catholic gateway has been a purposeful march, something I call the "The March of Hope" or "The March of Joan of Arc," as I stated above in the Introduction. This March is the story of what happened after I entered the mystical and life-giving land of Catholicism. The March brought me to the place with such a magnificent view.
I am to be likened to a man who has followed the giant footsteps of several saintly souls destined by God to guide him on a path through a marvelous and beautiful land, to the top of a heavenly mountain, overlooking a magnificent vista of rivers, lakes, meadows, tall mountains distant, and deep echoing valleys between. The path of faith he follows obediently with them is the Dogma of the Roman Catholic Church; the breathtaking kingdom in the distance is the mystical body of Christ, the Kingdom of God. The footprints he leaps into, one by one, with his desire to reach the kingdom, represent his hope. I will speak about those steps in this book. This book will document in some rough manner the critical junctures I have passed once inside the borders of Catholicism, those key milestones that have led me to this breathtaking view. If The Freedom Dance is the story of a journey from a dark forest to the giant gates at the castle walls of Catholicism, then the March of Hope is the story of the ensuing journey inside that land toward God's Kingdom.
This man we are imagining now peers through the mist and into the sunlight showering down on the grassy plains below. Suddenly, astonishingly, he comes to an understanding of what it is that he sees; he turns to his saintly friends, the ones who have shown him the way, for he is incapable of finding it himself, and they smile at him; their eyes are dancing with life and happiness; in fact, their entire demeanor approaches that of joyous laughter. Below is the land where they have been leading him. Below is the treasure, the goal for which he began searching over two decades previously when The Freedom Dance on the trail of the Dogmatic Creed began. He was then promised that he could go to this destination and enjoy its life; he was even given these lovely friends to guide him. Even still, he has failed to stay close at times; he was, over the years, often found roaming the dark woods lost and alone, having taken his eyes off of the path to chase shamefully after the worldly sirens of the dark and thereby periodically releasing his grip from those heavenly hands taking hold of him. But with all of this in account, he is now standing there, looking at the next stage in the journey. And with what he is viewing and soaking in, the entire Freedom Dance becomes worth every struggle, pain, loss, and cross to get there.
Now imagine that you are also traveling, and you suddenly spot our man crashing through the brushy and forested land to greet you, and, breathlessly, he points toward the great land, panting and gasping for air, and he exclaims to you, "You must see this! I have been shown the land that we seek, the land of milk and honey, the land where life is what we hope for, where the answer to all of mankind's problems are to be found! Wars would stop, the hungry would be fed, justice ruled by peace and mercy would envelop the spirits and souls of humankind if they were to venture there! Yet, if you prefer still to follow your own paths with your own man-made philosophies, if you choose to desire your own will to that of the Dogmatic Creed, then I must bid you farewell and best well wishes. For, I will seek no other land than that which the trail of the Dogmatic Creed has led me. I will seek after no other treasure, no other food than that on which I have been fed. But I am here to tell you that the land we seek, that is paradise here as far as we can know it, with the promise of paradise after, is over that mountain, and I shall give my life to reach it!"
That is what I am doing in this book. I am telling everyone who cares to read this little writing what I have discovered next coming from The Freedom Dance, the promise that has been set before my heart and spirit. I am here to tell you what I have come to desire and where that desire has led me. I am here to speak of Catholic Hope. And this hope has come to be more than I ever imagined; it is paradise. I want to tell you what it is and where to find it. I am panting and pointing, a man who previously in life had spent far more time lost in the woods than in the sunlight, a man who had not a clue what he was doing, but a man who, by following in the fellowship of his heavenly helpers has seen what it is for which he is now prepared to sacrifice his life. True fulfillment and joy come not from understanding how to live but from seeking what we would die for.Â
We see this principle clearly in our everyday life. We can hold to all sorts of beautiful-sounding beliefs and philosophies in our intellect while governing our lives by objectives that are incongruent with our beliefs. We can say that we believe God exists yet act very concretely as if he does not. This is called practical atheism, and most of humankind acts this way in our modern world. We claim that God is number one in our lives, but we work ourselves into a frenzy trying to make ourselves into gods. We might have faith in God, but we hope in ourselves. Thus, we live frustrated lives of desperation and wearisome worry, completely contradictory to our beliefs. In other words, our faith has not animated us sufficiently; our desires remain in this world and in ourselves even if our minds reach for God.
We are killing ourselves for something every day. We hope in one thing or another, even if this hope is not articulated or even entirely conscious. We are giving our life to something at all times. There is always something, somebody, some cause for which we spend our energy and health, even if it practically kills us. We work late, get little sleep, and eat poorly, even though this is terribly unhealthy because we must advance in our careers. Despite our faith in God, we are placing our hope in what this career advancement will bring to us. We crave the promises of God's peace while anxiously drooling over the newest model luxury car in pure envy of our neighbor. Despite our faith in God, we hope for what that car can bring to us.
What happens when we align our hope with our faith? What happens when we have faith in God and place our hope in what he can bring to us? What happens when we have faith in God and hope in God? When we are willing to kill ourselves seeking God's objectives, we hope in God. When we are ready to die for God's purpose, then we are living in God's hope. We have stopped being practical atheists who speak only intellectually of believing in God. We are beginning to act with integrity to our beliefs; the acts of our free will are consistent with our faith. We are becoming joyful and at peace. Our hearts are hoping for what God desires for us. We are approaching paradise. We begin to desire heaven.
The astounding saint Joan of Arc, to whom I am so devoted and who is my leader on this next phase of the journey, the March of Hope, has taught me through her own life and cruel death that while I have much for which to live, I have even more for which to die. This is the awe-inspiring hope about which I speak, the hope that is the place where The Freedom Dance leads. My ever-devoted sister St. Thérèse, Joan of Arc, and the other heaven-sent companions point me to the paradise humanity seeks.
What I will not do here, as I describe this next phase of my journey, is to conform to the teachings of the Catholic Church to make them more acceptable to you. There will be no attempt to make Catholicism "ok" for the path you are already on. I will not attempt to speak small of the saints, particularly of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, to not trouble the Protestant readers. I will not gush forth with religious relativism, congratulating each world religion for being an equally good path to God to not stall with those of non-Christian belief. No, I will speak of why I am so star-struck and edified by Catholicism's complete and dogmatic spiritual path with every saint, Creed, Pope, and sacrament.
Conversely, and using a more negative paradigm to make my point, I will tell you why even with evil inside the borders, I will not leave. For, even with evil making forays into the land, to leave would prevent me from reaching the land of Catholic Hope, this place for which I will sacrifice my life. No, it cannot be reached through any religion or philosophy of your choosing. You will find that it is a very Catholic place. But whatever your religious and philosophical preference, I want to tell you about this March of Hope.