Do we adore "Bling?" more than God?

By Paul Dion, STL

"Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,and the greed that is idolatry." (Paul, Colossians 3)

"Idolatry? Who, me? Idolatry is for Pagans with Golden Calves. I'm not like that."

Really? Then why do we "empty nesters" buy "Escalades" at age 70? Why do we spend $40,000 on a Quinceanera celebration? Why do we spend $35,000 on our father's funeral? Why do we spend $10,000 on an IBM laptop instead of $1,800 on a Dell? Why do we have ten expensive rings, five "King's Ransom" pendants and a $50,000 diamond bracelet?

It couldn't possibly be that we adore "BLING" more than "GOD", could it?

Let's take a look at this statement of St. Paul's to the Colossians. then, let's ask ourselves the following:

"Am I an idolator or am I a true worshipper and disciple of the one true God, and of Him alone?"

By the way, before we answer, let us check out the last sentence of Luke's quote of Jesus' comment to the crowd that He was instructing: 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?'Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God." (Luke, 12: 21-21)

Also this one from Luke 14: 25-33: "In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple."

Join the discussion. Post your comment to the burning question.

Does the Church permit Organ Donations?

By Paul Dion, STL

‘When he heard this, the bloodthirsty, murderous and utterly abominable Antiochus gave orders to cut out his tongue. But the youth said, "Even if you remove my organ of speech, God hears also those who are mute. See, here is my tongue; cut it off, for in spite of this you will not make our reason speechless. Gladly, for the sake of God, we let our bodily members be mutilated."’ (4 Macc. 10;18-20)

Ok, take my tongue out. God will still hear my cry. Didn't Cain's blood cry out to God from the earth onto which it had been spilled? Didn't Jesus give His life for ours? Didn't some of the martyrs commit some form of suicide?

What about the Franciscan Friar, Maximillian Kolbe who told the Nazis to shoot him rather than the family man that they were intending to kill? What about the priest who gave his life in the rescue action of 9/11/2002? More than organs, these people gave their lives for someone else?

What about the thousands of kidney donors who save lives every year? What about the lung donors? The liver donors who give half their liver for the salvation of their brother or sister?

So you think that all of the above are morally OK. So then, it must be OK for me to sell a kidney; maybe a lung; maybe a cornea; oh, you need a leg, here, I'm 80 years old, I'll sell you one of mine for $5,000; You need 25 square inches of skin, I have some on my tush that you can have for $50.00 per square inch.

Brothers and sisters, this question is not as easy at it seems on the surface. Parishworld.net knows that this is an important 21st century moral question.

In light of the previous question about whether or not real Catholics believe 100% of the Church's teachings, what do you believe about this question? What do you think the teachings of the church about this question are?

The Burning Question is: Does the Church permit Organ Donations? What are the church teachings on this subject?

Try your hand at this. Further enlightenment will come a few days down the road.