Spiritual direction: God provides one life map

This is a very important spiritual director lesson, in analogy form, so heed it closely.

Humans are like individuals, each of whom must travel a journey. The journey is dangerous because the consequences for wrong navigation of the terrain are fatal. For example there are roads that lead directly over cliffs and there is no lightening nearby, so those roads cannot be navigated in the darkness. Serious hikers, pilots and sailors will immediately know what I mean by this analogy. It’s not being “mean” that there are dangerous shoals, treacherous and slippery trails, or high tension wires that must be avoided or navigated through. Only a suicidal idiot would hike, pilot or sail without such a map, and certainly not take dependent travelers along with them. And so life is like such a journey that every person must take and there is one and only one safe and guaranteed correct map that everyone must use.

Secularists will not use the map because it’s “unfair” and “mean” that there are hardships and dangers. Radical gays will not use the map because there are not enough gay bars along the way. Environmentalists won’t use the map because they refuse to see the risk to human travelers, only the risk to animals (who actually do not need the map; in fact, animals suffer from people who do not use the map for themselves). Terrorists do not use the map because they think they are guaranteed to get to the end place without using the map or, alternatively, they have been so traumatized by part of the journey that they no longer care about themselves or anyone else. Materialists and corporate plutocrats and Internet billionaires don’t use the map because they are too busy making money off of the travelers at one or two locations along the journey. The same applies to petty bureaucrats and mean bosses; they are too busy lording it over the few people under them to notice that they need to make the journey themselves and that they are already severely astray. People who believe in reincarnation won’t use the map because they think they “have to fall into certain pit falls along the way” AND “they have a free pass to the end result and over parts of the journey anyway.” What’s disgusting is that they mislead others to think likewise. Drunks and addicts (drugs or porn) no longer can read the map, say nothing of thinking they need it. Dealers take the money that the drunks and addicts would have paid for the true map and ability to read it, and so actively advocate against the map. Very little children do not need the map because if they perish they will arrive safely nonetheless… but little children who grow up in depraved society and/or abusive households lose their ability to believe in, trust or even read the map due to actions of the adults. Atheists refuse to believe in the map. Agnostics think the map might exist and hope that they are walking along it OK anyway. But they mistake good intentions with the reality of the treacherous trails and high tension wires.
Protestants and non denominationals are people who believe in the map and indeed 1600 years worth of their ancestors followed the map. But several hundred years ago their ancestors became angry because some unworthy people charged too much earthly money for the one true map, or the copies they purchased came with coffee stains. In anger they ripped the map in half and only use the less costly and unstained section of the map. Many are angry at people (Catholics) who use the whole map, thinking they should be pissed off at people who overcharged and spilled coffee on the map hundreds of years ago. So these Protestants and non denominationals sneer at the full map and created thousands of individual map “experts” who examine and prize only their pieces of the map, and not the full thing. They argue among themselves about their fragments of the map, not even recognizing they no longer possess the full map at all, say nothing about understand the key to the map and the legend (much of which was torn off and lost). New agers and Gnostics think they are the actual map drawers and deceive others to believe likewise.

Muslims possess a true map that is a “special edition” map that was created for them and their people. It is marked with authenticity because they honor and recognize Jesus in his role as Messiah to the People of the Book. Therefore God issued them a special map of their own that overlaps with the true map. In fact, if those who possess the true map ever completely lose their map the Muslim map will guide them home as safely and truly. However the Muslim map is not to be imposed on people who still truly follow their own one true map. The Muslim map was to be imposed on unbelievers who defied the true map at all over a thousand years ago. But that is not the situation now. The Muslim map must be treasured and kept pure because as I said it is the “keeping the believers in one God honest” version of the map that safeguard all people against any victory by pagans, idolaters (such as magicians and New Agers), secularists and atheists, all of whom deny both the Catholic and Muslim maps.

The Jews possess and still hold dear (if they are observant) the first edition of the one true map. They hold fast to it and have God’s love and will succeed in their individual journeys if they are true to the map. But because they do not accept the map provided as their update, the New Covenant map, they fall into pitfalls that are otherwise clearly marked on the New Covenant map. Lack of charity, love of neighbor, turning the other cheek, and not coveting what belongs to the neighbor are examples of physical landmarks and warnings that their first edition of the map do not contain. For those of you who remember the first game of “Adventure,” it is like they wonder then when a dwarf pops up and throws a knife. They come to think that fighting with the knife throwing dwarf is the entire objective of the journey rather than a pitfall to be managed of the journey.

Communists and socialists do not in theory and principle believe in the map and have done much to crush its preservation and use. However the hunger for the map never died and ex-Communist countries, and individuals within active Communist countries, recognize the reality of the map and seek to bring it back into their hearts. Castro survived his illness because he never totally blocked people from the map and was a generous host to the Pope. The Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans are gaining much grace by their acceptance of the map, although obviously there is a long way to yet go. Those who suffered the most through the loss of the map under communism, such as the Poles and the Russians, may well show a marvelous return to the map, if they are not ruined by secularism, depression and economic woes. Any traveler who loses all hope can no longer read any map accurately, whether it is a highway map or the one true map.

God’s compassion for those who suffer cannot erase the reality of the physics of the map. The map is the reality of life and how it intersects with God’s realm and reality. Those too angry, hurt, deprived, depressed, addicted or fatigued to read the map does not mean the map does not apply for them just because God still loves them and has infinite compassion. This is why the essential component of the map is the community of believers who love neighbor and care for them as if the neighbor were Christ himself. The Muslim map is as clear on that through alms and generosity as is the Catholic map in its relationship to the neighbor as “Jesus with a need.” Some Protestants sneer at Catholics for emphasizing “works.” Well, they forget that on the part of the map they have torn away and no longer is used or even known contains the works that enable neighbors who are angry, hurt, deprived, depressed, addicted or fatigued to also be able to conduct their own journey and read their own map. Telling people a map exists and Jesus’ name is on it is not enough. That is like the pilot buying a map that tells him that high tension wires exist, but if you just acknowledge that you are a sinner and might hit the lines, then it’s all OK and you don’t actually need to watch for the lines yourself or warn anyone else of them. Grace is enough to fly with, no? And God won’t blame you if you told would-be pilots that high tension lines exist, but hey, if they were too vision impaired to see them, well God will “save them” anyway, or not, *shrugs.* I do not doubt they love Jesus, but loving Jesus is not the same as treading the fullness of God’s map, as Jesus himself stated repeatedly and would tell you if he were here today.