Expectations

It's not easy to interact with people.

People expect you to act according their values and morals; dress to match what they find acceptable; to agree with their certainties, and on..

There are so many expectations, are endless...and it starts when the parents plan to have a baby. This baby that hasn't born yet, and already so much is expected from her/him .. how she/he will look like; education; what school will go; the professional career, marriage, grandchildren, etc.

And the expectations continue as the baby grows to become adult...expectations from the parents, from the family, from the friends, form the lover, from the job, from the neighbors, from the society, from the government, from the country, from the world.

This baby will grow in a system where everybody will expect something from her/him at some point, but the closest people are the one that will expect more.. constantly..and till her/his death.

People expect from others, as others had and have expectations from them all the time.. during their whole lives..

But what is exactly having expectations of others? Is expecting others to do what we expect them to do.  That is the same to say: wanting others to do what we want them to do.  

So, expectations aren't that harmless. 

But why people what to impose and force others to do what they want?

Well, it seems that somehow people believe that they know what is the best for them and others: the best words, conducts and behaviors for the different situations.

The problem is that each person has a different idea of what are the corrects words, conducts and behaviors to have and they all believe they are the ones who are correct.

In the majority of the conflicts it is not what you did but what you didn't do that the other was expecting from you..

Nobody want us to be what we are. People want us to be what they would like us to be.

How pretentious can people be! 

How can they see themselves as perfect role models to follow?

People think themselves owners of the truth...they are just owners of their own truth... not others.

Every person is unique...just each person knows what makes her/him happy..what is the best for themselves...every person is a world

We can give our advices if someone asks for it. But that's it.

"Live and let live"

The Church and its sins

For the big majority of catholics living their life by the church it's a struggle, a battle with their own feelings and needs, as imperfect human beings that we all are. 

• Masturbation is forbidden before and after marriage. 

• Sex just after marriage and just for procreation purposes.

• The use of contraceptives, coitus interruptus and sterilization are not accepted and considered sinful and lust. Because intercourse exists for reproduction purposes.  Using contraceptives or others is interfering with the divine plan to bring a life to the world. 

• Divorce is not acknowledged by the church, as divorce is to brake the sacred vows done in the marriage ceremony, like the promise of staying with the other till death.   What is done by the church is an annulment, that declares that the sacrament of marriage never took place, never happened. A christian catholic should find the love for life at the first attempt.

• The sacrament of marriage can just take place once. There are no second chances for the romantic love, in the church. The only way to remarry again is by becoming a widow.

• Homosexual people should live in chastity. As its practice is considered immoral and against the natural law. The church encourages them to become priest and nun to live in celibacy.

• Priests, nuns, bishops, cardinals, popes should devote their lives to the church in celibacy, never marrying or having a family. 

Church cannot accept contraceptives, divorce or married preachers but how could the church...

How could the church accept and support Holy War?
Many Crusades (religious wars) took place over centuries carried out by the knights of God, to liberate the Holy land (Jerusalem), to recover lands, to expand territory, to fight the enemies of God - polytheists, heretics. 

"You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: " an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.". But I say, do not resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek." (Matthew 5:38-40; Luke 6:29)

"Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you."(Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27 and 6:35) 

"Do not repay evil with evil, or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing." (Peter 3:9-14)




How could the church accept and support slavery?
The forced conversion to Christianity of indigenous people all over the world, that were slaves of the colonies.

"Love one another as I have loved you." (John 13:34-35)

"Love God with all your heart and soul and love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:30-31)

How could the church accept and practice Holy executions?
Over centuries, thousands were accused of heresy, conspiracy, witchery. Then brutally tortured to confess and mercilessly killed by the Holy Inquisition.


"Do not judge others and you will not be judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you" (Matthew 7:1-2)

"Who never sinned that throw the first stone." (John 7:53-8:11)


"If you forgive those who sin, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15)

"it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:31-32)

How could the church accept and denigrate the image and dignity of women?
"The women is submissive to man for her weakness of spirit and body. She is an imperfect man". - Saint Thomas Aquinas

"I cannot think of any reason for a woman's being made as the man's helper, if we dismiss this reason of procreation. -Saint Augustine

"Women is defective and bastard, for the active force in the male seed is for the production likeness in masculine sex. While the generation of woman comes from a defect in the active force. - Saint Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theological


Maybe, today, church wouldn't assume that position, but it stills supports gender discrimination by not ordaining women to the holy orders, as priest.

"My brothers and sisters believers in our Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism." (James 2:1-4)

"Do to the others what you would have them do to you." (Matthew 7:12)


How could the church accept and practice the accumulation of wealth?
The catholic church is one of the wealthiest institutions in the world: lands, properties, art pieces, gold, jewelry, investments in companies, merchandise licensing, raffles, church tax in many countries, daily donations from population around the world, and others.

We know that the church has its bills and needs to pay the salaries of the priest, the bishops the deacons; the expensive compensations for their many sex-abuses (majority pedophilia and homosexuality) around the world; to give to charity..

 ..but is it proportional the wealth that the church possess  with the help they give to the poor and needy? Is the church really doing everything they can to help the less fortunate?

" Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break on and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."(Matthew 6:19)

" No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. you cannot serve both God and money." (Matthew 6:19-21)

What can be concluded?

The church demands from all their members purity, chastity, sacrifice... so people will be always in sin, always in regret, always asking for forgiveness, always in suffering, always in debt with God, condemned to hell.

But, what Jesus said that makes one unfit for heaven is lust, theft, murder adultery, wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy slander, pride...

" It is the thought-life that pollutes. For from within, out of men's heart, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride and all other folly. All these things come from within; they are what pollute you and make you unfit for God." (Mark, 7:20-23)


The church invented the Crusades, the Inquisition, taxes, chastity, as they invented many other things.. It is not written in the New Testament. Jesus never said to do these things, on contrary..
Fortunately, neither the church nor the Inquisition never included their inventions in the New Testament. They didn't change it.  

The message of Jesus was a message of love, of tolerance, for people to respect and take care of each other, to unit people, for they to live in peace with each other.

To be humble, sincere, merciful, to forgive..

If the true message of Jesus was followed we would be living in a better world

Unfortunately for all its victims, for those in need, for the world, the church hasn't been representing Jesus's message well..

"Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:24)

Jesus is not the church..He is not an institution. He was a good man with a vision of humanity and human relationships too advanced for his time.. and still for today


I apologize if, in the translation of the New Testament, from the Aramaic to the archaic English and to a more current English, it wasn't possible to find the exact words. Instead were used synonymous. 
We have to keep in mind that it is not the same language. But the most important is that the meaning wasn't changed.

Brilliant Thoughts of Socrates

• "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

• "I call myself a peaceful warrior because the battles we fight are on the inside."

• "Be as you wish to seem."

• "To find yourself, think for yourself."

• "Know thyself."

• "Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty."

• "It's not living that matters, but living rightly."

• "Everyone wants to tell you what to do what's good for you. They don't want you to find your own answers, they want you to believe theirs."

• "Remember, no human condition is ever permanent."

• "Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others."

• "Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle."  

• "He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have."

• "Death may be the greatest of all blessings."

• "True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves and the world around us."

• "Those who are hardest to love, need it the most."

• "The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

• "Understanding the question is half of the answer."

• " To move the world, we must move ourselves."

• "I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of human excellence is to question oneself and others."

• "Life is full of questions. Idiots are full of answers."

,

-Socrates

Greek philosopher