MKTPeterson.blog: An open letter to Generation Alpha part I

An open letter to Generation Alpha[i]

To generation Alpha also known as those born between 2010 and 2025. You earned this label from social scientist because you are the 1^st generation to be born fully in the 21^st century. (Although some of you born from 2010-2012 may still be a part of Gen Z but those social generational lines always blur a bit). Some of you haven’t been born yet and others are already starting to undergo the life changes known as puberty. Most experts believe you will experience all of the wonderful technology those Sci-Fi dreamers only imagined in books, TV, and movies in the 20^th century and hopefully that technology will be good and not evil. Some of you will be cheering the day we land the 1^st spaceship on Mars and then complain about how $1.5 trillion dollars[ii] could have been better used to stop global warming or feed the projected 9.8 billion people that are projected to inhabit this planet when you grow up.[iii] Like your great grandparents (or in some cases great great grandparents) [iv] you are destined to be the 21^st century’s Greatest Generation. You have already survived a global pandemic and some economic hardship and I’m sure there will be more world events and world disasters that you will endure and shape you in the years to come.

However, for you to be truly great you need to do one thing 1^st.

Rediscover Jesus, especially the Catholic Jesus.

I know many of your parents do not believe in Jesus[v] or even God in particular. [vi] I know many of you may be watching “Bluey” or “Paw Patrol” on your tablets on a Sunday morning instead of going to church. I know many of you may be asking who Jesus is or who or what God is.

So let me explain.

In the beginning there was nothing, no light, no air, no planets, no animals, or plants. Nothing! Then suddenly BANG, there was light, and galaxies and planets and atoms and air and water and mountains eventually plants and animals. Now science is still wondering what caused this big bang explosion that created the universe. Some say it came from a large point of energy or from another universe. But I would like to ask those scientists who study the big bang where that other universe that birthed ours came from or where that large point of energy came from? A philosopher named Thomas Aquinas realized that there must be an ultimate cause and realized that ultimate cause was God after he read the opening line from the Bible (a book, well library really all about God) from the book of Genesis when God said in verse 1:3 “Let There Be Light”. And light suddenly exploded into the universe.

The book of Genesis goes on to explain how God created day and night, how God created air, seas, lakes, rivers, mountains, plains, plants, trees, fruits, the sun, the moon, fish and various sea creatures, insects, birds, animals and eventually God said “Let us create (the human race) in our image and likeness”[vii]. Now as you know from school the word “us” means at least two people. Who are the two people of God? Actually it’s three- God the Father, God the beloved Son whose name is Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit who was brought into existence when God the Father loved God the Son and God the Son loved God the Father so much that love became another all powerful person who can help create things like the sun, moon, stars, planets, animals and so forth. Now scientists argue that Genesis isn’t real and that isn’t how things happened. It took more than the 7 days (well six since Genesis said God took a break and relaxed on day 7). In fact, it took trillions of years for the universe you and I know to come into existence. But, if you look at Genesis it does begin with a big bang of light that separated the darkness of space with starlight. The world was also pretty formless until plate tectonics pushed up mountains and continents that separated the oceans and seas. Plants did come before animals and plants gave us the oxygen rich atmosphere that could allow all animals to see the sun and the moon and the stars. Per science life began in the oceans and eventually animals came onto land. In fact, when big time scientist Albert Eistein thought the universe was just a static thing that always existed, a Jesuit Priest name [viii] Georges Lemaître realized the light of the stars was traveling away from a center point like in an explosion and indeed the universe had a beginning.

And per Genesis, everything was good in the beginning.

Until it wasn’t.

You see, when God made the human race in God’s own image and likeness; He gave the human race free will to do anything they liked. Human beings were to be the ones to watch over the plants and animals and take care of the world. They could go anywhere and do anything. But, that freedom was lost when the human race broke the only rule that God established in the beginning. In the beginning God planted a garden, a perfect garden called Eden. He placed the 1^st man-Adam, and the 1^st woman- Eve in the garden and said they can eat the fruit of any tree they wanted. They could have all of the apples, oranges, bananas, avocados, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, walnuts, coconuts, almost any fruit except one very magical fruit that had a unique power. This fruit was better known as the forbidden fruit because once Adam and Eve had eaten it-they would die! However, an evil serpent told Eve she wouldn’t die if she ate this magical forbidden fruit. The serpent said if Eve ate the magical forbidden fruit, she would gain the knowledge of good and evil and be like God. Eve thought it would be pretty cool to be like God. After all God created the universe and everything that was in it so why not eat this forbidden fruit to be like God. Adam, who was with her, thought it was a good idea to be like God too and he asked for a bite of the forbidden fruit from Eve. And Adam and Eve didn’t die after eating the forbidden fruit-immediately.

They also didn’t become like God either. In fact, Adam and Eve realized they didn’t have rich fur like a mink or rabbit or a cat like most warm- blooded animals we call mammals. They didn’t have wonderful feathers like a peacock or an eagle or an ostrich or any bird. Hey, they realized they didn’t have colorful scales like fishes and lizards or a hard shell like a turtle. They suddenly realized God must have made a mistake because they were naked and had to cover themselves up with fig leaves. Except God doesn’t make mistakes. Adam and Eve did find out that day what was good and evil, and they had done evil by eating the forbidden fruit when they disobeyed God’s only rule. They hid themselves from their best friend God who walked in the garden of Eden with them frequently before this tragic mistake. Adam blamed Eve for giving him the forbidden fruit in the first place. Eve said the serpent tricked her into eating the forbidden fruit and she didn’t know what she was doing. It didn’t matter. Because Adam and Eve disobeyed the only rule God had God had to punish them by banning them from the garden of Eden. This mistake became known as the original sin. From then on if Adam and Eve wanted to eat, they had to work hard for it. They had to hunt or plant their own food and God wouldn’t always be at their side to help them. Ultimately, Adam and Eve and all life on earth would die and then become the possession of the evil serpent who is better known as Satan. Satan is the master of the burning painful eternal fire of Hell. And the entire human race was doomed to burn in Hell for all eternity because of the wrong choice by the two first human beings ever!

Now, God loved the human race and the rest of the world so much that he didn’t want them to become the permanent possession of Satan and the kingdom of Hell with their skin burning painfully in the eternal fire of Hell. Somehow, a human being had to make up for the mistake of Adam and Eve and all subsequent evils afterwards (killing, lying, being selfish and not sharing, not caring about other people or animals or the rest of the planet). Except there was no perfectly good human being that could make it up to God for the stealing of that forbidden fruit from Eden. All human beings are prone to do bad things. This is the legacy of the original sin. The reason why previous generations haven’t stopped global warming, (something that was discovered back in 1938[ix] ) or continue to fight in wars and argue about everything or rich people want to keep a large sum of money to themselves instead of sharing a lot of it with the poor who often are starving to death is because we are all tempted to do bad things and we frequently do those bad things. Think of how often your mom and or dad have told you to go to bed early and you want to stay up late. Or how often you want to eat lots of junk food snacks before dinner even though it will spoil your appetite for the good nutritional vegetables and lean meats that can help you grow up healthy and strong. There was no perfect human being. So, God sent his only son Jesus away from the joy and love of Heaven, the place of eternal goodness, into the evil world to become a human being.

When Jesus came into the world, He began to teach human beings what it meant to be like God. If you want to be like God you had to treat others, even those you hate or who even hate you, the way you would want to be treated. You had to share your stuff with others too. You had to share your food with people who were hungry or give clothing to those who were naked, or risk getting sick by visiting people in hospitals or even visit criminals in prison. You had to use your talents to improve the world in some way and make it a better place. You couldn’t even think bad thoughts about another person or view another person as evil. You had to love everyone the way Jesus loved all of us. Jesus loved us enough to not only give up the wonderfulness of Heaven and the Angels and to be far away from the Love of God His Father whom Jesus wants us to refer to as Our Father. Jesus loved us enough to suffer the most painful death in the history of the human race. Jesus had to die naked, nailed to a rough splinter filled wooden cross with a crown of spiky thorns on his head and this was after the Roman soldiers destroyed his back with a severe whipping. Jesus had to do this because the human race had developed this customer of killing an animal and offering up its blood to make up for the sins they were continuing to commit against God. God the Father knew if His only begotten son shed His perfect human blood for us the sin of Adam and Eve, the curse of Satan would be reversed and the Human Race would have access to that which can cast out sin-divine grace.

Jesus died on that cross, but he didn’t stay dead for long. Three days after He died; He rose up from that grave! Furthermore, Jesus tells us we too will rise bodily from our graves as well when He comes back for us at the end of time. We just have to obey His words and love God with our whole heart mind and soul and love our neighbor as ourselves. Now, because we are still plagued with the problem of Original Sin as in we have still have this need to do bad things all the time we have to find a way to access the divine grace that can help us not to sin. This is where the Catholic version of Jesus can come in.

The Catholic Church has visible signs of God’s grace that we can take advantage of to help us love God with all of our hearts, minds, and souls and the rest of the human race as we love ourselves. The first one many of you may have had already and that is baptism. Just as say, after making mud pies (do you kids still make mud pies?) your hands and arms are dirty and you have to wash the dirt off your hands with soap and water. So, when the priest or deacon pours water over a person’s head then the original sin is washed away and God and His love can enter our soul so we can start to do things the way God wants us to do them. We then have to get to know all about God. We can get to know God and find out what he wants of us by reading that book all about God called The Bible. We can also pray to him too using a prayer Jesus taught us called “Our Father” (Google it if you do not know it yet). Jesus in fact said to you kids “Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them. The kingdom of God belongs to such as these”[x]

And the best place we can go to be with Jesus here on earth is in a Catholic church. We can go to church and participate in a special ceremony where we give thanks to God for saving us. This is known as Mass or sometimes is known by the ancient Greek word for thanksgiving (because we are thanking God for saving us) which is the Eucharist[xi]. At the mass the priest turns an ordinary little wafer of unleavened bread, and a cup of ordinary wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus. He does this because Jesus, before he died, gathered his twelve best friends which we call Apostles at a last supper with them and told them when they eat this bread and drink the wine they were eating His Body and His blood and we had to do this in remembrance of him. [xii] Jesus knew the best way into a person’s heart (as an expression states) is through their stomach. If you are above the age of 7 and know the difference between right and wrong, you can receive Jesus. And if you are under the age of 7 or there isn’t a Mass going on at that particular moment at church then you can always go to church and just sit and be with Jesus.

Now, once you rediscover Jesus you may still have some problems in this world. Life is never easy once you rediscover Jesus. Yet, even in the darkest moments of your life you realize how much the God who commanded in the universe into existence loves you YOU on such a personal level there will be light in the darkness. And with that inner light you can shine that light and use it to eliminate the darkness of racism, or toxic capitalism, or all of the problems that plague this world.