Saturday, March 9, 2013

The Fake Among Us

Ralph Napierski (left) poses with cardinal Sergio Sebiastiana outside the Vatican. 
Photograph: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

Can We Tell the Fake Among Us?  

Who was this guy kidding?  He gets a tacky clergy outfit, ties a purple scarf around his waist, and then gets his picture taken with one of the cardinals.  He actually got inside the Vatican for a moment when the Swiss Guard noticed that he had sneakers on and a black fedora!  Perhaps just a publicity seeker who never expected to get anywhere--except here I am reporting it with others.  Can we tell the fakes among us?  Ask that weird couple who crashed the White House party -- and actually made it!  

Every day we look into our mirrors and who do we see?  Do we know the person who looks back at us?William Blake asks the question--"If you met yourself walking in the garden, would you recognize yourself?" The author Charles Williams got a hold of it and wrote a book, Descent into Hell.  What is hell but the slow loss of the self into complete unrecognition. 

Ever hear this prayer for purity of heart?   "Almighty God, unto who all hearts are open, all desires known and from who no secrets are hid..."  Perhaps by being open to God, and to each other--we come more into focus, the real people we are without masks we prefer to wear because we prefer the fake and being secure--than risking who we really are. 

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