http://happylittlecrittersband.com/

Happy Little Critters Band, 10 Archbishop May Drive, St. Louis, MO (2026)

02/10/2026

BEING SELF-ISH [Visit the link at the end of this message to learn the "music”]

Many folks give up something for Lent (e.g. beer, coffee, chocolate, shopping, watching sports, “Judge Judy” or some other TV favorite). Other people learn to use Lent as a time to add something (e.g. rosary, bible study, exercise or almsgiving). Such practices are more or less helpful for most people, but our Happy Little Critters Band (HLCB) suggests that we all work at being more SELF-ISH.

What the hell do we mean by “SELF-ISH”? We do NOT mean selfishness—a kind of Individualism where we only care for ourselves, apart (SEPARATED) from others. Rather, we urge people to take care of themselves for the sake of the whole. If we don’t care for ourselves and take personal responsibility for doing our own business, we are of no use to the whole. We must not rely on others to do what we can do for ourselves.

The HLCB is totally dedicated to happiness for everyone. But none of us can be completely happy apart (SEPARATED) from the happiness of the rest of the world. We share in the same ONE ORGANISM (God)—whatever is done to the least part is done to everyone.

Developing a habit of being SELF-ISH means that each of us learns to ask, “Whose business is it?” In a healthy organism, every single part does its own job and completely shares the results. By contrast, unhealthy people are drowning in CODEPENDENCY or CONTROL. By doing other people’s business, and insisting that others do the same, they create a world in which everyone usurps the responsibilities of others.

An episode in the comic strip FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE illustrates the problem: Elly (the mom) tells Michael (her 12-year-old son) to pick up candy wrappers that he and his buddies scattered in the backyard. Michael murmurs under his breath, “It’s your fault…. You’re the one who gave us the candy.”

Before Lent begins, let’s examine our own love-communities (family, church and friendships). They are probably drenched in examples of unhealthy “love”—people doing other people’s business. Too often, what we mistakenly called “love” is codependency. No wonder lots of people are afraid to form close relationships.

Occasionally (e.g. with kids), it may be appropriate to do another’s business, but we must follow three rules: First, it’s got to be really important. Second, it’s got to be temporary. And, finally, it must be possible without causing more harm than good. For instance, a legal ban on abortion is bound to do more harm than good.

THIS LITANY OF MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA (paraphrased) COULD BE CALLED “BEING SELF-ISH”:
People are illogical, unreasonable, self-centered and controlling. -
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish motives. -
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. -
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, you are vulnerable. -
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. -
Build anyway.
If you offer help to people in need, they may attack you. –
Offer help anyway.
If you will not bow to their control, they will call you arrogant. –
Don’t bow anyway.
After all, it has NEVER been about them or you SEPARATELY; it’s ONLY about being ONE ORGANISM (God).

Muscle-stretching exercises might hurt a little, but pain is not their purpose. Likewise, Lenten works of penance aren’t intended to cause pain; they’re meant to improve our relationships with God and others. Our HLCB can think of no better way to build up the ONE ORGANISM than for each individual part to be more SELF-ISH—by fully assuming responsibility for its own health, and caring for its own business.

© 2026 Rev. John Vogler [HappyLittleCrittersBand.com]

02/03/2026

TAKING SELF TOO SERIOUSLY
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We often hear it said, “Don’t take yourself too seriously.” What does that mean?

George H.W. Bush, also known as George Bush Sr., was the 41st president of the United States (1989 to 1993). He loved to tell this story on himself: As president, visiting patients at a nursing home, Bush cheerfully asked an old man, “Do you know who I am?” The resident replied, “No. But, if you ask a nurse, she should be able to tell you.” President Bush used that story to let us know that he didn’t take himself too seriously.

Yet, the same President Bush, as the lone survivor of a plane crash in the Pacific theater of World War II, asked, "Why had I been spared and what did God have for me?" After surviving close encounters with death, both saints and sinners often say the same thing. However, that question could be a sign that we are TAKING SELF TOO SERIOUSLY.

Our Happy Little Critters Band does not believe that we are “chosen,” apart from others. Everyone and everything ALREADY shares life, in the ONE ORGANISM (God)—there is no SEPARATION. Rather than searching for that special place where we BELONG, we need to be watching for possibilities to serve the needs of our species and the whole Earth. By caring for all, we automatically care for ourselves—and vice versa.

By thinking that God has a predetermined plan for us alone, and fixating on what we envision our specialness to be, we’re likely to miss other opportunities shouting for our attention.

Let’s illustrate with a variation on an old story: Brother Martin, a young disciple of St. Francis of Assisi, believes himself to be called by God to preach the Gospel. As Martin travels into town, he passes a child shivering in the cold. Then, the brother passes a hungry beggar. Finally, on the steps of the Cathedral, Martin delivers a passionate sermon on the subject of clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. Duh!

Pride—superiority—is another danger of imagining oneself with a special calling. Israel was blessed, but Jews started acting like God loved them more than “the nations.” Various prophets, as well as the whole Book of Jonah, had to constantly remind the “chosen people” that God loves everyone equally.

Christian Europe was blessed with nurturing the earliest centuries of the Gospel of Jesus. Thus, arguably, Europe developed the sciences and arts faster and more extensively than other civilizations. But Europe’s brazen colonization of the rest of the world belies a demonic degree of arrogance and superiority.

The enslavement of Africans, the rise of N**i Germany and even today’s American White Christian Nationalism give evidence of a generational and prideful superiority that threatens the Church’s work of uniting humanity and building the Kingdom of God “ON EARTH.”

The blind determination of people who image that God counts on them to fulfill a specific mission can literally take on the worst features of a “jihad”—a holy war. Perhaps President Bush answered his question, “What did God have for me?" by waging war against the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Certainly, when Bush’s son, George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States (2001-2009), started the 20-year-long second Iraqi war, he believed he was on a “mission from God.” Countless “just” wars have been waged in the name of God.

Being “called by God” can NEVER take the form of SEPARATION. “Priesthood” is ALWAYS a mission to join people to God and one another, but authoritarianism is a sure sign that we are TAKING SELF TOO SERIOUSLY.

© 2026 Rev. John Vogler [HappyLittleCrittersBand.com]

01/27/2026

SACRAMENTS
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Because we humans are so limited in how we directly know reality, it is absolutely necessary for us (religious or not) to be people of faith—we depend on languages (outward signs) to discover things we cannot sense (see, hear, smell, taste or touch). Nature’s hidden realities (e.g. atoms and black holes) can only be known through signs. Even our thoughts and feeling are invisible, until we express them through outward signs.

Some of the most important signs (language) that Christians use to express their Faith are SACRAMENTS. Yet, Happy Little Critters Band (HLCB) questions the way sacraments are usually taught. Teachers confuse the sign with the reality; or they imagine that the sign causes the reality to happen. Furthermore, both Protestants and Catholics cause more confusion by assuming that God and the parts of creation are all SEPARATE.

Our HLCB says that everyone and everything BELONGS—we are all parts of the ONE ORGANISM (God). We say the only exception is that (by nature) the all-inclusive God Life supports a Trinity of “Persons,” and each of us human forms of life supports its own individual “person.” Just as a shadow cannot exist without an object, a “person” cannot exist without a life form to support it. [NOTE: “PERSONS” are not the same as “souls.”]

Now, it’s important to recognize the distinction between signs that are only “SYMBOLS” and signs that are “SACRAMENTS.” A “symbol-sign” SUBSTITUTES for a reality (e.g. the picture on my license is a symbol of me). A “sacrament-sign” IS PART OF a bigger reality, for which it is a sign. Both my hand and my face are sacraments of my presence, but the face is a clearer and more specific sign of me.

We can apply that distinction to the Eucharist: Protestants normally think of the Lord’s Supper as a symbol of Jesus’ loving presence; Catholics insist that it is the Real Presence of Jesus (God). However, to explain the Real Presence, Catholics employ the philosophical concept of “Transubstantiation”—the belief that the “substance” of bread and wine instantly changes into the substance the God-Man (Jesus), at the words of the priest.

Classic Catholic theology uses the same “magical” explanation for the Real Presence in all seven Sacraments. Yet, because our HLCB believes that everyone and everything is part of the ONE ORGANISM (God), we can get the same Catholic bottom-line (Real Presence) without all the magic. We say the Real Presence is everywhere.

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) called the Church “the universal sacrament of salvation.” Thus, God communicates Love to all peoples (universally) through the Church’s very flesh (words and actions)—“where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20).

However, the Church has yet to grow into a clear sacrament of God’s Love. Reflecting on that sad reality, Pope Paul VI said: “The Church is an evangelizer, but she begins by being evangelized herself…she always needs to be called together afresh by Him [God] and reunited” (EVANGELII NUNTIANDI, #15). The Seven Sacraments, Liturgy, sacramentals, etc. are all ways (languages) designed to evangelize the Church herself.

In summary, our HLCB removes the need to call upon “divine magic” to explain how a remote God comes to help us at critical moments. We teach that this whole cosmos, and everything in it, is the ONE ORGANISM (God). Yet, we still honor and depend on Church and its sacraments to make us aware of God’s presence.

The HLCB definitely does not see SACRAMENTS as mere “symbols.” Just as my face is “a clearer and more specific sign” for revealing my real presence than my hand is, so the Church and its Seven Sacraments reveal more perfectly, to all of humanity, the “God who is with us” (Emmanuel).

© 2026 Rev. John Vogler [HappyLittleCrittersBand.com]

01/20/2026

SURRENDER—AA & ST. PAUL
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All of us can probably relate to the problem St. Paul articulated about himself in his Letter to the Romans (7:15-20): “I don’t understand myself. I do the things I don’t want to do and I don’t do the things I intended to do. I agree with the Law of God in my mind, but, in my flesh, there is another law at war with the Law of God” [paraphrased].

Conventional wisdom tells us that we just need to try harder, but the wisdom of AA and other 12 Step Programs dictate a whole different approach--SURRENDER. Yes, the first three steps tell us to quit “trying.”
1. We admitted we were powerless with our so-called “free will”—that our lives had become UNMANAGEABLE.
2. We came to believe that a POWER GREATER THAN OURSELVES could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to SURRENDER our will-power and our lives to the care of what we understood as God.

UNMANAGEABLE LIVES: In my many years, I have done rather well, living the delusion of “free will.” I imagine that God gives me the power to say “yes” or “no”; and I hope to be capable of maintaining my correct decisions, even though thousands of temptations and situations each day pull me in different directions.

However, despite my many successes, I have never had character strong enough to live my principles faithfully and consistently. I always get worn out “trying.” So, during a particularly successful period of my life, I heard a warning in my head: “Lord, beware of John. He will betray you” [attributed to St. Phillip Neri]. Attempting to CONTROL my life with free will has always been (more or less) “unmanageable.” I finally admit that I am powerless.

I admit that, in reality, my “free will” is useless. I admit that my life is unmanageable. Our common understanding of free will has always been a delusion. The only thing our free will can choose is to SURRENDER—e.g. a little boy can never sustain his will to fight sleep, but he can always SURRENDER.

A GREATER POWER: The second step should be rather easy for me. I am well trained in taking it for granted that God exists and loves me. Yet, I have to pay attention. By choosing to rely on my own CONTROLLING mind to save me, rather than trusting in the goodness of reality, I have created my own hell—I have created my own insane world.

Prayer (contemplation) helps me to stay aware—the power of the Holy Spirit is not only available, but is ALREADY within me, calling for me to leave the insanity of my SELF-CONTROLLED world. I pray daily and share my faith regularly.

SURRENDER TO THE CARE OF GOD: The third step, to SURRENDER my will and my life to the care of God, is not a matter of silliness and irresponsibility. A seasoned Christian tells this story about himself: “When I first got ‘saved’ at a revival, I was determined to let Jesus make all my decisions—letting him take over the ‘throne’ of my life. I opened my closet the next morning and asked, ‘Jesus, which tie should I wear?' I distinctly heard him say, ‘I am not your mother!’”

SURRENDERING to God means that I no longer have to agonize. I no longer need to “negotiate” with the Spirit over what is best for me. In most situations, I know what the Spirit wants for me. For insistence, I know that I don’t need that sugar in the ice cream, or that alcohol in the beer, as a “reward” at the end of a hard day.

The Happy Little Critters Band reminds me that nothing can SEPARATE me from the ONE ORGANISM (God). Everyone and everything already BELONGS. When I occasionally face a serious choice, where I am not sure which way to go, I simply apply a process of discernment and do the best I can. I know I can entrust my life to the loving care of the Spirit, who is bound to take better care of me than I have ever been able to do with my own power.

My advice to St. Paul, and to everyone who wants a life of sanity, is to follow the proven wisdom of AA (or any 12 Step Program). Honestly reflecting on the first three principles, and making the wise decision to SURRENDER our “free will” to the care of God, is necessary to position us in the really real world. Then, working the other 9 steps will lead us to sanity and happy lives. Only then will the Good News of Jesus Christ begin to make sense for all of humanity.

© 2026 Rev. John Vogler [HappyLittleCrittersBand.com]

01/14/2026

DETACHMENT
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The film YOU HURT MY FEELINGS (2023) focuses on aspiring novelist Beth, her therapist husband Don and their young adult son Eliot. Unwilling to “discourage” his wife, Don pretends to enjoy the draft of Beth’s new novel. But Beth overhears Don tell his brother that her book stinks. Though Beth is upset with Don, she hides her anger. To protect the other’s feelings, neither Don nor Beth is being open and truthful.

Meanwhile, Eliot decides to finally unload on his mother, for what he calls her excessive “encouragement.” She keeps telling him to shoot for goals that he really doesn’t want to achieve. He claims that she has “forced” him to live up to her expectations for him, instead of letting him fulfill his own desires.

The movie brutally unmasks the unhealthy codependency that dominates our behavior, particularly within families and close relationships—everyone is doing everyone else’s business, and they call it “love.” (No wonder so many people have given up on “love.”) The characters in the film finally find a bit of relief, when they realize that their true love and acceptance is not based on superficial talents, abilities or achievements.

Our need to CONTROL is obsessive. St. Paul described it this way: “I do the things I don’t want to do, and I don’t do the things I intended.” Think of the power struggles in your own life: Do you argue with yourself and others over food, alcohol, buying stuff, politics, religion, the TV remote, clutter around the house, use of the car, studying for school or choosing a career? Please, don’t ignore or deny your obsessiveness—it’s in us all.

Behind such a universal compulsion is the fear of SEPARATION. Every human has suffered the traumatic experience of being born. That “violent” beginning scars all of us with what should truly be considered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—the “Original Sin.” We go through life expecting (more or less) to fail and be rejected or abandoned. The fear of SEPARATION spawns an obsessive need to CONTROL or be CONTROLLED.

We really need to develop DETACHMENT. We need the HUMILITY that comes from knowing that none of us has CONTROL of our own or anyone else’s worth, value and BELONGING.

We can learn a few tricks about DETACHMENT from traditional practices recommended by Christians and other “gurus”—practices like meditation, centering prayer, yoga and mortification can be helpful. Generally speaking, most healthy practices of DETACHMENT are merely ways to coax and challenge our conscious minds to surrender CONTROL and be attentive—even 10 minutes of silence (or giving up candy for Lent) can help.

Our Happy Little Critters Band (HLCB) finds it impossible even to imagine SEPARATION—everything and everyone belongs within the ONE ORGANISM (God). Our “Soul Music for the Mind” may not be capable of healing ALL our fears. However, freeing our CONSCIOUS minds of the belief in SEPARATION will go a long way in overcoming the rest of our wounds.

The HLCB’s “Soul Music for the Mind” gives the conscious mind a tool to take initiative in the process of freeing itself. Otherwise, the mind will surely become “Satan”—lying, cheating, sneaking and finding ways to sabotage our efforts to develop DETACHMENT.

In summary, humble DETACHMENT allows us to enjoy absolute BELONGING—without a need to cling to anyone or anything. As we happily live our brief lives without the need to CONTROL, we also are changing humanity itself. Ultimately, a critical mass of mature humans will consistently heal very young children of the obsessive need to CONTROL. Humans will live in peace and joy, as long as our species exists on Earth.

© 2026 Rev. John Vogler [HappyLittleCrittersBand.com]

01/05/2026

CATECHISMS
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Ever since Jesus of Nazareth lived and articulated his Good News (Gospel) 2,000 year ago and commissioned his individual disciples to keep spreading his message to the ends of the Earth, the phenomenon of the Catholic Church has been fermenting on Earth. We have the Gospel of Jesus according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, Jude, Ambrose and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

For centuries, theologians, saints and ordinary Christians have lived and taught the Gospel of Jesus, according to their own understanding. Yet, the Catholic family maintains a remarkable degree of unity—relying on the bible and tradition for guidance, but also on pastors (bishops and pope) to stay together.

Now, think of a family living in the same house for 2,000 years. Can you imagine the clutter in the attic, garage and basement? The accumulation would certainly include everything from treasures to trash. Wouldn’t it be helpful to occasionally organize and clean out all that stuff?

In the case of the Church, every few hundred years, popes have commissioned a group of experts to create a CATECHISM—reordering all the teaching and beliefs taught by the Church, up to that time. The most recent such project was authorized by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The results were published in Latin, and then translated into other languages, throughout the 1990’s. The English translation was approved in 1994.

Many folks could not wait to get their hands on the NEW CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Especially fearful and immature people were seeking the security of a single source of authority that would have all the answers. They fanaticized, living a “safe” life, shielded by a “bullet proof vest” of two extremely thick books—the bible and the CATECHISM. However, they missed the whole point of the project.

The CATECHISM says it is a tool, not a solution: “This work is intended primarily for those responsible for catechesis: first of all the bishops, as teachers of the faith and pastors of the Church. It is offered to them as an instrument in fulfilling their responsibility of teaching the People of God. [Also,] it is addressed to redactors of catechisms, to priests, and to catechists. It will also be useful reading for all other Christian faithful.” ( #12)

When the new CATECHISM was first published, future Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) explained that it only told us where the Church had come so far. He said that it is up to theologians to open new insights and avenues for the continued growth of the Church. “Those who search for a new theological system in the Catechism, or for surprising new hypotheses, will be disappointed. This is not the concern of the Catechism.”

Indeed, almost immediately, the paragraph dealing with the death penalty (2267) was revised by Pope John Paul in 1997, and again by Pope Francis in 2018. The original text allowed the conditional justification of executions. But both popes put restrictions on capital punishment, eliminating any moral justification.

So, we already have seen the CATECHISM change on the death penalty; our Happy Little Critters Band (HLCB) foresees it drastically changing in its description of Creation, Evil and the Four Last Things (Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell). The Good News of Jesus never changes, but our understanding is constantly developing.

Cardinal Ratzinger said: “After the fall of ideologies, the problem of man—the moral problem—is presented to today's context in a totally new way: What should we do? How does life become just? What can give us and the whole world a future which is worth living?” CATECHISMS will continue to collect, organize and cull the answers to those questions; but it is up to us to blaze new trails, with better answers for humanity.

© 2026 Rev. John Vogler [HappyLittleCrittersBand.com]

12/15/2025

WHERE DOES IT HURT?
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When I was 6 years old, I fell in love with my mother’s uncle from New York, Will Sockett. He came barging into our house, smoking a big cigar; he was larger-than-life, like a Dickens character. They say that a doctor once asked my uncle where he was hurting—what was wrong. Will replied, “You’re the doctor, you tell me.”

In doctor shows on TV, we notice that the medical team makes 3 or 4 misdiagnoses, before they finally find the true source of an illness. Likewise, most people miss the target, when they aim to find the real root of human misery. But our Happy Little Critters Band (HLCB) claims to have discovered the genesis of all human ills: simply, all real human agony stems from minds that compulsively think that they must CONTROL.

Of course, problems and obstacles arise from all kinds of factors beyond our CONTROL. But the real misery comes from our own “masterminds” being driven to engage in life-or-death struggles to maintain our BELONGING, amid a universe we’re convinced is hell-bent on SEPARATION.

The HLCB never has to fight life-or-death battles, because we believe that we already BELONG, as parts of the ONE ORGANISM (God)—the only life that exists. Since that God Life is eternal, we are eternal—there is no death. God always has had a Trinity of “Persons,” and each of us has a “person” who (when human life ends) is drawn by God to join the eternal Triune “Persons” in sharing everything.

Meanwhile, on Earth, we are intimately connected and constantly evolving, rising into new forms that are totally good and marvelous. Think of a kaleidoscope. As it turns, every nudge creates new and beautiful patterns—each unique. Yet, not a single colored particle is added to—or lost from—the cylinder. Once minds SURRENDER to the reality of our cosmic ONENESS (a totally self-contained organism), there’s no agony.

We human forms of life are temporary and have no other purpose than learning how to be happy together, right here and now. We accept our limitations and failures as parts of our “growing pains.” As our immature “masterminds” surrender, our minds become servants, actively searching for new opportunities and better methods for forming healthy INTIMACY with everyone and everything.

My friend Dan was born with severe cerebral palsy. Neither he nor anyone else could change that condition. But Dan had an active, clever and humorous mind that did its best to avoid envy or self-pity. In my very first meeting with Dan, he (literally) spelled out for me that his mission was to bridge the gap between disabled and able-bodied people. (Overcoming what appears to be SEPARATION is all humans need to be happy.)

Dan accomplished his goal by putting himself in the midst of able-bodied people—“forcing” them to deal with him. Unable to travel on his own, Dan would get one his friends, whom he wryly called his “lackeys,” to take him to a meeting. The more meetings he attended, the more “lackeys” he attracted.

Believing in the ONE ORGANISM is the great equalizer. It rids our conscious minds of our desperate need to CONTROL. No longer does the delusion that there’s not enough food, space, clothing, shelter or intimacy drive us. The only reason we have a scarcity of any necessity is because we think we are SEPARATE, so we hoard and CONTROL.

When we no longer believe in SEPARATENESS, “good and evil”, we can relax and enjoy the discovery of INTIMACY. Our conscious minds, at least, become havens of sanity amid the “growing pains” of humanity. The HLCB (or the Good News of Jesus) has the perfect “medicine” for all our woes.

© 2025 Rev. John Vogler [HappyLittleCrittersBand.com]

12/08/2025

JUSTIFICATION
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For centuries, Lutherans and Catholics notoriously condemned one another over the question of how a person is “JUSTIFIED” in the sight of God. In October of 1999, scholars from both groups finally hammered out and signed a joint statement of agreement on the meaning of “JUSTIFICATION.”

I must confess that I have been a Catholic priest and have lived, studied and preached Christianity for well over 50 years, and I have never felt the need to delve into the theology of JUSTIFICATION. It must not be very important for my understanding of the Gospel. Have I been missing something?

Recently, I was forced to look into the issue more closely. One guy in a group of men I visit regularly at a prison wanted to discuss a religious book he found. The first two or three chapters were on nothing but the topic of JUSTIFICATION. I admitted my ignorance on the subject and asked the other guys what it meant to them.

In no time, I realized why the matter is of no importance to me. It is like asking me when I am going to stop beating my wife. In the first place, I don’t have a wife. But even if I did, I would never beat her. I might be wrong, but the whole issue of JUSTIFICATION is about establishing a reason (a “justification”) for God to love us tiny, sinful human critters. The question assumes that our sins make us EVIL in the sight of God.

Basically, the argument has been about: Does God love us because Jesus died on the Cross to cover over our EVIL, or does God love us because Jesus replaces our EVIL by infusing us with Godliness? I am astonished that some Christians are still stuck in such a mindset. If God doesn’t love us just the way we are, then God doesn’t love us at all. To say that God doesn’t love us, even for a moment, is sheer nonsense and blasphemy.

The Happy Little Critters Band (HLCB) believes that we are all parts of the ONE ORGANISM (God). The question of JUSTIFICATION makes absolutely no sense to us. Why would a foot—or any part of the body—have to justify its existence? The mere notion that our “free-wills” allow us to SEPARATE ourselves from God merely reveals the extent to which we arrogantly exaggerate our own power.

We can free ourselves of the fear of SEPARATION, by simply surrendering our thinking to the HLCB’s “Soul Music for the Mind.” Personally, I find it fairly easy to surrender, because I have been relatively shielded from the need to justify myself. Of course, like everyone else, I am a slave to fear, but I am like a “house slave.” I have never had to work in the field and pick a quota of cotton, in order to avoid the lashes of the master.

For instance, as a child (the “baby” of 3 boys), I never got trapped in the need to give gifts or to justify my position in the family. My mother would say, “Johnny, you don’t need to buy me a gift—you are a gift in yourself.” I learned early, “No kid should have to ask his parent for money, to buy a gift for that same parent.”

Both Lutherans and Catholics are now “able to articulate a common understanding of our justification by God's grace through faith in Christ.” Hopefully, all Christians will continue to move away from having to win God’s favor, through the pagan practice of atonement (Jesus sacrificed himself on the Cross to pay the price we owe to God).

Some believers may still think they have to prove something to God, or justify the love God has for them. Perhaps they can be healed, if Christians who are less wounded or more mature will keep hugging them and say, with a smile: “God already loves you, and you are a gift in yourself?” Enough said about JUSTIFICATION.

© 2025 Rev. John Vogler [HappyLittleCrittersBand.com]

Happy Little Critters Band

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