Discernment/Separating Truth from Dross

Obama is gradually revealing his real values, for those who "have eyes to see and ears to hear."

Discernment, known to Catholics as a mystically bestowed gift in the sacrament of Confirmation, may be what Our Lord was referring to here. The above quote, found in Matthew's Gospel, is near Jesus' description of society, "This peoples mind has become gross; their ears are dulled, and their eyes are closed."

It's an interesting quality, the ability to see beneath the surface, separating the wheat from the chaff. To paraphrase Michelangelo, "I do not create the sculpture, I remove the stone that does not belong to reveal what was there all along." The truth is always present, but there is dross to be removed. and that requires discernment. Judging by the thousands of Obama "groupies," following the piping media, it's a quality sorely lacking in today's political climate.

I heard a local radio personality call Obama the "pied piper of chiches," that pretty much sums it up, and yet, hundrends of thousands, including the fixated media, bow at the altar of his charisma. This is dangerous.

He smoothely, almost imperceptively, trashed our country, with his reference to torture, and made global warming and terrorism roughly equivalent, adroitly pointing out our "imperfections," not only to appeal to his audience, but also, because this is his "comfort zone." After all, Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers and Michelle Obama, all come from the "trash America mindset."

The only thing that can save an individual, or a society, from a charasmatic, relatively adept, rhetorician, is the interior antennae Our Lord referred to... discernment. It requires a sensitive intellect, a spiritual/psychological integration and a moral compass, to emerge from such external influences unscathed and rationally intact, not simply a part of the mob. In the end, it may all converge in the gut.

Compare BO's plagiarized cliches, to the substantive writing and speeches of historically great men...Abraham Lincoln, for example. When Abraham Lincoln, who, paranthetically, had a rather high pitched un-arresting speaking voice, delivered a speech, he was not reading off a teleprompter. He was not "lifting" language from others, he was speaking from the heart, a crucified and suffering heart, who had lived through the pain involved in wrenching self-sacrifice. His words were his own, and they "dripped" with the dignity of truth and moral passion.

Such men value truth above everything. Thus, they easily discern the difference between the wheat and the chaff, doggedly chipping away mere stone to reveal the truth that was always there.

May God give us the gift of discernment now, eyes to see and ears to hear...