Father Jerome's World Community Sermons

An "in-sort-of" thing, nowadays, is spending "quality-time" with one's family and children, in order to foster better mutual-understanding (i.e., getting to know one another) and family cameraderie (fun and togetherness), especially for the yuppie-class and working-mom generations of today's women. Well, I can say that I have, personally, been spending "quality-time" with my "family", for the past number of years. My "family", being myself a homeless person for quite some time now, is the cadres of the homeless here in San Mateo County, California. And I have certainly come to "know" the homeless better, although I cannot say that the result was (or is) "fun and togetherness"! In fact, spending time with the "lost" homeless means immersing oneself in the negativities and lifestyles of these cadres of the lost. And even though I have generally written about and for the non-lost homeless, this Sermon will be an analysis of the realities of the hard-core "lost" homeless. (For a differentiation between "lost" and non-lost homeless, see Father Jerome's San Mateo Ministry, the Homeless Quantum, and the Truth, Trust & Human Integrity website-pages.)

And no matter how many non-lost homeless there are here in California and elsewhere in the world, there are yet many legions of the lost homeless as well. (And a quick distinction here: the non-lost homeless are those homeless - professionals and otherwise - who are doing something about or with their situation and are consequently non-lost, yet homeless, primarily as a result of society's negativities and corruptions. They - the non-lost homeless - are generally non-substance-addictive, non-abusers of anything, and of mentally-sound mind. Contrary to these, the "lost" homeless are usually alcoholic, drug-abusers, addictive and/or mentally deficient and/or aberrant.) And mind you now, I'm talking about the "lost" homeless WORLDWIDE!

Okay, now let's get into WHY these folks are "lost", and then later we'll see what might be done about it. Let's start with a major reason WHY these folks have drug and substance-abuse-addictions AND/OR mental problems. And I am surely talking about THE MAJOR reason, for IF there ARE other reasons as well, they probably pale in significance compared to this one major reason.

And the reality of this major reason IS......that these folks, pure and simple, CANNOT COPE WITH ALL OF THE NEGATIVITY IN THEIR LIVES! They cannot cope with the reality (actually, "pseudo-reality") of life in this society, this world - AS IT IS, as it exists! (And here, FOR THE VERY SAME REASON, I might as well throw in all of the refugees, the displaced, the disadvantaged, etc., as a result of all the wars, strife, animosities AND ECONOMICS, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD! The very same reason, for all these problems, applies to one and all - not being able to cope, with the negativities of their lives!)

But, getting back to our legions of the lost, I'm going to relate to this issue and this reality purely from my own experience here in California, but I'd say that I could probably extrapolate this analysis much more widely as well. Again, what the situation boils down to IS......that these folks cannot cope with the "realities" of their lives, and thusly they are attempting to escape or avoid such "realities". I'll get into a more complete analysis of these "realities" a bit later or elsewhere. For now, let's look at HOW these folks go about escaping/avoiding "reality".

Without the necessity of going into specific mental changes-of-state (let's leave that up to the professionals, specifically a Ground-States Analysis Physician. See Welcome to the Physics of Reality 101!), or specific substance-abuse or addictions, let's look at the more ordinary and less obvious ways that these folks are escaping the "realities" of their lives.

First, I might say, is PROGRAMMING! In other words, they were probably BORN INTO a situation, a culture, a society, in which the negativities-of-life were so great, or so pervasive, that they have "learned" to "avoid", or escape from, such a situation from the "git-go"! In other words, they have been PROGRAMMED FROM BIRTH, to expect to experience negativity in their lives. And surely, IF they were NOT "programmed-from-birth", then they most surely were INDOCTRINATED BY THE STATUS QUO, as they were growing up and becoming what they are now - lost citizens, lost Souls, seeking to escape "what is" - the realities of their lives! (In fact, by extrapolation, I could say this applies to most of human society today!)

NOW, as to HOW one avoids/escapes "reality", let's go beyond "programming" and "indoctrination", and see what follows next, and, usually, what CONTINUES, throughout their lives, to "block", or to hold one back, from experiencing, or even remotely savoring, that which COULD BE the REAL "realities" of their lives - AS ENABLED BY A FULLY-ACTIVATED MATURITY OF THE HUMAN MIND!

Okay, such programming and indoctrination might also be called "acculturization" or, in effect, the imposition, or imposing, of a pre-existing "culture", or life situation, upon the new-born or newly-emerging/growing young adult (whichever the case may be). As I have already pointed out in my FORMULATION of Consciousness (QUFD), we are all born with the entire mature human mind intact WITHIN US AND with the possibility of activating, or using, it. But, as I have said, since we are, as a child, nominally dependent upon our parents and our societal/environmental situation, we are, inevitably, "programmed", and "indoctrinated" (or TOLD - what to do, say and to be!), and we, consequently, lose contact with that innate part of ourselves - our maturity of mind - which could enable us to KNOW, Who and What we are, as well as most anything else that we need to "know", merely by the mature mental function/process OF LOOKING WITHIN ONESELF, for such "answers" and insights, as one needs to "know", rather than seeking-to-know from outside of oneself. And, as I have also pointed out, THAT - right there - is one of the largest "problems", and negativities, of our lives. Because, in seeking-to-know from outside of ourselves, one is thusly susceptible to the myriad adverse influences of our environment and of all the "third-party-agents" of influence and (NON)responsibility which permeate our lives. THESE - "third-party-agents" - whether our parents, teachers, etc., OR that obviously pervasive economic agent-of-IRresponsibility - MONEY - are the negativities which Lucifer has foisted upon us, and which do constitute the Veil of Separation/Unknowing, which blocks us from activating our mature human mind, from KNOWING Who and What we are, as a person AND as a human being, and from accessing universal and cosmic consciousness, in order to KNOW of any and everything that IS, in human society and the Cosmos.

Okay, to continue here, HOW do these negativities of life influence us, as human beings, and WHAT are the results/symptoms/consequences? Well, in getting back to that microcosm of society, or slice of life, which I was examining - the "lost" homeless person - the aforenoted "influences" are felt upon human society IN THE LIVING of one's Life, AS a negatively-influenced-individual! And if one individual can affect society, ALL such negatively-influenced individuals can surely affect society negatively, thusly contributing to the further negative-influences upon all members of society.

Okay, but back to the more pertinent details of exactly HOW and WHAT do these negativities constitute in the individual - WHAT ARE the "symptoms" of the disease? Well, to detail this further, I will now have to get back to that very important word that I used earlier herein this Sermon - ACCULTURIZATION! Because, in this case, acculturization - TO and BY the environmental situation of one's Life, i.e., one's "culture" (whatever, and wherever, such may be!) - in the very "living" of one's Life, is what does perpetuate, enable, and continue, these negativities which one experiences and which one IS!

SO, as to the "symptoms"...... Well, as I've said earlier also, the "lost" homeless (AND most of us!) are, in reality, attempting to avoid, or escape from, the "pseudo-realities" of their lives, which, innately they KNOW (deep within one's consciousness, as I have also explained elsewhere, we DO KNOW what is "right" and what is "wrong", and what is truth and what is not!), are WRONG! And the "mechanisms" that they use to avoid these "pseudo-realities" ARE - any and everything, that will COVER UP those "falsehoods" of their lives, and allow them to "forget", and put out of their minds, what really "is" - ALL OF THE NEGATIVITY in their lives!

SO, again, WHAT does one DO, to "cover-up" all of those aspects and things in their lives, that they (the individual) do NOT want to "experience", or to know, as a "reality" of Life? (And it will be additionally informative, here, to quote the great mythologist Joseph Campbell: "The EXPERIENCE of living, is of greater VALUE to human beings than the Meaning of Life. Meaning is abstract; experience is REAL! Experience involves us in all the ACTIVITY [see ACTIVISM] of the world [AND the Cosmos!] - it puts us out in the arena of living where sensations, deeds, thoughts, and even solitude, demand from us recognition and response [KNOWING].") I'm going to list some of the "actions", or means, by which one can "avoid reality" (and, by no means, is this list complete!)

1. ALCOHOL. One of the most widely-used means of avoiding reality! PLUS, society AND the economy (i.e., businesses), actively encourage the use, and abuse (however indirectly!), of alcohol, because it is OH SO GOOD for business! As an example, speaking of the "lost" homeless again specifically, think of that alcoholic homeless person, who, not being able to get or keep a job (because of one's alcoholism), cannot pay for any reasonable housing and is thusly homeless. HOWEVER, depending on one's personal situation, that "lost" homeless person is most certainly able to qualify for Social Security, SSD, SSI, or any number of public or private-agency programs for the alcoholic person, the drug-abuser and/or the mentally-deficient or disabled. Now, these "programs", while usually not providing enough monetary assistance to allow the purchase of housing......

   Before I go on here, I just want to mention a book that I remember reading some time ago. I don't remember the name of the book, but the title and topic of discussion was Welfare in America. Anyway, the overall "gist" of the entire book was that the "system", here in America, is "set-up" to keep the "masses" under control! And this refers not only to the political entities but the economic system as well. So, economic "periods" of recession and advance are all "planned for", as to the disadvantaged and lower-income "masses" of the citizenry, such that the welfare roles are designed to "flow with" the economic cycles, providing minimum benefits when times are good and work (jobs) and stability is available, but then providing "just sufficient" benefits when times turn "bad", such that the lower income "masses" are thusly "dependent" upon that welfare system and thusly kept under control, under threat of losing what little subsistance-income one might be receiving from the "system". Shades of "Big Brother" and "1984" - the book, not the year!

   Anyway, getting back to such "programs" that do NOT provide enough assistance for housing (although some programs DO provide group-living-housing for certain classes of clientele, mostly the mentally-deficient), usually such "programs" provide up to $600-700 a month (or less!), for "living-expenses" (clothing, food, etc.) Now, whether we can say that the people who run these "programs" KNOW what the client DOES with that "living-expense" money OR NOT, we can surely surmise (rather, be certain of!) what an alcoholic is going to do with such a sum of money! And thusly, we can surely see all of the local-area "bars", night-clubs, evening and after-hours "hang-outs", WHERE these "clients" are not only "clients" of the program, BUT ALSO "patrons" of the BAR as well! So there we have, up to $600 or more, of public or private funds, GOING TO SUPPORT the alcoholic's "habit"! (AND, incidentally, keeping him/her "under control", and preventing him/her from doing anything - i.e., creating "trouble", for the "system" - SHOULD that client, some day or somehow, "wake-up", and realize that they are living in a "fantasy-world" of "pseudo-reality", and that all the "vested interests", who have control over them, are keeping them from experiencing REAL reality, and from KNOWING Who and What they "are", or COULD BE, and from living their lives as a normal human being should and could, IF those aspects of life and the "system" DID NOT EXIST!)

   And remember, in this "economic" system-America of today, $500-600, or less, of a person's monthly income, PER PERSON, is a good economic incentive for any bar or night-club-owner to go into, or to stay in, the business - OF PROVIDING ALCOHOL TO THE PUBLIC!

   And, as an aside, in addition to catering to all the alcoholics out there, these "bars" and night-clubs have become a cultural icon, or identification, with SINGLENESS, and the "pursuit-of-pleasure", and such! (Hey! Remember what the "trouble" was, in River City, friends? It was POOL!) Anyway, these bars and night-clubs are also "pick-up joints" for the lonely! Just think of this! HOW MANY hundreds of thousands, and millions, of single people......Hey, wait a minute! We also need to throw in the married, the divorced, the temporarily-on-a-business-trip, etc.!!!......ALL of these folks, JUST LOOKING FOR some "companionship"! (Which is, incidentally, another means of keeping the populace "under control"!) But then, on the other hand, it is mostly mentally-disabled people who patronize such places in the first place. Because, think about it - WHO, in their right mind (their normal, mature mind), would be there in the first place?......For that matter, WHO are you going to meet in a bar anyway? Another "needy" (needing "companionship") person like yourself, who is mentally-deficient and incomplete, of an immature mind, who does NOT KNOW Who or What that individual IS, as a person OR a human being!

   SO, regardless of society's condemnations, and strictures, imposed on and upon bars, nightclubs, lounges, poolhalls, honky-tonks, etc. (as places of ill-repute, salaciousness or whatever!), the plain, unvarnished FACT IS......that "bars" ARE GOOD BUSINESS! Good economics! And lotsa money can be made! Just disregard the fact that the clients/patrons ARE DISADVANTAGED, or addicted (or whatever!), by their alcoholism OR their singleness/needyness (temporary or not)! DISREGARD THE FACT THAT, in taking that alcoholic's $500 a month "program" money (OR the high-wage single-person's salary!), BOTH the "program" AND SOCIETY (the government, the state, the bar-owner, the liquor-distributor, the breweries, the banks, etc., etc.......ARE MAKING MONEY, on the poor, homeless, disadvantaged alcoholic (or the yuppie single)......and are, secondly, enabling him/her to avoid/escape the "realities", and negativities, of EVERYTHING ELSE - of ALL OF THE REST of his/her Life!

   So much for alcohol. Let's go on to the other "escape-mechanisms", for the lost-homeless, AS WELL AS society-in-general.

2. DRUGS. Whether crack, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, the aforementioned alcohol, prescription and over-the-counter drugs (pain pills, etc.), coffee, tea, nicotine, sugar and on and on......THESE ARE ALL DRUGS! And they ALL provide a means by which one (a user!) CAN ESCAPE "REALITY"!

3. MENTAL ILLNESS. Whether any mental "illness" is true and actual, or fabricated and feigned, it is not much of a problem, for any person who cannot "cope" with the "pseudo-realities" and negativities of one's life, to see one's Doctor or Physician and to eventually be "classified" as a "mental-case", enabling one to go through one's life being "protected", from all of those "pseudo-realities" and negativities (which one cannot cope with), BY the pills, drugs and mental-"health"-environment, which one does then become a part of (as a client/patient, implying NOW that one, certainly of "UNsound-mind", needs to be "protected", and shielded, from all of that which is "out-there")! And again, all of this - the doctors, clinics, hospitals, mental programs, drugs, etc. - IS GOOD BUSINESS! In other words, lotsa people "get-rich", on the poor, defenseless, mentally-disabled and "lost" homeless person (AND yuppie bar-patron!), who cannot take care of themselves nor cope with those "realities" of their lives!

   Okay, so much for the more obvious "afflictions". NOW let's get to the more practical means by which the "lost" homeless avoid reality.

4. NOISE. Hey, IF all one hears, from one's awakening each morning until one goes to bed at night, is ARGUMENTS (between others, and/or with oneself), certain negative cultural LINGUISTICS ("You Mutha F-----!"), or certain psychological, cultural, political, racial or other BIASES, and much more......THEN CERTAINLY one would want to "cover-up" all of such "CRAP", and get it out of one's Life! (OR, alternatively, cover it up, BY BECOMING PART OF IT! Hey! Becoming/being "negative", can certainly give one the idea or impression (falsely, of course), that one IS POSITIVE - that one is "right", is "okay", with one's surroundings and the world! Either way, it "covers-up" the negativity of one's Life.)

   Okay, HOW to do that (cover-up the CRAP)? HEY! BUY A WALKMAN! Get a "boom-box"! (I've always said that anyone wearing or carrying those things was mentally-deficient, or an "idiot"!) Any and all means OF MAKING NOISE (whether musical or not!) OR, better yet, learn to MAKE NOISE YOURSELF! Yea' man! Rap, "attitude", "dissin' this, dissin' that", and any other form or means of making noise yourself (INCLUDING making the SAME NOISE as that which you are attempting to "cover up" - i.e., arguments, attitudes, language, biases, judgements, self-righteousness, "holier-than-thouness", etc., etc.)......THEN you won't have to hear, all of that CRAP that goes on out there!

5. COFFEE. Hey, what is the "symptom" of a person - and a life - who can't cope with all of the "crap" in one's Life (job, spouse, kids, relatives, landlord, police, government, noise, etc., etc.)? Why, it is DEPRESSION, or "feeling down", or just feeling tired and worn-out, and on and on! SO, lo and behold, society (actually, Lucifer!) HAS PROVIDED a means to enable one to overcome these "depressive" things and tendencies in one's Life! (So, even though the result of "covering-up" all the negativity in one's Life is depression, THAT is not acceptable either, in that one MUST "function", at least rudimentarily, some how......like, ya got to go to and do your job, at least! So NOW, that you're "depressed", what we have to do, is COVER-UP THE DEPRESSION! SO, we used drugs to cover-up "reality", and now we got to use drugs - or SOMETHING! - to "cover-up" the RESULT of those drugs! HEY MAN! THE DOCTORS, and the economy, IS REALLY GETTIN' RICH on you, man!)

   Anyway, what society has provided (as the means of covering-up one's depression)......is the "PICK-ME-UP" - OR, in other words, CAFFEINE!

   When we get up in the morning, half-way through the morning, at noon-time, half-way through the afternoon, at dinner, and even at bed-time - WE NEED a "pick-up"! We need to be on a constant "HIGH"! And how do we get "high"? By drinking COFFEE! Our hourly cup-a-java enables us, not only to cover up reality, but also to cover-up THE FACT that we ARE covering-up reality!

6. CIGARETTES. Same thing here! Smoking (any and everything!) enables us to constantly avoid reality!

7. SUGAR. Yep! Sugar! The same thing applies here. Having one's hourly "sugar-fix", provides another addiction, which keeps one "high" (on carbohydrates) and thusly avoiding reality.

8. MONEY. Yep! Another addiction, that enables one to avoid reality. Having money can surely enable one to avoid reality, by enabling one to be able to "pay-for" any and every kind of "cover-up", or reality-avoidance-mechanism, that one can afford. And if one can't afford much, as the "lost" homeless usually cannot, then it is twice as bad when, what little money the "lost" addict DOES RECEIVE, certainly goes to pay for one's addiction, whatever it may be!

9. MUSIC. I've mentioned walk-mans already. Music, whether spectator/listener OR participator, can sure enable one to avoid reality! And it "dun't matter", whether the music is Rap, Blues, Country, Rock, Classics or whatever! It can all be used to cover-up the reality, and negativity, of one's Life!

10. SPORTS. Another spectator and participator means of covering-up reality. PLUS, as I have mentioned also, the adversity, the competition, etc., ALSO create a mental-attitude of NON-COOPERATION, of all-and-everything-for-me (or my team!), a winner-take-all, and various other "attitudes", certainly conducive to much more of the negativity in the world!

11. THE INTERNET. WHAT? The Internet? Yep! Some homeless persons escape reality by the technological-and-freely-available (at your local library and elsewhere) access to the WorldWideWeb, where one can blithely indulge in such reality-avoiding mechanisms as "chat rooms" or pornography or much more. (On the other hand, WWW access CAN be good, and positive, rather than negative, with all of the possibilities that are "out there", on the 'Net!)

12. MOTION. WHAT? Motion? Yes! Most people who are running-around, through their "lives", on "high", on drugs, or on "pick-me-ups", OR on the proverbial "tread-mill", have that PROGRAMMED (OR addictive!) compulsion, that they "need-to-be-doing-something" - at ALL TIMES! They need to be "moving", doing, or whatever - ANYTHING but sitting STILL! In other words, they can't be QUIET, or alone, with themselves OR "the Man Upstairs"! They can't stand ALONENESS! They can't stand THEMSELVES! "Running-the-treadmill-of-Life", in "overdrive", on "high", on drugs, noise, sugar, etc., INSTEAD OF calmly, serenely, noiselessly, and stress-freely, travelling through that great adventure of one's Life, with happiness and purpose, in all that one does - in other words, BEING the Who and What one was born to BE! Incidentally, John Kelly, the Director-retired of Samaritan House, who is also an ex-Catholic priest, gave an inspirational "talk" at a homeless shelter recently, on spirituality and the need to find time to be quiet, meditate and get in touch with yourself and your spirituality. Well, unfortunately, John's talk went over like a lead-balloon. A few homeless remained in his small listening audience, most of the rest having left to get a donut, pastry and a cupa coffee and never returned. Oh well, John tried!

13. HOW TO TELL...... What? Well, this is not really another reality-avoidance-mechanism, but merely a single indicator of whether a person is "in touch" with themselves or not! It has been said that you can tell a person who is in touch with reality from one who is not by how they might learn to use the WORD word-processing program. The one who is NOT in touch with reality would sign-up for a college or other course of instruction, where they would "learn" WORD by someone telling them about it and how to use it. On the other hand, someone who is in touch with their own reality, WOULD JUST SIT DOWN AND FIGURE IT OUT FOR THEMSELVES!

    Okay, so much for all those reality-avoiding-mechanisms. But remember! THIS IS ALL GOOD BUSINESS! The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer......ON THE BACKS of the addicts, whoever they may be! And so we have all the folks that are living their lives - day in and day out - RUNNING ON A HIGH - hyper, whether it is sugar, pills, drugs, nicotine, caffeine or whatever! And then there are all the people WHO ARE MAKING MONEY on all of these negativities. And so, the entire society IS BUILT UPON the economics of greed, abuse, addiction, corruption, etc., etc. - in other words, NEGATIVITY!

    But what is worse yet, are some additional factors about this. It can very well be said - and TRUTHFULLY - that ANY PERSON, who uses MONEY, IS CONTRIBUTING TO the EXTINCTION OF THE HUMAN RACE! Also, with reference to KNOWING oneself, as to Who and What one "is", as a human being, AND as to the activation OF one's maturity of mind - it can also be said that humanity has very well succumbed TO the addictions of its negativities - AND to NOT-KNOWING, defined as the LACK of ATTENTION, to knowing and awareness OF ANYTHING!

    Let's use an example. Most any normal, rational, cognizant-and-aware-of-what-one-is-doing individual, before one attempts to do something or go somewhere (OR to say something!), would normally make sure that one HAS ALL THE RELEVANT INFORMATION, that one needs, in order to do, say, or go whatever/wherever! This is known as AWARENESS!

    ALSO, if negativity-in-one's-life might be construed as the reason for all of the aberrations and "games" that one "plays" in one's relationships, then surely Dr. Eric Berne's epic book, "Games People Play", was most certainly on-the-money! (DID I have to use that term, "on-the-money"? Oh, woe is me!) Anyway, as I remember, there were about 16 Chapters in the book, describing the "games" that people play, in their lives, with one another. But, at the end of the book, was Chapter 17 (whether this is right or not, I don't know!) Anyway, supposedly, Chapter 17 was the author's one-page, one-paragraph, apology to the reader. It went something like this:

    "Now that you have read about all the 'games' that people 'play' [or negativity-in-their-lives], I feel that it is only honest that I should also tell you that there ARE some people in this world who do NOT 'play games'! They have, what is known as, AWARENESS [KNOWING]!" Unquote, end of book.

    Well, getting back to our normal, rational, etc. human being, who normally HAS awareness, I do feel that I must be honest with you, and let you know that there ARE some people in this world (actually, MOST OF US!), who do NOT have "awareness" (KNOWING)! These are the "lost-Souls" of humanity (whether the homeless OR the rest of us)! (In fact, one wag has said that it is easy to tell a person who has this terrible affliction/disease - NOT being aware, in one's Life. It is the person who decides that they need to go to the Library, and then charges up to and yanks on the Library door at 9 AM, when the Library doesn't open until 10 AM, demonstrating their lack-of-awareness of such an important factor as......WHAT TIME the Library OPENS - a most serious disease for many of us (who ARE running on that previously-noted "treadmill-of-life")!

    Anyway, I hope that I have sufficiently described the addictions and foibles, negativities and the lives, of the lost-homeless AND most of the rest of us. As to what can be done about these negativities, see QUFD and the rest of my writings on this website. Because, as Tom Hanks (and others!) have said, "It's up to US!"

    Aum, Peace, Amen!
    Father Jerome.
    Reply to: fatherjeromeusa@fiwd.org