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A Message from the Very Reverend Jacob J. Yali
 Addiction and Spirituality
Feb 20, 2009
Addiction and Spirituality
Being an American now “what is my contribution” to my brothers and sisters. What gifts can I bring to the table that will benefit our and create a holy community. That is how the topic today came to be. This is the time as Americans to reach out and touch people. We need to help them with all of their issues. We design topics that allow us to push to other areas of life that affect our faith. Given the current economic situation is our faith being shaken? If it is, then now is the time to start addressing these areas to lift what is blocking our relationship with God.
Today we are going to be talking with addiction and the church. Review of last months’ topic.
Found out how many were here for the last month’s topic.
Why am I interested in this topic? I am interested in this topic because I am a recovering alcoholic. I have suffered the disease of chemical dependency and I have said this before, but I would like to repeat this again today. Addiction is addiction how many of us here know about someone that is addicted to one chemical or another? How many of us would like to help a loved one or a friend that is addicted that would like to recover?
The question is how can we go about it? I have had many people come up to me and say “Father Jacob you know my spouse is addicted to gambling and he has gambled all of the money we had. I don’t know what to do?” I’ve had spouses who have said “My husband is hooked on meth. “I have had spouses who have said “My husband is into pornography and into all kinds of things what do I do? The money we have saved is all gone to Hinckley.” It is very important for me to say yes I was addicted. It’s a disease to the body the mind and the spirit. Without taking it outside of myself I’m destroying myself, destroying my brothers and sisters, which is all of you here. If I were to continue to be drinking all of my parishioners would become the aids of the alcoholic and that what disease of alcoholism is an addiction.
True addiction takes you away from who you are, and it destroys you body, mind and the spirit. When you are addicted, you don’t have time for the Lord God it’s not important. People in addiction don’t have time to take care of themselves. That is why you find out when they go to the hospital that there are other underlying issues. Some people find that they married an addiction instead of their spouses. Anybody who is addicted finds it very difficult to have very good interpersonal relationship in self actualization. The body, mind and spirit have been poisoned by the toxins to the system, which stands in the way of separating families and that is why experts that is why Don is here to tell that addiction is a family disease.
So what do we do in the spiritual perspective? Now our spiritual calling first of all I will touch a bit about the topics in our last presentation. Remember the differences between spiritual vocations? First of all if someone should stomp in here and say to you “who are you”? You would reply you are a human being (ask around the room for their responses) created in Gods image and likeness. Refer to GN: 1-27 Maybe I’m the first Catholic priest to ever quote the bible. God created man in his image in the divine image he created them male and female he created them. Male and female he created them of his own image. What is the image of God? Us we are beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, and awesome. How come people feel we have to punish him and have guilt? They walk into church as with heavy burdens on their backs. Why? (Someone stated freewill, conditions, environment or negative messages from authority figures). Some people believed that they were a piece of junk. And those who grew up with an alcoholic were also affected.
Is addiction cultural? What is the culture saying? It’s okay. We’re given mixed messages. We are junk and what happens when you grow with mixed messages? You pass it on…. What are we doing here today? We are learning something new to end the vicious cycle. Do you know that when mixed messages are given by the family you can never be good enough? How is that cultural message going to affect you as a person and how is going to affect your family? This is passed down from generation to generation.
What happens is transference. Then again we are created in God’s image therefore, we want to remove the message and replace it with a more positive message. Ask if others had experienced these types of messages and if so how did they deal with it. Asked if addiction e.g. coffee and etc came to result. I know I was created in the image and likeness of God and he has called me for a purpose. Jeremiah 1:1-4.
All of us have visions and calling. We are all here for a purpose. The purpose is what: to know him and to love, serve him and to be happy with him forever in heaven. He uses us to fulfill his purpose. We can be like Jonah and run away (explain the story). The point I’m trying to make here is how God can miss us. We become afraid we don’t go forward. God loves us and has chosen us because he created us with his own image and likeness. All we need to do is to listen, listen, listen. I can tell you that I have not failed to do this since I came to St. Lukes Parish. God tell me what you want me to do. Let me know I’ll keep my eyes open. For those in addiction, those looking for help, may I be an instrument for your calling. This is very important. God is calling us to be instruments of his calling.
(speaker gives his presentation: Don from Recovery Plus)
Addiction is a disease of the body, mind and spirit. It is an area that few people understand what is happening because of bias and moral stigmatization of the disease of alcoholism and addiction. Have you heard people say: “Why don’t you use willpower and just stop?”“How many times have you told us that you were going to quit and now your off the wagon?” “How many D.W.I.’s have you gotten?” “How many times have you been in jail?” “How many times have you made promises to your spouse that you were going to quit only to end up going back to drinking again?”
This is why this workshop is so important we want to see the importance of this. I wanted to ask you a question if those in your younger generation (daughter, son and etc) came to you and said that they don’t understand why a certain family member is having problems with drugs or alcohol. How would you understand or recognize this? This educational piece is very important and I saw the spiritual part of this program when I talk about the “sponsorship”. That is the very deep spiritual part. Some people have “spiritual directors” or sponsors. All that is said to us is that there is spirituality in the prevention of addiction of the family for example what are we doing here? What do we do with this knowledge? Pass it on… More so this knowledge will help us to know God better, serve God better and to love God better and to remain with God forever and ever in heaven.
We have seen the consequences of addiction: DWI. How would you go to work? What about hearing a story of a man who is driving drunk and kills another person who has three children and a wife? This is what is happening. How many times have we heard of teenagers driving drunk and end up killing themselves? How many times have we heard of grandparents cry because their grandchildren have committed suicide? When we begin to think especially about the issues regarding the economy of this country it drives us into these situations. We are learning spiritually what addiction is. What intervention can do to help us, so that we’ll be able to stay sober.
How does the present economic situation lead those to becoming chemically dependent. We have talked about it a little. The anxiety, fear of unknown, uncertainty, fluctuations with the market that affect our future example 401k, people have lost money. How is that leading people into chemical dependency? We do not know how to deal with this situation. If a young man (55 years old) comes to me and says: “I have lost everything it’s not worth living” How do we reach out. Emotionally, when people run into financial problems it takes away our security. Leaving us emotionally, physically and mentally despondent. Despair. The last presentation I mentioned reaching “the end of the road”. We talked about occupation, culture and people have gone to the end of the road. They feel there is no way out. I want to give you hope. There is a way out. Here in America we may fail but we pick ourselves up and move on. This is an important part of America’s history. Never give up there is a way out and there is something so important to help us when we reach the end of the road. FAITH is how we do it It’s very important. Believe in something and the spiritual values will help us and will not knock us down. Don’t give up and continue the journey. We are a community of faith. Fr. Showed the treatment center in Nigeria. (St. Bridgetts) Fr. Yali started the center in a garage and the first person to seek treatment was an army officer. The treatment center is now treating 1.5 million. (Fr.hs also written two books: The Perils of Alcoholism a Personal Experience & Alcohol and Drug Addiction a Gradual Killer)
Last discussion we had the spiritual values and vocation. There is a lot of fear as to what will happen with the economy. Why has the American dream become the American nightmare. How can we combine the spirituality, vocation and occupation. We have to turn to God. How Paul helped us build the body of Christ. We want to help others to understand what addiction is and spirit.
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