I avoid zombies at all costs.
There are a number of reasons for this but the main reason is that I have no desire to become an all-consuming walking dead person. This means that I want to be a person who is fully alive and totally in control of my desires. I understand that this places me at odds with zombies and if any of you who are reading this are zombies, consider this my declaration of war. Not on you, for you have been infected, but on the one who makes you a zombie.
There are a few people in the world who go “against the stream” as some people like to say it. I know there is a worship song that has people “going against the stream” but I always like to follow that song with “let the river flow” whenever I lead worship. The look of confusion on people’s faces is priceless.
Anyhow, if you want to be a saint, then I think we have to break out of our zombiness. I know that there technically is only one cure for being a zombie, which is decapitation, but I think a spiritual decapitation and a replacement with a real, thinking, breathing, praying head will cure the zombie as well. I just can’t help but think that we were made for something more than just consuming the world around us.
Don’t get me wrong. I have my fair share of “stuff” and it is probably a lot more than my fair share, but I don’t think that I “need” it like a zombie needs brains. The way that 
some commercials and ads go nowadays, it seems that all you have to do is trigger the zombie switch and people will start drooling like a Russian canine and come running. Aren’t we better than that?
It requires some anti-zombie thinking and there are some parameters I think will work if we want to do that.
Stop Thinking Like Everyone Else
I know that it is easy to get into the daily grind so you can get that mortgage and get that 2.5 kids and the dog and picket fence so that you can get that pension so that you can retire and live off Social Security and spend some free time hanging out with the guys at the local pub until your waist hits 48 and your wife is doing soup kitchens on the side and then you buy the condo in Florida and die happy.
Or some variation of that.
I don’t recall that being on any saint’s biography: “Lived life just like everyone else.”
Usually the saint’s life goes something like this: Lived a life of virtue and loved everyone around them and somehow there were miracles around their life as God provided for them during tough times and they worked really hard to engage the world around them so that others could come to know the joy that they experienced in knowing Jesus Christ.
I didn’t see “pension” in there.
Do you work in ministry? Start thinking differently.
Do you work in the 9 – 5? Start thinking differently.
Do you work from home? Start thinking differently.
I don’t know what that means for you specifically, but I know that it means that any obstacle you come across is not the end of the world. I know that there are a multitude of ways to doing something and you have ideas as to how to do them that no one else can come up with. You may not think that you do, but God gave you certain gifts for a reason.
Maybe you are the Religious Education Director that decides to write a new course or you decide to ditch the classroom model for something that will be more effective.
You might be wrong.
But if you are right then you just proved you aren’t a zombie.
Maybe you are the accountant who decides to take time out of your day to read the Bible during lunch and some other coworkers join you and you start a Bible study that goes to Mass once a week for lunch instead of crashing the local pizza joint.
Your boss might be mad at you for bucking the trend.
If you continue to work hard and make a better work environment for yourself and others, you just proved you aren’t a zombie.
Maybe you are the college student who decides that instead of going to the latest kegger that is going to end up in embarrassing Facebook photos and the latest STD getting spread around campus that you are going to go to Mass, host a Bible study, or just decide to sit in Adoration at the local parish.
Your friends might freak out for a day.
If you take some people with you and they decide to live for Christ as well, you might have proved that you aren’t a zombie.
Sometimes Bucking Fads is Smart
I’ve noticed with a lot of zombies today that any current trend is the best thing going.
Homosexual Marriage.
Contraception.
Abortion Rights.
I watched a press conference for the new Archbishop of New York, Archbishop Dolan and he proved he wasn’t a zombie by laughing when those three issues were brought up early in the interview. I mean, laughing with real joy.
He simply explained to the reporter that he didn’t have the “right” to change the Church teaching on those three issues because the Church doesn’t make up its position on those issues. The Church can’t “get with the times” because the Church is “timeless.” If the Church is the mouthpiece for God and God has no time because God doesn’t change, then it seems right on to me.
Zombies follow every latest trend so that they can consume at an insane rate and be the latest up and coming talking head on the pulpit. Hey look! I agree with everyone! Aren’t I great?
No.
Sometimes it takes real guts to stand up to the rising tide of humanity and say with real joy, “You know, I love ya, but you’re wrong. You may try to eat my brain for saying this, but you are completely wrong.”
That is really hard to do. To stand up like that against a whole society and a whole civilization that is screaming for you to be quiet and keep your “God” to yourself.
It’s the type of thing that makes a person a martyr.
Martyrs are the type of people that change the world.
People who change the world are saints.
Saints aren’t zombies.
