Moroni Saw Me

Liken the scriptures to yourself. It means to read from them and put yourself in the stories and adapt the issues to your personal life. What follows is me likening or adapting what Moroni recorded to my modern life..

Twenty-plus years ago, I started a journey that involved relocating several times, giving up some family connections, and changing my personal philosophy.

In order to find a connection to heaven, I had to give up some things that are hard to release and seek after some things that are rarely found.

I gave up so much to know God. What I have gained for my sacrifices cannot be quantified in any measure that does it justice. However, I can qualify it.

Why am I Moroni when my Dad named me Rodric? Moroni is my hero, and we went through trials together in life though centuries apart. Some of the things we have in common are just normal parts of life. He lost his Father in battle, a war with the group known then politically and culturally as Lamanites. I lost my father to a coma. The coma is comparable to the ancient Lamanites breaking the psychological walls of Dad's mind and laying it waste until nothing was left but the shell of a man that could not function without a machine.

Moroni lost family and friends indicated by the words that he wrote in the record that he kept before burying it in a hill for a young man to find it 45 or so generations from the time he deposited it. I lost great loved ones in my life: my grandmother, my cousin J.L. and my daughter Zipporah. I lost connections to family and friends when I changed my life and moved so much as a youth.

My point is that Moroni saw me as I stated in the title. He wrote a portion in his record that Jesus Christ had shown me to him as part of a vision of the last days, and he knew my doings. (Mormon 8:35). That is not all he said, though. Much of what he said disturbed me. He spoke to me about all the evil that goes on in my society and asked me a very poignant question. I will paraphrase it. Why have you polluted the church of Jesus Christ with your pride and envy?

People, the Holy Spirit let me know that Moroni saw me and speaks to me in the moments I need as recorded in The Book of Mormon. Not by chastising me, did Moroni speak, but because I need to be reminded that God did speak to prophets and give them visions.

This man, this prophet etched personal things in his record that riveted my heart to the Lord. His words convinced me of Christ’s divinity. I gained a relationship with God—me, a sinner! God can give me visions, just like He gave them to Moroni about us. He can give them to you also. Moroni told me that God will show me my weaknesses so I can turn to Him and those weaknesses can become strengths. He wrote that in the book of Ether while struggling with his inadequacies and trials. (Ether 12:27) I am Moroni because I want to be a man of God just like he was. Moroni loved God, and he loved me enough to write to me. All of the world can claim that privilege too!

Jesus Christ spoke to the leaders of the Jews during His mortal ministry as these politicians did everything in their power to thwart the work of the Savior. At every turn, he rebuffed their attempts using the power of heaven and reason to unfold the scriptures to them. He showed them how apostate their religious practices made their society. The laws of Jehovah were corrupted by them so that they could maintain their political power with the Roman government.

Jesus became the disturber of their peace and an activist against the status of the House of Israel politically.

Four hundred years after Jesus' mortal ministry, Moroni accused us modern folks of the same thing. By the heavenly means, he accused me specifically of polluting the Lord's church with my pride. Now, I admit to nothing here because that is my business. I do know that I have pride and that I am a member of His church. What am I doing to pollute it in these last days and how can I change that? I can change. Moroni also speaks of that later in his record. I first need to find the thing that I pollute the church with and change it.

What do I envy that pollutes the church? I am sure that there are some things I envy that others have that causes a spirit of digression in the church.

I hope by publicly asking these questions of myself you may also ask these questions. I do not believe that Moroni lied when he wrote in his record that he saw me. I do not take it as a figure of speech that he adapted from his experiences because his society was in an uproar to the point where blood and horror reigned.

We can debate whether the Book of Mormon is fact another time. I wonder what I am doing to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ personally. Moroni will be a witness against or for me at the judgment seat because I have read his words for two decades. I wonder how they will apply to me then, to us? While doing all that I can, I stand awaiting the grace of Christ to save me.

In his farewell to the reader, Moroni teaches that we most grab hold of every good thing by using our faith in Jesus Christ, our hope in the efficacious nature of His atonement and a pure love for all beings in our lives. In order for me to avoid being a pollution to my church, I must have faith, hope, and charity. That last one is the hardest.

Jesus taught that we must love Him and God with each part of our hearts; and that we should love each other the same as we love ourselves. I have to love you the same way I love myself. I do not think that Jesus meant a figurative love. I believe He meant me to think on what I do for myself to show love. I clean myself. I feed myself. I speak up for myself. I am not there yet, people. It is okay because I realize it. Are you there? This society does not show it. While doing all that I can, I stand awaiting the grace of Christ to save me.

The Bible and the Book of Mormon teach that we must account for our doing to God. All of us must answer for how we use the technology God inspired humanity to build. Do we watch porn? Do we reach out to the needy with it!

This is not to frighten you, people. It is to be aware. In my book, also of the same name as this article's title, I open my life to the world to scrutinize my experiences and how I have overcome some major issues. I think we should each sit down and write a personal history detailing how we have overcome and what we must yet change to truly be perfected in Christ.

Even with Moroni seeing me, I know that I will be the biggest witness at the day I stand before God to receive my reward.