Unfortunately a little rushed this week, but here you go…
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The readings this week concern themselves with the tricky subject of relationships and, in particular, relationships between Christians. The passages address the question of how sin and disputes are to be handled in the Church.
Reading I: Ezekiel 33:7-9
Last week we heard from the Prophet Jeremiah. This week we have switched to the Prophet Ezekiel, but continue with the theme of God’s word.
Thus says the LORD:
“You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me. If I tell the wicked, ‘O wicked one, you shall surely die’ and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death. But if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way,he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself”
…very few modern people think Friendship a love of comparable value [to Affection and Eros] or even a love at all. To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it.
The first and most obvious answer is that few value it because few experience it. And the possibility of going through life without the experience is rooted in that fact which separates Friendship so sharply from both the other loves. Friendship is…the least natural of loves; the least instinctive, organic, biological, gregarious and necessary…The pack or herd…may even dislike and distrust it.
…all that had once commended this love [to the Ancients] now began to work against it. [For modernity,] …it had not tearful smiles and keepsakes and baby-talk enough to please the sentimentalists. There was not blood and guts enough about it to attract the primitivists.
Secret Homosexuality?
It has actually become necessary in our time to rebut the theory that every firm and serious friendship is really homosexual… The very lack of evidence is thus treated as evidence; the absence of smoke proves that the fire is very carefully hidden… Those who cannot conceive Friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a Friend…
Kisses, tears and embraces are not in themselves evidence of homosexuality… On a broad historical view it is…not the demonstrative gestures of Friendship among our ancestors but the absence of such gestures in our own society that calls for some special explanation. We, not they, are out of step.
Contrasting the friendship and the love affair
Lovers are always talking to one another about their love; Friends hardly ever about their Friendship. Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest. Above all, Eros (while it lasts) is necessarily between two only. But [in friendship]… we possess each friend not less, but more as the number of those with whom we share… increases.
Bad parish websites. They have to stop. Seriously.
I never fail to be amazed at how little time, attention and money is devoted to the websites of some Catholic parishes. It’s 2013 people! Bad parish websites are now simply unacceptable.
If you arrived at a parish for Mass for the first time and you walked through the front door and are greeted by 70’s decor, peeling paint and a sparsely populated notice board containing only out-of-date notices, what conclusions would you reach about that parish? Well, having no website or an extremely poorly produced or out-of-date website is the digital equivalent of that today. A parish’s website, or lack thereof, is the first impression most people will have of that parish.
It is indeed an interesting twist of fate, that on the eve of being assigned your human, the Patient makes a decision to embrace with renewed vigor his dormant childhood faith. It is standard policy here at the Training College to assign to our undergraduates (due to their inexperience) those humans who are generally weak in faith, so this recent development is indeed unfortunate.
But while you received the misfortune to be assigned this particular Patient, you have also been extremely fortunate to receive me as your Tutor. We have been rather short-staffed at the College recently and, as such, I have been told to instruct some of you undergraduates personally. This task is, quite frankly, beneath me…but you and I both know that Our Father Below is unaccustomed to being denied. Regardless, if you follow my expert tutelage, we will swiftly crush your Patient’s newfound devotion to the Enemy. If you do as I say and handle him rightly, we will soon have him returning to his former trajectory towards Our Father’s House Below.
In these preliminary stages of temptation you must concentrate your efforts on coming to understand the Patient. What kind of man is he? What are his weaknesses? And more importantly, is he aware of these weaknesses? The less he knows of them the better! I expect a full report in your next letter.
Although the situation is of some concern, we should not panic. Many Catholics have, at some point, renewed the practice of their faith, but ultimately lasted only for but a brief season.
Your Patient has woken up. It is your job to gently lull him back to sleep.
Last week I published an article outlining my response to an abortion meme posted on Facebook by a friend. Today I would like to do something similar. Below is a meme which I also saw on Facebook during Advent:
Once again, I would like to share a modified version of the response I posted in reply as I know some readers find it helpful to see how different Christians respond to stuff like this.
Last year I posted on Facebook that I was at the March For Life in Washington DC and a lively Facebook thread ensued among my friends concerning my pro-life position. Last year I wrote a couple of posts in response, but got distracted and cut short the series (Seriously, I have ADD when it comes to blog series!).
This year I’ve been writing a new series of posts on the subject of abortion and today I would like to address one of the comments written by a friend of mine in the format of a “Quick Apology“.
Objection
Last year, one of the objections raised was as follows:
“If something is not illegal it is not democratic to try to prevent people from going about legal (if unpleasant) activities”.
Below I’d like to give a rough outline of my reply.
Okay, small rant alert…
My dear Bogwash,
