August 23, 2022

Reflection

JESUS  CHRIST

More and more the question arises for me: But what about Jesus Christ?

If he is God, there there are lots of implications.

For example I'm sitting here in a small chapel before a cross with a corpus on it. It's 100% wood.  Below the cross is a tabernacle.  Inside the tabernacle is a gold plate cup or ciborium. It has in it - 50 or some pieces of white unleavened bread. They are very white - circles - the size of quarters - and very light. They were consecrated at a Mass - with the words, "This is my body." I believe by faith that this bread is Jesus Christ in some mysterious way.

That is some act of faith.

Yet at times, I wonder: Is this true?

This brings me back or over to other questions.

Did Jesus - the Carpenter from Nazareth - rise from the dead in a different way from all people who have died?

Is there life after death?

Is Christianity, just a story? Or can Jesus be and become part of everyone's story?

Is this all faith?

I'm 67 now - and I have 3 years till 70 - if I make it.

Will I make it to 75 - then 80 - then 85 - till when I die?

Will that end me forever?

Or is there a forever for everyone?

I do believe there is.

My reason says, "There is a God!"

My faith and my Christianity brings me to the question: what is God like?

I have heard the Christian story. Do I accept it?

I do.

Yet, I pray the prayer of the man in the gospel of Mark - 9:24 - who brought his son to Jesus,  so he might be healed, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!"

[I'm now 82 going on 83 - so I'm in a different place - compared to where I was when I was writing this when I was 67.  I now have deeper faith and stronger convictions. Day by day I'm getting closer and closer to the moment that  I call, "The Embrace." [Cf. Luke 15:21.]

August 23, 2022

Thought for Today 

"Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?

Michael Torke

in Observer, September 23. 1990

"Sayings of the Week"

 August 22, 2022

Reflection 

I VOTED

I voted today.

I voted for a few persons - whom others said were a good vote.

I didn't vote for those whom others said were a disaster.

If I am not sure of someone, I don't vote for them.

In general, I don't vote for positions - or referendums - or tax things - if I don't understand them - or I don't get the explanations.

There is anonymity with paper ballots. What about computer voting?

Will my odd voting patterns be noticed?

For example, 1,000 voted in our voting place and only 999 votes were cast for 3 different candidates - but 1,000 voted in a senate vote.

To vote ....'I'm glad the whole enterprise is finished. Enough with the placards with names on them. Enough with the TV ads for candidates - especially when it seems to be lots of attacks.

In the votes we take for candidates in our religious community - I ask about guys I don't know. I want to know whom they will want on their team - more than what they will do.

In political voting I'll pick a woman who is or was a school teacher or a nurse more than other career paths. I would hope to gain from their service orientation.

I want to know if a candidate will find out what we want - more than telling us what they want.

Voting: still so much to learn and observe.

 August 22, 2022

Thought for Today

"I  am  standing on the threshold about to enter a room. It is a complicated business. In the first place I must shove against  an atmosphere pressing with a force of  fourteen pounds  on  every square inch of my body. I must make sure of landing on a plank traveling at twenty miles a second round the sun - a fraction of a second too early or too late, the plank would be miles away.  I must do this whilst hanging from a round planet, head outward into space, and with a wind of aether blowing at no one knows how many miles a second through every interstice of my body."

Arthur Eddington (1882-1944)

British astrophysicist in

The Nature of the 

Physical World (1928), Ch. 15

August 21. 2022

Thought for Today

"Nonsense.  Space is blue and birds fly through it."

Werner Heisenberg,

on Felix Bloch's stating

that space was the

field of linear operations

in Felix Bloch, 'Heisenberg

and the early days of

quantum mechanics' in

Physics Today, 

December 1976

 August 21, 2022

Reflection

THE SPOT  ON  THE WHITE CARD

Years ago before power point presentations -  before slide projectors - speakers use to hold up a big white card or a piece of paper - with a black ink dot on it - usually on the lower right hand corner.

They would ask the audience or congregation what they saw. Hands would go up. People would yell out, "The black dot!"

And the speaker - unless people had seen this exercise before - would point out, "Everyone sees the black spot - the black dot - but nobody says they see the white card or white paper."

We spot the spaghetti sauce on the white shirt or blouse. We see the dent in the car. We see the pimple on the chin. We saw Gorbachev's reddish birthmark on his forehead.

If you don't like someone, a burp or a hiccup is louder than their speech.

If you run for office, expect your opponents to buy shovels or hire detectives to find your dirt.

There is another surprise in all this. We spot the spots in ourselves more than others spots them in us.

The parent looks at the report card. They make no comments about the 4 A's - but  they want to know about the C or D.

We are still the worst. We spot our life spots for life - mistakes we made in the 7th grade - mistakes we remember for life.

The field goal kicker remembers the field goal he missed 5 seasons ago - with no thought of the 73 field goals he made in his long career.

Ooops! Moderns are making comments about today's kids - that they are getting trophies for coming in 6th - that maybe this will hurt them - when they try for a job and they don't get it or their boy friend of girl friend dumps them.

In the meanwhile, Spot - our little white dog - walks into the room - and all he wants is a treat. "Woof! Woof!"

August 20, 2022

Reflection

PRO-LIFE

You're pro-life if you pinch yourself for being here - grateful to be alive - and you're having the time of your life - and you hope it's for everyone.

You're pro-life if you're amazed at a tiny, tiny page bug - one you see in an old book - as you watch this tiny, tiny dot, this moving period, move quickly on a page - and you hope nobody will destroy it.  

You're pro-life if  you take time to visit folks in a nursing  home.

You're pro-life if you see through political manipulation to get votes using the abortion issue in these glossy flyers and TV ads and you sense that the creators of these ads really don't do anything about the murder of children in the womb.

You're pro-life if you are concerned about the children of the world - here there, and everywhere - those abused, those getting inferior education, those being sheltered from other kids, illegal kids, etc.

You're pro-life if you delight in people able to migrate to new places in order to make a living -  to survive and to thrive.

You're pro-life if you go crazy with people who are for abortion - but scream about clubbing baby seals to death for their skins, or other other animals for their fur.

You're pro-life if you go crazy at what seems a contradiction:  people screaming for a healthier environment for all of us - but they are for killing babies in the inner environment of a mom's womb.

You're pro-life if you're for the safety of people - trying to do one's part to remove the causes of war and robbery and rape.

You're pro-life if you are against capital punishment - while knowing it's being done unfairly.

You're pro-life if you realize - and this I believe is the  most controversial plank in my platform - you're against war - unless its the only way to stop people from killing innocent life.