Speculation

Fr. Jim notes some speculation about the end of our country as we know it. Here’s my take:

Scenario 1 – In the next few years, one or more terrorist strikes on a scale vastly greater than 9/11 will get past the US’ defenses. In the wake of that tragedy, the federal government will rapidly consolidate unprecedented powers of surveillance, secret detentions, secret trials, new prosecutorial privileges and, yes, torture. To placate the left, the framing of the war will eventually shift to “the war on religious fanaticism” and the tools mentioned above will be employed most vigorously against domestic Christians and Jews who maintain traditional doctrines regarding prenatal homicide and sexual ethics. Taking a page from the ChiComs, the government will establish some sort of “tolerant” parodies of the Church and various other religious groups. The “tolerant Catholic” schism will take advantage of some current bishops, priests and laity, while the faithful are driven underground or martyred. I'd actually be quite surprised if I lived another forty years and didn't witness this.

Scenario 2 – Even if I’m wrong about the massive terrorist strike and the likeliest set of consequences thereof, demographics paint a gloomy picture. In about 25-30 years the economy will be badly strained by the disproportionate share of retirees to workers and the abundance of entitlements provided to all elderly, regardless of means. Narcissistic boomer retirees – especially the childless – will be surprised to find themselves the targets, rather than the perpetrators, of systematic intergenerational genocide. The interests of the killers will be found more meritorious than the interests of the killed due to the emanations of the penumbra of the right of privacy.

Gospel verses birthday meme

I haven't been tagged, so I won't tag anyone else, but it's a good thing regardless.

MT 12:27: And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges

MK 12:27: He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You therefore do greatly err.

LK 12:27: Consider the lilies, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these.

JN 12:27: Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause I came unto this hour.

In summation, I face judgment, I greatly err, I have a great deal more than my labour would merit and still my soul is troubled. Sounds pretty accurate all the way around.

NB: all quotes courtesy of Douay-Rheims Online. While I very much appreciate that site’s convenient presentation of a remarkably good translation of the Bible, I would caution against some of their “sidebar” articles that can tend toward the eccentric or even schismatic.

Enervation

That’s the quick and dirty explanation for the dearth of recent posts. Physical ailments have taken their toll and a series of storms of the spirit have sapped whatever strength had been near me.

A few older posts on better blogs have been rattling around: a few weeks back the Bard of Ohio wrote of the counterintuitive concept of providential heresies and the plainspoken son of St. Benedict discussed how they can be worked together for good.

Today’s most prominent heresies are campaigns to reclassify selected fashionable vices as virtues: first the killing of people whose continued existence might cause some inconvenience to the killer – especially when such person is not able to speak for himself, and second the inversion of human dignity attendant on various sexual acts which have long been described as crimes against nature.

I’m not tempted to join in those heresies as those sins are among the few that don’t have a strong grasp on me. Were there some organized campaign to start celebrating arrogance, ill-temper, gluttony or the countless other sins to which I cling, I would likely participate with great enthusiasm. Consequently I have no reason to gloat over the daily parades of licentious heresies, but rather I must witness to the sanctity and dignity of human life – even those lives that are dedicated to spreading error.

Friday Feast, Courtesy of the Summa Mamas

Appetizer
When do you feel impatient?
Semper et ubique. Most especially when waiting for someone who is futzing around rather than attending diligently to the task at hand.

Salad
How many times in your life have you had a broken heart?
Thrice, but the last one is terminal.

Soup
Name a book you would like to see made into a movie.
Paradise Lost done a/ la LOTR, but with some influence from William Blake’s illustrations.

Main Course
If you could thank one teacher for what they taught you, who would it be and what would you thank them for?
My late mother for the bit of conscience she imparted to me.

Dessert
What is your favorite kind of pie?
Cherry. Got to have some yesterday at a lunch meeting. Woot!

Lately

I've not been doing much beyond two things:

- reading James Lileks' new book; and
- slowly recovering from bronchitis.

The book's ok. For me it's actually a good thing that it isn't as funny as his previous book, as I might not have been able to breathe if I laughed that hard again. If you really enjoy Lileks, the book ought to be worth it. If you're on the fence about his work, wait for the Joe book.

In November we are exhorted to reflect on mortality. Being sick can help concentrate one's attention in that direction - especially when fever dreams include some of one's own funeral. During the most fevered night I noticed that I could feel nearly every broken bone I'd ever had, just about as they felt when freshly broken. For as long I breathe, those injuries may still annoy me. More importantly, I still carry the interior damage caused by past sins, but I rarely notice it. I'll either carry that damage on my soul for ever or, I pray, be relieved of it in purgatory.

Huzzah!

Another Denver Catholic blogger is back and he is worthy of many more readers: Holy Ghost Parishioner - there are those who call him Ben.

Two years ago today

I stepped away from blogging for a while. Barely a day passed that I didn't want to blog, but I had some reasons for staying away.

In January I started an anonymous limited-topic blog. Before long the dam broke. I just couldn't stay away from blogging.

Thanks to those of you who stop by from time to time.

Courtesy of Res Publica et Cetera:

You Are a Husky Puppy

Sweet, affectionate, and docile. But when you see a cat or chicken, it's kill kill kill!!!

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

Apropos a post below

. . . including the statement “moral theology is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”.

Like most towns, my hometown has an “alternative” newspaper. It’s alternative in that it doesn’t pretend to get subscription revenue; it takes overt advertisements for several forms of prostitution; and it doesn’t try to hide its hostility to everything outside its own narrow view of the world. Unfortunately, it also is the home to the best restaurant reviewer in the area. He knows food and he can write very well indeed. There is some quota of political correctness per column – whether required by contract or inserted by the editor - but it’s usually possible to get past that. Last month he wrote this about the beverage selection at a new high-end steakhouse:

Laura and I went with beer. Our waiter said that was a good choice. But then, everything was a good choice in his opinion. I could have asked for a glass of Drano and fillet of underpants and he would have just wanted to know boxers or briefs, then complimented me on my taste and sophistication.

Beautiful writing and true to our sick culture. We are asked not only to tolerate, but to celebrate, all manner of evil behaviors on the principle that we can’t criticize other people’s pursuit of happiness, no matter how misguided. Being the odd character, though, this image stuck with me in ways that would horrify the publisher, editors, advertisers and most of the audience of the paper because that vivid analogy curtly sums up so much of my life.

Every day I have the opportunity to ask the One who humbled Himself even unto death to recommend the day’s fare. Instead I seek at best the completely useless fillet of underpants or, far too often, the positively lethal glass of Drano. I know better and have known better for years. Even after I “meditate on the law of the Lord day and night”, I follow the prodigal son yet again. I’ve repented far more than seventy times seven, but I’ve rebelled more times yet.

I have some hope in seeing that I’m not alone in this predicament – that even saints have bewailed their own tendencies to fall. I have hope in the phrase “in Your mercy keep us free from sin”, knowing that Holy Mother Church would not pray for the impossible.

I found yet more hope in a snippet I read the other day. I’ve probably seen this idea several times before but have been too dense to understand it. Gloria Olivae observes:

You can neither know what chastity is nor observe chastity unless you first know poverty and have observed poverty. And you can neither know what is obedience and practice obedience unless you know and have practiced chastity. Now, do you see why the biggest problem of the Church today is lack of Chastity and lack of obedience? Because there is no spirit of Poverty.

Fr. Odon explains elsewhere in the post how the three evangelical counsels apply to the laity so it is best to read the whole post. What hit me was the explanation concise enough even for me of how the love of money is the root of all evil.

Win/Win

Since all of the pro sports leagues seem to be intent on improving their reputations, may I suggest that Terrell Owens should leave football entirely and take up a new sport. Removing his prima-donna attitude, penchant for insulting teammates and newfound desire to assault teammates from the NFL would do wonders for the league's wholesomeness. At the same time, Owens would actually class up the NBA a bit as he so far hasn't assaulted paying customers or ventured into hip-hop.

Great food for though from TSO:

The conservative mistake is to emphasize morality outside of its proper context of God’s love. The liberal mistake is to suggest God’s love means he’s not interested in law

If someone says “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants to be happy!”, the initial reaction is likely to be positive and primarily emotional rather than intellectual. On the other hand, if someone says “Moral theology is proof that God loves us and wants to be happy!”, the initial reaction is much less likely to be positive. We’re more likely to look for loopholes, excuses and exclusions. We look at morality more as if it’s a tax to be paid at the minimum rate absolutely necessary than as the gift that it is.

In the past couple of weeks this blog has received honors far more than it merits. It's gratifying, of course, to see people have actually read what I've said and engaged it, but it doesn't mean as much to me as I had thought it would.

This blog's roots go back more than seven years, into what started as a combination e-mail correspondence and journal. Given what I write about, there never will be much shot at a big audience - even a big audience by St. Blog's standards. And that's a good thing. I just don't have sufficient wisdom or the virtue for a beneficial wide sphere of influence.

What a beautiful time of year!

Walking this morning I noticed that there’s a bigger variety than usual in the appearance of the trees: some have lost all their leaves, some have a few left and some are still completely covered. Some of the leaves still on trees have turned while others remain green. The newly bare trees have sharp differences from each other as well since each has a different pattern of limbs and branches. Some bear gaping holes where large limbs gave way – those holes were well-concealed in leafier days, but not any more. The constancy of the evergreens stands out more than it had a few weeks ago, yet even many of them are succumbing to pine blight and are surrounded now by diseased needles, rather than by the helpful mulch under the alamos.

This variety is most fitting at this time of year when we consider death and judgment at least a bit more than is customary at other times of year. Each of us is like one of those trees. Each has a different pattern of growth and of brokenness. Each of us has unique bare spots. Each has made some contributions –probably both for good and for ill – to the world around us.

Today we celebrate those trees that have already borne much good fruit and we ask their intercession for us (for a particularly lovely and example, see here). During the days ahead, we join in prayer for those who have not borne so much good fruit.