In My Opinion, This is True

 

During the 10-minute drive to church this morning, I heard the Teresa Tomeo show, and her blunt criticism of our country.  Quoting from the Catholic catechism, she noted that we are required as a matter of faith to speak the truth, and that there IS a truth, a right and a wrong.  She read how the Catholic faith is against relativism, as is now being heavily taught in our schools on most moral matters, and emphasized in public discourse, and in a media which no longer seeks the whole truth of a story, but only its opinion. 

Teresa’s publicly stated words are becoming rarer today, and people are being censored or even jailed for saying them. 

At mass later this morning, the Gospel today was about Jesus calming the stormy sea which threatened the lives of those in the boat.  But, as the priest commenting on the Gospel pointed out, Jesus’ first reaction is not to calm the storm, but the criticize His apostles: “Do you not have faith?”

God sees all.  He knows all.  He loves us, always.  And, at the end of the day, He will be with us, always, forever.

In our country the storms today against all that Jesus taught is fierce.  We are seeing that many of the younger people have given up the fight against it.  And us?  “Do you not have faith?”

Do not be anxious is the title of a blog which tries to speak the truth, and always will.  

 

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I was going to title this posting “What is Truth?”  When I went to save it in Word, however, it came back indicating that I had already saved a document under that title.  So I went to my blog online and in the search engine there entered “What is Truth” to read that first document, so I wasn’t duplicating something.  What came back were a number of previous posts, which included the words “What is Truth,” some from as far back as 2012 which, if I might humbly say, were very good.  And now, twelve years later they hit home much harder than the simple posting above.

A Flame That Never Goes Out

 

It is Christmas Eve, and I just turned on my kitchen lights.  I spent the afternoon at the adoration chapel, often alone this Sunday.  Then, at around 3:30, people began arriving, in preparation for the 4PM Christmas Eve mass.  It would be hugely crowded, and so I left to come home to prepare dinner.  I will go to celebrate Christmas mass tomorrow morning.  I was surprised at the Sunday afternoon lines of cars at the traffic lights, and then I realized it was people from around the city going to various Christas Eve church services.  That made me feel good; people still celebrate His birth. 

When I got home the skies were darkening.  Sunset and the beginning of Christmas Eve were generally considered as occurring at 4PM, hence the many church services and traffic jams.  When I arrived home, on my kitchen table, in the dim light, was a single candle, nearly burned down.  I gently transferred the flame to yet another 8-day candle, as this one would shortly be going out --- but I would not let the flame go out.  The flame originated from the flame which burns in Bethlehem over the site of Jesus’ birth.  The flame was transferred from one candle to another across the ocean and to various churches, as it is now done each year, during Advent.  It is a reminder of His birth, and the Light that He is in the world.  And now His light was in my home.

I watched the flame of the original candle in the dark, as it burned down to its final minutes.  I turned on my computer and began reading old December posts in my blog, posts of the last 15 years.  Some brought me tears, as I also listened to Andrea Bocelli’s beautiful voice singing Christmas carols as only he can.  At about 4:45, when people in the Catholic churches were likely receiving Communion, the flame of the original candle softly dimmed in front of me and went out.  Seeing it reminded me of the moments I sat near my mother’s face as the light went out of her eyes.  And, like the flame I transferred to another candle, her light didn’t go out either, but assumed a new location. 

I turned on the kitchen lights and began writing this short Christmas Eve posting.  I’m alone here, but I’m not.  A light went out, but it didn’t.  Belief comes down to faith in things we no longer see.  Jesus, God, was a man.  He worked countless miracles, seen by countless people.  He rose from the dead, seen by many hundreds.  Many millions have died for believing in Him even though they personally never saw Him.  And today many people don’t believe the truth, because they didn’t see it.  Seeing evidence, like my burned out candle wick, wouldn’t convince them that it was ever lit. 

And so, they are alone.  They are in the dark and, like the blind, can’t imagine what light might look like, or feel like.   I feel bad for what they might be missing in the future, but much sadder for what they are missing now.  Tomorrow they will celebrate a “holiday season.”  But like the blind person, just because they can’t see the light, never saw the miracles, does not mean thy do not exist. 

Tomorrow I will celebrate the birthday of Jesus.  His light didn’t go out, and I often feel His warmth in my life, and am reminded of it in so many ways, even by a flame now sitting on my table.  He is here, in so many ways.

I hope you have a joyous Christmas celebration, and remember to say ‘Happy Birthday’ to the birthday Boy.  I’ll drop by the chapel tomorrow afternoon to spend some time with Him, and perhaps if we are alone, I’ll sing happy birthday to Him.  I just hope He doesn’t laugh out loud.

Who's in Control?

 

On the short drive to mass this morning, I heard the radio host ranting about the on-going vote counts.  “The government bragged that voting was now better.  This is better,” she raved, “waiting for days to know what happened?”  I smiled as thoughts came to me of another close election.

It was 1960 and John Kennedy, a Catholic, was running for president.  It was a close race and, as I recall, I even spoke over my Catholic high school’s PA system after morning prayers, urging my high school’s students to get their parents out to vote for Kennedy.  “A Catholic president will be so wonderful.”  I was so young and naive.  (When my dad wasn’t looking, I even put a Democratic Kennedy sticker on his car bumper.)  The election night vote counting was taking a long time then also.  The election was so close that finally all the counts and projections came down to just one state’s votes, which would decide the presidential winner.  That state was Illinois, where I lived.  The final tally was late in coming from the city of Chicago.  Finally, it was announced that Kennedy had won the state, and the election, by 18,000 votes.  I was so excited, and it was all we talked about at school the next day.  But then I calmed down and began thinking.  Until the vote count from every city in Illinois was known, Chicago seemed unable to complete its count.  Then, knowing what was needed to win, the grand total from Chicago came in and had Kennedy winning.  In reflecting on what happened, I and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE in the state of Illinois, knew that 18,000 dead people had voted that night in the city of Chicago.  Everyone knew how Mayor Richard Daley ran the city of Chicago, and what he wanted done, was done.  It’s the way it was.

It’s been over 60 years since then, but it feels as if nothing has changed.

On the short drive home from the church, I heard the same radio host commenting about Michigan’s passage of a new abortion “right” in the state constitution.  Michigan now has the most liberal state-controlled abortion policies, perhaps only outdone by China and North Korea, and if necessary, the people of this state will pay for those abortions.  The radio host noted that now the pro-life forces will have a different focus, as people from nearby more abortion-restrictive states will be encouraged to rush to Michigan for abortions.  Undoubtedly, new abortion clinics will be built near the state borders.  “We are going to need to erect signs along all the highways entering Michigan telling abortion-bound visitors the truth” --- which, apparently the majority of our state voters do not believe. 

And the Bible tells us of how the pagans sacrificed their children for their gods.  Nothing has changed here either --- except we, the faithful, have heard the Truth and believe Him.  And now, if necessary, we must give our lives for that truth.

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Two of my nieces were to have arrived in Michigan for a visit from Arizona last Friday, but Friday morning I received a text telling me that they had cancelled.  Their father had (what we now think was) a mini-stroke (TGI) Thursday night, and was totally disoriented.  They rushed him to the ER, where tests were inconclusive, so they took him home.  After a night’s sleep, he would seem better, but --- the next day the two nieces and their father all tested positive for Covid, perhaps the original cause of their father’s stroke.  One niece had a severe headache and major sinus congestion.  The other niece felt unable to sleep that night, and tested her blood oxygen level, which was very low.  She was able to quickly go to an urgent care center, where fluid buildup was seen in her lungs, and heavy antibiotics and steroids proscribed.  She was “lucky” she came in so quickly.  After 24 hours she was much better, albeit both nieces still are weakened.  I asked how she was able to test her oxygen level in the middle of the night, and my niece told me she had a couple of episodes of pneumonia, which weakened her lungs, so she bought the oxygen machine to do regular check-ups.  Those pneumonias were very upsetting, I’m sure, but now it seems they may have saved her life.

Many bad things happen to us (and our country), but we need to bear with them; they happen for a reason. They are things beyond our control --- but not God’s.  And we are alive in these days to assist Him.