DON'T BURN MY BIBLE

DON'T BURN MY BIBLE

I quote you the opening sentences of an email I just received:

I believe that this is what America should do.
Does anybody know how Ishmael was conceived as per the Bible?  His mother pretended to Abraham that she was Sarah, an act of deceit at the outset.  And then Mohammed was begat on the succeeding generations from Ishmael.
I have met a few Muslims in my life. They don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  They believe that marrying multiple women is okay.  Their new law, the Sharia, is intolerant of other religions.  They believe that women are inferior to men.  They believe that killing Christians earn them Virgins in the afterlife.  Their way is the only correct belief.  And yet we are helping them in Iraq and Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Middle East countries, and yet they won't allow our troops to bring Bibles?  The answers are very obvious; those who are against the Bible and don't believe in Jesus Christ are lost and in the dark.  For the Bible preaches that no one comes to the Father but through Jesus Christ.  The Moslems and other non-Christian nations in the world (Japan, China, North Korea, Thailand, etc...) can't deny the existence of God because the Bible teaches that "For the truth about God is known to men instinctively."  Click here to read the Biblical account of how Ishmael was born.
I do not want to believe that I received this from a person whom I trust and respect.  She was student in the mission school where I was the Director.  True, that was over 40 years ago.  I wonder what happened in between.

The answer to the first interrogatory sentence, according to this email, as highlighted above, is viciously erroneous.  Ishmael, the son of Hagar, the maid of Abram and Sarai, was not the result of his mother deceiving Abraham.  He was born of congress between Hagar, his mother, and Abram, the husband of Sarai.  This relationship was consummated in sexual contact on the suggestion of Sarai, who was barren and wanted Abram to have a descendant.  So the story goes, Sarai became bitter and mean towards Hagar and so Abram told Sarai to dismiss the maid and her son.  The two of them left.  There came a time during their flight from Sarah and Abraham (God changed their names to this) that they nearly died.  As Hagar was preparing to die, God intervened and blessed them.  He promised a rich and vast descendancy to Ishmael, just as he had promised Abraham.  Not only was there no deception on Hagar's part, she and her son received blessings and a promise from God Himself.
I want to know who gave the author of the email the right to "BURN MY BIBLE?"

The mean spirit and narrow-minded tenor of the first two paragraphs is akin to burning the Bible, an act just as malicious as burning the Koran.  Twisting the stories of the Bible to the degree shown above is, in my opinion, blasphemous and sacrilegious.  Using a twisted version of a Bible story to feed hatred and prejudice aimed at a whole population is the worst kind of personal attack.
To single out the Muslims in this fashion shows a particularly deep dislike of a nation that exists because the head of the descendancy received a special blessing from God.  This is a nation mainly composed of the descendants of Abraham, just as we are.  They are different than we are.  The have different beliefs than we do, but they are children of God, just as we
are.  It is also true that they have a different world view than we do, but it is always better to negotiate rather than to condemn in hatred.  It is always better to bring the God of Love to the table with us, rather than to bring the sword of hatred and reviling.  To single out the Muslims because they do not believe that Jesus is the son of God, and is, indeed God, is to forget that there are many religious people in this world who believe in the word of the Bible but who do not believe that Jesus is the son of God.  The Jewish people do not believe that Jesus is the son of God.  There are many people in the world who don't believe in God, period.  To single out the Muslims for these reasons doesn't prove anything but that the writer has a personal problem with Islam.

Is that a reason why my Bible is being burnt here?

Sharia is called "their new law..."  It is not a new law.  It is the law of the Koran.  It is intolerant to non Muslims, but it is also extremely strict for Muslims.  Islam permits polygamy, but within bounds.  Muslims may not practice polygamy in countries where it is forbidden.  So they may have something to say about that, right?  They are great believers in theocracy, and we are not.  In a theocracy, many of our "freedoms" do not exist.  So our soldiers cannot carry their bibles into Muslim countries.  We do not allow their Koranic law in ours.

Is that a reason why the author of this article burnt my Bible?

More flames -- "The Moslems and other non-Christian nations in the world (Japan, China, North Korea, Thailand, etc...) can't deny the existence of God because the Bible teaches that 'For the truth about God is known to men instinctively'."
Nowhere in the Bible, King James Version or any other is it written as is quoted above.  Nowhere.  What does appear in some writings is that the splendor of the world around us can lead us to the knowledge of the existence of God.  It is not said that the "truth about God is known instinctively."  It is taught by the Catholic Church that humans are endowed with a natural attraction to know the existence of God.  It is taught that knowing the existence of God and further and deeper truths about Him are rendered easier by outside help, like parental teaching, Bible reading, etc.
Furthermore, human beings can, and do, deny the existence of God all the time.  How can the writer of this email say that human beings cannot do that?  They do it every moment of every day, directly and indirectly, in words and in actions.  Retracing my steps, the author of the email includes "Moslems" in the list of people who can't deny the truth about God.  They don't deny the existence of God.  Seriously now, who do you think Allah is?  Is that the truth about God?  Who knows?  Does the author of this email know the truth about God?  Oh, perhaps Allah is a false God, and not the real thing?  Oh, before I forget, who might "Yahweh" be?  The Bible cannot be quoted as it has been in this email.

Stop burning my Bible.

It sends me through the roof when people wring falsehood out of sacred items.  I get perturbed when sacred objects are used to destroy good will and love among people.  The Bible is a Sacrament of Love, not a weapon of mass destruction.  If you are going to quote the Bible, do it correctly, word for word and in the proper context.  It is a sin to make the Bible say something that you want it to say, rather than to quote it accurately and in context so that what it is truly meant to say is apparent to the reader or the listener.


Do not burn my Bible.

"ONE DREAM, ONE FUTURE"

This is a case of mistaken identity, for sure.
It has become the sub-title of the Catholic Church that bills itself as a "RECONCILING MULTICULTURAL CHURCH."  The upper case is not mine, it is part of the parish logo.  This is the same church, "animated by the GOOD NEWS of Christ" where the pastor bills himself as the "Priest Moderator of Service and Temporalities Commissions."  Are we, the faithful congregation of this church to understand that "One Dream, One Future" is the everlasting kingdom of heaven, or something else?  Is this guy a Pastor or a Foreman?  This Kurmujjin thinks of him more as a secular foreman than a Pastor/Priest.  Besides, we recently got a graphic answer to the question.  There were three grainy pictures in the parish bulletin of the church buildings in progressive states of change, from past to desired future.  Plus, over the last two years we have seen highly qualified professionals in ministerial roles be side-stepped, blind-sided and/or terminated from
service or kept, but with slashed wages.  The reason is always that the parish cannot afford the expense.  It is rather difficult to participate in the regularly scheduled liturgies without having the offertory basket passed around.  A decision has also been taken to request weekly donations from catechumens.  Everywhere and at every moment there is the spore of the pastor around statues, pictures, fences, benches, carpets, paint, tile, name-boards on the buildings, sound system, computerized internal camera system inside the church and a dozen other material embellishments of questionable spiritual import.
Over the time of his reign, we have witnessed the ascendancy of a group who are focused on keeping the "Priest Moderator of Service and Temporalities Commissions" occupied with money raising projects.  Keeping true to form, these are not high powered, professional "developers" or "producers".  They are volunteers who are seeking to make a mark for themselves in the eyes of someone that they perceive to be an important and powerful person in charge of a large community.

Furthermore, there is but small effort from the resident clerics to assure the progress of the community towards being reconciled to its multicultural reality.  Through it all, not a single one of the residents of the rectory (parsonage) has made the slightest effort to learn the mother tongue of 80 percent of the faithful who make up the community (Spanish).  These same Spanish deprived sloths keep dunning the Hispanic community for more money.  This is what happened this evening at the end of the 7:00 PM Mass.

"Priest Moderator of Service and Temporalities Commissions" who had muddled his way through this Spanish language liturgy by reading the texts in his miserable Spanish devoted 15 minutes of "Post-Mass Altar time" to drum up the troops for generous donations to the "One Dream, One Future" drive.  The first five minutes were occupied by a Spanish language spokesman haranguing the congregation to get them to buy raffle tickets, 11 for $10.00 (such a deal!).  Then the "Priest Moderator of Service and Temporalities Commissions" got up, called forth his interpreter and began his part of the snake-oil pitch, in English, of course.  "This is my third year here and I have renewed and refurbished many things.  I am here tonight to make you a promise, in no uncertain terms, I will not stop working at making this property better.  I will continue to add, to refurbish and re-organize the plant."  At this point, I left.  I am not Hispanic, but I feel insulted for them because of this donkey's total insensitivity to the reality that he is manipulating.  When I came back onsite after about 7 minutes, he was still at it.  In 21st century, IM language, I guess I should be ROTFLMAO, but instead I turn to God and ask, "Can't you find someone to shepherd the spiritual needs of the faithful in this parish?"

You priest huggers reading this are saying, "respect the priest.  If you don't like it, do something about it."  I got you there "goodie-two-shoes", I am doing something about it.  I and my wife spend hours and dollars doing things that the "Priest Moderator of Service and Temporalities Commissions" and his two incompetent wing men can't or won't do while they are dunning people through an interpreter.

Due to the spending of at least a quarter of a million dollars on material things and the resistance of the ordained ministers to acculturate themselves to the community over the last six years, lay people with higher levels of education and broader and deeper real-life ministerial experience are alienated from the ministry because the clerics insist on calling all the shots.  Many "management" decisions are made in the absence of those who are the designated lay leaders, even in religious areas about which these same clerics know precious little.  The clerics make sure that the lay help is sycophantic and always willing to bow and acquiesce with a "reverent, 'yes, father'" for everything.

In this church, the "Priest Moderator of Service and Temporalities Commissions" is the Emperor and the laity, the vassals. The assistant pastors are Princes and the ONE DREAM, ONE FUTURE financial drive gets everlasting pulpit, PowerPoint and behind-the-altar time for months on end while spiritual realities are relegated to small print in the weekly parish bulletin.

This parish is in dire need of a conversion to "Weren't our hearts burning within us as He was explaining the Scripture to us?" (Luke 13; 32)  "Priest Moderator of Service and Temporalities Commissions" has to take heed of the words of the Master, "Foolish man, this very night your soul will be required of you."
(Luke, 12:20)
That would be a fitting event for the "Priest Moderator of Service and Temporalities Commissions" who seems to be building his own heavenly reward in the memories of the faithful who will remember him when they frequent the house that the "Priest Moderator of Service and Temporalities Commissions" built.

RESTAURATIO ECCLESIAE "EX OPERE OPERATO"

"This Sunday is Corpus Christi and we are going to have a very beutiful Mass at Yorba Linda with very solemn eucharistic veneration at the end. The Mass will start at 6:20 AM this Sunday as a result."

Below see the outline of the "very beutiful Mass".

Since when do we go to church to be spectators at a beautiful Mass?

Secondly, when was the Real Presence downgraded to being "venerated" and not adored?

"Recently, Father said to me in passing that I was part of the restoration. We may not see the fruits of the restoration in our lifetimes, but simply to know we are working towards it. Ever since he said this, it has renewed my enthusiasm to continue promoting the Traditional Latin Mass."

JOHN 2:

He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there.15 He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, 16 and to those who sold doves he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace." 17 His disciples recalled the words of scripture, "Zeal for your house will consume me." 18 At this the Jews answered and said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" 19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." 20 The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?" 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

JOHN 4

The woman said to him, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem." 21 The woman said to him, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything." 26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking with you."

The restoration has taken place. Jesus has already done it. It goes forward, not backward. Jesus shed His blood for it. The Church has enjoyed 20 centuries of growth through 21 Councils (22 if you count Jerusalem). No one, (including the Pope and the Cardinal founder of the Canons) no single individual nor even a corporate entity will ever succeed in prevailing against the Spirit of the pedagogy of God and His Church. Others have tried and failed. You cannot succeed by bringing back the past, neither in your lifetime nor in many others.

Especially not with the "beautiful Mass" outlined below.

MISSA HERMOSA!

"In nomine pa..sss eeeee fff aaaa...........""In..........tr.............a...............................dei"

"Ju......mmmmmaammmddmmmm...".........

"Confiteor Deo.....mmm...om..........."

"Mmmmmm....luc.....tttt...bbbbbb..."

Kyrie Eleison Kyrie Eleison

Kyrie Eleison

Christe Eleison Christe Eleison

Christe Eleison

Kyrie Eleison Kyrie Eleison

Kyrie Eleison

"Gloria in Excelsis Deo......... mmmmmm........ Cum sancto Spiritu + in gloria Dei Patris. Amen"

MISSA HERMOSA Continuet...

"Dominus Vobiscum"

"Et cum spiritu tuo"

"Oremus...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Per omnia saecula, saeculorum"

"Lectio epistolae.......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"

"Dominus Vobiscum"

"Et cum spiritu tuo"

"Lectio sancti evangelii secundum Lucam"

In illo tempore......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

Verba celebrantis, dicitur "sermonis" Tempus somnulantiae

MISSA HERMOSA PERSEQUITUR

"Credo in unum Deum....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

"Dominus vobiscum."

"Et cum spiritu tuo"

Oremus.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

"Orate Fratres....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"

"Per omnia saecula saeculorum"

"Amen"

"Dominus vobiscum"

"Et cum spiritu tuo"

"Sursum corda"

"Habemus ad dominum"

"Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro"

"Dignum et justum est"

"Vere dig.......................................mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"

"Sanctus, Sanc...............................mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm'

Elevationes sequuntur consecrationem panis et vini, cujus verba auscultare nequeunt.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....per omnia saecula saeculorum"

"Amen"

"Oremus, Praec....mmmmmmmmmmm...Pater noster....mmmmmmmmmmm

mmmmmmmmm...et ne nos inducat in tentationem"

"Sed libera nos a malo"

MISSA HERMOSA manet in via receptionis Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....Pax domini Jesu Christi sit semper vobiscum"

"Et cum spiritu tuo"

"Agnus Dei...mmmmmmm;

"Agnus Dei...mmmmmmm;

"Agnus Dei...mmmmmmm"

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..."

Nunc, recipitur invitationem appropinquandam mensam sanctissimae caenae.

"Ecce agnus Dei..mmmmmm"

"Domine non sum dignus...mmmmmmmmmmm" x 3

"Corpus Dom...mmmmmmmmmmmmm"

ORATIONES HERMOSAE POSTEA COMMUNIO recitandae sunt a sacerdote, sotto voce ut quasi omnes orationes illae missae hermosae

"Dominus vobiscum"

'Et cum spiritu tuo"

"Ite missa est"

"Deogratias"

"Dominus vobiscum"

"Et cum spiritu tuo"

Initium Sancti evangelii sancti Joannae.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...et verbum caro factum est...mmmmmmmmmmm.

"Deo gratias."

SIC CUMPLET MISSAM HERMOSAM.

Even though you were only a spectator at a "very beutiful Mass", you did receive a valid sacrament despite your minimal participation in the celebration of it.

ONE YEAR AGO, CABBAGE NIGHT

BOO! I can't believe that is has been one year since I have put myself through the pleasure of grousing about something in public. It isn't that I haven't thought of anything, it is that I have been working at some pretty intensive jobs over this time. Some of you may be reacting with smirks and fire-spitting eyes with the jealousy born of hearing me complain about about working when many of you wish that you were working instead of reading me. I guess you will just have to get over it. I am not going to quit because you are out of work. I can't quit. Who can quit and try to maintain a life style on Social Security? You know, that socialist benefit that old people are entitled to have because they and their employers have paid into the program forever...or so it seems. So, OK, I'll change the subject.

How about the dear friend who disappeared into thin air about six months ago? Now, that's a bummer. I don't know what got into her. One day we're "texting" away (not "sexting", smarty pants) and suddenly she fell off the end of the earth. Not a word in six months. No, it's not the economy, stupid. It can't be my B.O. at a distance of 100 miles! Imagine, the wonders of the twenty-first century ganging up on you and making your life miserable. If we didn't have cell phones, we would never imagine that friends could be right next to us while being physically so far away. Then, poof!, no more contact. This, by the way, was not one of those Facebook "friends". This was a real, live, honest to goodness breathing person, full of life, love and the pursuit of happiness. She is too young to die, but not too young to disappear. Boo Hoo!

Ah, yes! Facebook. How many times over the last year have I pushed the "delete" button on e-mail that said, "Francie Chrystafragellistic wants to be your friend." Huh? Friend? Who? Why? Cold Cock a poor guy with a proposal to be friends without ever having met face to face? Not even in "Pete's Hole Inn the Wall" bar on South Canal Street? Friend? Are you kidding me. Get "delete" lost!

WHY I DIDN'T VOTE FOR JOHN McCAIN

The other day I received an email entitled "Redistribution" and made fun of the socialistic views of Barack Obama. I immediately fired off a reaction that read something like, "Imagine that, the fighter pilot who got shot down doesn't realize that he is running his campaign on redistributed money." My friend wrote back and said that he respects John McCain for what he did for his country. I have no intention of jeopardizing my friendship with this individual, so I will tell you all why I did not vote for John McCain.

1. Getting shot down and surviving a concentration camp does not train you to be president.
2. Running a disorganized campaign proves that it doesn't train you to manage, period.
3. Being a maverick does not qualify you to be president. It might qualify you to be "complainer in charge."
4. Was that Gordon Liddy I saw you with the other day?
5. Did I hear that you voted for aid to the Contras?
6. I thought that I saw you one time with Ollie North.
7. Why doesn't Cindy ever let you out of her sight?
8. Maybe you are the one who needs her around all the time for moral support?
9. You are too wimpy to even want to talk with the Castro Boys?
10. You are not polite and respectful.
11. So you said that Obama is not an Arab, he is a "decent man." So Arabs aren't decent?
12. You proved to me that you easily go off half-cocked.
13. Over a year ago at a college campus, while you were on "Hardball" you answered a question about abortion just before the break. Then after the break you changed your answer.
14. The list of half-cocked reactions is too long to suffer through.
15. Your choice of Sarah Palin was bad, for a lot of reasons.
16. She too hangs around with bad people. the Alaskan Independence Group ring a bell?
17. She is cleaning your clock. It is hard to believe that you are in charge over there.
18. Will you show us a picture of you handing over a check for nearly $500 mil to Khalidi?
19. How about a picture of you speaking at a posh affair put on by ACORN?

I could not bring myself to vote for John McCain for president of the United States.

Non Omne Quod Sintillat aurum est

This painting is entitled "Transition". The reason why it is here is because it communicates the confusion that some transitions force on the people who have to go through them. I am sure that I am not the only one who feels this way. Our community is presently in the throes of a magnificently mismanaged transition as these words are drummed unto the page. The process is now nearly four months along and we are wondering how much longer it is going to last.

The community that is suffering this is a Roman Catholic parish. Roman Catholics have a special kind of life. They belong to communities which are called "parishes". These communities are geographically defined to be accessible to a centralized church. The church of course has a pastor. Unlike their Protestant counterparts, Catholics do not get to hire the pastor following a serious recruitment and vetting process. What happens is that the incumbent pastor leaves and a replacement is chosen by the bishop and sent to the vacated position. Sometimes these transitions are smooth, sometimes they are not. The clash of personalities and management styles from the one to the next are sometimes rather tectonic. One of the good aspects of the system is that the members of the community can always say, "Don't look at me, I didn't vote for him." One of the nasty sides of the system is that everyone knows that the next six years (yes, six) are going to be VERY interesting.

The situation that we are observing these days is of the second kind. Pastor comes in and right off the top complains about the lack of income. Then of course, he proceeds to lay off his brightest and best because, of course, they are being paid the most. Then, of course begins the recruitment of volunteers to replace the professionals who have accepted the invitation to move on because the parish "can no longer afford your services."
This takes place rapidly and in a dictatorial way. The new man looks around, sees who comes to church, who speaks his language most fluently, asks a question or two and then invites the person to take charge of programs about which the new volunteer knows nothing. This goes on for a while before the participants in the programs start to realize that they are so confused that they can't see where they are going.
It's interesting to watch. Meetings get called with miniscule advance notice. Those who can come to the meeting have no idea about what the agenda is, or even if there is one. In one case a long time class group was confronted by the replacement of the teacher that they were accustomed to and the person in charge of the change did not appear to introduce the new person to the group. Great transition management! There are more stories about the shock treatment of bad transition management, but that would be too boring and repititious.

Money. Of course, money. New paint, new chairs, new decor and a remodel of sorts, not yet finished, in my opinion.

Finally, not a single clerical priest in the entire parish is fluent in the language that dominates the lives of 85% of the parish. So, the spiritual life of the community is being burnished by the material changes in the environment.

Meanwhile, education processes clippity-clop along. The management of documents required is foggy. Who knows, this whole enterprise is living on the promise that "the powers of hell shall not prevail against it." All we can hope for is that the holy remnant of Ezequiel will be around when the six year term comes to an end.

SIN THAT CRIES OUT TO GOD FOR VENGEANCE

There are those of us who know that there are certain sins among those that we call "mortal" or "grievous" because we find their description as such in Sacred Scripture. The past Sunday (October 26, 2008), the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the first reading described one of these grievous, mortal sins. The Church presented this description to us as being in direct opposition to the lesson that Jesus was about to give to the sarcastic scholar who asked what the greatest law of all was.

"34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, 36 "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37 He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Matt. 22; 34-40)

The scholar of the law should have known the answer. In fact, Jesus knew the answer because it appears in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verse 5 "Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." Jesus added the fulfillment sentence that He came to earth to deliver, about loving your neighbor. We have the same trouble with this saying of Jesus that the scholar of the law did. It is really a hard-nosed law. There are not too many teachers of scripture and homilists who have the courage to
confront the true meaning of this expectation that God has of us. It just happens that the first reading of this Sunday showed us just how high God has set the bar in this area of love of neighbor.
Listen:
Thus says the LORD:"You shall not molest or oppress an alien,for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."(Ex 22:20-26)

How's that for crying out to God for vengeance? These are sins that today occur every day our world. They are right up there with the others that are found in the Scripture: Murder, sodomy and the withholding of wages. How often do we offer prayers of intercession for these grievous sins? How often to we even think about them? How often have they been spelled out from the pulpit? How often have they been uttered in the same breath as abortion? Even abortion has a special niche in our lives...September and October of every election year. Along with sexual
misbehavior, homosexuality (sodomy) included, we have our moral map handed to us when it comes time to vote. It's almost as though voting against pro-abortion politicians is the one sacrificial act that can bring us justification. What do we do the rest of the year? We hope and pray that the killing will stop and that a miracle will happen that will cause the change of the law. We already know that this is a sin that cries out to God for vengeance. We pray that we will see the day when His wrath will be manifest. In the meantime we shake our heads and wonder how to attack this monster. And what if the anti-abortionist is pro-sodomy and negligent of the blue collar, or "no collar" worker? What if the anti-abortionist has an international policy that has war as the answer to most problems?

It is unfortunate that our narrow minded, one issue attitude envelops us so tightly that we cannot be creative enough to apply other tactics to the problem than to vote against the pro-abortion candidate. This attitude sends us down the path of voting for some well accomplished dunces. We are encouraged to vote for those who would listen to our holier-than-thou preaching about one sin while forgetting the terrible destruction that can be wreaked by an accumulation of other criminal behaviors that bring us to our knees and cause more abortions to take place because of the despair that the anti-abortionist causes. We have a hard time making the pious ones see that the pro-abortion whiz could construct a community that would be more at peace with itself, therefore making abortion less desirable in times of moral difficulty. We are made to believe that abortion is the gravest sin committed by our society. I think that there is room for discussion there. I happen to have a corner of my conscience that says that the sin of electing an anti-abortionist who presents a strong probability of destroying the fabric of the entire country is just as grave, if not worse. Running the country into despair would only cause a lot more sin to be committed, including more abortion. While it is true that running a country to the brink of despair is not classified as a sin that cries out to God for vengeance, it nevertheless would be close enough to satisfy me.

Let's get back to the answer that Jesus gave to the scholar of the law. Jesus did not tell him to avoid any of the 630 precepts of Jewish Law. He quoted Scripture. He quoted the law of love as found in chapter 6, verse 5 of Deuteronomy, "Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." Then, to fulfill the will of His Father and to complete the dictate of His Mission he added, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt. 22; 39)
How many of us look for the candidate who most closely lives the tenet of love in his life? How many of us prepare ourselves to go to the polls with an inclusive, positive attitude rather than an exclusionary, negative mind set? How many of us prepare to go to the polls liking one candidate and disliking another? How many of us can ask ourselves 15 questions about what it would take to be a good president and apply the yes/no Ben Franklin test to each candidate? I get the impression that most of us prefer to listen to bishop so and so who writes an 800 word essay against the pro-abortionist and go to the polls with that. Is that adult Catholicism? I don't think so.
A while ago I wrote an essay entitled "God is pro-Choice". (March, 2006) I received a very scholarly response from a serious theologian who cautioned me that such statements can and will be interpreted according to the political terminology of the times. It is not therefore proper to try to change the meaning of the words because they will not be understood in the absolute sense that the writer (in this case, yours truly) intends. I do stick to my opinion. Even the person who opts for an abortion, makes a choice. Nothing gets done without someone making a choice. Adult Catholics make choices according to their conscience. Normally a good solid conscience is formed with the framework of Church teaching. I believe that a good solid conscience of a well-informed lay person is as good a guide as the well informed conscience of bishop so and so. The bishop can say all he wants but the conscience of the listener can be based on valid truths that dictate another line of action. The proof of the validity of this is the example of the community of bishops around the world making differing and even contradictory statements about the same behavior. That is why I listen, I pray, I make up my own mind according to the dictates of my conscience and I act.

Now that you know that I am at peace with myself about these things, when you go to my funeral I want to hear you saying something like, "He was weird, but look at that s___t
eating grin he has on him!" That's the sign that you should never, ever think of crying at my funeral.