Author Archives: Friar Musings

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About Friar Musings

Franciscan friar and Catholic priest at St. Francis of Assisi in Triangle, VA

New Life

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Today at the Mass for the children of the parish elementary school, the gospel reading is taken from John 20, the scene on Easter morning when Mary Magdalene encounters the risen Jesus. As part of the encounter, Jesus says to Mary: “Stop holding on to me.” What could those words mean? What is Jesus trying to tell Mary?

In part, I think Jesus is telling Mary that the “old Jesus” – the one she knew – has been raised from death into a new life. While it is hard to think of the “new Jesus” when Jesus is truly God. But remember He is also truly human. Standing there in front of Mary is new life, the newness of life that awaits us.

St. Paul told the people of Rome that if we have been baptized in Christ then we are promised the newness of life, but in the same letter he also tells them that they can’t hold onto things from the past that would keep them from the new life.

I think Jesus understands that Mary’s comfort zone is the Jesus she knew, the One she depended on – and as good as that is – as great as that is – there is a newness of life awaiting with the coming of the Holy Spirit that will bring her and all believers new grace, new gifts and new life.

I hear tell that “eighth grade-itis” has come upon the senior class of the school. They are ready for the school year to conclude – but also ready for the new life that awaits them in high school. You have worked hard and are well prepared. Hold onto the memories and friends you have made here, but be ready to step into new opportunities and roles that await you in your new life.

That seems a very appropriate message here on the first full day of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV. From the South Side of Chicago, to seminary, to Chiclayo Peru as priest and later Bishop, to Rome as Cardinal, and now as the 267th pope.  Each step, newness of life awaited him, even as he treasured the life he was leaving behind to serve the people and the Church. 

It was Jesus’ message to Mary. It is Jesus’ message to us – strengthened by the grace of God, step into the newness of life

Anima una et cor unum in Deum: One mind and one heart intent upon God

Image credit: Patheos, CC-BY-NC

Being Given

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This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter for Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. The gospel is taken from John 10:27-30.  In v.29 it is clear that it is the Father who has given the sheep to Jesus.  This small part of one verse, when reflected upon can be a quite challenging revelation. We are part of Jesus’ flock because of what God has done, not because of anything we have done, (cf. “You did not choose me but I chose you””15:16a). Can we refuse to be God’s gift to Jesus? Jesus is clear that “the Jews” to whom he is speaking do not belong to his sheep. Why not? Clearly they have heard Jesus words – yet they refuse to listen and follow. What is the word they refuse to hear? It simply this: “God has given you to Jesus.”

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The Momsen Lung and things Submarine

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I suspect that most people read the title of this post and went, “What…???” Well… as it happens, this day in history, the first device to provide a means to escape a sunken submarine underwent its first testing. The Momsen Lung consists of a rubber bag containing a canister of soda lime that removes carbon dioxide from exhaled air and replaces it with oxygen. It was developed by Lieutenant Charles B. Momsen (UNSA Class of 1919), Chief Gunner Clarence L. Tibbals, and civilian engineer Frank Hobson.

The only known emergency use of the Momsen lung was during the escape from USS Tang on October 25, 1944. The Momsen lung was replaced by the Steinke hood beginning in 1962. This was the device that was standard during my time of service. My only experience with the hood was during SubSchool when all are required to do an ascent from ~100 feet. It was actually kinda’ fun.

The USS Tang was launched in 1943 and immediately went into action with Commander Richard O’Kane USN. Throughout the war the submarines had been plagued with faulty torpedoes. Sadly, Tang was actually sunk by her own torpedo which went into a circular run. She sank off China in the Taiwan Strait on 24 October 1944.

The engagement was at night with Tang surfaced and so there were several crew members along with O’Kane topside in the sail of the submarine. The majority of the crew was below decks. Several men escaped via the Momsen Lung, several did a free-ascent, but in the end only 78 perished. Nine, inlcuding O’Kane, survived and were captured by the Japanese, spening the remainder of the was in a POW camp.

In her short career in the Pacific War, Tang sank 33 enemy ships. Commander O’Kane received the Medal of Honor for her Tang’s last two engagements (23 and 24 October 1944)

O’Kane also received three Navy Crosses and three Silver Stars, for a total of seven awards of the United States military’s three highest decorations for valor in combat. Before commanding Tang, O’Kane served in the highly successful USS Wahoo as executive officer and approach officer under noted Commander Dudley “Mush” Morton. In his ten combat patrols, five in Wahoo and five commanding Tang, O’Kane participated in more successful attacks on Japanese shipping than any other submarine officer during the war.

In the world of WWII submarine lore, Morton and O’Kane are legendary.

Image credit:
Momsen Lung: United States Navy, photographer unknown
Steinke Hood: National Museum of the U.S. Navy – 330-PSA-262-63 (USN 711388), Public Domain

Random Happens

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Sometimes there is a nexus of events that seem random or perhaps purposeful – usually hard to discern the difference. Many years ago when leading a Bible study on the Book of Revelation, one of the participants told me that every evening when driving home from the session (it was summer), he saw a black crow sitting on a fence. He asked if it was a sign. Could be…. or since it was farm country and the fence was bordering a corn field, it might have just been a crow. I have to admit there is a part of me that operates out of the old maxim: if you hear hoofbeats don’t assume zebra, it’s probably a horse. At least it’s a good maxim for the United States.

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Listening and Knowing

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This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter for Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. The gospel is taken from John 10:27-30.  In yesterday’s post we focused on the idea that if Jesus is the Good Shepherd – then what/who constitutes the flock? Who are the sheep that follow the promised Messiah? And in the course, we spend some time nuancing some of the language used in the text.

27 My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. 

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Privateering – the new side gig

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Given the state and possible future of a new global order in a world of trade wars, tariffs, and mercantile mischief, I thought it good to again post an article from last year. It might just be, for you, a viable side-gig.

Did you know that you have a constitutional right to become a government-sanctioned pirate? I present for your consideration Article I, Section 8: Clause 11, War Powers – To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water. This means that, with Congress’s permission, private citizens can weaponize all manner of watercraft, put  out to sea, capture enemy vessels, and keep the booty. Rather than fly the Jolly Roger, you’d proudly fly the Star-and-Stripes. And even more, rather than taking on the name “pirate”  although that has a certain cache to it, you might go by the title “privateer.” But I must admit that “Pirate Jack” sounds a fair bit more daunting than “Privateer Jack.”

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Tell us plainly

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This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter for Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. The gospel is taken from John 10:27-30.  In yesterday’s post we explored the scriptural foundation of shepherd and flock – today we continue that trajectory and its implication: fulfillment of the promised Messiah described in Ezekiel 34

A key element of our Sunday gospel passage is an indication of who is part of the flock of believers. The people know Jesus and they, like folks in every age, want straight answers:

24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.” (John 10:24-26)

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Everything else in the universe

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The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people, and especially of governments, always have effects that are unanticipated or “unintended.” We live in a world that is a complex system with interconnections we do not know, can’t or have not yet imagined, or as the American naturalist John Muir offered: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

A well-known example is when the British government in India offered financial rewards for people who killed and turned in cobras. People, reacting to incentives, began breeding the snakes. Once the reward program was scrapped, the population of cobras in India rose as people released the ones they had raised. This event gave birth to the term “the cobra effect” which describes an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result that is contrary to the intentions of its designers. In other words, an unintended consequence.

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Kings and Shepherds

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This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter for Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. The gospel is taken from John 10:27-30.  In yesterday’s post we provided some context for the gospel reading, discussing a little bit about the use of “shepherd” imagery in Scripture but also about some of the feasts that Jesus was celebrating as part of John 10. Today we explore the image of shepherds in more detail.

This week’s passage is succinct and calls to mind the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd (cf. John 10:11) – as it is meant to do.  The gospel establishes a certain cluster of associations around the word shepherd (poimen.) Each time the image reappears it evokes and develops the associations found elsewhere in the narrative. John 10:1-5 introduces the image of the shepherd by describing how a shepherd enters the sheepfold, calls the sheep by name, and leads them out to pasture. In 10:7-18 Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep. In 10:22-30 he adds that no one will snatch the sheep out of his hand. At the conclusion of the Gospel, Jesus enjoins Peter to “feed my lambs…. Tend my sheep…. Feed my sheep” (21:15-17). The emphatic use of the shepherd imagery suggests that Peter’s task must be understood in light of what Jesus said earlier in the Gospel about what it means to be a shepherd. Jesus makes a prophetic statement that reinforces the connection by anticipating that Peter, like Jesus the good shepherd, would lay down his life (21:18-19).

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The Work of God

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So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” (John 6:28-29)

Accomplishing the works of God – now that seems like something that should be on the top of our list. When we look at beginning of the Gospel of Luke, we encounter Jesus in the synagogue

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Perhaps these are the works of God? Or maybe St. Matthew outlines the important works:

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