Category Archives: Musings

The Joy of Anticipation

Posted on by
1

There were two dieticians who lived very strict lives of diet and exercise. They would eat a healthy diet, watch blood pressure and cholesterol, get exercise and absolutely eat incredibly intentionally and purposefully. Perhaps the great symbol of all of this was the omnipresence of oat bran: cereal, muffins, the ever imaginative addition to more recipes than can be remembered; Oat bran every day. They lived to the late nineties. Both died and went to heaven. One day while walking around and seeing all the wonders one said to the other, “Gee, I never imagined it would be like this.”   The other said, “Just think we could have been here years ago if it wasn’t for all that oat bran.”  … and isn’t heaven the ultimate end we hope for? And Lent is the liturgical season when we consider our spiritual practices, our spiritual exercises, and spiritual diets. And it begins here on Ash Wednesday.

Continue reading →

Who can be saved?

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s gospel asks: “Who then can be saved?” The answer is found in the first reading, words from the Book of Sirach, a passage that speaks to both the reality of human sin and the infinite mercy of God. Sirach 17:20-24 reminds us that though we may fall into sin, the Lord ever and always calls us back to Himself with love, urging us to repent and turn to Him with all our hearts.

The passage begins by acknowledging the weakness of human nature. “Their iniquities are not hidden from Him, and all their sins are before the Lord.” God sees everything—our struggles, our failures, our sins—but He does not look upon us with condemnation. Instead, He calls us to conversion: “To the penitent He provides a way back, and He encourages those who are losing hope!“

Continue reading →

Friends

Posted on by
Reply

Sometimes a daily reading just does not need any additional commentary:

5 A kind mouth multiplies friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings.6 Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant.7 When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him8 For one sort of friend is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress.9 Another is a friend who becomes an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your shame.10 Another is a friend, a boon companion, who will not be with you when sorrow comes.11 When things go well, he is your other self, and lords it over your servants;12 But if you are brought low, he turns against you and avoids meeting you.13 Keep away from your enemies; be on your guard with your friends.14 A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure.15 A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth.16 A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds;17 For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.” (Sirach 6:5–17)

Dodging and Foraging in Space

Posted on by
Reply

In case you didn’t keep up with the news from space, last week on Tuesday it was announced that there was a 3.2% chance that asteroid 2024 YR4 would strike the earth. The asteroid is approximately between 130 and 300 feet wide – and if it entered the atmosphere, it is capable of obliterating an entire city. I expected to see a follow up article of NASA recruiting a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers to be sent into space to destroy the asteroid. (Hopefully you picked up the reference to the 1998 sci-fi movie Armageddon starring Bruce Willis and others.)

Rest easy, with more observations and data, the estimate of an earth strike by 2024 YR4 is near zero – one in 59,000 to be more precise. I’ll take those odds.

Meanwhile the AstroForge company is sending a robotic forager to asteroid 2202 OB5 to look for rare earth metals. AstroForge’s robotic spacecraft, called Odin, is bundled into a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will also launch a privately built moon lander and a NASA-operated lunar orbiter as soon as today from Florida. Asteroid 2022 OB5 is small, no more than 330 feet across, about the size of a football field.

If the launch and mission are successful, will AstroForge announce “Touchdown” – landing, football field… get it?

Image credit: Pixabay | CC BY-SA

Endurance

Posted on by
Reply

Here in the Northern Virginia area many of our parishioners are under a considerable amount of anxiety and uncertainty due to the efforts of the current administration’s efforts on “government efficiency” (DOGE). This vale of worry affects federal sector employees, contract workers, suppliers, and professional service and consulting organizations – and it is exacerbated by poor communications, what seems like random directions, and wondering about the intentions of people “making lists.” One group of counter-cyber security people in an interdepartmental training program who had just graduated, had job assignments (and many had shipped household goods) were suddenly let go. A parishioner told me that when she calls her mom she has found it necessary to begin each conversation with, “Mom, I still have a job.”

Continue reading →

This Kind

Posted on by
Reply

The opening of the gospel reading is not a direct quote from Scripture, but as often happens for liturgical readings, the opening verse is modified to give context and continuity with the Gospel text itself. In Scripture the context is that Jesus and three disciples (Peter, James, and John) are descending from the mountain top and the event known as the Transfiguration of the Lord. The quote from Mark 9:14 is “When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.” It loses the location and leaves “they” undefined. For the gospel proclaimed they borrow from previous verses in Mark 9 to provide us with: “As Jesus came down from the mountain with Peter, James, John and approached the other disciples they saw a large crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.” (Liturgical reading)  

Continue reading →

Enduring Mercy

Posted on by
Reply

If you’ve been following the posts about the daily readings from Genesis we have covered the creation story, the rebellion in the Garden of Eden, Cain’s murder of Abel, and the first part of the story of the Great Flood. Along the way I have speculated about our ideas of original sin, rebellion from the authority of God, the biblical account, and their interface with science – specifically with the idea of human evolution, something that Pope Pius XII allowed theologians to consider in his 1950 Papal Encyclical Humani Generis. In that encyclical while many things were discussed, there were two points germain to this ongoing reflection: (a) theologians must always hold to the revealed doctrine that God alone created the human soul and (b) theologians were obliged to offer insight on how evil/sin/rebellion entered the world.

In a previous post I offered: In a faith discussion that accepts evolution one has to wonder if natural selection would have conferred on our evolutionary ancestors tendencies for behaviors that favored passing on of their genes. Competition for resources and breeding opportunities would have led to behaviors that, for moral agents, would be sinful.  When they were first somehow made aware of God and God’s will for them, a call to trust and obey God would have been in tension with their instincts. It seems instincts won and the rebellion spreads.

Continue reading →

Divine Regrets

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday’s post was a bit of speculation about our ideas of original sin, rebellion from the authority of God, the biblical account, and their interface with science – specifically genetics. The post offered:

In a faith discussion that accepts evolution one has to wonder if natural selection would have conferred on them tendencies for behaviors that favored passing on of their genes. Competition for resources and breeding opportunities would have led to behaviors that, for moral agents, would be sinful.  When they were first somehow made aware of God and God’s will for them, a call to trust and obey God would have been in tension with their instincts. It seems instincts won and the rebellion spreads. 

Continue reading →

The Rebellion Spreads

Posted on by
Reply

Last Friday the first reading, from Genesis, recounted the story of “original sin.” It is an event known by various monikers, among which are: “the fall of man,” “the fall from grace,” “paradise lost,” and “eating of the forbidden fruit.” In a post from that day I offered an alternative to our traditional monikers. I suggested that Adam and Eve’s action was  not merely a moral failing but an act of defiance against God’s command. They  consciously chose to disobey God’s explicit instruction not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was no sinful mistake but an act of rebellion in which their desire to define good and evil for themselves was a rejection of God’s authority.

Continue reading →

Original Rebellion

Posted on by
Reply

The first reading today, from Genesis, recounts the story of “original sin,” “the fall of man,” “the fall from grace,” “paradise lost,” “eating of the forbidden fruit,” and a host of other names. Each of the monikers has their origin. The term “original sin” originates primarily from the theological development of Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) who was the first to systematize the doctrine of original sin as it is understood in Western Christianity. Earlier, Church Fathers, in various forms, did discuss the consequences of Adam’s sin. Some key figures include:

Continue reading →