Image Credit: NASA Goddard Photo, CC-BY 2.0
In 1995 Sandra Bullock starred in the hopelessly romantic comedy, “While You Were Sleeping.” Bullock plays a Chicago Transit token taker who is smitten with Peter Callaghan, a handsome commuter, though they are strangers. On Christmas Day, she rescues Peter from the oncoming Chicago “L” train after muggers push him onto the tracks. She accompanies the comatose Peter to the hospital, where a nurse overhears her musing aloud, “I was going to marry him.” Misinterpreting, the nurse tells his family that she is his fiancée. While Peter remains comatose an entire movie plays out. Continue reading
It is an old story that still amuses me
GOD: Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles. Continue reading
The first reading today is from the Book of Numbers 21:4-9:
With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses, “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.” Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
The Book of Numbers is the title of the book in English, but the Hebrew title is, more commonly, bemiḏbar, “in the wilderness [of]”). “In the wilderness” describes the contents of the book much better than “numbers,” which is derived from the censuses described in later chapters. Our passage occurs after God has assigned them to wander in the desert for a generation because of their rebellion against the leadership of God. They seem to have to fight their way through the wilderness. Continue reading
The Feast of St. John Chrysostom
St. John Chrysostom (“golden tongue”) was known for his oratory skills. John gained popularity because of the eloquence of his public speaking at the Golden Church, Antioch’s cathedral, especially his insightful expositions of Bible passages and moral teaching. He emphasized charitable giving and was concerned with the spiritual and temporal needs of the poor. He spoke against abuse of wealth and personal property:
Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him homage in the temple clad in silk, only then to neglect him outside where he is cold and ill-clad. He who said: “This is my body” is the same who said: “You saw me hungry and you gave me no food”, and “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers you did also to me”… What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices when your brother is dying of hunger? Start by satisfying his hunger and then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well. (In Evangelium S. Matthaei)
His straightforward understanding of the Scriptures, as opposed to an allegorical interpretation – meant that the themes of his talks were practical, explaining the Bible’s application to everyday life and yet inspiring.
Some 1500 years ago, St. John Chrysostom, writing to a young man on the eve of his wedding, told him to take Christ as their teacher. He urged them to always have Christ in the midst of his marriage that together his bride and he might learn from the life of Christ, especially what it means to seek the good of the other – at whatever the cost. He urged them to take as the teacher the One who lived and died for love, in freedom, and in his unquenchable desire for our good – and that what he asked of them – and of us an “unquenchable desire.”
In our first reading, St Paul wrote of the grace and gifts given to each of the baptized: “And he gave some as Apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ.” (Eph 4:11-12)
May we come to know the grace and gifts we’ve been given, seek the opportunity to use those gifts to build up the Body of Christ, and seek to do so with an unquenchable desire.
Image credit: Catholic News Service, CC-BY-ND
The gospel reading for today is the well known account of the Roman centurion encountering Jesus on behalf of his servant. Stories like this one from Jesus’ ministry were crucial during the debate of the early church concerning the mission to the Gentiles. The nationality of the centurion is not given, but he was not a Jew. He would have been a member of Herod’s peacekeeping force rather than a member of the imperial army, which had no forces in Galilee at this date. In Luke, this incident foreshadows the various statements in Acts that God knows no partiality; rather, “The man of any nation who fears God and acts uprightly is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34–35; see 15:9). If even the observant Jews of Jesus’ own time brought a non-Jew to Jesus, and if Jesus went to him without quibble — the church’s argument must have run — why shouldn’t Jewish Christians accept Gentiles? Continue reading
Probably not – not even downhill with a tailwind. But then why do many automobile speedometers have a display that shows the top-end at 160 mph? Turns out automakers want speedometers to be easy to read, so there’s value in placing the typical operating speed of American cars, 45 mph to 70 mph, near the top of the speedometer where it is easily read by the driver. To do this — while maintaining a visually-appealing, symmetrical speedometer — requires a gauge that displays well past operating speeds. ….of course you may have an all digital display making this post rather obsolete.
During the summer of 2020 the nation was rocked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of uniformed police officers – a death that was later adjudicated as murder. As in many cities, Tampa also had a series of protests and marches with the theme “Black Lives Matter” prominently displayed. At the same time, Pope Francis, commenting on the murder of George Floyd said, “We cannot close our eyes to any form of racism or exclusion, while pretending to defend the sacredness of every human life.” Continue reading
I have often noted that some of St. Paul’s letters are akin to listening to one side of a telephone conversation. You really don’t know what the other person is saying, you can only guess based on the response that you can hear. This is especially true of the 1st Letter to the Corinthians from which we take our first reading for today. Continue reading
Arlington is the national cemetery established during the Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, previously the estate of Mary Anna Custis Lee, a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington and wife of Robert E. Lee. At the outbreak of the Civil War, most military personnel who died in battle near Washington, D.C., were buried at the United States Soldiers’ Cemetery in Washington, D.C., or Alexandria Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia, but by late 1863 both were nearly full.
On July 16, 1862, Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. federal government to purchase land for national cemeteries for military dead, and put the U.S. Army Quartermaster General in charge of this program. In May 1864, Union forces suffered large numbers of dead in the Battle of the Wilderness. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs ordered that an examination of eligible sites be made for the establishment for a large new national military cemetery. Within weeks, his staff reported that the Arlington Estate was the most suitable property in the area. The property was high and free from floods (which might unearth graves), it had a view of the District of Columbia, and it was aesthetically pleasing. Given that it was also the home of General Robert E. Lee, there was a political consideration to the recommendation. The first military burial at Arlington, for William Henry Christman, was made on May 13, 1864. The US Army remains in charge of Arlington even as most national military cemeteries are now the work of the Veterans Administration.
From its initial 200 acres, the site has grown to 639 acres. Today, approximately 400,000 veterans and their eligible dependents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery including some 400 Medal of Honor recipients. Service members from every one of America’s major wars, from the Revolutionary War to today’s conflicts, are interred at Arlington. Only two U.S. presidents, William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 2020 there were approximately 22 million living armed forces members (active duty and retired), and veterans eligible for less than 95,000 remaining burial spaces. A planned Southern Expansion project will add 37 acres of additional burial space for the nation’s veterans. Southern Expansion includes the area nearest the Air Force Memorial and a part of the former grounds of the Navy Annex. However, expansion alone will not keep Arlington National Cemetery open to new interments well into the future. Without changes to eligibility, Arlington National Cemetery will be full for first burials (eligible member or spouse) by the mid-2050s.
Congress has mandated that Arlington plan so that it will have available capacity through 2170 (150 years). While there is some possibility of expanding the acreage, it is limited and will be controversial. The current working plan to meet the congressional mandate is to expand the use of columbarium burials and change the eligibility for in-ground burials
The proposed eligibility rule awaiting final signature for In-ground burials is:
If a member is eligible, then also eligible for the same grave site are spouse(s), children who passed away before their 18th birthday, and several other special categories. This means that if, tragically, a child passes away, they can be buried at Arlington, anchoring the grave site for the eligible members.
The proposed eligibility rule for above-ground burials
If these rules are applied, the 150-year goal will be met.
Given the number of eligible veterans and the passing away of veterans from the Korean War, Vietnam War, and wars in the Middle East, scheduling a burial at Arlington requires patience. “Eligibility Date” is set when ANC receives all the required paperwork (death certificate, DD-214, and one or two other items). It should be remembered that ANC has a myriad of other functions apart from just burials. Also, some burials can occupy a large part of the park and staff if full honors are required. Full honors can take as many as 100 military personnel. The current scheduling (July 2022) waits are:
The friars of St. Francis assists with Catholic interments at Quantico National Cemetery. Quantico is one of 155 national military cemeteries managed by the Veterans Administration.
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