Category Archives: Musings

Moral Immunology

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When Fyodor Dostoevsky sent the manuscript of his celebrated novel, Crime and Punishment, to the publisher, he included a brief note: “This is the story of a university student who is infected by ideas that float on the wind”.  That image is one that stuck with me in all the years since I first encountered it. Is the idea/project/choice with which I am confronted something that is just floating in the wind or is it something with foundation and anchorage. Enter the age of the covid-19 pandemic and the idea of being infected by things that float in the wind has new meaning. We have taken great efforts over the last 2.5 years to limit infectious floating things and to build up our immune system against such infections so that if we can’t prevent infection we can at least mitigate the short-term and long-term effect. Continue reading →

Who am I to judge?

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An obvious answer to the question is, “nobody,” since God the Father has committed all judgment to his Son, Jesus Christ (John 5:22). So we should not be surprised that St. Paul to exhort the Romans “to stop judging one another” (Romans. 14:13). The context comes just a few verses before: “Why then do you judge your brother? Or you, why do you look down on your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” (14:10) The context is that final judgment is reserved to God. We are not meant to judge another person by closing the loop of justice on his or her life with a final verdict before God when the final verdict belongs to Christ, and Him alone. There is always hope for any man or woman this side of the grave to repent and return to the way of salvation. Jesus testified to this upon the cross when He forgave the repentant thief (Luke 23:43). Continue reading →

…and they follow me

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The people heard that parishioners from St. Francis in Triangle had gone to St. Fulani to celebrate a Tridentine Rite Mass. And so when they returned they were confronted and asked, “You went to a Tridentine Mass and worshiped with them. How could you be associated with those people?”

The people heard that parishioners from St. Francis in Triangle had gone to an ecumenical prayer service with Muslims, Jews, and Protestants. When they returned they were confronted and asked, “You went to an ecumenical prayer service and consorted with unbelievers, terrorists, and apostates.” Continue reading →

Just too much

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Our reading today is from John 6, the whole of which is rightly called the Eucharistic Discourse, John’s reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist seeing that the other gospels had well recorded its institution at the Passover meal the night before his crucifixion. We are at the end of the discourse and it seems that there is a crisis among the disciples. They seemed to have reached a point with Jesus’ teaching that is just too much. Perhaps too much to have compared himself to Moses, too much to have referred to himself as the living bread come down from heaven, or just too much that can’t be reconciled with their preconceived idea of the role of the Messiah. Continue reading →

How we spend our days

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In “The Writing Life,” Annie Dillard writes: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.” It’s an encouragement to live with intention. It’s good wisdom to keep in mind when deciding whom we spend our time with and how we spend our time.

The Word made flesh

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In today’s gospel, we read from John 6 known as the Bread of Life discourse. And there is much that can be said about this central chapter of John’s gospel that speaks to John’s Eucharistic understanding and teaching. And today I have no doubt that there will be some excellent commentaries on this reading. I have also written about this section of Chapter 6 that you can read here. Continue reading →

Moving on

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Were it not for the Feast of Sts. Philip and James, the first reading for this week-so-far would have recounted the public ministry of St. Stephen. He had been publicly debating with members of a synagogue and apparently it became so animated that Stephen is hauled before the Sanhedrin by men who falsely state: “For we have heard him claim that this Jesus the Nazorean will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us” (Acts 6:14) In a way, their claim was true. Stephen had depreciated the importance of the temple and the Mosaic law and elevated Jesus to a stature above Moses. Continue reading →

Taking a moment

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In her Sunday column, Tish Harrison Warren talks an aspect of our humanity. I think the larger arc of the story is part of something that I ponder: the role of technology in improving our lives. It is an age old argument with the promise of a better future, in part, enabled by scientific and technological discovery and implementation. For example, back when I was only single-digits old, my maternal grandparents lived in Utah. It might as well have been Mars. One did not simply “catch a flight” and travel cross country. With modern air travel Utah is but a few hours away, perhaps even non-stop. If my single-digit youth was here in the 2020s, Grandma and Grandpa Obray would have only been a zoom call away. And that would have been a good thing. I hope I would be able, interested, and willing to “catch a flight” to Paradise, Utah to visit the family homestead. Continue reading →

Things you need to know

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A friend sent me this list of things you just have to know!

  • On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year. 
  • A dentist invented the electric chair. I think he didn’t have many repeat patients.😂
  • TYPEWRITER is the longest word you can type using only the letters on one row of the keyboard.
  • A snail can sleep for three years.
  • The “pound” (or hashtag) key on your keyboard (#) is called an octothorpe.

You never know when you need to fill in the gap in conversation at some gathering!

Gamaliel

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In today’s first reading we see religious politics in play in the Sanhedrin which consisted to Sadducees (the majority) and Pharisees. The Sadducean leaders were so enraged by the defiance of their orders, they wanted to put the apostles to death. For such drastic action they needed the support of the Pharisaic members of the Sanhedrin. The Pharisees commanded much more public respect than did the Sadducees and it was important to have them “on board” in a case like the present, in which the defendants (apostles) enjoyed the people’s goodwill.   Continue reading →