Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Project BLACK MAMBA

Today is the Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest, T.O.S.F. (1786-1859), the "Curé of Ars:" Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Quoth the bulletin:
Patron of priests. He heard confessions of people from all over the world for sixteen hours each day. His life was filled with works of charity & love. It is recorded that even the staunchest of sinners were converted at his mere word.
Urbi et Orbi | Project MERCATOR
The week before last, a distaff parishioner with whom I am acquainted through the choir approached me after morning Mass & asked if we could talk. She told me her troubles & I mostly listened. At times, though, the masculine instinct not merely to be a comforting shoulder but instead to be a problem-solver asserted itself & I voiced what advice I thought helpful & appropriate. The exercise seemed to provide her some solace & we met again on the same day of last week, an appointment now marked in my calendar as Kaffeeklatsch (the German literally means "coffee gossip"). I write "the exercise" provided her some solace for two reasons. One, simply getting it off her chest, giving voice to her woes outside of her kin, was a great relief. Two, though what I said seemed to be helpful, it was not I who did so, but Christ who lives in me. Most of my fellow parishioners have never met me, & I pray fervently that they never shall. This is not in any way to deceive them, but to live out the Lord's command to lose one's life in order to save it & Saint Paul's sage writings that when we live in the Spirit it is no longer we who live, but Christ Who lives in us. Most of my fellow parishioners have never met me, they've only met Christ living in me. I am a nasty piece of work, mean-spirited & petty with an acid tongue. All the good I do is His, not mine.

Yesterday, a distaff parishioner with whom I catechize rang my mobile in some distress. Actually, bless her heart, she texted me & asked me to ring her when I had a moment. I did & left a message for her to ring me back at her convenience. She rang back & we spoke for an hour. She voiced her troubles & because she asked for specific advice & solutions, I provided what I could. Again & again I had to stress the point that the difficulties in her life are not the Lord's punishment for any fault or deficiency in her faith, that the Lord was not permitting her kith to fall into sin to punish her, but to test them. We are each precious in the sight of God, but none of us the center of the world, the axis around which everything spins. We must live in community, but within that community we will each face our individual trials & troubles. We must all act uprightly, because how we react affects the community of which we are a part, but that doesn't mean that our failings are divine punishment inflicted on the community; thinking so is a very Old Testament/Protestant attitude, one that ignores the Grace in which we are called to live, the Divine Mercy that it offered each of us. But I digress. The Lord is up to something; He's making what I affectionately mislabel as mischief, for a greater purpose only He knows. I have a suspicion I know what He's about, but I do not wish to presume.

When it comes to the People of God, I try to embody Dr. Zoidberg's attitude: "I'm up for whatever."

Scripture of the Day
Personal Reading
The Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter five.

Commentary: 2 Corinthians, 5:15:
He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him Who for their sake died & was raised.
Mass Readings
The Book of Numbers, chapter twelve, verses one thru thirteen;
Psalm Fifty-one, verses three thru seven, twelve & thirteen;
The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter fourteen, verses twenty-two thru thirty-six;
or, The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter fifteen, verses one & two, ten thru fourteen;
or,
The Book of Ezekiel, chapter three, verses seventeen thru twenty-one;
The Gospel according to Mark, chapter sixteen, verse fifteen;
The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter nine, verse thirty-five thru chapter ten, verse one.

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