Hermitage Notes - Hunkering Down For The Corona Storm

Christus Mansionem Benedicat - May Christ bless this dwelling!

This corona virus was the farthest thing from my mind on Epiphany [January 6th] when I marked the cabin door and prayed/pronounced the blessing ...

Visit, O blessed Lord, this home with the gladness of your presence. Bless all who live or visit here with the gift of your love; and grant that we may manifest your love to each other and to all whose lives we touch. May we grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of you; guide, comfort, and strengthen us in peace, O Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen.

I could not help but to also think about the institution of the Passover in Exodus 12 where the lintels of each Israelite home were marked with the blood of an unblemished lamb that was eaten by those dwelling within. [Our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. 1 Cor. 5:7b..]

Who knows how this thing is going to shake-out? If what is taking place elsewhere is any indication, it will get worse before it gets better. That is the sad reality of this thing.

I refuse to buy into the thinking of those that are pushing this as a plague sent by God. I can sooner see it as a Chinese science experiment escaped and gone wild in the world. It is definitely, at the least, a pestilence with a pandemic nature.

Hunkering down is not difficult for Shirli and me. We are practically hermits anyway and honestly personally geared toward this type of thing. We certainly enjoy the flexibility to come and go as we wish. We are not at all thrilled that we are having to postpone our plans to hit the road in a few weeks. We will not complain about hunkering down and staying put within the safety of our little woodland cabin. Our minor inconveniences are nothing in comparison to those being shouldered by a lot of others.

We will miss going to Mass for a while. We go because we desire to attend and not because we are obligated to attend. Our Archbishop has closed all Catholic schools until “at least” April 3^rd. I will not be surprised if he stops all public Masses for the time being. People are quick to criticize. Archbishop will likely catch flack from some if/when he does decide to stop public Masses in the Mobile Archdiocese.

It has oft been said that discretion is the greater part of valor. Well, in the case of this Corona Virus, maybe we should modify that Shakespearean saying to say "In avoidance there is great wisdom."

Be safe, folks. Don't panic. Make good choices.

The Bird - A Practical Lesson In Humility

Prefacing Note: This is a little piece that I wrote back in 2013 that was published on my Psalty Coffee blog. [Oblate Offerings and Psalty Coffee have since been privatized and are no longer available to the public.] 

The year was 1984.

It was springtime in Houston. I had been there four years. There were plenty of times that I wanted to pack it in and call it quits. Especially about the halfway point. Those that had endured and persevered referred to it as hitting the wall.

I kept pushing against the wall until I made my way through it.

The day was one of those Senior Sermon days … an opportunity for seniors graduating in a few weeks to take to the pulpit and deliver what they hoped would be their best sermon to their ministerial peers and fellow students. Not only to their peers and fellow students, but also to the doctorate-holding professors that had groomed and schooled them.

It was honestly something that created the nervous shakes and episodes of diarrhea for some of the guys.

The three graduating seniors on stage for the day … perhaps “in the pulpit” would better express the occasion … drew straws to see where they would offer up their senior sermons.

The student body was divided into thirds. Two of the thirds went to one or the other of the large classrooms. The other third took their place in that beautiful campus chapel with the pipe organ, all the stained-glass windows, old worn wooden pews, and exposed timbers that held the roof in the air. Everyone always insisted that it did not matter which straw they drew. Well, everyone always hoped they would draw the long straw and go into the chapel.

I drew the long straw.

Yes. Me. A profligate that had willingly and generously squandered his youth in the hog pens of life was about to graduate from an extremely conservative evangelical Bible college and embark on a pastoral preaching mission in that denomination.

There I was shining like a new penny. I was dressed in a new suit and polished wing tips, groomed and schooled in Bible, Theology, Homiletics, Psychology, Sociology, and an extensive list of other studies that were considered requirements to graduate with the school’s representative brand.

I already had some experience under my belt. Over the course of those student years, I had numerous opportunities to preach in local churches and I was on the regular rotation schedule at the Star of Hope, one of the homeless missions downtown.

I will admit that I was a little nervous but nothing that would generate shaking hands or explosive episodes of diarrhea. 

An opening prayer. A couple of hymns. I delivered “the sermon”. Another hymn and a closing prayer.

Some of my ministerial peers patted me on the back. Younger aspiring ministerial students shook my hand and thanked me. Some of my professors shook my hand and offered their congratulatory affirmations. Accolades have a way of swelling the head. Swollen heads make space for pride to move in, and it definitely moved in as I made my way to Pop’s Place, the campus café, for refreshments.

It was a beautiful spring day. We talked while we walked after exiting the chapel. Mostly about my splendid homiletically and biblically sound three-point preaching performance.

A mockingbird was singing its happy song in a large live oak tree nearby, and, as we passed under the oak, the mockingbird dropped a large load of warm wet squat on the right shoulder of my new suit.

I have never forgotten that bird … something far from the raven that fed the prophet … but … I think … sent nonetheless.

Hermitage Notes - The Antithesis of the World's Normal

We are a week deep into Lent.

Ash Wednesday, a week ago today, was one of the two days during the year when Catholics are obligated to fast and abstain. At our age, I will be 66 this month, we are no longer required to fast.

We are obligated to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and on all Fridays during Lent.

Not only during Lent.

Unless Catholics voluntarily perform some other acceptable form of penance on Fridays, Catholics are still obliged to abstain from meat on every Friday throughout the year. Educate yourself.

Go read the document in its entirety. Pay particular attention to paragraphs 22-28.

http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/lent/us-bishops-pastoral-statement-on-penance-and-abstinence.cfm

Simply put: Fridays throughout the year remain Penitential Days that require some type of penitential observance. Returning to abstaining from meat on Fridays is the simplest and most easily sustainable way to honor the obligation.

Why? What is the purpose?

The very simplest answer is that fasting and abstinence are biblical norms to be followed … found in both the context formed by the Old Covenant under the Law of Moses and in the New Covenant birthed by Christ. An expanded answer is that everything we do as devotional practices sets us up for personal growth and development [Benedict's Conversatio Morum].

Remember that the fully human Jesus practiced and modeled everything that he was and taught as the fully divine Jesus. Jesus, though God in the flesh, had to rigorously subject his human nature to his divine nature in order to accomplish his Atoning Sacrifice on the Cross.

Paul writes of this subjective obedience in Philippians 2:5-11.

“Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

In Matthew 6:16-18 [part of the Sermon on the Mount] Jesus said, “And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Jesus did not say “if”. He said “when”. The assumption is that we “do” fast as part of our faith relationship with Christ. All of us, regardless of who we are, can perform some type of fast as an expression of our faith.

One of the beautiful things about being Catholic is the way the Church has, from its infancy in the 1^st Century, always worked to ensure that her followers of Christ have the tools to assist them in holding at bay the encroaching influences of the world. We, as Catholics, have a treasure trove of time tested liturgical and devotional traditions that are supported by Scriptural principles and the Traditions that are both part of the Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Church.

It is all too obvious that the world is working hard to blur the lines of distinction. The infiltration and progression of modernism into the Church is having a dire effect on the lines of distinction that show us to be doctrinally and morally different from the world around us. Embracing and wallowing in the sinful norms of the world is not what we are called to as Catholic followers of Christ.

Our norms are not the norms of the world.

Romans 12:1-2 is an appeal to accept and enter into a life and lifestyle that is lived as the antithesis of what the world promotes as normal.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Older translations render "spiritual worship" as "REASONABLE SERVICE". 

It is so easy in the here and now to make excuses for my weaknesses. It is so easy in the here and now to justify my failings. I often remind myself that one day, sooner or later, I will unavoidably stand before Christ to give account for the life I have lived, the works I have done, and the works I have failed to do. [Matthew 25:31-46] 

Gathered there in that audience will be all the Saints and Martyrs of the ages.

Will I be so inclined to make excuses and defend myself in the company of those who became food for lions and human torches lighting the streets of Rome?