Skip to main content

So, Yesterday...

I had lunch with a good friend. Of course it was Red Robin. Why are you even asking me that? [Because you could always haul off and get a steak. We don't know.--ed.] It was a great conversation, hard to even sum up. But we ate and then talked for a couple hours. We ran into DJ The Youth Minister, a classmate from the "Old School" (let the reader understand) and we chatted for a bit. My friend didn't know him. But we lamented that certain "Comrades" of ours are harder to connect with than the president. [You wouldn't eat lunch with the President; stop lying to us.--ed.] Yes, I would. It would be an honor. I can't guarantee that I wouldn't ask a squirm-inducing question or five, but I am a patriotic, civic-minded American. There is a dignity to the office that none of us may disregard or disrespect, if we call ourselves Americans. I digress.

So my friend and I went to Mass a little out of the way. It was in a hospital. Even though I feel a little weird in hospitals, if one thinks about it, there are very few more obvious places to celebrate the sacred mysteries than this, if one reflects on the redemptive power of the Mass.

I thought he was British. He had that way of speaking. I was also thinking that he was suffering from some kind of respiratory illness, this priest. He had trouble with a cough as he went. It was a battle just to speak the words, or that's the way it seemed. For all I know, he just speaks slowly, and was having a bad day. But I have to shoot straight with you: I had the thought that he didn't have long to live. Maybe that's too dramatic; I have no idea.

But it was an effort for him. And the spiritual fruit or insight I was given is precisely this: Who is this Lord Jesus Christ, how glorious is He, that old men go to war against time and their own bodies just to acclaim Him? Perhaps it is not a small thing to offer this sacrifice of praise. We can think this way. Have you ever thought, "What's the big deal about our Mass obligation? It's just words. And surely I won't be condemned for missing one Sunday?" (Exceptions and allowances, as well as details as to the gravity of the obligation, are in your Catechism, paragraph 2181.) But I have eyes to see that small things seeming common are the big things. Whether I feel the desire to go is immaterial to the worthiness of the Person(s) whose glory calls me there. In this case, we were under no obligation at all. But all the better. I mean, would you say that you have had enough of the love of God? That's why it's perhaps the biggest misnomer in the history of religion to call it an "obligation." How silly does it sound? Oh, man! I have to go to Mass to hear all about how much God loves me and the whole world! He wants to bless me and asks for my life, such as it is, in return. How awful! I'm really not trying to guilt anyone here. And if you didn't hear about Jesus' love and His Cross, and the Resurrection and all those things, if you ended up a cog in the impersonal Catholic, Inc., maybe you and I should talk. Because the Church is not an institution for me; it is a communion of Love. It is the place--in us--where God dwells by His Spirit. All I'm saying is, I'm absolutely certain that Tom Brady and his glorious spirals, and his cronies, and other fantastic sweaty dudes doing their thing can't touch that. Not on Sunday, and not any other day, either.

Sometimes, we don't know if we are loved. We doubt whether we are understood, known and loved as we would like to be. Do you ever feel that? Well, He who was despised and rejected by everyone, even his closest friends, knows how we feel. And there is so much love in His victory over sin and death now that He can take our sorrow and alienation and make it a gift to the Father, if we offer it. He wants to utterly drown us in Himself, and I hope we are not unaware. He said, "After I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself." I'd definitely tell President Obama that there's some change I can believe in.

Comments

I resemble that remark. I've concluded I am truly too busy. Especially as an introvert! In any case, I'm not sure things are going to get much better the next few weeks, but when they do, I'd love to grab lunch or dinner again. It has been too long and it is all my fault.

Or, if you happen to be in the area... I can often swing lunch or dinner, but often I'm tied down to obligations before and after...

Popular posts from this blog

A Friend I Once Had, And The Dogmatic Principle

 I once had a friend, a dear friend, who helped me with personal care needs in college. Reformed Presbyterian to the core. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian, I visited their church many times. We were close. I still consider his siblings my friends. (And siblings in the Lord.) Nevertheless, when I began to consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Church Christ founded, he took me out to breakfast. He implied--but never quite stated--that we would not be brothers, if I sought full communion with the Catholic Church. That came true; a couple years later, I called him on his birthday, as I'd done every year for close to ten of them. He didn't recognize my number, and it was the most strained, awkward phone call I have ever had. We haven't spoken since. We were close enough that I attended the rehearsal dinner for his wedding. His wife's uncle is a Catholic priest. I remember reading a blog post of theirs, that early in their relationship, she told him of the p
Hilarious Com-Box Quote of The Day: "I was caught immediately because it is the Acts of the Apostles, not the Acts of the Holy Spirit Acting Erratically."--Donald Todd, reacting to the inartful opposition of the Holy Spirit and the Magisterium. Mark Galli, an editor at Christianity Today, had suggested that today's "confusion" in evangelicalism replicates a confusion on the day of Pentecost. Mr. Todd commented after this reply , and the original article is here. My thoughts: By what means was this Church-less "consensus" formed? If the Council did not possess the authority to adjudicate such questions, who does? If the Council Fathers did not intend to be the arbiters, why do they say that they do? At the risk of being rude, I would define evangelicalism as, "Whatever I want or need to believe at any particular time." Ecclesial authority to settle a particular question is a step forward, but only as long as, "God alone is Lord of the con

Just Sayin.' Again.

One interesting objection to this chart has been to say that one gets stuck in a "loop" that doesn't resolve. This is a thinly-veiled way of putting forward the argument that we don't need absolute certainty in religious dogma. But Fred Noltie already dealt with this in the comments on another post. And to the specific objector, no less. I'll be blunt: The only principled thing to do is put down your Bible, resign your pulpit, and lead tours in Europe. Because a man must be able to distinguish dogma from human opinion, and this epistemology doesn't allow us to do that. One of dogma's distinguishing characteristics is infallibility; another is certainty. Without this, essential characteristics of God Himself are put into question. If we say that the most important Person any person could know is God, and the content of that knowledge (doctrine) is the means by which we know Him, it must be certain. This Reformed argument that certainty is a dangerous or un