The end of Lamentations

No, I don't mean "the lamenting (that's been done on or about this blog!) will end."  I mean this--Lamentations 5:19-22.  The NRSV Catholic edition reads:

Lamentations 5:19-22

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

¹⁹ But you, O Lord, reign forever;
    your throne endures to all generations.
²⁰ Why have you forgotten us completely?
    Why have you forsaken us these many days?
²¹ Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;
    renew our days as of old—
²² unless you have utterly rejected us,
    and are angry with us beyond measure.

Yep, that pretty much nails it.  I always quote these lines to the undergrad students;  it's one place where the veil drops and you can imagine the author confronting the awful reality--that maybe God has finally given up on Israel.

Spare me the reminders about the unconditional covenant, as in Jeremiah 31 and, of course, the Incarnation.  Today I'm dwelling on the rejection part.  After all, Karl Barth once wrote that God's NO! occurs within His prior and overwhelming YES...but at times we need to remember the NO! still abides...as part of the YES.

crackdown

So there was another drug bust in Major League Baseball....

and Fay Vincent, once the Commish himself, says "one strike an' yer'out."

I agree, but I found the tone of Vincent's article provocative, but in a quixotic, almost nostalgic, way.  Such a moral clarion call would've worked better, probably should've been heard much more clearly, back in the mid-90s, right after Vincent concluded his term as MLB commissioner and right in the midst of baseball's season and World Series-killing strike of 1994.  Baseball had to rebuild itself, and a clear stance on PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) could've been part of that reconstruction.

But no, baseball went the other way:  steroids made for record-breaking home run tallies, which brought back the crowds, and when the $$$ rolls in, nobody's going to ask questions.  Scruples?  feh....

Now we know that the late 1990s MLB resurgence was a medically-induced fraud, and now we know that a baker's dozen more--headlined by the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, who if healthy and clean was supposed to make us forget all about the late 90s roiders like McGuire and Sosa--were engaged in the same dirty play. 

Enter Fay Vincent's call for "one strike and you're out--for good."  Would this solve the problem?  To a certain extent, yes, but even Vincent knows the ban on gambling on baseball didn't prevent gambling altogether (cf. "Durocher, Leo" for just one well-known example).  So there'd still be some dietary/medicinal hanky-panky.  Chia seeds!  Whey protein shakes!  Mountain Dew and a Snickers! 

More to the point, Vincent bases his call on similar zero-tolerance bans on smoking and illicit drug use.  Problem:  popular votes in Colorado and other states have overturned "the war on drugs."  This in itself is a problem, again one that even undergraduate students grasp:  just because a majority of people think some action is right--or at least morally permissible--doesn't make it so.  That's exactly Vincent's point--but I wonder if the tide of moral relativism, or at least moral apathy, has already swept over his beachfront property.  Vincent concludes:

There is also the need for education and moral leadership to explain to all of those who play sports that cheating is simply wrong. It may seem odd to contend in a world often saturated by moral relativism that there is such a thing as an immoral act. But cheating at games—whether it be cycling, baseball, football or track and field—is wrong, and we had better begin to say so. Otherwise we risk, quite literally, losing all our games.

Vincent's not alone in defending the need to name immoral acts as such.  See Confucius, "rectification of names"  as well as the Church's Catechism.  Ah, but when some moral authorities exercise this right (and this is especially true whenever the Church flexes its moral authority), the masses demarcate where that authority's power lies. So do calls for zero tolerance hold weight anymore? It's not so much moral relativism as "I/we don't want to hear what you have to say...on this particular point." After all, it's currently all the rage to extol Pope Francis as the Church's sha-zam! rehabilitator.  Wait till Pope Francis has a Humanae Vitae moment.

enthusiasm

Nothing like a week long, 6-hours-a-day discussion of the theology of the Church!  A very inspired--and inspiring--group, and the upshot is that the human future of the Church has a few more good hands to uphold it.  I say "human" because, obviously, God upholds the Church so its future is assured.  Still, it's nice to know there are some folks doing some good work out there.

Two things:  enthusiasm for Jesus, the Church, and its sacraments.  This is a group that really does love Christ and the Church and thus speaks openly about needing communication with the Lord.  They're excited about what Pope Francis brings and will bring to the Church, and they remain enthusiastic about emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.  There's also a corresponding mistrust of American cultural enthusiasm which bent on sweeping away the Church's global structures of rule of law, as if an immediate decision--often made hastily and without full appreciation and consideration of the repercussions--is always best.

Finally, a growing realization that the Church needs again--a tune we hear frequently--greater catechetics.  The Church's "best kept secrets"--its social justice traditions, its spiritual diversity, and its celebration of human dignity--are not arcane artifacts hidden away in triple-locked safe rooms.  They're all readily available, if Catholics--and quite frankly others interested in bettering human life--would but develop some enthusiasm and immerse themselves in what the Church already offers freely.

It's all there.

find a way--or make one

So said Admiral Perry about his trek to the North Pole.  And it's good advice to remember in these days.  Despair is not an option.  There is far more good in this life and in this world, and God, having made our lives and our world, calls us to it all.  In both the macro- and microcosm, good exists.  We have but to find it, and in so doing celebrate and nurture it.

Sometimes we feel ourselves doomed to failure, and we might often feel as if we don't know what we're looking for, since very little "good" seems evident.  But it is there.  The storm will pass.  The night will end and the sun will rise.  Pray, and press on.

And some times some of the very people who otherwise serve as impediments to our search for the good can, perhaps inadvertently, aid our quest.  One of the best examples from my own life came within the past year from somebody who, in unleashing a stinging rebuke of John Paul II's life and career (a tirade which convinced me to no longer listen to this person at all), riffed on John Paul's favorite--and inaugural line--of his papacy:  "Be not afraid!"  Well, that might have been the only time this person ever got anything right...because that is indeed the case.  "Be not afraid!" is another way of saying "find a way--or make one."

So fret not.  Remember the prayer at Mass: "deliver us, Lord, from every anxiety and graciously grant us peace in our day."  We simply need to remember that Christ has, in fact, freed us--from anxiety and fear.  And in so doing, illuminated our search for the good in our own lives.

zombie porn mania

<<shameless attempt to grab counter hits: blog titles with only buzz words>>

Fear of the brain-eating, and apparently unstoppable, undead masses.

And we can't turn away from that fear.  In fact, much like the dog and the fool, we can't help but return (Proverbs 26:11).  PS, that's the porn part.

With the release of the movie World War Z, it seemed time that somebody try to make sense of the religious themes with all this zombie mania.  Turns out somebody beat me to the punch--and published a book, to boot.  Something to add to the summer/autumn reading list.

Some of this craziness had to start with 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake (complete with opening credits accompanied by the late Johnny Cash's last hit "When the Man Comes 'Round"):  apocalyptic music singing of final judgment accompanied by harried shots of unrestrainable riots and a quick descent into Hell. Now it's gotten to the point that weekend 5k road races aren't enough.  To have a good time you need to be chased.  You can even buy zombie apocalypse t-shirts.  And not just by telemarketers or bratty teenagers.

All of it sparked by....the brain-eating, unstoppable undead zombie masses.

Spiritual diabetes angle:  it's not just xenophobia, but a sort of xeno-polloi-phobia. We're now afraid of the masses of strange others.  "the stranger" her/himself--we're now fine with that.  Catholic social justice insists on the intrinsic dignity of every human being from conception to natural death.  Liberation theology insisted for decades that the poor retain their dignity and proximity to God.  Even college undergraduates (another set of zombies, perhaps?) with their individual ethical relativism want to insist on a certain laissez-faire morality that recognize the freedom and integrity of other individuals.

But a mass of others--especially if they're....Republicans, Democrats, Roman Catholics, Jews, born-again Christians, Mormons, Unitarian-Universalists, Muslims--that's a different story.  "They" just keep coming--and obliterating "us."  OH MY GOD, WHAT WILL WE DO???  WE ARE DOOMED. 

So in a time when a chunk of the American populace fears Obamacare's HHS mandate for its very real infringements on religious freedom, while another chunk fears pro-life intrusion into reproductive freedom, while third and fourth chunks stew about the political opposition's machinations for electoral control, in such times it might make sense that our most popular meme might be the zombie apocalypse.  The brain-eating, unstoppable undead others hellbent on OUR destruction.

Gee, ain't nihilism great?  Livia Soprano might be the dowager queen of this worldview.

And a biblical note for the runners out there:  train all you want to outrun the zombie.  Buy the t-shirts about "fast food."  And then read Amos chapter 5, especially verses 18-20.

Spiritual diabetes cure--and like all diabetes cures, this takes a while, it's not a quick-fix, sugar-high like the rush of running from zombies--take a stroll through Francis I's Lumen Fidei and recall its predecessors by Benedict XVI:  Caritas in veritate and Spe Salvi.  The Roman Catholic tradition--the Church, yes, and its all-too-fallible members, and its ideas and practices--remains a harbor and feast to recharge, refresh, and encourage us all in these zombie-mad days.

And for Katrina Fernandez, who raises an interesting point about Francis' style, patience.  The day will surely come when those currently loving Francis's cool groove (and, admittedly, it is pretty cool) will find themselves facing an unexpectedly difficult choice:  turn away to follow another spiritual fad or admit Francis, as pope, leads both the revisionists and the traditionalists, the Opus Dei supernumeraries and those struggling to get to Mass on time, the liberal and the conservatives.

Because in the Church there are certainly differences...but there are no zombies.

once again, holding pattern

Folks:
The semester ended over a month ago, but I've actually blogged less in the time since than during the actual semester.  We're once again in a holding pattern.  Activity to resume hopefully next week. Thanks for your patience.

irreducible

Some days do matter more than others.  Like today, June 6, 69 years ago:

h/t wikipedia

If you ever get a chance to visit the Normandy beaches, take it.  When you make it past the American cemetery, go down to the beach, turn around so the ocean's at your back, and then look up.  As galvanizing as this photo is (and it is iconic), nothing brings it home like being there.

And as riveting as Saving Private Ryan is, being there is different.

13 years ago I went there, having seen earlier in May the British celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1940 Dunkirk evacuations.  Most of the WWII histories will make the same point:  the astonishing reversal the Allies experienced, going from fleeing continental Europe on fishing vessels and motorboats to, four years later, the largest amphibious invasion ever.  Less than a year later, the Allies and the Soviets stood victorious--and already conspiring about the other's intentions.

All won at the hands of the guys pictured above who, when the gate dropped, walked forward and started wading..

I stood on the beach, looked up and marveled at it.  Feelings similar to visiting the Copse of Trees at Gettysburg or my first view of St. Peter's Basilica -- actually standing at such a historic place and realizing it--can be overwhelming.

There are some times and places that matter more. Of course, along the edges of the beaches, even in 2000, beachside vacation cabins encroached, just like the tourist knickknack shops along the Via della Conciliazione or the Civil War memorabilia shops in Gettysburg.  So it is possible, given inclination, perhaps age (I'll admit I didn't "get" Gettysburg when I first saw it as a high school senior), and historical/spiritual (un)awareness, to see great places and shuffle along unmoved.

Kind of like when AJ Soprano went to Washington DC.