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Year: 2006

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Christian Witness, Perspective, Saints and Martyrs

True then… true now

From today’s Office of Readings:

Be deaf therefore when anyone preaches to you without mentioning Jesus Christ, who was of the family of David, who was truly born of Mary, who truly ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth; who was also truly raised from the dead, when his Father raised him up —” just as his Father will raise us up, believers in Christ Jesus without whom we have no true life.

from St Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Trallians

Homilies

Memorial – St. Canice, Abbot

Consistency in prayer —“ and its natural outcome, a consistent and holy way of life, is vitally important.

In today’s first reading St. Paul takes St. Peter to task for being a hypocrite.

I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong.
For, until some people came from James,
he used to eat with the Gentiles;
but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself,
because he was afraid of the circumcised.

Peter freely welcomed the Gentiles. After all, he was called early to minister to Cornelius, a Gentile, and after God poured out the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his family in front of Peter, Peter could not refuse them baptism. Upon entering the house of Cornelius:

Peter proceeded to speak and said, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.”

Peter ate with and prayed alongside the Gentiles, until his friends from Jerusalem showed up. Then he was on the spot. St. Peter had a knack for placing himself in uncomfortable positions antithetical to the faith he knew. Paul called him on it.

Paul was saying, live like you pray, in unity with your faith. Otherwise you are a hypocrite.

Peter should have, and we should remember that Jesus thoroughly condemned hypocrites. Jesus told people that they mustn’t pray or give alms for show —“ but in truth, and from the heart. Jesus demands that we live fully in Him.

When the disciples asked, Jesus gave them the perfect prayer. That prayer is to be the model for our lives. A prayer opposed to hypocrisy.

By that prayer —“ the Our Father, we join ourselves to the will of God, placing Him as the object of our devotion and love, and relying upon Him for all that is good. We conform ourselves to God in our prayer, in our faith, and in every aspect of our lives.

St. Canice, whom we honor today, was the son of a popular bard from county Derry in Ireland. He felt God’s call to a life of holiness. A call that is not foreign to us. He was ordained a priest and traveled a missionary route through Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, founding many monasteries. While an essentially lonely figure, he copied the scriptures and wrote a treatise on them. He preached the Gospel with missionary zeal, even converting his own brother.

Let us imitate St. Canice. Let us be cautious of hypocrisy in the practice of our faith —“ for our faith is our life. Let us pray with zeal, being consistent in prayer, and conforming our lives to our prayer. Like St. Canice, let us spread the Gospel by our zeal and by our example.

Current Events

Killing via chaos

We’ve killed approximately 654,000 Iraqis since our invasion of Iraq.

Who says you need nuclear weapons to be effective? The U.S. killed approx. 340,000 people with our atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (see the Manhattan Project —“ An Interactive History). We’ve doubled that through the ‘effective’ use of chaos…

An excerpt from the Lancet: Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey (PDF document) by Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy, and Les Roberts.

Summary

Background An excess mortality of nearly 100,000 deaths was reported in Iraq for the period March, 2003—“September, 2004, attributed to the invasion of Iraq. Our aim was to update this estimate.

Methods Between May and July, 2006, we did a national cross-sectional cluster sample survey of mortality in Iraq. 50 clusters were randomly selected from 16 Governorates, with every cluster consisting of 40 households. Information on deaths from these households was gathered.

Findings Three misattributed clusters were excluded from the final analysis; data from 1849 households that contained 12,801 individuals in 47 clusters was gathered. 1474 births and 629 deaths were reported during the observation period. Pre-invasion mortality rates were 5.5 per 1000 people per year (95% CI 4.3—“7.1), compared with 13.3 per 1000 people per year (10.9—“16.1) in the 40 months post-invasion. We estimate that as of July, 2006, there have been 654,965 (392,979—“942,636) excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, which corresponds to 2.5% of the population in the study area. Of post-invasion deaths, 601,027 (426,369—“793,663) were due to violence, the most common cause being gunfire.

Interpretation The number of people dying in Iraq has continued to escalate. The proportion of deaths ascribed to coalition forces has diminished in 2006, although the actual numbers have increased every year. Gunfire remains the most common cause of death, although deaths from car bombing have increased.

…but let’s stay the course. We’ll hit 1,000,000 dead by the end of the Bush administration.

PNCC

The Holy Synod of the PNCC chooses candidates for Bishop

Padre Egan of Life in the Seminary is reporting that four men have been chosen by the Holy Synod of the PNCC, now occurring in Manchester, NH, as designees for bishop. NOTE: I have not confirmed this information through other sources yet.

He does did misstate that ‘we have bishops’ for according to the PNCC Constitution, Article VIII, A, and A(1):

The Prime Bishop is vested with the care, administration and destiny of this Church. Among the rights and duties of the Prime Bishop, are the following:
1. He consecrates Bishops or appoints a consecrator, provided the candidates meet the qualifications defined by this Church. These qualifications are decided upon by the Supreme Council with the Prime Bishop presiding over it. Therefore, the episcopal consecration is valid but illicit when performed against the provisions of this paragraph. (1986)

Further, Article XII, B, Section 4 states:

The Prime Bishop and the Supreme Council shall decide which candidate for Bishop or candidates for Bishop shall be consecrated. The remaining candidate for Bishop or candidates for Bishop shall remain candidates for Bishop until the next General Synod, and if not consecrated prior thereto, his or their candidacy for Bishop shall lapse. No candidate for Bishop shall be consecrated except in accordance with this Section.

So, I pray for God’s choisest blessings upon these men. I also wish a hearty congratulations and Sto Lat to the four candidates chosen by the Holy Synod for the office of Bishop: Father Anthony Mikovsky, Father John Mack, Father Anthony Kopka, and Father Sylvester Bigaj.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Political

The end is near – again

In a comment on an article by Chris Hedges: Bush’s Nuclear Apocalypse, a reader named Mason states:

…I am absolutely horrified about what’s going to happen and with the GOP now unravelling behind Predatorgate such that the Dems have a legitimate shot of winning control of at least one house in Congress, I realize that any reservations that King George entertained about nuking Iran have evaporated because, in what passes for his mind, he cannot allow the elections to take place. A Democratic majority means subpoenas, hearings, and impeachment by inches.

God, how I wish it were not so, but I think we’re looking at nuclear war in fifteen days followed by cancelled elections and dissenting citizens being rounded up and disappeared into gulags, never to be seen or heard from again.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m terrified and I don’t scare easily. I think that the only hope we’ve got is if someone wearing a ton of brass marches into the White House and takes the car keys away from the madman whose foreign policy is dictated by a disembodied voice in his head that he calls God.

I would agree with some of the article’s commentators, in that the scenario would seem overly apocalyptic. I also think that some of the information on the reasons for deploying aircraft carrier battle groups to the Persian Gulf is too lightly researched (what about regular rotations, the beefing up of the U.S. military presence in a final attempt to get Bagdad under control, etc.). And what do you mean – they won’t let us blog from the gulag ;)?

I work with a lot of reservists. If they start disappearing without notice then I’ll be getting very nervous.

All in all I am nervous. Mr. Bush looks like he’s less and less in control of his faculties. He is manufacturing stories that have no relationship to reality. He’s combative and defensive in interpersonal contact. It’s not a stretch to think of what he might do; the story by Mr. Hedges being a possibility.

If Mr. Bush finally attempts to, or takes a step over the cliff-of-no-return, what are the possible choices for those who could do something?

  • If I were Congress I’d be moving for impeachment. As a matter of fact, do it now, even with a weak case —“ it could distract him long enough. This is the best scenario as it falls in line with our democratic principals.
  • If I were the military I’d be preparing to do a Thailand type coup. This would be among the worst scenarios, but I think people would buy it if there was a looming danger. It’s also classic Rome revisited —“ history repeating itself. ‘Oh Caesar, save us!’ It’s just that Caesar won’t go away.
  • If I were the Russians and the Chinese I’d be pointing my ICBM’s right back at the U.S. They might be able to shut Mr. Bush up with one call on the ‘red phone’. They could care for our government or people, but they do have to protect their self interests. This may or may not work. In Mr. Bush’s own mind he’d probably figure that he could speed the second coming through MAD.

When you have a madman running a superpower you pretty much assure that everyone else will be looking to anyone that makes more sense (and that’s pretty much everyone else right now). Can you see China or re-emergent Russia steering the ship?

As Christians we are to be a eschatological people. We pray the Our Father – ‘Thy Kingdom come’ but in praying for the coming of the Kingdom we follow by praying ‘Thy Will be done’. Acknowledging God’s will is supposed to be an act of submission. Somehow, those of Mr. Bush’s ilk have decided that they can forego submission and tell God what to do.

Remember, the Kingdom is here but not yet, and only the Father knows. Focus your attention and energy on living within God’s parameters and maybe then you would speed the coming of the Kingdom.

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