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Further advenures with Home Depot

As regular readers may recall, I had quite a run-in with Home Depot about a year ago. That run-in was over promises to deliver merchandise that eventually arrived late — and not until after a poor customer service experience and numerous telephone calls.

This week, Home Depot decided to send me $1,300!

What you say…

Well, me too.

What!!!

So I called the lovely Markia at Home Depot Credit and asked why a $1,300 credit suddenly appeared. She politely told me that I had paid $1,300 (on an account that hasn’t been used since August 2005) via EFT.

What!!!

Well, Markia, out of what bank account?

Markia informs me that they don’t keep track of such things.

Now, I know for sure that no money came out of any bank account that I or my family may have. I also know that no transfer was made from any other credit card, or from any other source I know of.

In the end, my identifying the issue did nothing. Markia insists that my wife has to call (primary account holder etc.) and without her doing so, there is nothing she can do. She can’t even refer it to their investigation unit…

I feel bad for Markia – she’s limited to following a script. I would suggest to whomever is the new CEO at Home Depot – focus on customer service. Elsewise Lowes will crush you. Better yet, I hope the local hardware store – which I do support – crushes you.

In the meantime, I’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do with the free money. Anyone need a new grill? 👿

Oh, and if you are the poor person out there who’s down $1,300 – sorry man, there’s nothing they can do for you.

Homilies,

The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

—Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.—

How has the revelation of God, made real in His coming as man, helped us to understand who God is?

Can we narrow God down to a few faces? Can we place Him in the appropriate box with the appropriate label? Can we write a theological treatise and say —“ yes there, that’s the answer.

We have several limitations. Our minds cannot comprehend the totality of God. Further, we tend to take our life experience and our conception of the universe —“ the way things work —“ and stress a facet of God that fits with our philosophy.

In today’s readings and Gospel we are asked to suspend our pre-conceived notions. God asks us to be open to a new understanding, completed and made real in the coming of the Christ.

In the Book of Sirach we find this key passage:

What is too sublime for you, seek not,
into things beyond your strength search not.

The introduction to the Book or Sirach states:

The author, a sage who lived in Jerusalem, was thoroughly imbued with love for the law, the priesthood, the temple, and divine worship.

The Book presents wisdom that flows from love.

So this passage forms a sort of basis for the oft repeated phrase —“ who can understand love?

The love of God is not something dissectible. The face of God, His personality, ways, and reasoning are too vast for analysis. We can struggle with the search for a label, but is that struggle tied to the process of spiritual development we are required to undertake?

My friends,

When we decide for Jesus, when we are reborn and consciously aware of the goal to which we are all called —“ eternal life with God in heaven, we venture down the road of becoming. We take the steps necessary to set aside the pre-conceived notions of what life should be about. Our goal and focus changes —“ and all is held in relationship to our becoming more and more Christ like.

Besides setting aside the pre-conceived notions of what life should be about, we set aside our pre-conceived notions of who God is.

Brothers and sisters,

The letter to the Hebrews makes this plain.

The Jewish people remembered the receipt of the commandments of God, the receipt of the commandments on the Holy Mountain. That was the day that God came to visit them.

These are a few passages that paint the picture of that day:

The LORD also told [Moses], “I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also.” When Moses, then, had reported to the LORD the response of the people,
the LORD added, “Go to the people and have them sanctify themselves today and tomorrow. Make them wash their garments
and be ready for the third day; for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai before the eyes of all the people.
…
On the morning of the third day there were peals of thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain.
Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke, for the LORD came down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.
The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking and God answering him with thunder.
…
Then God delivered all [the] commandments
…
When the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast and the mountain smoking, they all feared and trembled. So they took up a position much farther away
and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we shall die.”
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come to you only to test you and put his fear upon you, lest you should sin.”
Still the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the cloud where God was.

The letter to the Hebrews asks the Jewish people to put that picture of God right in the forefront of their minds and then it tells them that in Christ everything has changed. Now they will approach Mount Zion:

and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
and God the judge of all,
and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

Faithful friends,

How has the revelation of God, made real in His coming as man, helped us to understand who God is?

It has helped us understand God because God speaks directly to us. Not in trumpet blasts, fire, smoke, and thunder, but in words we can comprehend. His sacred word and the life of His son Jesus Christ has changed, challenged, and thrown over all pre-conceived notions.

God says to you and to me —“ approach my holy mountain and the new and heavenly Jerusalem. Come in faith, saying yes Lord, amen.

We are to change ourselves and admit our failure to comprehend —“ and that is humility. We are to be revolutionaries of the new Kingdom, overturning fear, hatred, bigotry, and the place society, the world, has set for each person. We are to say no, nothing for repayment, but all for God.

Jesus, fully accepted in our hearts, changes everything. In Jesus the foolish are wise, the child knows more than the adult, the blind see, the crippled walk, those who do without repayment are repaid, and all may come, in love, to the heavenly banquet.

Amen.

Poland - Polish - Polonia

3rd Annual Dozynki Polish Harvest Festival

The 3rd Annual Dozynki Polish Harvest Festival will be held at the Holy Mother of the Rosary Cathedral Parish Grounds, 6298 Broadway, Lancaster, NY 14086

Dozynki Polish Harvest Festival

FOR INFO CALL THE PARISH OFFICE 716-685-5766

Tickets: $4.00 PRE-SALE or $5.00 AT THE GATE
Children 14 and under free accompanied by an adult!! No coolers please!!

Tickets available at:
HMRC Parish Office, 5776 Broadway, Lancaster, NY (716) 685-5766
Salt Lamps Etc., 5274 Broadway, Lancaster, NY (716) 564-9286
Polish Union of America, 745 Center Rd., West Seneca (716) 677-0220
Am-Pol Eagle Newspaper, 3620 Harlem Rd. Cheektowaga, NY (716) 835-9454

All weekend long come and enjoy… Homemade Polish Food (American food also available)… Polka Music… Polish Folk Dancers… Polish Desserts… Cultural Food and Craft Demonstrations… Exhibits… “Jarmach” Polish Market with Polish Imports and Gifts… Theme Tray Auction… Cathedral Tours… Farmers Market… Children’s Tent with Games and Rides…. Polish Folk Tales and Activities… Cash Prize Raffle… Polish Tatra Sheepdogs… Pig Roast Sunday… Apple Pie judging contest on Sat. and so much more…Fun for the whole family!!!

(NOTE: Cross-posted to Polonia Global Fund)

Everything Else,

On Spong’s Jesus

Ben Myers dissects John Shelby Spong’s Jesus for the Non-Religious at Faith and Theology:

Bishop Spong’s Jesus may be useful and consoling, then, but he is not especially interesting, much less unique. He poses no threat, no challenge. He makes no demands. He tells us nothing that we didn’t know already. And for just that reason, it’s hard to see why —the non-religious— —“ or anyone else, for that matter —“ should have any special regard for this Jesus.

Check it out…

Christian Witness, Perspective

In religion news

Tabled:

From Global News: Polish [R.C.] bishops divided over right-wing head of Radio Maryja

Some Catholic bishops in Poland reportedly want the controversial priest Tadeusz Rydzyk removed as head of the country’s influential right-wing ‘Radio Maryja’ station. However, a meeting of bishops in Czestochowa this weekend failed to take a decision on the matter according to a report in the ‘Rzeczpospolita’ newspaper. Archbishop Jozef Michalik, the head of the Polish Episcopalian Conference, said that —it was not possible to judge a man because of an inconsiderate statement.—

The Redemptorist priest Rydzyk has become one of Poland’s most controversial clergymen, following a number of anti-Semitic comments. Cultivating an audience of predominantly poor and elderly rural listeners, Radio Maryja has become a platform for right-wing politicians seeking voters. Rydzyk was most recently embroiled in a controversy over having apparently called Poland’s first lady Maria Kaczynska a ‘witch’.

Power and influence or repentance and discipline? Oh the hard choices we must make. Let’s table that one bishop…

This certainly points out the dichotomy evident in Church leadership. The bishops that were courageous witnesses under the communists remain courageous. The compromisers remain as such…

What has been wrought:

From the National Catholic Reporter: Liberal Catholicism endures in pastoral church

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (National Catholic Reporter) —“ Evangelical Catholicism may be running the table in terms of official policy, but most experts say that rumors of the death of liberal Catholicism have been greatly exaggerated.

Just as the evangelical impulse is one way of responding to modernity, so too is liberalism, and most sociologists say that complex religious institutions are likely to contain both and many others —“ only sects, they argue, have the luxury of rigid consistency. Further, terms such as —evangelical— and —liberal— are ideal types rather than airtight ways of categorizing real people, and many Catholics reflect elements of both in their own thinking.

At least in the United States, many observers believe that a broad liberal instinct is firmly entrenched at the grass roots.

—I think the genie has been let out of the bottle, and there is no putting it back in,— said Richard Gaillardetz, a prominent lay theologian at the University of Toledo, Ohio, even though he conceded that —liberal Catholicism … no longer enjoys the ecclesiastical support to which many had become accustomed in the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s.—

Gaillardetz argued that in the United States, liberal Catholicism is less an ideology than a —pastoral phenomenon … alive in parishes that have a flourishing catechumenate, vibrant liturgies, thoughtful and relevant preaching, and multiple lay ministerial opportunities,— as well as —in a growing number of intentional Christian communities that are determined to keep alive a vision of the church that they associate with Vatican II.—

Looking around, observers such as Gaillardetz say that the moderate-to-liberal camp probably represents a disproportionate share of the church’s ministerial workforce, meaning priests, deacons, religious, and laity, as well as the theological guild.

Nor are these attitudes confined to a class of church professionals.

In fact, the evangelical camp seems a distinct minority within the overall Catholic population. In 2005, sociologist Dean Hoge published a survey about how American Catholics define what it means to be Catholic. At the top of their list was belief in the resurrection of Jesus, the Eucharist and the other sacraments, and helping the poor.

Other traditional markers of identity were sidelined —“ only 29 percent said a celibate male clergy was important, and just 42 percent said that about the teaching authority of the Vatican. Seventy-six percent said one could be a good Catholic without going to Mass on Sunday, and 75 percent said the same about following church teaching on birth control…

And, Roman Catholic liberals are proud of their accomplishment? Pastors are proud of their pastoring?

For sure…

Now if they had only focused their energies on bring people to God through Jesus Christ, rather than focusing on the ascent of man absent God.

As they Young Fogey would probably point out, NCR drops the f-bomb (rotten fundamentalists, them against us) to describe the resident “”evil”” in their midst.

Catholic liberals in the U.S. are not different in many respects from the left-liberalism he describes and links to here.

Sadly, they missed Jeremiah week in their OT class.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, ‘No calamity shall come upon you.’

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia

Church vs. State

From Rzeczpospolita via euro|topics Arkady Rzegocki on the importance of the Church in Poland

Political scientist Arkady Rzegocki of the Jagiellonen University in Cracow explains in an interview with Tomasz P. Terlikowski why the Poles have more faith in the Church than in the State.

“For Poles, and even Polish politicians, there is no contradiction between being a member of the Church and being loyal to the State. Paradoxically, this is a consequence of the weakness of the Polish state. The Polish people don’t identify with the State because they can’t count on it. The State is still perceived as a curse rather than an instrument that strengthens our sense of unity… [In Poland] the Church is one of the few institutions that creates a sense of national community. It is our spiritual and religious tradition that creates something that unites us Poles and provides us with an identity.”

Regardless of which way you look at this, the philosophy behind it is incorrect. The Church is not a tool of political (or ethnic, or cultural) unity. Rather, properly understood, it is the Body of Christ united in building His very non-political kingdom.

Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not from this world. If my Kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my Kingdom is not from here.

Poland - Polish - Polonia

Investing in Poland

From theNews.pl: Poland chosen Europe’s most attractive investment destination

Poland is the best country to invest in among 31 European states according to the latest rating by The Federation of European Employers.

Apart from Poland, the most attractive countries are: Denmark, Slovenia, Switzerland and Great Britain. The rating gave Poland a 6+ grade, leaving behind all the competitors from the region, i.e. Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Considering the total work costs to work quality ratio, Poland has the most competitive workforce in Europe. “We still have large supplies of highly qualified workers who go onto raising their qualifications continuously”, said Paweł Wojciechowski, President of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency.

According to him qualifications improvement is the best way to combat unemployment.

The major strengths of Poland are considered to be access to young workforce, women’s presence on the job market and availability of temporary employees.

However, Poland was not graded so positively on training investment, the possibility of recruitment from other companies and limitations concerning dismissals. Also the Internet skills of Polish employees leave a lot to be desired.

The rating evaluated 27 EU members, as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. 15 factors were taken into account while performing the survey, such as access to workforce, human capital, job market relations as well as its flexibility, inflation and work costs.

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