Thoughts and opinions from a Priest in the PNCC
Per the NY Times: Captain America Is Dead; National Hero Since 1941
Captain America, a Marvel Entertainment superhero, is fatally shot by a sniper in the 25th issue of his eponymous comic, which arrived in stores yesterday. The assassination ends the sentinel of liberty’s fight for right, which began in 1941.
The first thought that occurred to me when someone mentioned this today was that he was killed in Iraq.
That may be true, but only in the metaphysical sense.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor and Confessor, (1274)
St. Paul the Simple, Confessor, (339)
St. Theophylact, Bishop, (845)
The old people who used to come here every day to play cards and cook now have nowhere to go. There’s no where to celebrate the liturgy. They’re outside in the cold. That’s not right. This is a place where people come to be in the presence of God.
The Rev. Eugene Sawicki, retired New York City firefighter, lawyer, doctor of nursing, judge of the New York Inter-Diocesan Appellate court, and pastor of the suddenly shuttered Our Lady of Vilnius Roman Catholic Church, as quoted in the NY post article Street preach.
That article along with the Post’s Cardinal Sin are a must read. I could reprint excerpts here, each line an indictment befitting the corporate moguls of ENRON, but here applied to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, but to what end? The sheep are out in the cold, their shepherd, the Rev. Sawicki summarily called to the Chancery while the locks on his parish — and his residence — were being changed (only they messed up the lock change on his residence, so he still has a bed to sleep in, for now).
The Our Lady of Vilnius Blog covers it well. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Our Lady of Vilnius. My admiration is with Father Sawicki, who is a true father to his people.
This Sunday we celebrate the 110th Anniversary of the Institution of the PNCC. All are welcome. If you would like contacts in the NYC area, who I am sure would welcome you, please feel free to contact me at deaconjim [at] bvmc [dot] org.
For those who like interesting historical parallels, Cardinal Egan scheduled a meeting with Lithuanian Consul General Mindaugas Butkus who was to hand-deliver Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus’ letter to the Cardinal. The Lithuanian President told the cardinal that “we value [the church] very much . . . it has historical value and cultural value.”
Knowing that the meeting was scheduled and the purpose of the meeting, the Cardinal proceeded to forcibly lock the doors of the church prior to the meeting, yet still went on with the show of the meeting, leaving the Consul General in the dark about the closing.
It reminds me of the Japanese ambassador serving a declaration of war on the United States hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor began.
So the Cardinal shows up hours after the closing for diplomatic niceties. A real Prince of the Church.
Saints Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs, (203)
St. Fridolin, Abbot, (7th century)
Saints Balled and Bilfrid, Confessors, (8th century)
St. Eusebius of Cremora, Confessor, (423)
St. Virgil of Arles, Bishop, (610)
St. Gerasimus, Abbot, (475)
Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses – you know it all! You are fantastic!
There were a few tougher ones, but for the most part the multiple choice offered alternatives that were goofy.
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.
Unfortunately, the world does not view Abram in the same way. Abram’s faith, Abram’s commitment to live in accord with God’s promise is seen as foolishness. The world credits Abram with an act of foolishness.
Well, Abram had more than just a promise; Abram had God’s contract.
In Abram’s time people didn’t enter into contracts like we do. No one got a lawyer, drew up papers, got an insurance rider, and signed-off in front of a notary. Paper, or papyrus at the time, was for the Pharaoh, not a wandering shepherd from Ur of Chaldeans.
To make a contract people performed a sacrifice. They took an animal, slaughtered it, cut it in two, laid the two halves across from each other, and walked between the two halves.
Listen to what Abram did at God’s command:
Abram brought him all these, split them in two,
and placed each half opposite the other;
Then something amazing happened.
When the sun had set and it was dark,
there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch,
which passed between those pieces.
So we have all that is necessary for a contract. What’s missing?
In case you missed it, only God passed through the halves of the slaughtered animals. He passed through them as —a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch.— God made a contract, not with Abram, but with Himself. He promised, by His very self, to fulfill His pledge to Abram.
It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram
So Abram had proof in the form of a contract.
We come to this church each week in faith. Because of our faith God credits us with righteousness. But we too have more than faith. We have a new covenant with God, sealed in the blood of His Son on the cross. God sealed the new covenant in His own blood. He swore again, by Himself, this time to save us. He gave us more than the land “from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates.” He gave us eternal life.
Besides this new contract with God we have the witness of the Church, starting with the Apostles and disciples. They proclaimed the truth of these events, and sealed them in the blood of martyrdom.
Brethren,
Tonight, Hollywood will attempt to credit our faith as foolishness. Hollywood will drag out the bones of Jesus, son of Joseph, along with Mary.
They will drop their tombs on a table, dramatize their findings, analyze and dissect their bones, test the dust from their tombs, and make awe inspiring pronouncements.
Faith is foolish. The resurrection is a sham.
St. Paul reminds us:
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Brothers and sisters,
I’m not going to waste your time or mine in debating this show, the publicity stunt that’s about to occur. What I want to point out is this:
I feel sorry for Jesus, son of Joseph, Joseph, Mary, the other Mary, Matthew, and the others whose tombs are being trafficked like cheap drugs.
That, my friends, is the real sin, the true outrage.
As Christians, as people whose faith tells us that all will rise again, as people who are blessed because Jesus said:
—Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
…we have an obligation to be outraged at what is being done.
Faith and the Church’s witness tell us that our mortal bodies will rise again. Therefore, the desecration of any person’s remains, whether it be for archeology or for profit, as in the present case, is a sin.
The Catholic faith and the Jewish faith both consider the burial of the dead to be an obligation. The faithful are to treat the remains of the deceased with proper dignity and accord. This is essential, because the wholeness of the person, their entirety, will stand before God on the last day. The body is not just a shell or a husk, something to be tossed in the dumpster when we’re done with it, it is the temple in which the soul lived, and will live again.
Those bodies will rise again, called to glory in the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, Jesus, son of Joseph and the approximately thirty-five others buried there deserve our respect. They deserve dignity. They deserve better than Hollywood.
Of course, if a person has no faith, if a person simply thinks that at death existence stops, none of this matters. But to Christians who proclaim the resurrection, this matters a great deal. To us, we simply listen to the Father in faith and we believe in accord with St. Paul who tells us:
our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will change our lowly body
to conform with his glorified body
St. Casimir of Poland and Lithuania, King and Confessor, (1484)
St. Lucius of Rome, Bishop, (254)
St. Adrian and Companions, Martyrs, (875)
From the AP via the Albany Times Union: Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein
ZURICH, Switzerland — What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.
According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.
A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.
“We’ve spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it’s not a problem,” Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.
Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.
Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. “It’s not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something,” he said…
Will Grand Fenwick be next…
The folks at the Fellowship of St. James, the publishers of Touchstone, Salvo, and more are in need of our help.
I’ve been a Touchstone subscriber for a few years. What I love about the journal is the commonality of orthodox Christian witness found there.
For more info, check out the reasons beyond this request for help in the Mere Comments post This Is What We Need.
Please, find it in your heart to say a prayer and make a donation in support of FSJ’s worthy efforts. Make your donation here…
Thanks to Fr. Joseph Huneycutt of Orthodixie for pointing to this in Imagine [there’s no] Touchstone.