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Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Current Events, Perspective, Political,

Pardon thy iniquities Mr. Bush

The Young Fogey links to: Bush lets Libby off the hook and posits:

What’s really disturbing is Libby’s bosses will get away with what they did.

To me it’s kind of like reflecting on the Paris Hilton story (thank you, thank you Mika Brzezinski), but reflect I do.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney will never face a war crimes tribunal or be held to account – getting away with it. But conscience is not so easily satisfied.

I know that it is easy to paint people black and white. Mr. Bush and his cohort are certainly in the black end of the scale – fear mongering, do whatever it takes to get what we want, who cares who dies types. At the same time, I do not think that those caught in the grips of perversion are without humanity and souls.

Unless they are truly mentally ill (I don’t think so) and devoid of humanity, like a fictional serial killer, the pangs of guilt eat away.

Mr. Bush may ask himself: ‘Can I let the Scoot man (I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby) suffer for what I and my people have done?’

Certainly not! Mr. Bush has shown remarkable loyalty to those who do his bidding.

Other Presidents would have cut Rumsfeld loose long before Mr. Bush did. Messrs. Gonzalez and Cheney would have been long gone as well.

But, in Mr. Bush’s world, he is the decision maker. He holds on to a fading illusion like a drowning man gripping sand. All he has, and will have left, are those glimmers of conscience for the dead servicemen and women he has refused to honor, the neo-con fascists he remains loyal to, and those whose sentences he will commute (and later pardon).

Know for a certainty, however, that whatever your hands or the hands of the infidels have wrought will never, as they never did of old, change the Cause of God or alter His ways. — Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXIII, 12

Calendar of Saints, PNCC

July 2

Visitation, Mariotto Albertinelli, 1503

Solemnity of the Visitation of the B.V.M.
Saints Processus and Martinian, Martyrs, (unknown)
St. Monegundus, Widow, (570)

Almighty God, as you dealt wonderfully with your servant, the blessed virgin Mary, in choosing her to be the mother of your dearly beloved Son and thus graciously made known your regard for the poor and lowly and despised, grant us grace in all humility and meekness to receive your Word with hearty faith and to rejoice in Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. — Collect for the Visitation, Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod

Homilies,

The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said,
—Please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,
and I will follow you.—
Elijah answered, —Go back!
Have I done anything to you?—

In light of Jesus’ testimony to those he met on the road to Jerusalem it would appear that Elijah was quite angry at Elisha’s request.

Recall:

And another said, —I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home.—
To him Jesus said, —No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.—

I would argue that neither Jesus nor Elijah were angry. Perhaps incredulous, but neither was denying one’s responsibilities. In fact they were confirming and blessing them.

Let’s examine this passage from Kings.

Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said,
—Please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,
and I will follow you.—

We have to understand responsibilities as they were understood by Elisha.

Israel had fallen away from the Lord. Elijah was appointed as prophet in testimony against Israel. Israel had thrown off God and was worshiping Baal, a god of stone, what the Second Book of Kings would call Ba’al-ze’bub.

Familiar name?

There were few left in Israel who honored the covenant, much less their responsibilities. Elisha, son of Saphat was one of those few. Saphat’s house was a faithful house.

Elijah knew that. Elijah knew that Elisha came from a faithful house, and was a faithful son.

When Elisha asked to go back and kiss his family goodbye Elijah was taken aback. To paraphrase, Elijah said: Of course you should go back and honor your father and mother. You are supposed to be a man of faith. What have I done to you that you would think that you shouldn’t do your duty?

Elijah expected Elisha to be faithful. Jesus asks the same.

Remember that Jesus came to paint God in a very different way. God was not far off, to be feared and sacrificed to. God was nearby. God is among us. God is our Father. We are to hold a right relationship to Him, as His sons and daughters.

Brothers and sisters,

Each of these passages is about expectations and right relationships.

Elijah expected Elisha to honor his relationship with his parents, and Jesus expects us to honor our relationship with God.

Elisha was called, but that was not an excuse for throwing off his home and parents. His home and parents were not an excuse for throwing off his call.

Many were called by Jesus, but came up with excuses so they could skip out on their commitments. They wanted the glory of God without honoring their duty toward Him. They were committed, not to their parents or the bodies of the dead, but to excuses.

In this day and age we find so many excuses. I am tired, the boss is demanding, my children are disruptive, my wife is cold, I’m so angry and frustrated. I don’t have time for responsibilities and formalities. Leave me alone; let me get on with my life.

Our excuses have been our undoing. Our excuses have weakened and destroyed families, communities, and our larger society. Many have turned to gods and spirits that always seem to give the answer they desire. When they call upon those spirits they hear the answer they expect, the self-serving excuse for doing as they please.

Look at this through the lens of St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters.
But do not use this freedom
as an opportunity for the flesh;
rather, serve one another through love.

Excuses are a misuse of our freedom.

Responsibilities, in love, toward God and our brothers and sisters are gifts that come from our freedom. The gifts we receive as a result of our right use of freedom may not always be so appealing, but they are beautiful.

On the other hand, our excuses give opportunity to our weaker selves, the part of us that desires to do as we will. Those excuses are destroying our better selves.

—No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.—

Set your hand to the plow in deciding for Jesus Christ. Leave your former life, your former excuses behind. You are made new in Christ Jesus.

Look forward to a life of commitment, commitment strengthened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, commitment that builds up the Kingdom of God in your heart, home, family, community, and in the world.

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

EU Summit and a bad choice of words

If you have followed the press on the recent EU summit you probably heard that the Polish President and Prime Minister raised World War II issues in their negotiations.

The response to their raising these issues was less than positive. It’s kind of like the response a person receives when they raise a notion that no one else wants to acknowledge. “Can’t they just be quiet?”

The EUObserver notes in Polish twins accused of bad taste in Brussels:

The most controversial Polish tactic was its attempt to leverage German World War II guilt. When Jaroslaw [Kaczynski] talked ahead of the summit about using EU voting to repay Poland for the millions of Poles killed by Germany in the 1940s, it seemed like just another populist faux pas.

But Lech [Kaczynski] brought up the idea again at the EU leaders’ dinner in Brussels, in a move that may have contributed to chancellor Merkel’s threat to call an intergovernmental conference without Polish approval. In post-summit interviews, the twins kept the same line.

“There are no reasons to censor the past,” Lech said, regretting that he himself was too young to have fought the Germans. “I’m sorry, but today we still have to remind people who was the executioner and who was the victim,” Jaroslaw said in his interview.

Commenting on the rhetoric, Polish liberal MEP and historian Bronislaw Geremek told PAP that “the EU was based on the idea of putting an end to the war era…[the Polish government] tried to open wounds that have not yet fully healed.”

The German press was less kind. The biggest selling paper, Bild, called the twins “poisoned dwarves” and referred to their “sickening double game…”

Speaking of ‘poisoned dwarves,’ probably a bad choice of words for the German Press.

Among Mengele’s favorite experimental subjects were Jewish dwarves and identical twins.

From The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments by Baruch C. Cohen at Jewish Law Articles.

— or —

Many people with disabilities became the subject of medical research both before and after their deaths and were used to enrich the profits and prestige of medical institutions, doctors, and German and Austrian universities and researchers. Corpses of patients that had been marked before gassing as being of potential “scientific interest” were separated out and delivered to a nearby autopsy room. Young German physicians performed autopsies on these corpses to earn academic credit. Many organs from murdered disabled victims, brains in particular, were recovered for scientific study at medical institutes. Researchers sent lists of desiderata to killing centers requesting the brains of dwarves and people suffering from “idiocy” and rare neurological abnormalities, presumably with the belief that such disabilities would be scientifically interesting. Although many organs were harvested, the brains of murdered victims were the ones most utilized. Some of Germany’s most prestigious institutions benefited from this hideous use of the body parts of murdered people with disabilities, including Breslau University, Heidelberg University and the medical schools and psychiatric departments at Bonn, Cologne, Berlin and Leipzig.

From Forgotten Crimes – A Report by Disability Rights Advocates.

But then again, Bild is not exactly about journalism…

Christian Witness, Perspective,

Pontifications est fine

The Rev. Al Kimel has discontinued his blog, Pontifications.

In his final article, Namárií«, he notes:

Becoming [Roman] Catholic has brought many blessings, but it has not healed the sorrows of my heart. Indeed, in some ways it has intensified these sorrows. But this is all very private. All I need say is that I often find them overwhelming. God is silent. I am reduced to silence.

While reading his last lines I was struck by an allusion to the film Moscow On The Hudson.

As you might recall, Robin Williams character, Vladimir, defects to the United States. At first he is overcome by the vast differences between his experiences in communist Russia and life in the United States. He is joyful and giddy, full of dreams. As the film progresses he is overcome by remorse over his decision to defect. He wants to return to his ‘home’. But, he cannot go back. In his dread he cannot go forward.

To a certain extent I imagine that the Rev. Kimel faces such a struggle. We have an inherent discomfort with our decisions, especially when faced with the realities of the world.

Past the decision, you must find your place. The Rev. Kimel will certainly find his one day. The Lord is always merciful and just.

quaerite Dominum et virtutem eius quaerite faciem eius semper recordamini mirabilium eius quae fecit signorum illius et iudiciorum oris eius semen Israhel servi eius filii Iacob electi illius ipse Dominus Deus noster in universa terra iudicia eius recordamini in sempiternum pacti eius sermonis quem praecepit in mille generationes

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