Moving Day for the Aging Child

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Good afternoon, loyal reader!

(…"loyal reader", meaning "sole reader"…)

Last week, I set up this blog's successor – well, transplantee might be a better term. For now, I'll mostly be moving over into it this old site's postings, until maybe just this single page remains here.

That'll take a while; I may drop new foolscap in here regularly as well.

This where to find me: http://1MT2mb.BlogSpot.com/.

See you next door!

Regards,

A. Gene Childe

"It's Only a Day Away"

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December starts tomorrow! So remember:

Yow! Ad Orientem, too!

Steps Forward

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I've begun moving this blog, one posting at a time, over to Blogger. (I can't move it all there at once.) Just my first sixteen posts have made it over thus far... leaving two-hundred-twenty-some. Well, [shrug], so I'll be busy with that awhile.

I'll try to keep this front end going, even while trimming off the backside, so to speak. I'm still busy with plenty of other things, including some backfill from The Missing Years.

I write first for me, not for both my readers... so it's more like the cat watching its tail twitch, than jumping onstage and capering around. In some profound ways, I'm not the same person who was writing here regularly, most of a decade ago - pardon the cliché. And likely you're far different from who you were back then as well.

A chunk of where I've grown different is in politics... or rather, what's been guiding me in how I engage political and social issues - which came to a head most recently in the national election earlier this almost-over month. I'll drop some more about that at some point, hopefully soon.

My faith remains strong, my longing for the monastery is undimmed, my commitment and devotion to those I love is unwavering... so in many ways, I'm still me, too. Yet I feel... deeper, and a bit less wishy in my washy; you'll see - or just maybe you've seen already.

Cheers, folks!

The Missing Years

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Catching Up, and Moving Onward

First Sunday of Advent (November 27, for the Gregorian secular), 2016:

I've blown the dust off this old blog and am pulling it back out onto the road. It's been mostly dormant since early 2009, but it's surprisingly roadworthy still; ditto the driver. I'm planning to transplant the engine and transmission and seats into a Blogger site, at some not-distant point. (For one thing, the formatting there is loads easier - plus fewer ads and fewer hands out.)

Life's been busy, demanding, rewarding… and no-less-so now, today. The world and my little corner of it have changed tremendously, and I'll be filling in some of the 2009-2016 blank areas of the map with backdated content. Pretty much anything here from early 2009 to late November of 2016 is backfill… or filler – or landfill.

On we go – and welcome back, my two readers! Still on board? Hello? Hello?

Watch This Space!

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More to come shortly!

 

A Child Is Born to Us

 Christmas: The wait is over. From Isaiah early this morning, at midnight Mass:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone. You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as men make merry when dividing spoils.

For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, and the rod of their taskmaster, you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.

For every boot that tramped in battle, every cloak rolled in blood, will be burned as fuel for flames.

(Once again, that one sentence actually gave me chills as our deacon read them. I'm still pondering the words.)

For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests.

They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, from David's throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice, both now and forever.

A child is born.

Update: these two comments came in:

Crip Gang Codes Dec 11, 2011

“A child is born” He is more than a child. He salvaged us from sins

phosphoro6 Jan 13, 2012

What do you think of this: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2012/01/why-i-hate-religion-but-love-jesus-the-smackdow.html?

Another Look: There Has Been None Greater

As I sometimes do, I'm repeating a blog from a few years back, owing to what today represents in the Church Calendar. Though initially somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the meditation does take a deeper look into a humble, yet fiery, man we could do quite well to emulate, yet never hope to equal... let alone surpass.

Want to have a little fun with someone who fancies that they know their Christianity, Christian history, theology, Bible, and so on?

Just ask them who the greatest man in the Bible was.

Jesus?

Wrong.

Really! Jesus was a man, yes, and all man, and human – or he could not have died. But he was also divine, or he could not have risen again. Unique to all of creation and beyond, Jesus has two natures: the divine and the human. This was clarified in the fifth century. I'll spare you the heavy theology on the hypostatic union, the Council of Chalcedon (and the first Nicean Council), monophysitism, arianism, modalism, and other issues – suffice it to say that this was settled over 1,500 years ago. You and I are humans, the dog over there's a dog, a planet's a planet (unless it's Pluto): each has its own, single, defining nature. But Jesus has two.

So, no, Jesus was not the greatest man in the Bible because he wasn't only a man.

Moses? Good try; no. Elijah? Jeremiah? Jonah? Adam??

Heh-heh. Nope.

If you trust the authority of Jesus as a teacher (as he was addressed in his own time; the word in Hebrew is "rabbi", or even "rabboni"; I believe the Aramaic word is the same), you have the answer. Look up Matthew 11:11 – if you're a Protestant, you've got the page marked and the words underlined. If you're a Catholic, just look over that Protestant's shoulder, since you probably aren't sure where to find Matthew.

Right there it is. Jesus says, "Among those born of women, there has been none greater than John the Baptist." As I said in my previous posting, you wanna call him a liar?

Today the Church celebrates the birth of John the Baptist (officially, "The Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist"): half a year before Christmas. What does that have to do with it? Well, this is because Jesus was conceived when Elizabeth, John's mother, was six months pregnant with John.

So for this week (and maybe a bit longer), the header for this blog is a detail from Fra Angelico's fifteenth-century painting, "The Naming of John the Baptist". (Likely when you read this, though, I'll have changed the header image again.)

Anyway, I propounded on Elizabeth's pregnancy (among the usual array of other topics) back on Mothers' Day, so I won't repeat it here. This painting, now, corresponds to the scene that followed after John's birth (you can find in Luke 1:57-80), where Zechariah (Elizabeth's husband) has wised up after nine months of being struck deaf-mute. He'd literally had the fear of God thrust on him by scoffing at an angel's announcement of Elizabeth's unexpected pregnancy, so now quite obediently he does exactly as that angel had commanded, and writes down that his son must be called John.

With his tongue loosened back up and ego refreshingly long-since humbled, he breaks into a sweet, inspired prayer that beautifully parallels Mary's own canticle, the Magnificat. My guess is that he never lived to see his son's ministry as a preacher in the desert, but there can be no doubt that he drew great comfort in knowing there was a clear and beautiful destiny that would unfold for his son… who, in growing up under God's "tender mercy" (I like that phrase), would "guide our feet into the path of peace" as the greatest man ever born.