Happy Thanksgiving!

When we hear the story of the ten lepers who were cured with only one returning to give thanks we tend to assume that the other nine were merely ungrateful jerks. I'm not so sure of that. One line in this Gospel has always caught my attention and seems to hold the key to its interpretation. "And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice." Realizing he had been healed. Hmmmm. Perhaps it is just that the other nine were so caught up in their misery, so comfortable with the status quo, that they didn't even notice that the Lord had answered their prayer.

To what blessings have we been blind? We constantly beseech the Lord's assistance; how often have our requests been granted without our recognizing the fact?

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Hinglish

Read the following in another International Herald Tribune article entitled 'The Queen's Hinglish' gains in India":

Paul Theroux was criticized by one reviewer last week for dwelling on what one of his American characters in his new work of fiction, "The Elephanta Suite," describes as India's "mummified" form of English - a language, the heroine reflects, where words like utterance, miscreant, thrice and jocundity remain in daily use.

Geez. I use three of those four words myself. I must be in the wrong country!

Stem Cells

This eve of Thanksgiving here in the US brings some great prolife news. Scientist at two different laboratories have succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells to mimic stem cells. This is a major breakthrough which promises to provide a plentiful and morally acceptable source of stem cells for research into and treatment of various diseases. Of course further study will be required, but this is most definitely a promising sign.

In addition to solving the moral dilemma involved in creating and destroying human embryos for the purpose of obtaining stem cells it has the added advantage of significantly reducing the threat of rejection as the new cells are genetically identical to the patients' cells. If it pans out it looks like a win-win situation for all involved. (I am counting on Mike to offer some expert commentary on this one!)

The International Herald Tribune ran an interesting article today about the political impact of this scientific breakthrough.

Bullies

As I reflected on my new best friend Ken's remarks yesterday I realized that the mindset of many of these extreme right-wing people is the same as that of the school-yard bully. They really believe that if they just abuse you enough you'll be reduced to tears, shut up, and go away. This tendency to bully, incidentally, isn't just characteristic of religious right-wingers , but of political ones as well. This fact seems to lead credence to the recent claim that such extreme conservatism is in fact a mental disorder. To be fair, I think that it was also claimed that extreme liberalism is likewise a mental aberration. It all seems to bear out the common sense realization that extremes of any kind lead to trouble. In medio stat virtus - Virtue stands in the middle.

Somebody likes me!

My newest best friend has warmed the cockles of my heart with his kind words!

Ken said...

Father Charles,

You are a Priest, however I don't believe your vow of obedience compels you to "express your obviously feminine feelings" to the entire world. Hmmmm. Wonder what exactly is so "obviously feminine." Perhaps my emphasis on Jesus' teachings on such "feminine" notions as love, justice, peace.

Your rants are an embarrassment. THANKS!

And your characterization of Father Trosch as a "loon" is simply unacceptable commentary - especially from a supposed brother Catholic Priest. David Trosch, by virtue of his bizarre and hate-filled ideas, has separated himself from the Catholic Church, thus he is not valid Catholic priest.

Do all of us a big favor, STOP the carnage. Your writings are nothing but mind numbing platitudes and the tree hugging, chairs in a circle, guitar strumming, I'm ok, you're ok mentality that is the reason thousands of Catholics are losing the faith and running for the door. Go read the Catholic Caveman; that will be sure to unnumb (is there such a word?) your mind!

A little less writing and a lot more praying young "Padre".

End of the World!

As the Church year winds down the readings at Mass focus on the end of the world. Yesterday's Gospel is a perfect illustration of that fact. As I proclaimed the Gospel for the third time yesterday I couldn't help but realize that all the things that Jesus said would take place to indicate that the "end was nigh" - wars and insurrections, powerful earthquakes, famines and plagues - have been happening more or less nonstop since the moment He spoke those words. Quite clearly proof that, as He Himself said elsewhere, we know not "the day nor the hour."

Yet an unhealthy obsession with predicting the end of the world has long been a powerful undercurrent in Christianity. Late twentieth and early twenty first century Americans seem particularly prone to a fascination with "the end." It is primarily the province of Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians, but I fear that more than a few Catholics have gotten swept up in the hysteria.

Just last week I came across a pertinent book entitled Have a Nice Doomsday. The description on the back cover definitely aroused my interest; I my have to go back to the bookstore and buy it.

In Have a Nice Doomsday, Nicholas Guyatt searches for the truth behind a startling statistic: 50 million Americans have come to believe that the apocalypse will take place in their lifetime. They're convinced that, any day now, Jesus will snatch up his followers and spirit them to heaven. The rest of us will be left behind to endure massive earthquakes, devastating wars, and the terrifying rise of the Antichrist. But true believers aren't sitting around waiting for the Rapture. They're getting involved in debates over abortion, gay rights, and even foreign policy. Are they devout or deranged? Does their influence stretch beyond America's religious heartland—perhaps even to the White House?

Journeying from Texas megachurches to the southern California deserts—and stopping off for a chat with prophecy superstar Tim LaHaye—Guyatt looks for answers to some burning questions: When will Russia attack Israel and ignite the Tribulation? Does the president of Iran appear in Bible prophecy? And is the Antichrist a homosexual?

Bizarre, funny, and unsettling in equal measure, Have a Nice Doomsday uncovers the apocalyptic obsessions at the heart of the world's only superpower.

Today's Second Reading

We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others.

St. Paul hit the nail on the head here. So many people waste their lives 'minding the business of others" rather than worrying about themselves. But the world has never been changed by people minding other peoples' business. Change only comes about when people are wiling to busy themselves with reforming their own lives. Today's scripture challenges us, as Christians, to work for the coming of the Kingdom by honesty looking at - and changing - our lives. The spectator sport of worrying about everyone else's life just won't do; we have to get down and dirty on the playing field of our own lives.