Fr. Rick's Blog

By now you have probably learned that, according to Mr. Harold Camping, a retired engineer and Bible student turned Evangelical Christian Radio Mogul from Oakland,California, the “Rapture” will take place tomorrow, Saturday, May 21st at 6:00 p.m..

Mr. Camping, who famously made a similer prediction, that the year 1994 would see the “Rapture”, insists that, THIS TIME IT’S REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN!

But, what is “the Rapture” and what are we to make of predictions of the imminent coming of the apocalypse?

The term “Rapture” refers to an event that some, though by no means all, evangelical Protestants describe as the taking out of this world of all believers in the Lord Jesus. By “taking out of this world” they mean just that, Tomorrow, according to Mr. Camping, thousands, perhaps millions of people will simply vanish into thin air.Taken up into Heaven to be with Jesus.

Mr. Camping believes that tomorrow’s “Rapture” will be followed, more or less immediately by “The Great Tribulation” a universal upheaval featuring plagues, earthquakes, floods, wars and general ,overall chaos.

On Mr. Camping’s calculations this period of intense suffering and mayhem will last five months.

On October 21st The Lord Jesus Himself will return and definitively usher in the End of the World.

Sounds dire, and, indeed, it is, but before you get too worried about who is going to feed the dog if you get suddenly “raptured out” tomorrow evening, consider something that Harold Camping, for all his reading and study of the scriptures, seems not to have noticed; “But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matthew 24:36).

So, let me see if I understand this:

Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God tells us, that He Himself does not know the day or the hour of His return, nor,He further tell us, do the angels: but only the Father; but an engineer who studies the scriptures as a hobby figures it out down to the hour?!

What part of Matthew 24:36 does he not understand?

For the record: The Catholic Church does not, and never has, believed in an event called the Rapture believing it to be based on a misreading of scripture.

That being said, there is both opportunity and danger in this, and any other, campaign proclaiming the immenent sounding of the “Crack of Doom”.

The danger is that predictions like Mr. Camping’s make not only him and his followers look ridiculous, they expose the Christian faith to ridicule, sceptics, athiests, and secularists, by and large ignorent of Christianity, lump all Christians, and all strains of Christian theology, together, dismissing us all as crackpots.

The opportunity lies in the promise that, serious Christians, as well as non Christians of good will, may well recognize and take seriously,or, to be more precise, take more seriously,  the simple truth that, while no one is going to be raptured out tomorrow night,one day, Jesus IS going to return. And He bids us to be always ready for that day, when He will come “like a thief in the night”

If that happens then God, who, indeed,”writes straight with crooked lines” will have brought great good out of one man’s sincere, if sincerely wrong, error.

See you all Sunday Morning!

Born Joseph de Veuster in Belgium,St. Damien of Molokai is known and loved as the famous “Leper priest” of Molokai; For 16 years he lived and labored and loved people no one else wanted to be around, men and women, and even children infected with Leprosy (Hansen’s disease).

Although when most people think of Hawaii we imagine, with good reason, a place about as close to paradise as it is possible to get in this world; in the nineteenth century there was at least one place in the Hawaiian islands no one wanted to go.

The Kalaupapa peninsula on the Island of Molokai, cut off from the rest of Molokai by a chain of rugged mountains, accessible only by sea was deemed the perfect place for the Hawaiian government to establish a leper colony.

I use the word “establish” lightly.

Having decreed the erection of a colony for those diagnosed with the dreaded disease the Hawaiian government did almost nothing for the unfortunate lepers of Hawaii.

In the first few years of the colony’s existence lepers, rounded up in periodic raids held throughout the Islands would be loaded on ships and delivered to the shores of Kalapaupa, sometimes people would be unceremoniously thrown overboard and forced to swim to shore, none of the crew of these ships dared land  in the colony, such was the fear of contagion; not surprisingly many drowned before ever making it to shore.

For those who did survive their arrival,what awaited them was truly horrific.

Kalaupaupa leper colony was, in those early years, a truly lawless place, a place ruled by what Rudyard Kippling would call in his stories, “The Law of the Jungle” where only the strong survived.

There was quite simply, no organised social order, no government, no police force or fire department, no medical facilities, doctors or nurses, no schools or teachers. People lived, as best they could in ramshackle huts they constructed with whatever materials they could find.

They lived on what little they could forage, grow, or steal.

Into this lawless place came Fr. Damien de Veuster determined to bring Christ to these outcasts, and with Christ and His Gospel, he brought too love, and human friendship and solidarity.

It took time and effort, Fr. Damien faced daunting challenges, he started with virtually nothing, building a human community practically from the ground up.

Kalaupapa was a wild place ruled by gangs who played by their own rules, at first they looked at this “haole”, ( a Hawaiian word for a white person) Priest with contempt, but Fr. Damien was no push over.

Gradually he forced the gangs to accept him, at first grudgingly, then with a wary respect, and eventually as their brother and their friend and advocate.

In time, Fr. Damien transformed Kalaupapa from a chaotic and lawless place of brutality and inhumanity to a place of humane, christian order and faith.

Fr. Damien shared completely in the life of the lepers of Kalaupapa, to the point of sharing even in their illness.

After years of working among the lepers of Kalaupapa Fr. Damien contracted the disease himself.

He died of leprosy in 1889 after 16 years among the lepers. He was only 49.

Since the President’s announcement late Sunday night that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by a U.S. Navy SEAL team in Pakistan there has been a veritable feeding frenzy in the media over the action.

Most of the focus has centered on two questions:

Should the pictures of Osama Bin Laden’s corpse be released.

Should the United States have given Bin Laden the dignity of an Islamic burial,(albiet a burial at sea)?

Personaly, I think the picture (pictures?) should be released.

Why?

Because President Obama stated that one reason he made the,(correct) decision to send in the SEALs to take out Osama, as oppossed to simply bombing the compound into oblivion, for the very reason that he,(the President) wanted to verify that Osama Bin Laden was indeed dead.

Well, presumably President Obama has seen the pictures, he knows Bin Laden is dead, the rest of us deserve to see them too, to know, as he knows, that the mad man who plotted and launched the attacks that killed thirty thousand americans will now no longer ever threaten anyone, anywhere ever again.

Another reason: conspiracy theorists are already questioning whether or not the terrorist mastermind was really killed.

A photo could, of course be faked, but still, as the saying goes: a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Now, what about the issue of Bin Laden’s burial at sea?

Some have critisized the decision to treat the mortal remains of Osama Bin Laden with a dignity and regard he would not have, and did not have, for the victims of his terror.

I, for one, have no problem with the fact that the United States had the decency to show a reasonable level of respect for a dead man to afford him a respectful burial.

The man is dead after all,what’s the harm?

Some have said that the Islamic world will view this as a sign of weakness.

Perhaps they will, but, if so it changes nothing.

The War on Terror is many things, but one of those things is surely a struggle between civilization and barbarism.

A civilized society treats even it;s enemies with a level of fundamental respect that acknowledges that even our enemies are human beings.

Barbarians deny the common humanity they share with their opponents, and so deny them even the most basic respect that acknowledges that, in death the humanity of even our enemies deserves recognition.

It is not often I find myself in agreement with Vermont’s senior U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy.

Yet Senator Leahy’s statement on the killing of Osama Bin Laden by U.S. Navy S.E.A.L.S. announced Sunday night

sounded just right.

I am paraphrasing but the Senator’s  statement went something like this: “This was an appropriate end to a wasted life.

A life dedicated to death and destruction……….

It seems strange to rejoice over the violent death of another human being.

And yet when I heard the news this morning, I admit, I DID REJOICE.

This world is surely a better place for the death of Osama Bid Ladin.

As rare as it is for me to be in agreement with Senator Leahy, it is even rarer for me to be in agreement with our President and yet I agree with President Obama: “Justice was served” in this killing.

And yet…..this death was surely a tragedy, more precisely this life was a tragedy.

Osama Bin Laden was born into a wealthy Saudi family, with resources and opportunities far beyond what many of his fellow citizens in Saudi Arabia could ever imagine.

By all accounts Osama Bin Ladin was a man of considerable talent and ability.

Yet he chose instead to dedicate his life to a religious vision that sanctified the deliberate killing of innocent people in pursuit of a world wide Islamic Theocracy.

It was surely no part of God’s will that this man should have dedicated his life to Terror.

In this sense then, yes I do mourn the death of Osama Bin Laden

I should pray, we should pray that in his final moments Osama Bin Laden turned to God in sorrow and contrition, if he did we know God would indeed forgive, ( which is not to say that Osama Bin Laden would not have to undergo purification in purgatory.)

Today is February 2nd,the Feast of the Presentation of The Lord.

In the old Liturgical calender this feast marked the end of the Christmas Season.

The Feast commemorates the day when, as described in St. Luke’s Gospel St. Joseph and The Blessed Virgin Mary presented Jesus in the Temple in obedience to the Law of Moses, which required every First born Son be “presented” to God as an act of thanksgiving and to acknowledge that God is the source of all life.

St. Luke’s Gospel account tells us that when St. Joseph and Our Lady presented Jesus they met Simeon an old and pius man, who, we are told,had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had seen the Messiah.

Simeon is led by the Spirit to come to the Temple that day, under the illumination of God’s grace he recognizes in this baby boy the fufillment of God’s promise “My own eyes have seen thy salvation and the light of all nations, and the glory of thy people, Israel”. And Simeon prophecies further telling Jesus’ parents that their child is destined to be a sign, a sign that shall be contradicted, and, he says to Our Lady, your own heart a sword shall pierce, that the thoughts of many hearts shall be revealed.Then along comes Anna, and old and pius widow a prophetess,”she never left the temple but worshipped night and day in fasting and prayer”. Coming upon the young couple and their son with old Simeon, she too recognises Jesus and spoke “about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Two people, a pius old man and a holy widow see a little baby and, unlikely as it seems, they recognize who this child is: the long awaited Messiah!

“………for my eyes have seen your salvation,which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel”.

On this Feast it is customary in some Parishes to bless candles which are then lit and carried in procession in honor of the Great Mystery of the Incarnation. Another name for this Feast is “Candlemass” after this custom.

These blessed candles are then used the next day to bless throats  in honor of the 4th century Bishop and Martyr St. Blaise.

Today of course is also “Groundhog” Day.

In many European countries, particularly in Northern Europe and the British Isles popular folklore has it that if the groundhog awakens on February 2nd (which is roughly halfway between the Winter solstice and the Spring equinox) and sees it’s shadow it means six more weeks of winter, if it does not see its’ shadow it means that spring is right around the corner.

For the record the two most famous Groundhogs in the country

Punxsatawny Phil of Punxsatawny Pennsylvania  and General Beauregard Lee  of Lilburn,Georgia,both failed to see their shadows this morning, so, snow schmo………Spring is nearly here!

Today is December 31st,2010 New Years Eve. The last day of the calendar year 2010.
Tomorrow is January 1st 2011, New Years Day, the first day of the calendar year 2011.
I am posting this last blog post of the year just after 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. The television news station I have on reports that in Sydney Australia it is already after midnight, and hence already 2011; so, right now, this instant in time we call “now” is simultaneously 2010 (here in Vermont) and,(in Australia), 2011!
So, what is this thing we call time……….?
Clearly it means more then hours, minutes and seconds.
One handy definition of time is that time is a measure of change.
Thus, for example, one day is measured by the rotation of the earth on it’s axis (and, consequently, the movement of the sun across the sky). A year, of course, is measured by the rotation of the earth in its’ orbit around the sun, one trip around the sun equals one year.
The planet turns (or, perhaps more accurately, spins) on its’ axis; the earth also revolves around, or orbits, the sun.
All this movement involves change, the earth is in a different position vis a vis the sun in June then it is in December; and this movement is measured in months that together make up a year. And yet……………..
There is still more to this thing we call time.
After all remember it is nearly 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday December 31st right now………But, “right now” it is also after midnight in Australia where it is already 2011.
“Right now” takes on a whole new, and mysterious meaning!
As fish live their whole lives completely immersed in water, so too we live our whole lives completely immersed in time.
If fish can imagine anything it is probably safe to say they could not possibly imagine living ouside of their element.
So too us, we are as immersed in time as any fish is in water, we can not concieve of existence, reality, beyond time
Even our imagining of what heaven is like includes elements of time!
In the face of all this the Church proclaimes Christ, the Lord of the cosmos, whatever the precise nature of time might be Christ the Lord is Lord even of time.
Each year at the solemn Vigil of Easter the church kindles and blesses fire and from this fire lights the Easter, or paschal, candle, a symbol of the Risen Lord and His Light.
At this Service of Light, as it is known, the Church offers this proclamation of praise:
“Christ yesterday and today, the begining and the end,
Alpha and Omega;
All time belongs to Him, and all the ages; to Him be glory and power,through every age for ever. Amen.
Happy New Year everyone!
I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has honored me by reading these posts over the last eight months since last April when I began this blog.
Thankyou for your comments and your encouragement.
See you next year!

“Pope Says Condoms Can Be Justified In Some Cases”

So screamed headlines in the mainstream,secular media around the world after “L’ Osservatore Romano”, the official newspaper of the Vatican, leaked  excerpts of  Pope Benedict XVI’s comments on condoms (one small part of a wide ranging interview with journalist Peter Seewald soon to be published by Ignatius press).

“Like clockwork,the mainstream media  has smashed the Pope’s nuanced comments through a sausage grinder of bias,ignorence,mistranslation, and agenda…..” so writes Thomas Peters at his excellent blog “American Papist”.

Our own “Burlington Free Press”, not to be outdone, carried this title in an article in this morning’s (Tuesday November 23rd) edition: “Pope Seeks to Start Debate on Condoms” along with this subtitle: “Pontif Suggests Some Prophylactic Use O.K.” (the artice is from the Associated Press).

Actually, if the Holy Father is trying to start a debate, it is based on a premise the secular world rejects:

Condoms remain what they have always been, immoral, because,among other things, they make a lie out of what is intended by God to be an intimate expression of the complete giving of self to the other by spouses.

Why a lie?

Because intercourse is designed and intended by God to be an act of mutual selfgiving by a husband and a wife who ,quite literaly,come together in the act of intercourse in a beautiful sharing of the totality of husband and wife, body,mind and soul, holding nothing back, and the use of a condom (or indeed any other artificial means) means that one aspect of that totality, fertility, is being withheld- hence, contraceptive sex, is, at root, a lie, a perversion.

So, sorry mainstream media, sorry secular world, the Holy Father did not “suggest some prophylactic use o.k.”

So, what did the Pope say,and, more importantly, what did he mean?

(What follows is quoted from Thomas Peters Blog post  “Condoms,Consistency,and the Vatican’s Crisis of (mis)Communication” at “American Papist Blog”)

Q. Does the Church oppose the use of condoms?

A. The Church of course does not regard them as a real or moral solution, but in individual cases, the intention to reduce the risk of infection may represent the first step to leading a more human and authentic sexuality.

In other words, Pope Benedict never says condoms are good. He says the intention to reduce the risk of disease while engaging in a disordered act is “better” then engaging in a disordered act WHILE IN ADDITION recklessly endangering the health of the other person.

Pope Benedict puts it this way:”{Using a condom} is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection.

That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality” Humanization is an important word; in the Pope’s view it is more human to engage in a disordered act with at least SOME regard for the other person’s health then to engage in the same disordered act with NO REGARD for the other person’s health………..

Lets get to the line the media has fixated on: “There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom where this can be a first step in the direction of  a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility.”

At this point, having seen the principal that the pope is getting at above,expressed again, that the use of a condom by a male prostitute is only the “first step” in the direction of moralization (again, the pope is careful not to call this choice even a “moral” one) an example of  taking one responsibility (among the multiple irresponsibilities inherent in diordered sexual acts), but, how does the rest of the sentence end? “on the way toward  recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants.”

LET ME BE DOUBLE THRICE ABUNDANTLY CLEAR:  the pope HAS NOT “softened”  the Church’s teaching on condoms by talking about the hope we can have that someone’s decision to make a disordered act less immediately physically harmful to their sexual partner may be a first step  towards someone’s eventual conversion.

The first reading at this morning’s Mass is taken from the Book of Revelation chapter 5 :

“I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a mighty angel who proclaimed in a loud voice,”who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to examine it. I shed many tears because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to examine it.

One of the elders said to me,”Do not weep, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed,ennabling Him to open the scroll with it’s seven seals.”

Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders, a Lamb that seemed to have been slain. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the seven spirits of God sent out into the whole world. He came and recieved the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne…………..”

“The Lion of the Tribe of Judah…………………” that’s Jesus of course and it’s one of my favorite titles.

“The Lamb that seemed to have been slain”, again, of course, this refers to our Lord. The Lamb is a frequent image for Jesus in both scripture and in the living tradition of the Church, especially the Liturgy,where in particular Jesus is referred to as “The Lamb once slain ,who lives forever”.

St. John the Baptist identifies Jesus as: “The Lamb of God!”

We are used to hearing Jesus refered to under the image of a lamb……………But a Lion………….?

Maybe not so much.

But there it is in the Book of Revelation: “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah”

King David was of the Tribe of Judah, and, in the same passage from Revelation Jesus is also identified as the Root of David; a curious image implying that David, who of course lived in the time before Jesus, is, somehow “rooted” in Him.

The Lion image for me always recalls the Christ like character Aslan in the C.S. Lewis classic “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” .

When, before they meet Him the children upon learning that Aslan is a Lion express some anxiety.

‘…………”Then he isn’t safe?” Said Lucy.

“Safe?”  said Mr. Beaver, don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe?

‘Course He isn’t safe. But He’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, The Lamb once slain who lives forever, will not be tamed by us or by anyone.

He is not safe, but He is good!

In this morning’s Burlington Free Press there is an article in the “Savorvore” section (Section “D”) on Sterling College,(in Craftsbury Common,Vermont), students who raise animals and vegetables that are eaten in the school’s dining hall.
The article featured a woman,described in the article as a “nutritionist,food activist,author and New York University professor……..” who addressed the students in a nutrition class about a variety of issues;including “large scale agriculture vs. small scale farming” “All of this is about Politics” she said………….Hmmmmm
Several millenium ago,the Pagan Greek philosopher Aristotle described Politics as the art by which Free people debate how they will live their lives together in society.
Now, dear readers, bear with me here……..
What does a dead white guy like Aristotle have to do with our University of New York prof. who believes ” All of this is about politics”?
Simply this:
In the classic view of politics which was once widely accepted in Western thought, Politics was, as Aristotle taught all about the ongoing debate; a conversation if you will, among free people about the best way to order their common life.
But somewhere along the line, and I am not exactly sure when it happened, politics became about POWER. Power and control over other people and their choices and their freedom.
Today this totalitarian impulse is found in many places, including in the politics of both the right and the left.
In this view of things “All of this is about politics” really means: “I don’t like the choices you make so I am going to use the power of the State to force you to make good (i.e. “good’ meaning choices I agree with) choices.
Politics ceases to be about the art of persuasion and becomes the work of intimidation and coercion.
What author Jack London in his classic “The Call of The Wild” called “the law of the club and fang”.
My point here isn’t that that nice, and quite likely very well intentioned, University of New York prof. is making an argument that has no merit to it; my point is,simply that, perhaps even unknowingly, she seems to imply a willingness to reduce everything in life, including such personal choices about where and how and from whom we buy or otherwise obtain our food to a political calculation that can and should be controlled by some power other then a free citizen’s choice.
And that’s scary…………………
What do you think?

I am not saying this means anything, but I for one am struck by the fact that when  a young Bald Eagle shot earlier this fall,rehabilitated and,released into the wild earlier today, took flight, the bird  promptly flew across the Connecticut River into New Hampshire!

Given the leftist leanings of the cultural,media,academic, and political elites in Vermont is it any wonder a self respecting Bald Eagle,(our National Symbol) would evidently prefer to live in New Hampshire?!