Ahh The Good Old Days

"Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!"

Do you remember that great old film "The Ten Commandments?  One of my favorite characters in this story is Edward G. Robinson who played some sort of Hebrew that was better off than most of the folks. You could depend on him to be the one to stir up trouble when trouble needed to be stirred up. He didn't really believe in all of this religious stuff, he was happy to make a comfortable living and to keep himself well nourished.  He scoffed when it came time to mark the door posts with blood so that the angel of death would pass over.  He thought it was all a bunch of nonsense and he went to bed without bothering to do it. It was lucky for him that someone, a Hebrew that loved his fellow Hebrews, marked the doorpost for him and he was saved on that fateful night. The Egyptians who in the morning were mourning the loss of all of the first born in their land begged the Hebrews to go and gave them gold and jewels and probably a road map to show them the fastest way out of town.  Every chance he got, Robinson's character stirred up the people. And when the way grew drear and hunger afflicted the children of Israel he reminded them of all the great food that they had back in good old Egypt.  You could almost smell the onions cooking in the fleshpots!  Moses, played by Charlton Heston, went to God.  You could almost hear God saying, "Yeah, Yeah, I hear them.  When are they going to get the idea that I am going to take care of them, Moses?"  Then he promises them flesh in the evening and bread in the morning.  The only losers in this story, of course, are the doves that got invited to dinner each night. Do you wonder why it took forty years to get to the promised land? A blind camel could stumble into it in a few weeks.  Oh well, that's that story of the Israelites, one stiff necked people, just like us. 

When the Hebrews were hungry, they began pining for food and I guess that the food they remembered in Egypt was pretty good.  Then again, anything is better when you have nothing.  What would they have to do to get their delicious Egyptian Pot-o-Flesh?  They would have to go back to Egypt, of course, and while they might get the food they craved, the would get the slavery that they did not crave back. 

So it is with us. We beg God to relieve us from this burden or that and when the way gets tough we look back and say that the good old days weren't so bad.  We forget that if we take up the sin again, we pick up the slavery to it.  Don't you find it amazing that over thousands of years we as a species have learned so little?  No wonder why God had to come to earth and save us.  We could do nothing for ourselves. 

In order to enter heaven, we have to be free of our attachments to sin. If we need to, we choose to go to Purgatory to clean up to ready ourselves to be in God's presence.  The Poor Souls need the prayers of the faithful on earth to help them.  Please remember them today.

New and Improved

April 17, 1964, was a warm day in Chicago.  The day prior was a record-setter when the mercury climbed to 84 degrees F.  In the Southwest Side neighborhood of Brighton Park, on 40th Place, the talk was of the new Ford Mustang which had premiered that day.  Jimmy Kane, God rest his soul was out with his skateboard on this early spring day doing what passed for tricks back in the day. Skateboard conjures up visions of young Olympians doing tricks on the half pipe. When I say skateboard, I mean a roller skate nailed to a board.  Even if we had the half pipe back then, there would be no way in heaven that the rickety gizmo called a skateboard would be able to take the pounding that the modern boards do.  Jimmy's tricks consisted of first remaining upright on the board and second going through a course of empty soda bottles without knocking them over.  He was pretty good at it. But skateboarding was not the topic of conversation that day.  The brand new 1964 Mustang had been revealed and it was the talk of all the twelve-year-olds in the neighborhood.  The car was pronounced "boss" by all of the boys and there were arguments as to how fast the car could go, which color was the best and promises that when we were old enough we all would have one of these beautiful new race cars.  As it turned out, I didn't own a Mustang until the 1980's and it was called a Mustang II.  As for Jimmy Kane, I was told he died some time back, drugs claimed him.  An aside here, Jimmy always had whatever Jimmy wanted.  He was one of the few neighborhood boys that actually made it on a Little League team at Kelly Park (not everyone automatically got to play in the 60's and 70's you had to try out) and his house always had fireworks on the Fourth of July, and if they ran low, his folks would get on the expressway and drive to Indiana and get some more.  There was a lot of good in the boy and he was a handsome red head and popular with the girls and he had lots of friends.  But I guess something was missing inside his brainbox that caused him to give himself over to drugs.  Anyway, back to our theme for the day. 

"So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away;

behold, new things have come. And all this is from God..."

When we have turned our lives over to Christ, we become a new creation.  Gone is the being that was controlled by impulse and greed and in its place, there is a person who knows that love and sharing are the most important things in life.  Well, maybe it does not happen that fast.  I know for me at least the process is just that.  When I was Baptized and died with Christ, there was presented to me a "new" soul.  It was the same as my old soul, of course, except it was now ready to be filled with the beauty of Christ and his teachings and his instructions on how to live life.  Knowledge of Christ is one thing.  I can know a lot about Christ but I have to delve into His teachings and make them a part of my life.

 I don't get too excited about the new models anymore.  But, I  am excited to be a new creation in Christ.  I just have to make an effort every day to remind myself that I actually am a new creation and that I should live in the world but not be of the world.  I have to make my life conform more closely to that of my Redeemer.  His love for me is such that if I were the only sinner in the world, He would have gone to the Cross for me. 

It seems to me that my first step in the New Evangelization should be to allow the glow of Jesus to shine forth by making kindness and mercy things that are I practice by choice every hour of every day.  This, of course, is a learning process.  My teacher provides lessons every day, I just have to keep an eye out for them.  It's a great school.  It has the world's largest classroom which is called earth. 

A new car model, even a 1964 Ford Mustang, is nothing compared to a person who has allowed themselves to become a new creation and who also allow themselves to be filled with the joy and hope that being a follower of Christ brings to life.   God Bless! 

Freedom

It is the 4th of July holiday weekend. It is a time for festive events, picnics, family reunions, fireworks, and parades. I think it should be a time also for sober reflection on just what it means to be free. 

In America we have the freedom to hold any opinion about the government that we want to hold and we can shout it to the rooftops if we want to!  

In America we can elect any citizen to any office based on what they say and we can hold them accountable and even demand a recall election if they seriously fail in their job. 

In America we have the right to be free of government interference in our life and concurrently we have the right to give the government authority to do things for us and in our name, We the People!

In America we have an absolute right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

In America we are guaranteed the right to worship God in the way that we want to and to follow our conscience using the light that God sends to us. 

In America we can be what and who we want to be. We can be a garbage collector or a doctor, it is our choice what we become and what we work towards.

In America we have citizen soldiers, volunteers to protect us and our country. We have a duty to see to their welfare during and after the service that the give to us. 

In America we unite with our brothers and sisters in our neighborhood, in out towns and cities and try to live in peace and in harmony with each other. 

In America, law is master over might.

In America in modern times we have lost the ability to discuss things with one another, the word compromise has lost its meaning with our elected representatives. 

In America, we have lost confidence in our senate, in our congress, in our executive and legal branches because they no longer want to work together for the common good. 

In America, we move ever closer to having a state instead of a government. 

In America, our freedom of religion is being rescinded little bit by little bit. 

In America, the president now issues decrees called executive orders that have the force of law. 

In America, the Supreme Court issues decrees called decisions that have the force of law. 

In America, our Congress and Senate are deadlocked because party politics have become more important than the good of the citizens that sent them to Washington. Those entrusted to define the law do nothing. 

In America, you have the right to live unless you are in the womb and then you have no rights at all. 

In America, there is good, there is bad. But the only other form over government that is worse than ours is any other. 

God bless this country I call home, my Lord protect us, speak more loudly that we may hear your voice.  We pray oh Lord that never take for granted the freedoms that come from you. May America be a shining light to all the world of what can be.  Amen.