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“I don’t like Brussels sprouts,” complained my son one night at supper long ago.
“If you finish your Brussels sprouts, I’ll give you a noogie,” said Daddy, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
“What’s a noogie?”
“If you finish your Brussels sprouts, then you’ll find out.” |
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One silver lining for me during this weird coronavirus shutdown has been the opportunity to return to some writing projects that I had left on the back-burner.
One of these is a book on the Nicene Creed, which I had commenced many months ago and on which I was making only very slow progress, given my various pastoral and administrative responsibilities.
The last several weeks, I have been working in a rather concentrated way on the Creed book, and I find myself currently in the midst of the section on the Church: “I believe in one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.” |
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Last week, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, made a rather interesting theological observation.
Commenting on the progress that his state has made in fighting the coronavirus, and praising the concrete efforts of medical personnel and ordinary citizens, he said, “The number is down because we brought the number down. God did not do that. Faith did not do that.”
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A parishioner asked his pastor, “Father, it seems that every time I read a Catholic newspaper, I read about taking care of the environment. Shouldn’t we Catholics be more concerned about taking care of the world’s bigger problems such as war, hunger, and sickness?”
The priest responded, “Haven’t you heard about Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical on ecology? It is the first encyclical in Catholic Church history to focus on ecology and care for creation. In this encyclical, Pope Francis makes a connection between care for the environment and war, hunger, and sickness.”
The coronavirus is not a punishment from God. It is not a severe chastisement dealt to a world that in so many ways sins against the Almighty — by ignoring his commandments and teachings.
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I have lived in Santa Barbara, Calif., for the past four years. In that brief time, my neighbors and I have experienced a number of real tragedies.
Just over two years ago, the terrible Thomas Fire broke out in my pastoral region, in the vicinity of Thomas Aquinas College (hence the name).
For a frightening month it made its devastating way from Santa Paula through Ventura, Carpenteria, Montecito, and eventually commenced to devour the foliage on the hills just north of my home.
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Meg Matenaer |
I am a homeschooling dropout. Seven years ago when my oldest was five, we decided that we would homeschool her.
Eight weeks later when the reality was so depressingly different from the ideal I had painted in my mind, she was enrolled in an amazing Catholic school and we’ve never looked back.
Until yesterday.
After it was clear that there would be an imminent shutdown of the schools in Madison, our heroic teachers and principals in only a matter of days mobilized, creating systems to keep learning going at home.
They sent home computers, devised ways to stream lectures and collect homework, spent hours photocopying and recording videos, and packed up the students’ belongings, distributing them at assigned times to parents in the parking lot. |
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Sometimes God must drive us to our knees before we look up to Him, helpless as small children.
It was several days since the worldwide coronavirus pandemic had been announced.
Schools had closed and we were dutifully isolating our whole family in our home.
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We celebrate the feast of the Annunciation on March 25. The American Catholic Church will probably never add another Holy Day of Obligation in my life time, but if it does, it could add the feast of the Annunciation.
On this feast day, we celebrate the good news that Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It certainly is a holy day, but presently not of obligation.
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Blaise Pascal said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
The great 17th Century philosopher thought that most of us, most of the time, distract ourselves from what truly matters through a series of divertissements (diversions).
He was speaking from experience. Though one of the brightest men of his age and one of the pioneers of the modern physical sciences and of computer technology, Pascal frittered away a good deal of his time through gambling and other trivial pursuits.