Today is Spy Wednesday in our tradition, the day on which Judas Iscariot decided to hand over Our Lord for thirty pieces of silver which, as the sermon at Mass this morning pointed out, was the price of a slave. Christ allowed Himself to be given into the hands of men, as the price of our salvation, and the worth of that Gift is beyond human calculation, infinite in His love for us. And all things work for the good for those who return that love. We should keep that in mind in these fractious times, that, at the end of the day, we will all be weighed and measured on our love, for God, and for one another.
It is indeed odd, as Father Goering says, that we would find these two particular fragments of early Biblical texts, after a decades-long dry spell. There are no real coincidences in God’s providence, which is ‘concrete and immediate’ as the Catechism says. What is the Father of all saying to churches, to the Church, and to us all?
The cast of unsavory characters behind the movement known as BLM – its founders – evince its true mission – Marxist, Leninist, Nietzschean, and generally the inversion and subversion of all traditional values. ‘Whiteness’ is code for civilization, culture and Christianity in general, which they aim to eradicate. Ironic that all these people are who they are due to the benefits of that same civilization – the universities, the cities, the well-built homes, cars, infrastructure, an economy built on market capitalism rewarding discipline, know-how and hard work. And they want to bring it all crashing down, and you with it. We can say, for now, keep up the good fight of the Faith, and for truth, and freedom. The author of the aforelinked article ends off with the six lines from a poem that foundress Alicia Garza has tattooed on her chest:
I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name
My name is my own my own my own
and I can’t tell you who the hell set things up like this
but I can tell you that from now on my resistance
my simple and daily and nightly self-determination
may very well cost you your life
Hmm. It seems some lives matter more than others.
And, while on freedom, so it begins: The Boston archdiocese allows you to serve on the altar, but only if you’ve been vaccinated – and you still have to mask up. The same isolation and exclusion policies are already being enforced in Israel, in the U.S. Army – and we’re likely soon to see the vaxx-pass coming to a grocery store and a church near you. Hopefully, there are some hold-outs, vaxx-free zones, or places and businesses that at least allow those who suaviter et fortiter refuse the vaccine entrance to their premises. We must trust in God, Whose providence is not only ‘concrete and immediate’, but also all-powerful. Not a hair of our heads can be harmed without His permission, and He has so much more good in store for those who suffer for His name.
And, on a lighter note, this is the anniversary of the opening of the Eiffel Tower, on March 31, 1889. At the time, and at 984 feet, it was the tallest man-made structure in the world, until the Chrysler Building opened in 1930. I once stood underneath the tower late at night, wandering around Paris with a backpack, hence did not go up. Now I wonder if I ever will; but, as a wise woman once told me, we cannot do everything in this life, and some things must wait ’til heaven. At first, many were skeptical of the iron building, thinking it would be unsound and/or unsightly. But time has proved them wrong, as to this day, it is one of the world’s most iconic pieces of architecture, and most famous tourist attractions. If you build it, they will come…
And, at the risk of stretching the analogy, if the Church is what she is meant to be, they will come, more than the tourists flocking to Paris, or that used to…And the world, or a good part of it, will be converted.