Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 322

Sheep and Goats

A detail many people miss when interpreting today's gospel about the sheep and goats is that for the shepherd in Palestine the sheep and the goats look pretty much alike. We think of sheep as the fluffy wooly variety and goats as looking like scrawny billy goat types with a beard.



The sheep and goats in Palestine are hard to tell apart. That's why the parable has so much more poignant meaning. The shepherd, on judgement day, has to look carefully and discern which is which. So, like the wheat and tares that grow together, so the sheep and goats may be in the same pasture, but when they have to be distinguished only the master shepherd is able to do so.



Furthermore, the fact that the goats look outwardly much like the sheep is a commentary on the church. The sheep live together with the hypocritical goats, and at the judgement both are surprised. The sheep were humble and so are surprised that they are redeemed. The goats were proud and are surprised that they are damned.



How to be a sheep? Serve the poor. Now, this is not just some sort of superficial spiritual blackmail to get us to do more for the poor. No, this is an indication of who the sheep really are and who the goats really are. The goats are the Christians who are all pious and have their worship and doctrine all correct and come across as the 'good Christians'.



The sheep look like the Good Shepherd who is also the Lamb of God. They resemble him who came--out of his vary nature--to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. These sheep may look like goats, but they just quietly get on with the job of loving God and loving their neighbor. They do so, not because they are trying hard to be good, but because (as they serve the poor) they are simply doing what they want to do.

Almost There!

Okay. Tomorrow's the last day. Then you won't see the cowboy bandit (or the nagging wife) for another year.



Here's the last plea: I try to post something on this blog daily. Often there are two or three or even five or six posts a day. Pretty Catholic pictures, stuff on saints and spirituality, apologetics, liturgy and architecture and art and music. Film and book reviews, satire and fun, a few personal items, some poetry and political comment and pretty much a lot of stuff here on this blog.



If you appreciate the blog please help out. At this time I am asking for donations. Just hit the 'Donate' button. I'm recommending a donation of $25.00 for everyone who reads the blog. That amounts to less than seven cents a day over one year! As one person in the combox said, "If you can afford a computer to read this blog you can afford $25.00 a year to help Padre!" So if you can help, please do.



The rest of the year the blog is free. I have a summer book sale, but other than that, there are no requests for donations. There are not charity drives. There are also no ads, no pop ups, no promotions and no requests from third party people for you to donate.



I still have a way to go to meet my goal for this year, so if you haven't pitched in yet, can you do so? Remember, this is part of my ministry. I get emails and notes and comments from around the world from people who have been helped in many different ways by the blog. Converts who way it has helped them into the Catholic Church, seminarians who have been assisted in their journey, lapsed Catholics who are finding their way home, Catholics who are victims of the liberal AmChurch form of Catholicism and many more.



Your donation helps me continue this work. Thanks so much and God bless you!

On Kings and Kingdoms

As an Anglican priest I attended one of those tiresome clergy conferences and some fellow named Russell in a blue clerical shirt was up front going on about 'the commonwealth of God.' He couldn't bring himself to say 'kingdom of God.'



It wasn't politically correct.



So over dinner I made a point of sitting by him and asking him about this novelty.



"Hi Russell, Mind if I sit here?"



"Please do."



"Russell, I kept hearing you say, 'commonwealth of God' during your talk. What did you mean by that exactly?"



"You see, Jesus spoke of the 'kingdom of God' and that is not a term which is readily understood by modern people today."



"But we live in England. Surely everyone here knows what a monarch is don't they?"



Patronizing smile: "Yes, but the Queen's power is negligible. She's just a figure head."



"Maybe, but even so, she holds pretty much power doesn't she just because of who she is?"



"We live in a democracy and Jesus and his disciples did not understand democracy. That's why he used language about a king and kingdom."



"Hang on a sec. The people of ancient times understood democracy didn't they? I mean it wasn't exactly like ours, but only a few years before Jesus' time Rome was a Republic, and isn't 'democracy' a Greek word? I thought they understood democracy too. So Jesus and his disciples would have understood democracy, but he chose to use the image of kingdom."



Another polite smile, "Perhaps, but you see, that's really beside the point because we live in a democracy today and medieval terminology about kings is degrading to modern people."



"I don't feel degraded by it. It inspires me. I do, however, feel degraded by 'the commonwealth of God.' It makes me feel like a Bolshevist comrade in arms. But anyhow, does it really matter whether the king was medieval or ancient or modern? The idea of a king and kingdom really is very different from that of a commonwealth or a democracy, and Jesus must have chosen the king and kingdom imagery for a purpose."



"Yes, but modern people don't relate to it."



"I relate to it, and I'm an American. Can't get much more modern than that!"



Smile turns to teeth baring grin and menacing chuckle, "Yes, well you Americans do sometimes have quaint ideas about our Queen and the monarchy. I suppose you're also somewhat of an antiquarian. Love the Dark Ages do you? Spanish Inquisition and all that?"



"As it happens I do love the Middle Ages. Apart from the plumbing and dentistry, there's a lot that was better in the Middle Ages. Especially kings and castles and knights and monasteries and gothic cathedrals and all that. Say, Russell, have you ever thought what sort of person you'd be in the Middle Ages? I've always thought I'd be either a Benedictine monk or a court jester. What kind of person do you see yourself as in the Middle Ages?"



"I can't say I've ever given it much thought."



" I know! I could see you as one of those guys who pushes the cart through the  streets during the Black Death yelling, 'Bring out your dead!!' "



"How amusing. I think I'll go get some dessert."

New Year New Start

I can't wait for Advent Sunday because I never think of January first as the beginning of a New Year. The beginning of the New Year is Advent Sunday. That's when I make my resolutions. That's when I make a fresh start. That's when I surge into the mystical cycle of birth and life and death that culminates in the Paschal Mysteries.



I've been a Catholic for sixteen years and an Anglican for fifteen years before that, and I'm still feeling like I am only beginning to get the deep beauty of the liturgical year into my bloodstream. Observing Advent as the year's beginning is a good way to do it. If you want to celebrate New Year's Day then keep the solemnity of the Mother of God on that day.



Here are a few things that will be happening on this blog as a result of the new year: first, there is going to be a freshen up. I'm going through to freshen up my blogroll, links and sidebar items. Next, my weekly homilies will be available as podcasts to listen to directly or download from the blog. There will also be more interaction between the blog, Facebook, Twitter and the websites I write for. Also, in the new year I will be starting my own radio show here in South Carolina, and we will have links with local Catholic radio, and figure out how to make the radio show available through the blog. Finally, I will be consolidating my priestly ministry more, so that the various things  I do will be available on one main website.



You can see why I am excited by the new year. Just as a mention, we are coming to the end of the annual Stick 'em Up Campaign. A good number of people have made donations to Standing on My Head. If you like the ideas I've put forward, and you would like to help this ministry move forward, please make your donations now.



I won't be asking again for another year!

Stick 'em Up

Hey there pardner, don't you forgit to make your donation to the good Padre's blog. He ain't gonna be askin' for much longer, so get your tapping and clicking fingers over the the 'Donate' button and cough up. He's asking jes' twenty five bucks. That's a measly 7 cents a day. Shucks, you couldn't even buy a licorice stick for that much! As one reader over there in his combox said, "If you got a computer to read this blog, then you got twenty five bucks to help out the old Padre. So don't be cheap.

Christ the King

Note: The following is what is called a 'hymn'. A hymn has strong theology, beautiful poetry, noble and moving sentiments and a simple, worshipful and singable tune. This is not a praise song or a devotional ditty or a song which, if you changed the word 'Jesus' to 'my baby' could make it into the pop charts. Read it and maybe sing it and ask yourself if you understand all the allusions, the symbols, the Biblical references--and if you do not why not?






Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne.
Hark! How the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee,
And hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity.




Crown Him the virgin's Son, the God incarnate born,
Whose arm those crimson trophies won which now His brow adorn;
Fruit of the mystic rose, as of that rose the stem;
The root whence mercy ever flows, the Babe of Bethlehem.




Crown Him the Son of God, before the worlds began,
And ye who tread where He hath trod, crown Him the Son of Man;
Who every grief hath known that wrings the human breast,
And takes and bears them for His own, that all in Him may rest.




Crown Him the Lord of life, who triumphed over the grave,
And rose victorious in the strife for those He came to save.
His glories now we sing, who died, and rose on high,
Who died eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die.




Crown Him the Lord of peace, whose power a scepter sways
From pole to pole, that wars may cease, and all be prayer and praise.
His reign shall know no end, and round His piercèd feet
Fair flowers of paradise extend their fragrance ever sweet.




Crown Him the Lord of love, behold His hands and side,
Those wounds, yet visible above, in beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends his burning eye at mysteries so bright.




Crown Him the Lord of Heaven, enthroned in worlds above,
Crown Him the King to Whom is given the wondrous name of Love.
Crown Him with many crowns, as thrones before Him fall;
Crown Him, ye kings, with many crowns, for He is King of all.




Crown Him the Lord of lords, who over all doth reign,
Who once on earth, the incarnate Word, for ransomed sinners slain,
Now lives in realms of light, where saints with angels sing
Their songs before Him day and night, their God, Redeemer, King.




Crown Him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail! For Thou has died for me;
Thy praise and glory shall not fail throughout eternity.

Stuff Happening

Last night we enjoyed a great book launch and party with our dear friends Richard and Ruth Ballard. Their new book, What the Saints Said About Heaven is out now, and makes a terrific Christmas gift.



This morning I'm heading downtown to St Mary's, Greenville to speak at our Greenville Pro Life Conference. Fr Paul Williams OFM and Dr Alveda King are the other speakers. Then this is the weekend we celebrate Christ the King and head into Advent.

An Almighty Pun

So I'm leading the seventh grade retreat and talking to the kids about prayer. Personal prayer. How to talk to God and how to listen to his voice. And I tell them the story of the time the bird spoke Bible verses to me and they are delighted. So I say that sometimes God speaks through signs and symbols and word games and new connections.



After their time of prayer--they had to walk around outside on their own and talk with God--I asked them if God did speak to them and one boy speaks to me on his own and says, "I was walking by the lake and asking God why people pick on me sometimes at school, and I sort of got an answer. I thought in my head that I should stick up for myself more. Then I look out at the lake and there was a stick that was floating on the water, and then the wind caught the stick and it flipped over and stood up for a second. See! I was thinking that I should stick up for myself, and then God showed me a stick that was sticking up! Isn't that cool?"



Sure it's cool, and isn't it cool that God speaks to a seventh grader in such a 'standing on my head' kind of way?

Almost Last Chance

We're almost at the end of the annual Stick 'em Up Campaign. Just once a year I pass the hat for donations on this blog. For a donation of $25.00 you get all this blogging! No ads for coffee made by monks. No pop ups asking you to buy worthy but dull Catholic movies. No monthly or quarterly tin cup rattles by a Dark Lord. No guilt trips. Just lots of happy Catholic blogging.



Yes, for another year I will attempt to post pretty pictures that are chust for nice. I'll include some poetry, book reviews and movie reviews. I'll dish out the same mix of Benedictine spirituality, apologetics and critiques of liberal Christianity. Where else do you have such an array of entertaining guest bloggers? In the new year I think Todd Unctous may find a new understanding of faith. The Vicar and Daphne's story will move on. Will Caitlin O'Rourke grow up or will she always be eight years old? Duane Mandible may run for political office, although I understand he is also contemplating a priestly vocation in the Society of St Philibustre. Mrs Brady, Catholic old lady will continue dishing up tea and cakes and Mantilla the Hun may come up with some new enterprise to promote good vestments in the church--and I think Old Monk is here to stay.



If you like the blog please pitch in. Now's your chance for this year. To those who have already contributed--many thanks. For those of you who haven't--if you don't who will?



Just hit the 'Donate' button and give what you can. If you would like some return for your donation why not do some Christmas shopping and buy some books? Click on the image in the right sidebar and it takes you to my website where the books can be purchased.



$25.00 per year? That's less than seven cents a day!



Thanks for helping out![image error]

Change the World?

Why do you wish to change the world

When you cannot change yourself?