John Janaro's Blog, page 121

Birth of Saint the Baptist

Since ancient times, the Church has celebrated the Birth of Saint John the Baptist on June 24.

Six months from now it will be Christmas Eve, and that may seem far away, but today's feast reminds us that the joy of Christmas is always with us. Saint John the Baptist is honored as the “Forerunner” who proclaimed the coming of Christ: “John testified to him and cried out, 'This was he of whom I said, "He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me"'" (John 1:15). In giving him his name, Zechariah said: “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins" (Luke 1:76-77).

Zechariah and Elizabeth, those two elders of Israel, were both "upright according to the Law," faithful to God's covenant, grown old in the observance of its signs, and in the hope and expectation engendered by its mysterious promises. Now they are filled with joy as they welcome their own miraculous child at his birth. They already know that he is the herald of the fulfillment soon to come, the light who illuminates all things, the One who brings peace: "In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us" (Luke 1:78).

Our Wedding Anniversary: Going "Out For Dinner," 2020 Style

A rose!

I always give Eileen roses for our Anniversary. I make that dashing, bold, romantic trip to the supermarket and I get some roses in the flower section and pay my money! This is the 21st century, after all, the epoch of cheap convenience for everything. Right!?

O wait... actually, it's 2020. Heh heh, things are done a bit differently now...

Going to the store is more of a project, with masks, and social distancing, and all that. And who knows whether there will be any nice flowers? Really, "convenience" is more of a crap shoot in these days of the "phased reopening" of our state. And there are no guarantees about "cheap" either (unless you're getting gasoline!). Of course, these problems are minor, and in fact we've been too spoiled in the past. The larger rupture in the overall infrastructure of the economy, however, has done more serious damage to people's lives, in addition to the many painful, serious illnesses and deaths caused by virus itself. 

In any case, I'm not going to stores or many other public places right now. I'm a high risk person in anybody's book. Even people who believe that coronavirus is overhyped fake news, or a scam to distract us while space aliens come to take over the world, would tell me that I should probably "lay low" right now.

Ironically, I have been out and about plenty all through the Spring. I live in an area where it's possible to walk (or climb or scramble) in many directions for miles without coming within six feet of any human being. Sure, there are people here and there, doing their own stuff, and you wave and they wave back from their garden or their tractor or even passing by on the road (we don't have sidewalks, and there's plenty of room on the road for people to pass by). This environment hasn't changed much. Meanwhile, I can get close to hills, streams, trees, flowers, and other beautiful things (that are "safe" according to the current focus of that term).

The range of my lifestyle was limited long before COVID-19. I learned years ago that adventures are waiting for me right outside my front door. Even if, because of my health condition, they are relatively short (and inordinately tiring) adventures.

Getting roses "in the wild" would have to be an adventure this year. There are rose bushes in the neighborhood. Most of the roses I saw were way past their bloom, but I found a few good ones (see above). And the old proverb is true: roses have thorns. Ouch!!

We also like to "go out for dinner" on our Anniversary. The restaurants in town are all available... for TAKEOUT or delivery. Part of the fun of a restaurant is the "ambiance" - but we were going to have to make our own ambiance. At least we could get some really good food, special food, cooked by someone else.

The Thai restaurant in town on Main Street offers everything on their menu (even the red snapper, yum!) - but we kept it simple: some small dishes of things to dip, and a "Pad Thai" and a "Sweet and Sour Beef" (with the fresh pineapples in the sauce, yum) and then, of course, I got a "small" bowl of my favorite "Tom Kha Gai" (chicken coconut milk soup). And Mango Sticky Rice for dessert.

Like I said, we kept it simple.

It would have looked nicer in their lovely restaurant. But it still tasted great! And we still went "out" to eat, right out into the front yard, with a lovely tablecloth on the picnic table and our own regular (non-plastic) tableware and utensils (fun fact: Thai people don't eat with chopsticks; they use spoons and forks - and we use knives too because some of the meat chunks in these dishes are pretty big).


The evening air was cool. The mosquitos mostly stayed away. They haven't gotten too bad (yet). It was delightful!

We definitely made our own ambiance, and it was very comfortable and casual. We didn't have the fun of "dressing up" fancy. We could have worn formal attire for this "intimate garden dinner party," I suppose. We might have done something like that 20 years ago, and we will get a chance to dress our best in a couple of months, as "mother and father of the groom" at John Paul's wedding. (Oh wow, that's coming up really soon!)

But we kept the dress code really laid-back for our 24th Anniversary Picnic Dinner. Eileen still looked beautiful. She is such a beautiful lady. I am so blessed to have her as the companion of my life.


The only other "problem"

"Apocalypse in Slow Motion" - More Thoughts (Part 2)

Who is this masked man?

Is he scared? He looks scared. Maybe he's a germophobe. Or maybe his eyes are bugged out because the thing is wrapped so tightly on his face. Or, maybe he's just goofing around.

Most likely, it's goofing around. The expression, that is. He did seriously go out in public dressed like this.

It seems he wants to be a good citizen and a decent fellow, and he has no compelling reason to disagree with the law requiring masks in public places. From his point of view, it seems like a sensible and not excessively onerous precaution. So he has covered his face.

But with what?

What is he actually wearing? The fact is that he lives in a fairly rural area and doesn't go out in public very often these days. He goes out open-faced when he's alone, walking and enjoying the local scenery (and did quite a bit of that during the Spring) but he has only gone out to public gatherings a few times since March, only on Sundays since the churches reopened.

Being both too distracted and too cheap to buy a mask, he has made his rare sojourns wearing a clean dish towel. It seemed humorous to him, going to church looking like a bandit or a bank robber.

But now, Summer has arrived, and, man, this thing makes you get hot! So, looks like it's time to buy a mask.

**********************************************************************

I was born in 1963. The population of the world that year was about 3.1 billion people (which was more than double the population at the beginning of the century).

Now in this year of 2020, the world's population is about 7.8 billion.

In my lifetime so far (I do hope I have some time yet ahead, God willing) the global population has increased by 4.7 billion people!!

I'm not citing this fact in a negative way, nor do I advocate using unnatural means to "control" population growth. I am in favor of people. I believe that the creativity of people - working in an integral ecological harmony with the resources, energies, and fruitfulness of the natural world - will make it possible for many more to thrive on this earth.

If we live with wisdom and generosity, we can flourish in a world of beauty and diversity. It's not numbers of people who threaten the earth. The threat comes from material cupidity, that drives people (in whatever numbers) to do violence to the world and foolishly strip its resources in an insatiable lust for power and possessions.

Size of population doesn't really increase this danger, because the vast majority of the population - whatever its size - is poor. Whatever may be their particular incoherence in relation to their immediate environments, the poor are inevitably subject to the few who actively possess power to manipulate material reality. What is crucial is that power be used with wisdom.

All of that being said, I want to just marvel at this stunning fact of my own lifetime: 4.7 billion more people in the world! Wow!! It's another feature of the truly epochal historical period we are passing through.

7.8 billion people in the world. Every one of them a person, precious, loved, created in the image of God, possessing inestimable value. Up with people! The ecological measure for the human community (and along with it the whole earth) is justice and love, wisdom, self-restraint, and generosity.

This is an ecology that acknowledges God.

What is the alternative? That the few continue to rape and pillage the earth in order to indulge their lust for power while the multitudes are sterilized?

**********************************************************************

Another "Father's Day" has come. I had a good day with the family. But I miss my own father, and have fond thoughts of my youth - indeed of the days when he was quite a bit younger than I am now.


This is my Dad and Mom and their boys, circa... oh, I'm guessing 1977-1978. So he's 42 and she's 39 and we're teenagers. (I needed a haircut!

The Treasures in Mary's Heart

"Mary treasured all these things, and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). #ImmaculateHeartOfMary #FeastDay

Jesus Said, "I am Meek and Humble of Heart

This is a bit of computer graphic art of Sacred Heart of Jesus, based on a particular statue in Mexico City that I appreciate.

On this beautiful Feast Day, we glorify Jesus in his most Sacred Heart, the very depth of his assumed humanity through which he loves us, unites himself to our particular lives, has compassion and mercy on us.

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. And you will find rest for yourselves, for my yoke is easy and my burden light" (Matthew 11:27-29).

Our contemplative Papa Benedict, the monk who once served as bishop of Rome and successor of Saint Peter, expressed the significance of this mysterious and utterly real fact so decisive for our lives:

My Dad and my Mom, 60 years ago today...

My Dad and my Mom, 60 years ago today...

Wow, that's a chunk of time.

They nearly made it to 59 years before my Dad's death in April of 2019. Mom is okay, though we can only talk to her on the phone these days. Her time in the Assisted Living place in Arlington was just supposed to be an "interval" before we got a bigger house and she moved out here. It's turning out to be a long interval ... but thank God she's there and well, and content for now.

Lord, grant eternal rest to my father and bless and keep my mother.➕

We Are God's Little Children

We really have no idea how much God loves us. And, of course, God is not surprised by this. He knows we are small and weak, in need of his constant attention, protection, and tenderness. He knows we are little children.

He is our Father.

God loves us, each of us, with a love so radical that human fatherhood is a poor image in comparison. This means we can - we should - trust in him, whatever difficulties we may face.

God is our Father who loves us. He has a plan that is for our good, to bring us into everlasting possession of his own inexhaustible goodness. He is not just fooling around with our lives.

We should be able to grasp what Jesus means by the images he uses in the Gospel. If our children ask for bread, we don’t give them stones. If they ask for eggs, we don't give them scorpions. We know there's a serious problem with parental abuse or neglect if those kinds of things happen in a family. Even if we're decent and honorable people, that doesn't mean we're perfect parents by any stretch, but hopefully we're trying our best.

God is certainly an infinitely better Father to me than I could ever be to my own children. So why am I afraid that I can’t trust Him? Could I have really given myself a better life than the actual life that God has given me? And can I construct a better future for myself than what God has planned for me?

Should I not trust Him? What God wants for me is so much more, so much greater, so much more glorious and joyful, than what I think I want for myself.

In eternity, we shall see all and rejoice in all. Here, we see through that dark glass called faith. Sometimes it is very dark, but we must trust God to give us what we need to sustain hope, and to grow in the capacity to respond to His mysterious Love with our own childlike, radical, self-abandoning love.

The Eucharist: A Loving “Fragility”

“In our fragmented lives, the Lord comes to meet us with a loving ‘fragility,’ which is the Eucharist. In the Bread of Life, the Lord comes to us, making himself a humble meal that lovingly heals our memory...

“The Eucharist gives us a grateful memory, because it makes us see that we are the Father’s children, whom he loves and nourishes. It gives us a free memory, because Jesus’ love and forgiveness heal the wounds of the past, soothe our remembrance of wrongs experienced and inflicted. It gives us a patient memory, because amid all our troubles we know that the Spirit of Jesus remains in us. The Eucharist encourages us: even on the roughest road, we are not alone; the Lord does not forget us and whenever we turn to him, he restores us with his love.”
~Pope Francis

Christianity is New Life in the Spirit

It is very easy to think of Christianity as "a bunch of stuff we have to do" (or not do), because God and the Church say so, and then try to negotiate and integrate this rather burdensome collection of stuff into our lives.

We really need to ask ourselves: "Is this how we live our faith? Is this how we present it to others?"

The rest of the world often views Christianity as a collection of external rules that more or less interfere with real life. This is one reason why people in the secular world view serious Christian faith as a hindrance to living a mature human life.

Christianity is seen as an obstacle and even a frustration to the desire to attain the fullness of personal existence. Its laws and complicated disciplines, rituals, and structure of authority - all imposed by manipulation and fear - suffocate the person. Christianity sets itself against the motivating impetus of living, the attraction of reality that gets people out of bed every morning, that actually interests and engages them as persons in a meaningful way. It's supposedly important for what happens to someone "in the afterlife," which seems remote from the vitality and the demands of the here-and-now. Religious people are preoccupied with maneuvering their way through arcane mazes in order to avoid some future punishment. They are no different from anyone else other than these "games" they play.

So goes the thought process of some non-Christians and the portrayal of Christianity in the general culture. Is that what it means to be a Christian? What a grim business! No wonder people want nothing to do with it.

But of course this view is a terrible distortion of our faith. In reality, our relationship with Jesus in the Church fulfills our humanity and illuminates the full depths of what we seek in all that we do: the Mystery that fascinates us and calls out to us in all the good and beautiful aspects of life. We must beware that we do not allow our own understanding of our faith to be reduced to a kind of puritannical moralism. Our fulfillment, our happiness as persons is central to God's promise.

Jesus calls us to life - "eternal life" - which is the opposite of a constraint on our humanity. In reality, sin is what frustrates and suffocates us. Jesus heals us, sets us free, and transforms us.

We must remember above all that Christianity is a new life, a supernatural life, a life of communion with God. Through baptism, we have been given a participation in the Divine life, and through grace this life grows within us and transforms us. God gives Himself to us; He draws us into a personal relationship with Himself; He leads us to our destiny which is to share forever in His glory, to behold and to love forever the One who is the fullness of all goodness, to belong to Him forever.

Eternal glory has already begun, secretly, in the very heart of this ordinary life, because God dwells in us, and God is at work in our lives.

But why are we so dull and unaware? Because we need the light of the Holy Spirit to recognize the path He has laid out before us. Christianity is not external to the real concerns of our lives. It illuminates them and opens us up to their true meaning. But this only happens if we live the relationship with God that He continually desires to deepen throughout our lives.

And how can I live and grow in a relationship with Eternal Love except by asking for Him to change me, asking for Him to empower me to love Him more, asking Him to enable me to see the Church as the instrument of His love, and her teachings as the road of love that really corresponds to my life?

I want Him to "come" into my life, deepen my relationship with Him, and make me more aware of His presence. This is why I must ask, continually, for the gift of the Holy Spirit to be renewed within me. This is why my whole heart has to be a living, loving, begging prayer for God's grace.

More Coffee!

Let's have coffee all day long!!