John Janaro's Blog, page 216

Teach Me

Life and Death, Ashes and Fire

Nine months ago, Christina Grimmie was murdered. Twenty three years ago this Sunday, she was born into this world.

"A time to be born, and a time to die" (Ecclesiastes 3:2). Such a short time. What claim can a drop of water make between the time it sprays up in the wind and the time it falls back into the vast ocean? Or the stick that sparkles in the fire before collapsing into black dust and disappearing into the dark cold earth?

"All is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Still, in all the vast galaxies of dust and fire and ashes there are these tiny specks that call themselves human beings, and that have the audacity to protest against gravity. They fight against the darkness. They refuse to accept their own disappearance. They fight for life, and more... for goodness, beauty, and truth.



Do they have a chance? Do we have a chance?

Let's face it: all our hearts are invested in this wild hope. Humans struggle and dream. They long to win even when all seems lost. They look for help. Indeed, something about the experience of life and its correspondence to the depths of themselves tells them that they must not give up. They must keep hoping, keep seeking.

All through history they have had their hopes, their stories, or (as we see today) their superheroes and their games. They know that it's not just a farce, a delusion--that there is something real about heroism and therefore that it's worth getting up again, summoning the strength, taking risks, being courageous.

The Grimmie family and others who are carrying on Christina's legacy are working hard to arrange for the posthumous release of the significant body of music she made in the last year of her life. Today they posted a dramatic and fascinating animated video for the song Invisible. Though she didn't conceive this video herself, it was made as a tribute to her spirit and her various struggles, style, and ways of having fun by those who were closest to her. Click HERE to watch it on her YouTube channel.

Christina loved fantasy genre and was an avid video game player, especially the Legends of Zelda. Not all video games are about gratuitous violence. Some aspire to present the perennial epic human stories in new ways, to dramatize the struggle for the good and against evil. The human question about what makes life worth living cannot be suppressed. We should not be surprised to find it rising up in what we might think are unusual places.

Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, verse 2... in Elvish?Whatever space is given to human beings to live, they will search for meaning there. Even in the midst of the most intense obscurity and brokenness, the insatiable human thirst for the truth of life--for beauty, freedom, love, goodness, and justice--will assert itself. And with such an enormous and seemingly impossible need, the hope for a hero, a champion, will rise up in the human heart.

Christina Grimmie loved these stories of the battle for the good and the victory of good over evil, and she also loved the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. She sensed both the intensity and the irony of its author's dissatisfaction with the things of the world, the things that pass away, the things that are not enough to satisfy the human heart. She had the verse "All is vanity" tattooed on her right arm in the Elvish script of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Of course, she knew that the stories of heroes were not merely fantasies. She knew that the world was being saved from its own vanities, that history itself was being fashioned into the greatest of all stories, that at the heart of history was a real man who died and rose from the dead.

Ultimately He is the one who summons every human heart to remain in hope.

Two of Christina Grimmie's many posts on Twitter where she witnessed to the hope that shaped everything for her.

Hot Coffee Will Wake You Up!

Forsythia Bushes Try to "Weather" a Fickle Beginning of March

Eileen's Birthday and Her Gift to Us

March 5, 2017 was a very, very special day. 
Yesterday, Eileen Janaro attained the "age of wisdom." Yes, this particular birthday represents a special milestone for my beloved wife (in numerical terms).
You understand, of course, that when it comes to specific "figures," it is beyond my power to provide them. I can speak of such things only with regard to myself; I wouldn't dare to reveal the secrets of a lady. Call me old fashioned. (Or call me silly, or a smart aleck, whatever...

The Gratuitousness of God's Love

"God is great and powerful, but His greatness and power are displayed in loving us, we who are so little, so incapable....

"It is love that takes the first step, which does not depend on human merits but is of immense gratuitousness.

"It is the divine solicitude that nothing can stop, not even sin, because it is able to go beyond sin, to overcome evil and forgive it."

~Pope Francis

For a Real Fast, Sackcloth and Ashes Are Not Enough

God's people thought they were following the rules. They thought they were 'pushing all the right buttons' to access the Divinity. This whole fasting-and-penance thing was, after all, His idea. And yet it didn't seem to be 'working.' God's people didn't get it, so they started to grumble:

"Why do we fast, and you do not see it?
afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?" (Isaiah 58:3)

Well, the Lord decided to give them an answer, and boy did He ever give it to them: So you think you're fasting and doing so much service to me, and I'm not being 'fair' with you? What's so great about your fasting and penance? That's my gloss of what might be considered an implied rhetorical question to set the context for what the Lord says in answer to His people. In the text of Isaiah 58, He gets right to the point:
"On your fast day you carry out your own pursuits,
and drive all your laborers.
Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting,
striking with wicked claw.
"Would that today you might fast
so as to make your voice heard on high!
"Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
"This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
"Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
"If you remove the yoke from among you,
the accusing finger, and malicious speech;
If you lavish your food on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then your light shall rise in the darkness,
and your gloom shall become like midday;
Then the Lord will guide you always
and satisfy your thirst in parched places,
will give strength to your bones
And you shall be like a watered garden,
like a flowing spring whose waters never fail."
(Isaiah 58:3-11)
This is what God wants first and foremost, every season of the year: that we adhere to Him, trust in Him and walk in His ways, recognize Him and serve Him in the poor and afflicted, and turn away from sin.
If we trust in our own power, we will inevitably resort to violence, and our desperate attempts to hide our injustice behind a few external penitential practices are not going to gain favor with the God of justice.
How much simpler it is to relinquish our own grasping, covetousness, and ambition. If we let our hearts be opened by treating our neighbors with justice and love--as persons who share with us the dignity of being made in the image of God--then we will experience the healing power of the God of mercy.
He will satisfy our thirst in the desert.

Does the Search for "Clarity" Hold Us Back?

I recently came across several versions of an anecdote about a brief conversation between Mother Teresa and the then-young John Kavanaugh, S.J. (who went on to 36 years of distinguished service teaching philosophy at Saint Louis University before his death in 2012). Kavanaugh worked with Mother Teresa at the Missionaries of Charity "home for the dying" in Calcutta in 1975 during his final year of the lengthy Jesuit preparation process.
At the end of his time in India, Kavanaugh was trying to discern whether to request to return to his place as a university professor in America or to remain where he was, in service to the poorest of the poor. Though the story varies in the telling, the conversation went something like this:

Mother Teresa: "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Fr Kavanaugh: "Yes, please pray for me. Pray that I might have clarity."

Mother Teresa: "No. I will not pray for this. Your search for clarity is what holds you back."

Fr Kavanaugh: "But Mother, you have always had clarity about everything."

Mother Teresa: "No, I have never had clarity. What I have always had is trust. I will pray that you will come to trust in God."

Pieces of a Dusty Wednesday in March

Here is a random collection of words and images that were part of today's (somewhat later than usual) beginning of the annual journey towards Easter. As we see above, the starlings still gather in the treetops in the last days of a Winter that never quite got started this year. Spring begins to be in the air, but the trees are bare and the bird's head is black as ashes.
"Ash Wednesday" is always a good time to "turn again" to the verses of T. S. Eliot's great poem named for the day and expressive of what was in 1930 his newfound faith. I love this poem so very very much! Here is the text of Part 1.
Ash Wednesday (Part 1)

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
******************************************************
Now for the sunset with its varied hues:


Next, if you haven't given up all music for Lent, listen to this terrific song that I have been playing again and again through the day. Here is a voice that has been singing out with deep, sometimes ringing strong, sometimes smoky bluesy tones in Contemporary Christian Music in the past few years. Lauren Daigle brings her very special style to this worship song based on the text of Ezekiel 37.


Here are some texts to help us focus on the journey ahead:



And there is the promise that strengthens us in the midst of our sacrifices, which bear fruit even in the present life. Let us not forget that we are living a great adventure. Following Jesus gives us the first taste of the joy of our destiny right now, even as we live here in this world, day by day. It is a life greater than we could ever make for ourselves; a life of suffering too, but with the hope that enables us to endure and the light that leads us forward. The Lord Himself tells us about this adventure, this life of sacrifice and joy and suffering and hope:

Hooray For February Baseball!

This is a crummy picture of the TV but, the point is, LOOK!
IT'S THE NATIONALS!
ON TELEVISION!
PLAYING BASEBALL!
And, let the record show, the date is FEBRUARY 28TH: Hooray for February Baseball!!! The Nats won this game with a walk off homer by Michael A. Taylor. Of course, it's Spring Training in Florida, so it doesn't "count" for anything except fun and a good workout for the guys.
But still, it's that magic time of year when every team can dream and every kid can dream. Indeed, it makes me feel ten years old again. I love all sports, but baseball is the only one that is woven into my life in this visceral way. It makes my childhood present to me again, and more: it reminds me of my father and my grandfather, and my son.
So at the end of this February, I feel like a kid, with Spring on the way, another baseball season starting, and longer, brighter days ahead.
It's silly taking pictures of the television, but this is where it's happening: The boys in the dugout and wise old Dusty Baker.