A Short Sunday Homily - Christ Walks On The Water

 

Christ walks on the water to his Apostles in the midst of the lake, at around 3 am, the fourth watch, as they toil, tormented, against the storm. Behold the miracle, but we have to ask, why did Christ perform it, why did he choose this particular way to cross the sea of Galilee?

Consider the Old Testament context, where we find many aquatic miracles, including Elisha parting the Jordan with Elijah's mantle, Joshua parting the Jordan and preeminently Moses, who famously parts the Red Sea so that the Israelites can pass through, unscathed.

Granted, great signs of divine power in the persons of God's messengers and leaders, but Christ is more than this, and he does something only God can do, he walks on water. Scripture is clear, this is God's domain, "The Lord alone stretches forth the heavens and walks on the waves of the sea," (Job 9:8) which is exactly what Christ does. He says as much.

In the fourth watch, in the dead of night, as the storm blows fiercely, Jesus comes to the men on the boat and says, "Take heart, it is I, Have no fear." It is I; in the Greek, ἐγώ εἰμι, literally I Am. We've heard this before, Christ is telling the Apostles that He is the same God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. Accordingly, they should have no fear. Our Lord then gets into the boat and the storm is stilled, leaving them "astounded."

Yes indeed, here is a man who is also God and the Apostles attempt to grapple with this fact. We leave them, astounded, in the boat. The same boat which we see from our vantage point as a model of the Church, making her progress through the waters of the world. The Church to which Christ comes in the fourth watch of Antichrist's storm and saves her, at his second coming, putting an end to evil and sin for all time.

Christ comes to us today, no matter how high or fiercely the tempest blows against us, and says as he said to his Apostles, "Take heart, it is I, Have no fear." And neither should we. In him, Jesus, who died and rose again we have found salvation, the forgiveness of sins and resurrection to eternal life. Nothing, not even the Olympic marketing team itself, can take that from us.

So be of good cheer and give God the glory.

Your Apocalyptic Pal,

LSP

Just Throwin' it Out There

 

Rock on

Merry Christmas,

LSP

New Year's Day - What Will Tomorrow Bring?

 

A friend sent this, what does it mean?!?

So here we are at the beginning of a new year, it's rolled around yet again and we're still standing, for the most part. All well and good, but what will tomorrow bring? Good question.

It may bring rain or it may bring snow or any old thing, such is our old enemy, the Weather. Perhaps it will bring stagflation, Weimar style and we'll all be hauling our crypto  home in wheelbarrows as one bullet = >1000 USD$. Maybe there'll be war because, after all, too much peace ain't good for the bottom line and, of course, there'll be plague, we know this. Wear your masks, serfs, and don't you dare question a rigged midterm, you hate extremists. Mirror of Illusion? Cubed.

Whatever, welcome to the hideous new normal, but think on this. At Christmas we celebrated the advent of Christ into the world, the Word made Flesh, and the eternal light which shines in the darkness becoming flesh, a man, for our salvation. The Light has come down to earth to be the Light of the World and we behold, through the eyes of faith, his glory, full of grace and truth.

Stand fast to him, our redeemer, in this new year. Flee from sin, from the Herods who would destroy him and be filled with confident, joyful hope. All the raging, insane powers of Hell, to say nothing of the world and the flesh cannot defeat the divine life present within us. If, and that's just it, if we remain faithful.

Adeste,

LSP

Merry Christmas!

 

There's such beauty to Christmas Eve, anticipation of the Feast with all the intimacy of the thing itself; presents, family, friends, glittering lights on the tree and on, and joy seems to fill the air. Quite right too, we're celebrating the most miraculous and glorious of things, the birth of Christ, the Word made Flesh, and with it the advent of salvation.

What can we do but bow down in adoration, praise and wonder before the mystery and the Missions did just that, celebrating in fine style. Then it was back to the Compound with the specialist who opened a "tactical stocking" and something called a "gaming laptop." Apparently these are important for today's troops. 

Blue took it in stride and may have got a Christmas special himself. Hmmmm. And so we advanced to contact, in  good way.

Merry Christmas!

LSP

I Am The Bread Of Life

 

"I am the bread of life," says Christ in the sixth chapter of John's Gospel. It's a remarkable statement. Jesus claims that he is the spiritual food which came down from heaven, sent by his Father. That he is true manna, "not such as your fathers ate and died, he who eats this bread will live forever." 

He, Jesus, is the very food which endures for everlasting life, the fulfillment and embodiment of the Law represented by the 5 loaves of the miracle performed the day before. 

He is the glory of God which passed by Moses, who was hidden by God in a cleft in the rock, and spoke through the unquenchable fire of the burning bush. He is now unveiled, present, incarnate, "and we beheld His glory, a glory as of an only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." Glory that's given to us in sacrifice for our atonement on the Cross, "the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Bread which we receive by faith, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” And that's just it. Do we dare to believe, to put our humble, perhaps desperate and fearful faith in the Son of Man who came down from heaven that we might live. To put it another way. Do we labor for earthly food, for bread and power, or for the heavenly food which is the life of God himself? 

Christ faced this temptation in the wilderness and answered Satan, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God." He said no to "all the kingdoms of the world and the glories therein," and went to the Cross, which became his throne. He invites us to do the same, "take up your cross," so that we, in him, will have life, divine life.

Of course you might want to choose bread and power instead, thus cunningly marking yourself with the number of the beast. Your call, good luck. But remember, it's all a Big Pharma congressional larf until you wake up and a demon's gnawing on your inner thigh.

God bless,

LSP

Musical Interlude

I don't care about Willie's bizarro hindoo theology. Drop of rain, again and again and again? Really? I just like the tune.

Cheers,

LSP

Annunciation

 

You can stare, in slack-jawed rightist consternation at the unfolding coup in our country, or you can take time off from the news cycle and reflect on the Annunciation and the Angelic Salutation. Being unhealthily saturated with former, I went down the latter path today. How does the angel address the Virgin?

χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ, which means: χαῖρε - "hail" or "rejoice." κεχαριτωμένη - "O graced" or "favored one." κύριος μετὰ σοῦ? The Lord is with you. And note, the word κεχαριτωμένη appears nowhere else, either in Scripture or any other literature, It's singular to the Annunciation. So is the grace attributed by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary, the Mother of God.

She is blessed beyond reckoning for her virtue and the task that God's commanded of her, to bear His Son into the world for our redemption. Jesus, "God Saves," both in Himself and by His actions, will come into the world through the Virgin's agency. The Word will be made Flesh for our salvation thanks to the assent of Mary's fiat, "I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto according to thy word."

Here we find a template or model of the Church writ large, the Mystical Body of Christ which bears the Savior into the world sacramentally. We see, too, a pattern which describes our own lives as Christians. God wants to be born and come alive in us because He loves us, and because He does He asks our permission to do so, as He asked Mary.

She says yes, with purity and humble, obedient, courageous faith. The weapons, when you think on it, which will crush the serpent's head. This is especially relevant now. 

Pray hard that we're given the grace to mirror Mary's quality of soul and for her powerful intercession that evil, darkness and deceit is driven far from us and from this country.

Ave Eva,

LSP

The Annunciation

We celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation today, and with it Mary's fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum, let it be done unto me according to thy word. With that righteous yes salvation came into the world, may we echo it. But I won't bang on, here's the Angelus:

V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.R. And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.

Hail Mary, full of grace,The Lord is with Thee;Blessed art thou among women,And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.Holy Mary, Mother of God,Pray for us sinners,Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.R. Be it done unto me according to thy word.

Hail Mary, etc.

V. And the Word was made Flesh. (genuflect you heathen)R. And dwelt among us.

 Hail Mary, etc.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that as we have known the Incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his (cross yourselves, pagans) cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

May the Blessed Ever Virgin Mary intercede for you, the hosts of Angels watch over you and may God bless you all, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

LSP

Epiphany

We celebrate the great Feast of the Epiphany today and with it look to the Magi, the Wise Men, who in turn point to Christ and reveal his nature in their gifts. Gold for Kingship, frankincense for divinity and myrrh for embalming and death. The Christ child is our divine king whose throne is the cross. But what of the Magi themselves?

They were astronomers who followed a star, and some argue this was a supernova, a conjunction of planets or something else again, a miraculous event. Perhaps it was all of these, but the Wise Men were more than  astral calculators, they were "wise," they looked for the truth and they found it, Incarnate, lying in a manger.

I was struck by this, from Pope Benedict XVI:

They were "wise." They represent the inner dynamic of religion toward self-transcendence, which involves a search for truth, a search for the true God and hence "philosophy" in the original sense of the word. Wisdom, then, serves to purify the message of "science": the rationality of that message does not remain at the level of intellectual knowledge, but seeks understanding in its fullness, and so raises reason to its loftiest possibilities.

Loftiest possibilities? Heaven itself and the throne of glory, all to be found in the baby lying under a star in a manger.

God bless you all,

LSP

Advent

It's the first Sunday of Advent, and we're getting ready to celebrate the birth of Christ at Christmas and preparing to meet Him on the Last Day, the second Advent. Here's a prayer, the governing collect of the season:

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

The armour of light. The Apostle teaches us (Rom. 13:11-14) that this is nothing less than Christ Himself.  Austin Farrer illuminates:

Advent brings Christmas, judgement runs out into mercy. For the God who saves us and the God who judges us is one God. We are not, even, condemned by his severity and redeemed by his compassion; what judges us is what redeems us, the love of God. What is it that will break our hearts on judgement day? Is it not the vision, suddenly unrolled, of how he has loved the friends we have neglected, of how he has loved us, and we have not loved him in return; how, when we came (as now) before his altar, he gave us himself, and we gave him half-penitences, or resolutions too weak to commit our wills? But while love thus judges us by being what it is, the same love redeems us by effecting what it does. Love shares flesh and blood with us in this present world, that the eyes which look us through at last may find in us a better substance than our vanity.

If you're a bit slow on the uptake, like me, you might want to read the above several times. In the meanwhile, Paris burns.

God bless,

LSP

Patriarchal Wisdom

Listen up, you heathen. Here's the Patriarch of Constantinople dispensing incarnational Christmas wisdom.

Neither the tragic experience of violence and reduction of the human person, nor the proclamation of noble ideals have prevented the continuation of aggression and war, the exaltation of power and the exploitation of one another. Nor again have the domination of technology, the extraordinary achievements of science, and economic progress brought social justice and the peace that we so desire. Instead, in our time, the indulgence of the affluent has increased and globalization is destroying the conditions of social cohesion and harmony...

In the Church, we experience freedom through Christ, in Christ and with Christ. And the very summit of this freedom is the place of love, which “does not seek its own” but “derives from a pure heart.” Whoever depends on himself, seeks his own will, and is self-sufficient—whoever pursues deification by himself and congratulates himself—only revolves around himself and his individual self-love and self-gratification; such a person only sees others as a suppression of individual freedom. Whereas freedom in Christ is always oriented to one’s neighbor, always directed toward the other, always speaks the truth in love. The aim of the believer is not to assert his or her rights, but rather “to follow and fulfill the rights of Christ” in a spirit of humility and thanksgiving.

This truth about the life in Christ, about freedom as love and love as freedom, is the cornerstone and assurance for the future of humankind. When we build on this inspired ethos, we are able to confront the great challenges of our world, which threaten not only our well-being but our very survival.

The truth about the “God-man” is the response to the contemporary “man-god” and proof of our eternal destination proclaimed by the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (Crete, 2016): “The Orthodox Church sets against the ‘man-god’ of the contemporary world the ‘God-man’ as the ultimate measure of all things. “We do not speak of a man who has been deified, but of God who has become man.” The Church reveals the saving truth of the God-man and His body, the Church, as the locus and mode of life in freedom, “speaking the truth in love,” and as participation even now on earth in the life of the resurrected Christ.”

The truth about the "God-man" is the response to the contemporary "man-god" and proof of our eternal destination... Outstanding and you can read the whole thing here. 

As a parting shot, what does the Patriarch's "man-god" look like? Hint, it likes to ride a unicorn en lieu of an eyes wide shut, Rothschild supplied driver but don't ask Welby, he doesn't know.

God bless,

LSP

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone. And for all you followers of hermetic esoterica, Aleister Crowley's old mansion's burned down the other day.

See? There is a God.

Cheers,

LSP 

Felix Navidad!

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! Navidad music fills the air, which is crisp and the stars are bright, and that's what it's like, here in Texas.

God bless you all,

LSP

Almost Christmas

While you're all recovering from Festivus and getting ready for Kwanzaa, I'm gearing up for the first Masses of Christmas, fortified by Huevos Rancheros, strong coffee, and corn tortillas.

Excuse me?

Here's some Austin Farrer to reflect on before Mass:

“WHEN Mary laid Jesus Christ upon her knees, when she searched him with her eyes, when she fed him at the breast, she did not study to love him because she ought, she loved him because he was dear: he was her Son. His conception had been supernatural, perplexing, affrighting; it had called for faith in the incomprehensible, and obedience beyond the limit of human power. His nativity was human and sweet, and the love with which she embraced it was a natural growth, inseparable from the thing she loved. She was blessed above all creatures, because she loved her Maker inevitably and by simple nature; even though it needed the sword—wounds of the Passion to teach her fully that it was her Maker whom she loved. The Son of Mary is the Son of all human kind; we embrace him with the love of our kind, that we may be led up with Mary to a love beyond kind, a selfless love for the supreme Goodness, when we too shall have climbed the ladder of the cross.”

I love that -- the Farrer, not the random dancing priestess, obviously.

God bless,

LSP

House Of Gold

As we prepare for Christmas and try to forget the impending fiscal maelstrom and the likelihood of a Deathstar Blockbuster Bonanza strike against Iran, our minds are drawn to the birth of Christ. It's easy, perhaps, for Christians who focus on the transcendent glory of the Word made Flesh to forget the tenderness and intimacy of the event; to say nothing of the Cross and Passion which the Incarnation unfolds into. Austin Farrer holds all aspects together. In The Crown of the Year he writes:

“WHEN Mary laid Jesus Christ upon her knees, when she searched him with her eyes, when she fed him at the breast, she did not study to love him because she ought, she loved him because he was dear: he was her Son. His conception had been supernatural, perplexing, affrighting; it had called for faith in the incomprehensible, and obedience beyond the limit of human power. His nativity was human and sweet, and the love with which she embraced it was a natural growth, inseparable from the thing she loved. She was blessed above all creatures, because she loved her Maker inevitably and by simple nature; even though it needed the sword - wounds of the Passion to teach her fully that it was her Maker whom she loved. The Son of Mary is the Son of all human kind; we embrace him with the love of our kind, that we may be led up with Mary to a love beyond kind, a selfless love for the supreme Goodness, when we too shall have climbed the ladder of the cross.”

I love that.

LSP