"Spring Renewal'

JMJ. Slowly but surely the weather is getting a wee bit warmer, the days a little bit longer, the birds are doing their chirping thing, the squirrels are getting frisky, and the flowers are beginning to bloom. That's all very nice and I wouldn't have it any other way but there is one more harbinger of newness and growth that gets lost in the shuffle, so to speak.

These are all signs of a natural renewal of life. But just as there are two components of a person--the natural and the supernatural, the body and the soul, so, too, there is a supernatural renewal of life and that is the baptism into new life and into the Church. That's the great thing about Easter. Every year on Holy Saturday evening, pagans become Christians in the baptism of the Trinity and those Christians of other persuasions who have listened to the prompting of the Holy Ghost in their hearts were marked with Holy Oil, allowing full communion with Jesus' Church.

The actions of the Sacraments cannot be seen since they produce their effects in the supernatural realm. But the changes--those are magical and they are most manifest in the wide grins of joy, the tears, and the sense of awe on the countenaces of all those new Catholics who have just received their Saviour in the Blessed Sacrament. It's like coming out of a darkened room into the light of a wide, wondrous, new world. Thanks be to God!

"Easter"

JMJ. Lent is always described as a journey. We are invited to travel with Jesus throughout the forty days of His passion, to suffer with Him as He witnessed one of His own chosen disciples betray Him into the hands of His enemies, to suffer with Him in the garden of Gethsemane, to be lashed with Him at the pillar, to help Him bear His cross to Calvary, and to feel the spikes as they fastened Him to the tree.

And that's as it should be. We, because of our sins, put Him on His road to death and, mystery of mysteries, we hopefully share with Him in His resurrection to eternal life. But there's another aspect to this Lenten journey. It's an embarkation of our own from a life of uncleanliness to one, through His grace, of unstained souls and lives. I didn't make it. I didn't arrive, finally, in my Jerusalem. Through sin, and unfaithfulness, and weakness I lagged by the wayside.

But I progressed. My soul is maybe a little whiter. I have a little better knowledge of my weaknesses and my future promise. And I'm a whole lot nearer my goal than if I had never set out on that Lenten journey. I'm a little bit closer to Home.

"In Time for Spring Planting"

JMJ. Well, folks, in the next four years we'll celebrate the 150th anniversary of the War of Northern Agression, which the more politically-correct continue to call the American Civil War. Be on the look-out for myriads of books, magazine articles, and the musings of liberal media pundits, all of whom will help to perpetuate the myth that slavery was defeated but continues to be the root cause of all the ills of this country, including psoriasis and moral lethargy.

The following, in no particular order, are a few facts for your edification--all true (which is why they're called facts)and all quite verifiable, often from northern sources.

* Abraham Lincoln plotted and maneuvered for war even prior to his inauguration.
* "Honest" Abe didn't care two hoots and a holler for black folks. He wanted to send them all back to Africa.
* Prior to the war he begged (in writing) each state governor to support an amendment to the Constitution enshrining slavery in the US for all time.
* The North, not the South, committed the first act of war when Maj. Rob't. Anderson moved his command in Charleston harbour from Ft. Moultrie to Ft. Sumter.
* The first union officer killed in battle one week before the First Battle of Bull Run was shot by a black Confederate sniper.
* Three black soldiers were killed at the Battle of Gettysburg--all Confederate. At the time there were no black union soldiers in combat.
* At the beginning of the war, roughly 5% of white Southerners owned slaves. Roughly 5% of free Southern blacks did, too.
* The over-bearing and imperial federal government we have now is the direct result of Abraham Lincoln's primary thrust.
* The CSA was fighting, not to protect slavery but to maintain the type of government originally given to us by our Founding Fathers.
* Once the North decided to use black troops, it took almost a year and a half before they finally agreed to pay them the same wage as white soldiers. In 1861, the very beginning of the war, the Confederate government passed a law prescribing the exact same pay for black and white soldiers in its armies.
* Black veterans are buried in Southern war cemeteries and drew state veterans' pensions.
* Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave-trader before the war and one of the most feared of all Confederate commanders, publicly stated that the black cavalry troopers who rode with him were the finest fighters he had.

Ok. That's all for now and enough to get you curious. Everything else you hear to the contrary may be saved up and spread on your gardens.

"A Little Saying"

JMJ. Your truest friend is the one most eager to help you carry your cross.

"Cross vs. Crucifix'

JMJ. I was lying awake in bed the other morning at "oh dark thirty" as we used to say in the service. That's been happening a lot lately but it was kinda fruitful this once. It came to me that in looking at an empty cross and comparing it to a Catholic crucifix we can see a fundamental philosophical difference between Protestants and Catholics.

Now, we all know that Jesus died to redeem our sins--that's a given--and that sacrificial death brought about the possibility of our eventual resurrection into heaven. The empty cross focuses on the reward, the resurrection into eternal life. Portraying Christ on His cross, though, focuses on the supreme sacrifice that led to that reward.

I've always said that the Catholic Church is far more biblical than the Protestants. Well, I and a whole bunch of fellow Catholics, anyway. We have only to read St. Paul who says, "We teach Christ and Him crucified" to see where the early Church put her emphasis. Further, St. Paul says that we must be crucified with Him. It certainly seems to me that we should be focusing on the redemptive sacrifice than the ultimate reward, wondrous as that may be. Besides, what more perfect prayer aid than to look at a crucifix and SEE what is the true price of our sins?

"The New Protestants"

JMJ. Hey, folks, there's a new denomination in town. They claim to be even more Catholic than the Episcopalians. In fact, they once WERE Catholics. With the emphasis on were. Like close siblings in New York, they feel that they are more enlightened than Our successor to the Apostles, Bishop Lennon. No, they do not have a female priest as the dissidents in New York do but that may only be a matter of time.

There are so many warnings in the Bible concerning the unwisdom of listening to false prophets but the most telling is Christ's admonition to "beware the traditions of men." Make no mistake about it--these are human ideas we're talking about in Cleveland. Matthew perhaps documents this most succinctly. Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona...I say you are 'Peter' and upon this rock I will build MY (emphasis mine) church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."

Martin Luther began the Protestant slide down the slippery slope of heresy 500 years ago when he took the words of Scripture, stirred in his anger, and dreamt up his own new religion. No sooner had he dons so than a bunch of others did so, too. After all, if one new religion is good, more must be better, eh? So now we have over 30,000 different denominations, each differing from the other and each sure that it is the only true path to heaven. Enter our former "Catholic" co-regionists. One more set of folks who decided that Jesus, the Son of God, needed their input into His scheme of salvation.

When will it ever end? Pray for them, for they lead others astray, too.