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| I know Denis :-)! |
It has been a long time since I have put some thoughts down in this space. It isn't for lack of thoughts. It is more due to the lack of "fire in the belly" as the saying goes. There is also another half reason: My hands are not as nimble as they used to be. It takes me significantly more time to scribble 450 words as it used to. Besides the lack of digital agility there is also the reality of creeping digital numbness. Be all of the above as they may, I find it imperative to send out the news that I have further reasons to brag about being famous. I am now the elder brother of a published author. (See the picture of the cover above.) Before we know it we will all be related to a person on the New York Times best seller list. Now, that is more than what I can aspire to. You don't make it on to the NYT B-S list when you end sentences with a preposition.
My first claim to fame was when I shared the same shower room with the mayor of Holyoke, Mass. I played handball at the YMCA on a regular schedule. I would have never known it except that my handball rival of the moment pointed him out to me. I have to admit that I was touched with the hand of fame over that simple, raw encounter.
I had to wait for many more years before my claim to fame sparked back into prominence. It was a rainy, raw Christmas Day in the Holy City of Rome. I and two other colleagues, seminarians all, had decided to spend some time at the childrens' hospital. As we were walking down a wide hallway from one section to another we encountered Pope John XXIII and two of his "buddies" coming toward us. We smiled, shook hands and joked a bit. I was mostly silent since my Italian was only 3 months old at the time. But hey, It was the first time that I had ever shaken the pope's hand. I remember that very clearly even though we were all modestly clothed.
Three years later, the future Saint John XXIII spent a day at the university where I was a student. I met him again, face to face in the courtyard. We shook hands, exchanged a few pleasantries (now I spoke Italian) and parted friends. So, now I am doubly famous and I haven't washed my right hand in years.
I can't wait for next week's NYT!
Yup, that is a quote. It comes from the introduction to Jesus of Nazareth written by the Pope, Benedict XVI whose picture appears right here, to the immediate right.
When this guy was elected, it made me happy. When I read the above quote it made me happy. this guy knows his place. He knows that he is in charge, in some ways. He also knows that God is in charge in ALL ways. He knows that he can be contradicted in the matter of condoms that he brought up in his new book. He knows that he can be contradicted in the matter of offering the traditionalist Anglicans a safe corner in the Roman Catholic Church. He knows that he can be contradicted in the matter of giving so many concessions to the "Latin only" traditionalists of the Roman Catholic Church. He knows that he can be contradicted in the matter of kneeling to receive communion and to receive on the tongue. He knows that he can be contradicted on a lot of matters a lot more technical and theologically profound than those I just mentioned. He not only knows it, he invites it. He loves the intellectual give and take of discussions that take off from different points of view. He loves to engage in that kind of tension because he is convinced that it is in this atmosphere that the Holy Spirit enlightens the world. He is also confident enough in his own convictions, intellectual, emotional and spiritual to know that he can control the debate. I made a comment about this a while back after what he said about the Muslims in Regensburg.
In this area, I agree with him. My thought is that what is important is not the departure point of the discussion that is important, it is the destination that is used to define its value. My thought continues to say that the optimum destination is right in the middle, right where the tension is the hottest and where the new truth caused by the clash is created. It is the middle that is the furnace that forms and burnishes the clearer understanding of the one Eternal guiding Truth. Benedict "ex-vee-eye", more than anyone, has planted the seed for that thought in my mind.
Now ain't that something? Quite a thought, don't ya think?
