Timing

I was on a bus going to this mountain scene wedding.  The bus was filled with wedding guests.  We were chatting with one another.  I met the groom's side of the family, and we were having a delightful time.  The bus driver was giving a talking tour of the scenery as we drove along.  Sitting next to me was a yound lady and her dog.  She looked too dressed up to be out for a hike.  She never said anything. She rarely looked lfet or right.  She just looked straight ahead.  I thought this a bit strange, but thought to just let her be. When we got off the bus, I realized that she knew the driver.  I was then introduced to her among other wedding guests, and just moved along with no more thought about her.

After the wedding, I went to get back onto the bus.  There was one every half hour, and I sensed it was going to rain.  The young lady and her dog also stood in line.  We got to talking.  At 70, I have learned how to talk to a girl.  Would that I knew this when I was younger.  We had a delightful visit, waiting for the bus and on the bus.  I gave her a ride to somwhere so that she could meet some friends.  It turns out that she was a driver on this very bus for some years.  The tour was old hat to her.  She is a published author, a book about walking.  She had heard nice things about me.  My friends lie well.  What a delightful young woman, and I almost missed her.  Timing can be everything.

Nature God

I went to a wedding recently.  It was at the base of the beautiful Maroon Bells mountains in Colorado, near the monastery where I live.  There was no God in the Eucharist, the bread and wine, at the wedding.  But there was God in the wonderful scenery that surrounded us.  Catholics believe that once God comes into the food at the worship ritual, God stays there.  Well, once God makes those mountains, God stays there too.  Out of compassion, and love, God will spend time on crowded, noisy urban streets.  But for pure pleasure, God hangs out at the Maroon Bells, and other lovely nature sights.  The best of nature can be harder to get to than dropping in at your local house of worship.  But the Maroon Bells?  You can take a bus.  Sometimes it is easier to find God than other times, but God is always around somewhere.

World Series

It is amazing to me how many things that were important to me as a boy, are still important now.  Is that your experience?  I grew up with the World Series, that is baseball, for those of you who are sport challenged.  Every October I was glued into the radio.  So was my Dad, and lots of my friends.  It helped that my teams were playing.  It was a best of seven series.  Today, I still look forward to the World Series even though my teams all stink or are too mediocre to get to the Series.  The boy is in the man.  I still like chocolate cake.  My Mom made sure that I had this from time to time.  Sadly, it is difficult for me to find someone to make me a chocolate cake.  Make it myself, you say? You miss the point.  The cake was gift.  That was part of being a boy, the giftedness of life.  I still cling to hope.  For that matter, a God who is no longer gift, but earned by my good behavior or belief, well, what is the point of that?  That  Earned God was not part of being a boy in the Bronx.  My God was a gift.

High Cost

Jesus says that you have to be willing to give up a lot to be one of his followers.  He offers the image of a fellow who wants to build a tower.  The fellow first calculates what it will take, and if he does not the what he needs, then don't start to project.  If you don't have what you need, but begin anyway, then you bail out before it is finished.  Any major change/effort takes a lot of giving up of stuff, be it things, lifestyle and even relationships.  I find a lot of young people who commit to Rah Rah fundamentalist religious groups, who say that they are giving up lots to go in this new direction or take on this new way of life.  They have no real job, beyond some part time thing.  They rent  and don't own much furniture.  Their parents cover a lot  of expenses.  They might be giving up some crazy young people weekend choices, which is a start.  Check with where they are in 10 years.  They won't be in the Rah Rah groups.  They did not have what it takes to deal with the big world out there.  My own shortcomings have shown me how hard it is to change.  That was Jesus' point.  Once the cross came into view, everyone pretty much scattered.  Oh, the women hung around, but my church won't give them much official power.  Well, Jesus could not ordained either.  He was a Jew.

Twice fooled?

Seems a nun in Syria, living there for 20 years, says the nerve gas footage is a hoax. Weren't we told that Iraq had bad weapons requiring us to invade? Never found those weapons, did we?

Beyond the Building

Since Jesus could not teach inside the offical religious buildings, he had to go outside.  This has a plus side.  Now he can talk to people who might never darken the inside of a religious building.  It would be a little like talking from a soap box in a mall or outdoor plaza, or street corner for that matter.  God comes down on earth and talks on street corners.  Would you stop to listen?

Outdoor Preaching

Jesus was teaching in the synogogue.  Then he begins to teach outdoors, by the lakeside. What happened?  Well, the religious officials did not like what he said, so they would not let him talk in the synogogue.  Sound familiar?  Talk about ordination of women, or gay unions, and see if you can get into a church building to talk.  Some things don't change.  We all seem to have selective listening.