Thou Shalt Not Have Strange Gods Before Me

We've talked about America's creepy obsession with sports before. The non-stop trou-dropping over Derek Jeter's imminent retirement has called the issue to mind again.

First, let me deal with the inevitable accusations that I'm a hater. I actually like the Yankees. There aren't any major league teams around here, so I pretty much had my pick of teams to follow over the years.

Second, I don't have anything against Derek Jeter. Granted, there is this:



But that isn't really a problem with Jeter. It's the overall problem that I'm talking about in this post.

People tend to blow off the First Commandment. The typical thought process is "Hey, I'm not bowing down to a gold calf or anything, so I'm ok."

That's a pretty restricted view of what worship is, I think. If you look at this whole phenomenon surrounding Jeter's departure, it's about one half-step down (maybe) from burning incense in front of an image of Caesar. It's pretty shameful stuff.

Let's recall some words from The Master:

For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.
Matthew 6:21

When you watch the time, resources, expense, and energy that is being poured into the rituals of Jeter's farewell, take a moment to think about where those swept up in such euphoria have their treasure. It's not a golden calf. However, if we consider this adulation and reverence given to a baseball player and contrast it with what is offered to The Almighty, doesn't it seem a bit creepy? Consider the words of the Liturgy of St. James:

Let all mortal flesh keep silent, and with fear and trembling stand. Ponder nothing earthly-minded, Let all mortal flesh keep silent, and with fear and trembling stand. Ponder nothing earthly-minded, for the King of kings and Lord of lords advances to be slain and given as food to the faithful. Before him go the choirs of Angels, with every rule and authority, the many-eyed Cherubim and the six-winged Seraphim, veiling their sight and crying out the hymn: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

I'm sure Jeter could demand that kind of respect.

God? Probably not so much, and therein lies the tragedy of our time.

It's A Curious Thing

It's a weird thing to consider when you think about all the recent stuff we've seen in Church news lately. Tacit approval of homosexual behavior, advocating for Holy Communion for the remarried divorcee, ridiculous levels of praise for Islam, etc have all made headlines.

To think that every saint in the history of Christ's Church (who voiced an opinion on these matters) was on the wrong side of history with these issues but somehow made it to the right side of the Beatific Vision should be enough to give the modern proponents of such insanities pause.

It should. But it probably won't.

DILLIGAF

I've been seeing the above acronym with increasing frequency. For those who don't know, it stands for "Do I look like I give a flip?" except where "flip" is an obscenity instead of "flip."

It strikes me that the ability of people, especially young people, to use this phrase is one of our major problems. It's almost as though we are raising whole generations to have little or no idea of things like modesty, scandal, or the feelings of others.

It's on every talk show. "Whatever! I'll do what I want!" It's in the resigned "Whatever..." that makes up about 85% of the teenaged lexicon. It's in the vulgar dress of the masses. It's in the words of prelates willing to proclaim their opposition to the Magisterium. And so forth.

Now, it's good to have a detachment from the world. We certainly don't want our faith life governed by others' opinions. However, like with anything else, this can be twisted to the ends of The Adversary.

What has happened is that we have completely forgotten the concept of scandal. Nobody pays any mind to the sorts of stumbling blocks they set up for their brothers and sisters in the world. Whether it's a refusal to dress modestly and shrugging off the temptation of others as "their problem" or the raging would-be apologist who casts perpetual pearls before swine and serves to do nothing more than give atheists or anti-Catholic bigots opportunities for blasphemy and insult to God.

We have forgotten humility in all this. At some point, we have to be willing to constrain our fashion sense out of love for others. We should consider how our words and actions might damage the faith of others or even drive them to despair. We have to be willing to shake the dust from our feet and leave those poor souls to the mercy of God, hoping that we've planted a seed that can sprout with the Holy Spirit's assistance.

Remember Our Blessed Lord's words:

And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.
Matthew 24:12

And we definitely seem to lean to the chilly side these days. Perhaps this is another case of losing our understanding of the essences of things. True charity is love for others FOR THE SAKE OF GOD. Love is the willing of good for another, with the highest good being God Himself, of course.

Sometimes the things we prefer are not good for these others and certainly aren't for God's sake. 

Thank You All

For your prayers and such. He's doing much better, but we still are having difficulty locating the origin of the problems.

Regular blogging to resume soon.

Request

Please offer some prayers for my father and his health.

Thank you all in advance.

Reform?

Tancred has posted some of the roster for the folks invited to the upcoming Synod on the Family. Ignoring the invites to all the non-Catholic observers, let's focus on the individuals who wear the "Catholic" label. I'm also ignoring that Cardinal Kaspar will be there, despite the fact that all of his preliminary input on the subject has been shown to be false.

Anyways, two names on the list caught my attention immediately, not just because they are on the list, but because they were personally appointed to the Synod by Pope Francis. Allegedly. These are Cardinals Danneels and Sodano.

The former presided over a country where the concept of life and family are absolutely rotting away and who has made bizarre statements about the Church sanctioning pseudo-marriage-ish unions for homosexuals. This is all secondary to the fact that he ignored the problem of child molesting priests to a pretty egregious level.

As to the latter, many indications are that Cardinal Sodano was a long-time protector of Marcel Maciel, who used the Legionaries of Christ as his own personal bank account and brothel. I get that +Sodano is the Dean of the College these days. I don't get why that merits an invitation.

On a side note, both of these guys resigned their real jobs years ago.

Anyways, I point this out to show that real "reform" as was envisioned by everyone to some extent following the last conclave still isn't going much of anywhere. In so many cases, the new help appears to be the same as the old help.

Re: Bees

Because bees are awesome.

"The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others." 

St. John Chrysostom

Thanks to Zenit for the quote.

Stuff Jesus Never Said

It's funny because it's true. I don't know anything about ChurchPop, but this was too good to pass up:

























And a bonus from the comments: