I don't want to jump on the Obama snark wagon because I think that yes, it is historic to have a black president and yes, Obama snark can all too easily fuel the racial hatred that everyone of good sense knows still seethes underneath the surface of the country. I don't wish to see it ignite. I don't want to be party to its eruption. I was happy that Obama was elected because I was tired of all the Bush hatred, but Bush hatred never alarmed me, it only severely irritated me.

But.

I very much like a recent article by Peggy Noonan. I AM alarmed by the seeming embrace of government control, regulation, and redistribution of wealth from this Administration. Noonan writes of a couple of thoughtful talks she has had with business folks. She writes about how there is a general disheartening from the business sector that bodes very poorly for the economic health of the nation. She argues that this recession, by the numbers, is not as bad as the recession of the 80's, but that what is bad is that there is a growing feeling of helplessness that nobody has a plan, nobody knows what to do to make it all right again, and government is sending out messages of optimism that are falling on deaf ears.

At the end of the article, Noonan writes:

We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.

Read the article and judge for yourself.

Tip of the hat to Paul Smith Jr!

Meet Isaiah.

Isaiah was born this past Thursday in Riverside, California.

Karen in Riverside reported a baby saved within the first couple of hours on the first day of last spring’s 40 Days for Life campaign. That baby, of course, was Isaiah. The Riverside team found assistance for his mom through her pregnancy and recently held a baby shower for her.

THAT is the spirit of genuine, compassionate service that goes back generations and MUST remain alive. THAT is the story that must be told!

Seamless garment, baby, seamless garment... Small is still beautiful. Where can I find me a decent global distributist economic theory and attempt?

Tip of the hat to Easter Al., twittering @EasterA

Surfing around, found this quote that I liked:

Hope is a state of mind... not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation... An orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart, it transcends the world immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. ...Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
- Vaclav Havel, former President of Czechoslovakia

Hat tip to Treasure lies where your heart belongs

From the Diocese of Wilmington's website:

Bishop Saltarelli has passed away. With sadness, the Diocese of Wilmington announces the passing into Eternal Life of the Most Rev. Michael A. Saltarelli, Bishop Emeritus of the diocese. Bishop Saltarelli shepherded the Catholic community of Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore as the Eighth Bishop of Wilmington from November 1995 until his retirement in July 2008. Click here for more information.

Funeral arrangements have been announced. Click here.

He was a great bishop, a great priest, and a wonderful man.

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I love today's intention for 40 Days for Life. It kinds of rules out pro-life atheists and agnostics, of whom there are many. So I don't agree with it 100% because I think a pro-life public policy is possible, even given our pluralistic and religiously diverse society.

But I like this message anyway. It's very 12 Steps-ish.

I was caught by today's scripture passage, from Ecclesiastes. Then went on to Rev. Stallworth's commentary on it, very lucid.

When I was in 8th grade, I did my final English project on death. I remember typing out Tennyson's poem, Crossing of the Bar, and pasting a picture of a sunset to illustrate it. The old fashioned cut and paste. And I was way too young to appreciate the poem. But I liked it.

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DAY 6 INTENTION
-----------------------------------------------------

That knowing the shortness of life, all may value it
more deeply.

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SCRIPTURE
-----------------------------------------------------

Remember your Creator before the silver cord is
loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher
shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the
well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it
was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

-- Ecclesiastes 12:6-7

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REFLECTION by Rev. Paul Stallsworth, Lifewatch
-----------------------------------------------------

God is giver of all life. Short lived or long lived,
human lives are lived out in this world. The
metaphors for death are many. But their meaning is
clear and singular: all will die. Even so, death is
not the absolute end. It is not the end of the story.
For as certainly as God gave life, at death the life
or spirit that God gave returns to God.

By God, we are created. For God, we live our given
days. To God, we return at the end of our earthly
days. And with God, we live through eternity.
Clearly, all along the way, this gracious, loving God
is with us. No human life is random or alone. No
human life was created without purpose. Not one human
life is without destiny.

All human lives, acknowledged or not, are related to
God -- from beginning, to end, throughout eternity.
Therefore, in this world, all human lives are to be
respected and protected, for their lives are signs of
God's sovereignty.

Supernatural has its angelology completely screwed up. Still, the "Sam and Dean Show" is one of my guiltiest pleasures on tv.

The brothers "broke up" last week, over Sammy's starting the Apocalypse at the end of last season. So last night Dean was hanging out with the laconic angel Castiel. Who disappeared for a bit. Leading to this non-sequitur (since Jerusalem figures in the current plot line not at all):

Dean: Where have you been?

Castiel: Jerusalem.

Dean: How was it?

Castiel: Arid.

If the photos of aborted fetuses are so horrible, is not the act itself even more so?

Pro-life sign-holder attacked in Arizona.

Tip of the hat to Gina P. on Facebook.

Here's today's first reading:

Reading 1

Wis 2:12, 17-20

The wicked say:
Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.

So I have been reading Simon Tugwell on forgiveness. He reminds us that we can't expect to get too intimate with the Persons of God if we hate and refuse forgiveness to other sinners like ourselves, whom God has forgiven and who are beloved to Him.

Tugwell points out that this isn't a wimpy, soft version of forgiveness that glosses over the hurts inflicted on others by sin.

So I'm looking at this first reading and trying to integrate the concept of "the wicked" with the reality of all of us being sinners in the same boat.

The wicked say:
Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.

Seen in light of the truth that the just and the wicked are all sinners, I interpret this as a fair description of how we human beings treat one another on a day to day basis. Nobody wants to hear himself criticized. It is particularly annoying to be criticized by somebody whose criticisms are correct. So we lash out at our critics. We really ought to be kissing their feet -- our friends are not likely to point out our faults the way our critics are!

Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.

This gets more personal and more involved in the war between good and evil that takes place on both the natural and supernatural level. Now we bring God into the mix. Now we want to put the pressure on our critics, see if their criticisms are valid or if we can prove that they are nothing but hot air. Will God back them up, if we turn on the animosity and the violence towards them?

With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.

Now we get to the point. "He trusted in God, let God take him down from that cross." From a description of how we lash out at our critics who tell the truth (for whatever motivation), we come to a description of how we sinners treated the truly Just One, the Christ. We tested both the Just Critic and his God, to see if our tormenting of the flesh and spirit of a perfectly just man could call forth a powerful act of defense on the part of the immortal, invisible, God only wise.

We, like Herod, wanted to see a manifestation of the glory of the Lord. We taunted him, by killing his Christ.

"Come on out of Your light inaccessible, hid from our eyes. Reveal Yourself!"

But Jesus died his bloody death on the Cross and nobody came to save him!

When we demonize and torture our critics, are we really trying to put the Triune God to the test? Do we want him to get so pissed off that He breaks His usual modus operandi and comes right out and wipes out the wicked and defends the just ones and makes His power visible to all?

Is that what all the animosity in our nation is about? Are we unconsciously trying to bring about the great and terrible Day of Yahweh?

I don't think it will work. We're probably not as wicked as we think we (or our enemies) are. Or as just.