Wow...

Last night in my scripture class we talked about a lot of different things mostly having to do with how we read scripture. However one thing in particular stuck with me.

We were looking at how the texts have been translated. In particular looking at the reality that the original Hebrew does not contain vowels, or punctuation. This allows for a beautiful fluidity in the text. It can also lead to complicated my translation is different than yours... but why should that be complicated? Is what is permanently on the page more important than what is meant? Perhaps another post will address this idea in more depth.

For this post I want to focus on 3 translations of a single genesis verse. Genesis 4:13

"Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is more than I can bear." 

"Cain said to the Lord, my sin is more than I can bear." 

"Cain said to the Lord, my guilt is more than I can bear."

Just one word, has all it takes. Which is correct... according to my professor all of them are. But they do bring to us a different meaning.

As if this wasn't mind blowing enough, we went further. My prof recounted to us the idea of Adam seeing Cain after all this has transpired, and Adam is astonished, for Cain is a radiant light, Adam cannot understand how this is so, he asks Cain are you not my son who killed his brother? How is it that I see you like this? A radiant light, like that of an angel. Cain's response was simple. I pictured it as a feeble whisper.

"I said I'm sorry" 

Forgivness, Cain having guilt that was too much to bear, asked for God's forgiveness. In his love and mercy God offered it. Because even though he had murdered his brother, in a moment of pure Godlessness, he returned. Thus did Cain begin to shine, and radiate light. 

I said I'm sorry, I asked for forgiveness. 

How Profound. 

Peace and Blessings Always 

~M

Short and Sweet.

It looks like I've fallen behind a bit again, however I am happy to say I'm behind this time, because while I am behind, I did post two reflections last week.

Also the simple reality is that there is only one section I want to talk about in the readings from the 22 Sunday of Ordinary time (August 30) and that is a piece from the Gospel, however it is also from the Old Testament, for it is Christ quoting Isaiah. "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts."

We cannot have hearts that are far from God. We cannot have hearts that are far from each other. From the beautiful Les Miserables we hear, "to love another person is to see the face of God" we must not have hearts that are far from each other.

And it is my belief that we will only see more of this mentality emerging in the year of Mercy starting in December, already we have seen Pope Francis splashed across the media, for talking about annulments and forgiveness of abortions. Perhaps if given the time this week I will post about these two things.

All I know for certain however, while I sit here on this dreary day, is that we need to fill our hearts with love for each other, and for God, but simply for God alone is not enough. After all sometimes the only thing we need to make it through the day, is knowing that someone believes you can.

Peace and Blessings Always 

~M

Lets Give Them a Hand!

This post again not my official message from this Sunday, and again not a thought that originated from my attendance at mass. Rather this is a post that has been welling up inside or some time now, and my attendance at mass simply unleashed it.

This post is about a very simple thing. Clapping during mass. Over the summer and these past couple of weeks I have seen this topic splash across my Facebook a number of times. Whether it was an request for the bishop of GR to place an official ban on all clapping at masses, or an article posted about how irreverent such an act is.

My simple, and impassioned response to these people. "What the hell is wrong with you?!?"

Now I will be the first to admit, there are times that I agree you should not be clapping at mass, during the eucharistic prayer perhaps, or maybe hold the applause until after the Gospel has finished being read.

But lets be real, a ban on applause makes it so that after a baptism, or confirmation, or a wedding, or any other occasion where applause can be most beautiful.

Now the number one criticism that my traditionalist, or conservative leaning friends will offer me is that its inappropriate, the purpose of the mass is the Eucharist. At this point their argument is already flawed, yes of course the Eucharist could be labeled the pinnacle of the mass, but it is not the sole purpose. If it were there would be no readings, there would be no sign of peace, there would be no community aspect. We would all sit there and mass would suddenly turn into a weekly adoration session.

Perhaps the number one instance where people are most opposed to applause is the not of recognition offered to musicians after a mass. People make the claims that this is horribly inappropriate how dare we be so self centered!?! I have even thought this, in part because I thought the music wasn't that great, and I was in a bad mood I'm sure.

However I have now come to a new conclusion, a less grumpy one, and a more loving one, and that is why I'm posting this. To loosely quote Blessed Mother Teresa, My God people if you can't find God in the people around you, how will you ever find him in the Eucharist?!?!


Here's the thing, when we celebrate each other, and out accomplishments, we are praising God in one of the best possible ways.

Find God in front of you, by truly loving another person, and give them a hand!

Peace and Blessings Always 

~M

GODISNOWHERE

This post has nothing, and yet everything to do with this past Sunday's readings. Nothing because it is is not my "official" reflection post on the readings, everything because what follows directly connects to my attendance at mass Sunday.

The title for this post came from my old high school religion teachers classroom. Now as much as I liked the man, I'm sure he got it from somewhere else, however it was the first time I saw it, and I guess it stuck with me.

There are two ways to read it, God is no where and God is now here. For me it always depends on the day, not that each day I'm having a crisis of faith, but each day can be a struggle, especially with what transpires in the world around us, and how we are constantly reminded of it.

Last week there was a shooting, sadly, I'm sure there were lots of shootings, I'm sure there were lots of tears, hospital visits and funerals. But the shooting from last week is the one that was televised, tweeted about, Facebooked about and went viral. After a long day of work and class living under the academic rock that I do, I had no idea that it happened. It wasn't until talking with my friend Ian that it came up. I cant remember specifically how it came up, but I do know that it was after I peppered something about God into our conversation, as I often do, and his response was "not feeling to faithful after today" I was confused, had I missed something, was this the anniversary of a tragedy? As it turned out I had missed something? I had missed it all, I probably would have continued to miss it if I hadn't asked follow questions, and that was where the conversation came to an end, we both acknowledge the tragedy and how truly terrific it was. Yet in the back of my mind something was nagging at me.

I didn't have a response to offer why we should still be faithful. I didn't have an authentic explanation as to why I was still faithful. Sure I could have googled some cute saying, I could have found a cliche quote and offered a canned response. But I didn't, that would have been cheap, that would have been easy, that would have been anything but authentic, and it would have been anything but helpful.

So I let the conversation end with out simple acknowledgment of how tragic the event was. Then I resumed my day, I returned to my dwelling under my rock of academia, I read about early Christianity, and finished the night by watching the Producers which was fantastic. Yet in the back of my mind there was a nagging reminder that I had left the conversation unfinished. The next day I spent sometime trying to come up with a response, trying to come up with something other than the canned cliche response. I had no luck, I was luckless until I went to mass.

It was at mass, where I found the response I could offer, and sitting in my car in the church parking lot I feverishly typed my reply: "There was no Godliness there. In that moment, that tragic, terrible, most awful moment, God was missing. That act was purely selfish. Fortunately, not every moment is Godless, Fortunately, there are selfless people in the world. That, those selfless moments, those selfless people, are most beautifully where we will find God.


We can either believe that God is no where, or that as we go so to with us we bring God, and that God is now here.

Peace and Blessings Always

~M