Wine before breakfast?

Wine Before Breakfast?
… what else would you expect from a
glutton and a drunkard?

Hip incarnational theologian Brian Walsh has this sign in his room.

Now you need to know something about the New Testament and Jesus in bad company, his penchant for hanging out with those on the margins, the uncool and decidedly unhip.It goes without saying that the brother opened his table up to the washed and unwashed, providing much fare for scandal.

Hence the eucharist today…all are one at the table. Even Conrad Black only gets one piece of bread! Money and status are radically relativized.Real eucharist is a foretaste of the just society

Jesus celebrated but one—and was crucified.Today’s church cranks them out endlessly.The sacrament hardly points to his reality of “danger.” A sacrament only is potent if it does not lose sign value.

Theologians use the word “commensality” to describe this shocking behaviour of Jesus particularly in the highly stratified society prevalent in Palestine in the first century.

It was just like Downton Abbey, the hit TV show af Edwardian England.

You simply did not sit at the table with the servants.There was “Upstairs” and “Downstairs.”

World War l helped to shatter the stratified British society.War generally shakes a lot of “givens” and “prohibitions” up. IN WW l many left the churches when they understood the role they played in pumping war.Whenever you see a flag on an altar, leave!

In the USA it was the catalyst for black demands for inclusion and women’s demands for greater participation in society.


So a monthly group of Anglicans meet at 7:22 AM with Wine before Breakfast…and all are welcome!

A little seed of community in downtown Toronto.

Rick Santorum Right to Death

On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead,” bragged U.S. Republican nomination candidate Rick Santorum. “I think that’s a wonderful thing, candidly.”

Yes, indeed Mr Right to Life, Rick Santorum candidate for Republican nomination for US President.

Can you get your mind around such hypocrisy? This type should embarrass these so-called Pro Life dimwits.The man just bragged about murder! About a man who is the father of a small child.

Not that Obama was any better when he crowed about the extra-judicial murder of bin Laden.
And both of these upholders of the law remain silent as “the only democracy in the Middle East”, Israel regularly takes the law into its own hands and without a trial, without even a semblance of a gernuflecion to international law, kills somebody.

This is nothing but Empire thinking, the justification of the powerful that they are beyond the law.

But Santorum does take the hypocrisy cake. Life before birth, rah rah.After birth, not so sure!

Bye to the Magi

So we bid goodbye to the 3 Kings.

The feast of the epiphany (Jan 6) should be celebrated in a better way, maybe simple gift giving.

Of course the Bible never says thee were three but the evangelists were not interested in history in many cases. Matthew simply is telling us about the significance of this baby! After all he is writing history backwards.He knows the end of it! The baby grows up into this guy Jesus in whom we will find some kind of ultimacy, God breaking through in a human life.

So let’s give him a significant birth.This was a common thing with the ancients.They felt at home with myth. We don’t.We have become sad literalists, fundamentalists and thus miss the many splendored thing.

Here with the use of midrash, (Like Isaiah 60 where you will find the star from the east, kings, traditional gifts like gold and frankincense) Matthew constructs this absolutely lovely “story” about Jesus significance…and even pagans, mere astrologers from Persia can learn from him about how to live a life.

Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
4 “Lift up your eyes and look about you:
All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters are carried on the hip.
5 Then you will look and be radiant,
your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come.
6 Herds of camels will cover your land,
young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
bearing gold and incense…

Star of Wonder,Star of Bright!

Maybe it’s Jesus!

Finkelstein and Chagall all in one day! What a gift!

Imagine two beautiful Hasids in Toronto on the same day.Difficult to believe but true nevertheless.

Norman Finkelstein the unparalleled documentarian of Israeli apartheid gave a 90 minute speech at the University of Toronto on January 11 and just down the street at the Art Gallery of Ontario there he was the inimitable Marc Chagall, he of the beautiful pan and refined Hasidic sensibilities. Forget the fact that he has been dead for 25 years or so, his work in several art forms still speaks to us of a deep humanism which took flight particularly in his work commemorating the Jewish community of Vitebsk in modern day Belarus.

The Hasidic movement rescued Judaism in eastern Europe from its pedantic and irrelevant posturing. It bought back the joy of the Living God in evert day life, a joy which had been leached from the community by dull rebbes whom had forgotten the holiness of the quotidian. Chagall learned its lessons well and we are all the beneficiaries.

It was Rabb Israel Ben Eliezer (b 1750) or the Baal Shem Tov (the Besht) as he was known who put the colour back into Judaism at a critical juncture in its evolution.It gave new hope to generations living under the cruelty of the czars…and Mark Segal (Chagall) was its most prominent face in the 20th century.

Anybody remotely familiar with Chagall’s work is always rejuvenated.One leaves any gallery with a smile on one’s face.L’chaim indeed!

“Gray is life’s theory, green indeed its living”, wrote Goethe and Chagall reminded his contemporaries of this.

Down the street Norman Finkelstein was doing the same, a Jew whose parents were Holocaust survivors was in deep solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinian people. Here was an unparalled scholar who has dedicated his life to unpacking the immiseration of another Semitic people held forth.

He too brought hope.

Sadly so few people in the Jewish community came out to hear him, the best of the humanistic tribe of Judah, a modern Hasid capable of deep solidarity with a suffering people.

We Three Kings

The Magi have come and gone.We said goodbye yesterday at mass.The opening hymn was We Three Kings. The epiphany, first Sunday near January 6.

Now it is official the 12 Days of Christmas have ended.

We can take or Christmas tree down.

The liturgical cycle by which we calibrate our lives moves into ordinary time.
This is the Story I choose to live in. It is perennially new, a lovely meaningful way to structure a life.

It is lamentable that many have not moved beyond the first level of naivete,Just Saturday a friend asked me a question about where the “wise men” came from. 45 years after Vatican ll our people largely have not moved in their understanding of scripture.A massive failure of the post Vatrican ll church.

Matthew whose gospel tells us of the MAGOI (the Greek word can not be translated “kings”) was well aware of the symbolic import of “Non-Jews” from afar were among the first to acknowledge “the new born king”. Luke of course has no MAGOI, only shepherds but that symbol speaks volumes as well. Both are “outsiders’ who grasp the meaning of the Christ chid.

What a story (Greek, mythos), full of dynamite!These men from Persia, the land of Zoroaster are practitioners of the occult, astrologers who read the stars, a prevalent belief then—and even now. Every day the papers contain your horsocope!

But as the Bard reminds us, “The fault dear Caesar is not in our staes but in ourselves!” KISMET was a prevalent worldview among many.Our llfe is fixed and you can read it in the stars—but you can’t change it!

So here come the Magoi laying their gifts at the foot of him who will be Love incarnate. No more Kismet.We have free will to love, to follow the way of the Christ, to die and rise into new life.

More on this later

The latest evidence: Imposed Celibacy does not work

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala has resigned after disclosing to superiors that he was the father of two children. The Vatican announced the bishop’s resignation Jan. 4 in a one-line statement that cited church law on resignation for illness or other serious reasons.


So writes the NCR on the latest proof that enforced celibacy does not work.

Nor has it ever worked.

Anyone familiar with the literature ( Here I recommenend Elizabeth Abbot’s book and that all time classic of Henry Lea on Sacerdotal Celibacy.) has come to this conclusion.

The denial in the Vatican is both hypocritical and deeply injurious to the right of the People of God both to marry and have effective ledesrship regardless of gender.One look at Latin America and Africa’s celibacy problems would disabuse any thoughtful person about the efficvacy of this respected discipline.Optional celibacy fully embraced is a great yet rare charism.

Mike Crosby ofm has a great metaphor here.

WE are fishing in the water for new priests.One side of the boat is overfished; no one is biting.On the other side they are leaping out of the water but they happen to be married, female or both. DO NOT FISH HERE!

What does the Church do?

It lowers its standards to keep the civil service stocked.

But the People of God are onto this and are walking with their feet.Parishes are overtocked with inadequate leaders for the 21st century and the talent in the Body goes ignored and unused.

The Vatican remains a peerage of tin ears refusing the call of the Spirit.

Christmas Wise Men in Bethlehem

No, Jesus is not coming back.We are not waiting for him to be born again this Christmas. Advent is not preparing for his return but it is God waiting for us to live the Beatitudes of mercy, compassion, solidarity, peace making.In a way we prepare for a “fresh birth” in our own lives. As the great Dominican mystic Eckhart (d.1328) said, “What good is it that Christ was born 2,000 years ago if he is not born now in your heart?’ The Jesus story still inspires, prepares the ground for this new birth. The Spirit is alive whenever people live like this.

In the time of King Herod after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.

Matthew 2: 1

O Little Town of Bethlehem how still we see thee rise-
still under occupation 2000 years later,
Caesar’s boot still on your neck;
Your green hills replaced by Israeli settlements
Illegal to be sure, no matter.
Military check points now control entering and leaving
No freedom then, none now-
A wall which even the Magi could not breach
cuts you off from Arab Jerusalem.
Christian Zionists pour into the Holy Land
weeping at the sight of Gethsemane, searching for Calvary
while ignoring the ongoing crucifixion of Palestinians.
In this place since the days of Pentecost, you are now invisible
still on the margins of empire.
Liberation was born here, still barely out of its crib
God’s reign, coming but ever so slowly
“Good news of great joy for all the people” (Lk.2:10)
Not if you are Palestinian in the holy city of David.

Canada and Palestine

On Tuesday December 20 the United Nations almost unanimously voted for the Palestinian people’s right to self determination. Imagine 182 countries voting in favour of what to most of the world is just and long overdue. Longtime Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi thanked the assembly.

 “This overwhelming support reaffirms the international community’s commitment to the achievement of the universal principles of justice and humanity and the rights guaranteed to all peoples of the world,” she said.

And look who’s on the wrong side of history the USA, Israel, Great Britain and Canada.

 Ashrawi spoke for most of the world when she stated:

 “It is reprehensible that countries such as the United States and Canada continue to defy worldwide consensus and intensely lobby to thwart the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” she said.“the longest occupation in modern history must end and it is time for the international community to hold Israel accountable, demand that it desist all settlement activities and actions that violate international law and support our peaceful diplomatic efforts to achieve an independent Palestinian state based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

How embarrassing as a Canadian to have this Harper government speaking on our behalf.

At least the British government condemned the recent Israeli announcement that their government had approved the construction of 1,000 new settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Maybe before Christmas, it can score a trifecta—first Kyoto, now Palestine and what’s next?

 

Remembering the Owl

Colder than a witch’s tit, it’s the winter of 1956 and with head down with the little PHILCO radio under my arm I make my way up to the Sunday dance at my local parish. I will make about $15.00 checking coats with my friend Barry Diemert.The money will go to buy some vinyl. We will listen to the Leaf game and yak as the hours fly by. Our work is generally done quickly as the dancers file in to the Young People’s Club in St.Peter’s basement.Barry and I head down to the hall to dig the music.

And the star attraction? For me it was Eugene Amaro (”the Owl”)“ who was the mainstay of drummer Ron Rully’s quartet. Eugene just lived down the street across from St.Pete’s school and was already on his way to becoming a fixture in the Toronto jazz scene. His big tenor always carried the melody and the songs they always played are still with me…Duke’s Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,Strayhorn’s Satin Doll and Sam “The Man” Taylor’s Harlem Nocturne.At that time for some strange reason, Rodgers and Hart’s 1934 tune Blue Moon was also making a comeback.

It’s all about us!

Poor Obama.”US Forces finally leaving Iraq.” The only thing missing was Bush’s Infamous “Mission accomplished.” Of course the US will never leave Oil Central. They leave behind the biggest embassy in the world and a broken Iraq.You won’t read this in many American papers.
That’s why it’s always safe to go to Britain’s uardian for a more sanguine view.

Foreign correspondent Gary Younge gets it right:

According to Christopher Gelpi, a political science professor at Duke University who specializes in public attitudes to foreign policy, the most important single factor shaping Americans’ opinions about any war is whether they think America will win. This solipsistic worldview is hardly conducive to the kind of introspection that might translate remorse into redemption.

It’s a mindset that understands the war in Vietnam as being wrong not because an independent country was invaded, flattened, millions murdered and thousands tortured. It was wrong because the US lost.

Such is the mindset wrapped tight under a seemingly impermeable condom.