Ubi Petrus

Mark Shea has given us a very well-written post on the issue of why the Church interacts and even tries at times to support the United Nations.  Very often we forget just how ancient is the Church, and that it has seen empires greater than any now existent come and go and has had to deal with each of them in one way or another.

The Church, which antedates not just the nation/state but the Holy Roman Empire, keeps an eye on this and does what she’s always done: try to address whichever competent governmental authority men devise for themselves to try to keep order and preserve the Common Good. Doesn’t mean the Church thinks the UN is flawless any more than Paul thought Nero was a great guy. It just means that here, supremely, is an example of the Church trying to navigate the rocky waters of history and read the signs of the times.

While perusing my Sitemeter stats the other day, I discovered that I’ve been found out. It appears someone from the Senate Sergeant at Arms (or, more likely some Senate staffer) has been checking up on me. I’m going to guess it was driven by this post.

Work has found me here in not-so-sunny California for a chunk of this week. Posting will be unusually light since I didn’t bring my laptop with me (gah!). From here it’s on up to Oregon at the end of the week before heading back home. It’s going to be a long week…

Now a full day after this (hopefully) last kiss of winter here in New England has whisked away, God has deigned to offer a sign that everything redounds to His glory. The roads are finally mostly cleared and the piles of dirty snow stand as scars in comparison to the eminent joy occurring in my back yard as I write.

After receiving around eight inches of snow and then being granted a fine layer of freezing rain to create a sugary coating, my two children discovered to many shrieks of glee that, lo and behold, they don’t need sleds to go sledding. The ice is just thick enough to support their weight, so long as they don’t go too fast. So down they go, not needing Dad to give the sled a shove, impelled by their own suddenly independent power, sliding and shrieking in glee.

Were it not for them, I would see this glistening coat as nothing but a nuisance and a danger. But in their eyes and out of their mouths come a glittering reminder that, indeed, all things redound to His glory.

It’s simply not possible. It’s simply not, I tell you. But yet, there it is. And no, I didn’t cheat and re-take the test or anything like that. It’s actually a humbling experience to get a good score on even something as simple as this when it only reinforces how much you don’t know. Go ahead and take it, it’s fun! H/T to Curt Jester.

Yes, I know what I’m going to say is already dated in this 24×7 immediacy world in which we live. But that’s what happens after days of head-cold-induced sleep deprivation. Anyway, to my point. Yesterday, 1/1, I pulled off the last page of my John Paul II quote-a-day calendar and behind it was … a blank page. This is interesting in two ways. One, I’d expected an advertisement for something. Two, it was like a perfect rendition of what January 1 represents – a new start, a blank slate.

It also served as a reminder of the wonderful blessing of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and how we are given a blank page to work on afterwards. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Is 1:18)

And again, it provided pause to consider the greatest slate-wiping succession of events ever in creation – the Birth, Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. How perfectly coincidental that this should come so closely after we celebrate the beginning of this miraculous sequence.

Amazing, is it not, how much God can make out of … nothing?

Just a quick note that I wrapped up Living the Mysteries: A Guide for Unfinished Christians today. All I can say is that if you don’t have this book, run, don’t walk. Furthermore, if you haven’t had your interest piqued in patristics yet, this would be a great place to start to see how the Fathers of the Church still speak to us today. As they say, they’re classics for a reason.

Aside from that, I am thoroughly empathizing with Fr. Martin Fox in his post, and the more artistic predecessor thereto. It’s very hard to blog when you feel like you’re walking through half-set jello. As someone suggested to the good Father, “offer it up” and so I shall.

A note, for anyone who follows this blog: all this coming week I’ll be in meetings all day and probably late at work so who knows what kind of “spare” time I’ll have for blogging. But since Indolent Server put me on his blogs list, I suppose I have to do something. Maybe I’ll even earn that spot on his blogroll some day.