Airport Terminals...Oh, Modern Man that I am.

Are you a fan? I was just recently lamenting over the fact that I no longer live in a rural part of the country. Life is noisy in the city, even in the nearby suburbs. It is hard to get at total peace.

In fact, I have been known to be cantankerous about our lack of agrarian life today. Damn you Descartes. I digress.

Really, nothing is more iconic of modern man as the airport terminal. A mass of humanity, pushed together, set on a trajectory of dissimilar destination, impersonally identified together in a shared misery of waiting for our birth on a trip that is unnatural to the very nature of ourselves. I think Heidegger made this critique about aviation, and since he never flew, he never had the opportunity to be in the terminal, waiting, peering, glaring, and all the other things we do there.

In a way, the airport terminal is like the waiting room for hell. Okay, so that is over the top, but just go with the analogy for a second. A throng of humanity, sharing in a common misery, yet completely disjointed from each other. Those who understand its reality are those who you find huddled in the corner in fear, throwing down a bottle of dramamine or buying the early hard drink. For the others, for the happy bunch that do not know what is before them, they have tricked their mind in the most unnatural way. Predetermined and focused to gain their end, they ignore the very means that so places their humanity in the throes of utter fragility.

So, as I sit here in type on this terminal I learn in my very typing that I am a part of the latter. In an even more repulsive way, I have ignored my fellow man, suffering with me, to instead turn and write to an audience that I am uncertain exists. Oh, Modern Man that I am.

Called to prayer

In the Gospels we get a few references to what was likely our Lord's discipline: morning prayer. Do you find this difficult?

Purgatory: It's Your Choice

I am convinced that for those who have been given the gift of communal life, either in family life or holy orders, God has given us a tremendous opportunity to die to ourselves. Ultimately, this is what purgatory is. It is a shedding away of all selfishness, the root of sin, and an opening up to the full self-giving life of God. Every day in my family I am challenged to die to my selfishness and open up to selflessness--the very life of God. This is truly the path of purification. The question remains, will we seize the opportunity to grow in holiness through our communal sacrament, or will we wait until after death? I think, today, I chose the latter. Thank God for tomorrow. Lord Have Mercy. Christ Have Mercy. Lord Have Mercy.

Jacques Maritain as the Evangelical "Peasant of Garonne"

click to go to Amazon to buy

This begins my intermittent series of book reviews. Due to my time constraints I will write the reviews in the sleeve cover style, namely in short fashion.

While on my travels to Rome, I happened upon a little book by Jacques Maritain called, "The Peasant of the Garonne: an old layman questions himself about the present time." The lore behind the text is that it was the last project Maritain undertook, and from the beginning to the end you can tell that it is the work of a man that is not in the least interested in making friends, but instead feels as though there is a debt to his soul he must pay before his curtain is closed.

Here is the review:

"Every Christian of conservative color will find Maritain's potency and poignancy refreshing. He sees right through every issue, and in the satiric yet prophetic Maritain mode, has you laughing, crying, and praying in just a matter of pages. If you want to start somewhere with Maritain, "The Peasant of the Garonne" is a good choice. Join him at the end of his spiritual journey in this life and join a soul that is committed to the cause of truth, sound exegesis, and a charismatic fire that will change the world. This book will enliven your spiritual life and enlighten your mind."

Baptism

The word baptism comes from the Greek "to wash". As a Protestant, who believed that baptism was an external sign of an internal reality, I never stopped to ask myself why our Lord gave the sacrament such a name. If in fact it was meant to wash, wash what?

If anyone has ever been to a baptism, they might notice that afterwords (an evangelical baptism or otherwise), no one has been sufficiently cleansed externally by the ritual. In the case of the SB, the fresh smell of the chlorine might actually leave one in need of a bath following the ritual. If done in the Jordan river the afore is even more obvious. Yes, this cleansing cannot be external, which leaves us with only another option:

Baptism transforms the inner man. It washes us clean, from the inside-out.

I guess one still might argue that the washing was a metaphor for the symbolic nature of the salvific act of Christ that had already been accomplished. However, a reading of the end of Matthew, "Go make disciples, washing them (baptizing) in the name of the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit...", makes no real sense with that reading. Instead, I am content to now have a coherent view of the sacrament of baptism. When Christ washes you, beware, he is coming for your soul!

Welcome Home!

I CREATED THIS SPACE TO BE ABLE TO EXPRESS IN WORDS MY JOURNEY INTO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. I AM NOT THERE YET, BUT CAN FEEL THE WARM AND TRAVERSED SAND OF THE EASTERN BANKS.

This was my post over a year ago. It is beautiful to read it.