Those Old Testament writers didn’t waste time recording and archiving old football    scores and entertainment stars’ extramarital adventures. They only were interested in events which had real significance for their people, and thus for us.

The other morning when I heard the reading about David and Bathsheba, it brought tears to my eyes. I was hearing it as it affected God.

Think how that single event affected the entire nation:

Gossip is not a recent invention. All of David’s other wives and concubines would soon sniff out all the tasty details – soon to become general knowledge and have an effect on the moral character of Israel.

If David and some of our recent and current prominent figures in society knew that their creator was aware of their thoughts and actions, and modified their behavior accordingly, we would have simpler choices to make.

Poor Uriah – how long would it take for him to rid his soul of the seething anger and hatred he must have experienced, after learning the truth during his time in Purgatory. How long before he, David and Bathsheba could all be together in Heaven?

How powerful must be the “antibiotic” powers of God’s love to bring off such a miracle?

Small wonder that the movers and shakers in Hollywood don’t want Christianity to rear its head. They must make every effort to prevent the “scales” from being removed from their eyes. If for one moment Grace were to penetrate their hearts with the truth, every confessional would have lines around the block.

How important it is for me to seek to understand the nature of God’s love and to use that understanding in my relationships while I’m still down here.

Today’s (1-27-2012) first reading relates how David “hooks up” with Uriah’s wife,Bathsheba, and then arranges to have him killed in order to cover it up. Somehow, he doesn’t seem to think that God knows about it. (as Father said in his homily today, David’s conscience needs more formation.). Tomorrow, Jonathan will help him with that.

As I said in Chapter 201 –WHY DID HE CHOOSE THE JEWS ?, the old and new testaments are invaluable sources of wisdom with which to guide our lives.

Back to the BIG PICTURE – the human race is undergoing Evolution. Humans didn’t come about by Darwinian evolution (see Chapter 14, etc.) – i.e. we’re not the result of accidental mutations – but evolution, in the sense that we do have the choice to learn from our and our ancestor’s mistakes/triumphs.

Since it’s the same God who “wrote” the Old and the New Testament, it’s apparent that He allowed things in the Old Testament which He modified in the New. Less compassion, forgiveness , more violence in the Old. This makes sense to any parent who is raising children. Sometimes a “swat”, sometimes a word depending on the level of understanding.

This fits in perfectly with the idea/teaching that the human race is the “body of Christ”. At any moment in time, some of us have as our primary concern, whether we are approaching that ideal, and trying to help others to do the same.

Now we are faced with the job of choosing a leader for our country. The present leader apparently does not subscribe to the “Body of Christ” idea.

Both sides of “the aisle” seem only concerned with the economy, defense, health care, education, etc.

If any candidate should try to give a high priority to some moral issue, the immediate response is “Fine, but unless we first get the (economy, defense, etc.) taken care of, those concerns are irrelevant!” Fortunately, the King of Nineveh didn’t tell Jonah to wait a little while until he, the King, had decided how to curb some of the sinful practices which were taking place in his city ( without offending some of his court officials).

Just as any parent is delighted when their child shows signs of understanding the parent’s teaching, so our God (in complete control) (above time) has no problem taking care of secondary concerns when His children show an interest in His concerns.

Another important fact to keep in mind – the President doesn’t have to know/be an expert in all the facets of his office. He only has to choose/discern the advisers he appoints to his various committees. If he has a well formed conscience, knows how to pray and be open to the Holy Spirit and is not a slave to “human consideration”, he will be God’s effective instrument.

Hopefully, some of these considerations will be useful in deciding which candidates to support.

January 18th , 2012

Blessed John Paul II reportedly has been seen skipping from cloud to cloud after hearing the news about Napa Valley TV’s launching the 56 half hour videos, “Medjugorje – Our Mother’s Last Call and –and, and !!! each show is available now on the Internet by going to their archives so that you – in Europe – in China – in Timbuktu – can watch them at your convenience – again and again! The shows will remain in the archives for 5 years!

Spread the word !!!!

These programs were filmed in and around Medjugorje including interviews with the visionaries, priests and pilgrims.

There is no way that these programs could be seen on regular television, even aside from the prohibitive expense. Little Napa Valley TV is our modern day “David” and today’s first reading relates the slaying of Goliath with a small smooth stone !!

Go to www.napavalleytv.org. Then on the red banner at the top, click on “Video on Demand”. The screen goes light blue. Wait a moment. Now scroll WAY DOWN ‘till you see “Channel 27-Channel 28” side by side, and click on “Channel 28”. Now scroll down the alphabetical list of programs and click on “Medjugorje – Our Mother’s Last Call”.

Now chose the episode/date you wish to watch.

Note: With regard to JP II’s youthful behavior, you may remember his concern as to whether there was a place in the new media technology for Jesus, given its use by those whose intentions were evil.

For more information/comments: armond137@yahoo.com, 707-480-7000

P.S. I print out this information and carry it with me to hand to people who might be interested. (The New Evangelization ! )

The following is from the book “God CALLING”, by A. J. RUSSELL. It is one of the 4

books with entries for each day of the year that I pray over each day.

“JANUARY 19

LOVE ANTICIPATES

Lord, I will seek Thee

Noone ever sought Me in vain. I wait, wait with a hungry longing to be called upon; and I, who have already seen your hearts’ needs before you cried upon Me, before perhaps you were conscious of those needs yourself, I am alreadly preparing the answer.

It is like a Mother, who is setting aside suitable gifts for her daughter’s wedding, before Love even has come into the daughter’s life.

The Anticipatory Love of God is a thing mortals seldom realize. Dwell on this thought. Dismiss from your minds the thought of a grudging God, who had to be petitioned with sighs and tears and much speaking before relunctantly He loosed the desired treasures, Man’s thoughts of Me need revolutionizing.

Try and see a Mother preparing birthday or Christmas delights for her child–the while her Mother-heart sings: “Will she not love that? How she will love this !” and anticipates the rapture of her child, her own heart full of the tenderest joy. Where did the Mother learn all this preparation—joy? From Me—a faint echo this of My preparation—joy.

Try to see this as plans unfold of My preparing. It means much to Me to be understood, and the understanding of Me will bring great joy to you. ”

The above entry fits in perfectly with my understanding of God. God is Love, a perfect lover, but given our fallen nature He has to hide His love, only revealing it as we slowly recognize our fallen natures. Parents don’t reward disobediant children.

“For this was I born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” (John 18: 37-38)

Pontius Pilate’s immortalized sarcastic non- question is always present with us,
especially today.

Today, January 16, 2012, I was reading this date’s entry in  “Medjugorje, Day by Day” (Fr. Richard J. Beyer).

On June 29, 1981, just 6 days after the apparitions began, the 6 children were asking if they would be strong enough to endure the persecutions they were beginning to experience.

Mary reassured them: “You will be able to, my angels. Do not fear. You will be able to endure everything. You must believe and have confidence in me.”

In every age this truth has suffered persecution. China, Japan, Elizabethan England, France, Nazi Germany, Russia.

Fr. Beyer continues: “But the persecutions have never succeeded, although today they are more subtle and so more dangerous. They take the form of a gradual wearing away
of Christian values and beliefs by constant exposure to a hedonistic and materialistic culture through the mass media, the cinema, the arts and even the courts.”

So many of our weaker brothers and sisters in the faith have never learned the lesson of Judas Iscariot.
They still blame, and thus weaken the Church for the behavior of its weaker members.

The TRUTH is LIFE, LOVE, JOY, MEANING, CREATION –  our PARENT FATHER GOD.

To make an accurate, alarming analogy – we are being fed every day with “mental” birth
control pills – with intellectual abortifacients. We scornfully condemn the
behavior of those “cursed” with beautiful bodies and bank accounts and overlook
how we squander our most precious gift – Time…time to be used to grow our faith
through pursuing the Truth.

“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”(Mt.10: 16..)

This morning (1-13-12) my thoughts returned to the crisis in my life during the     philosophy course in my junior year at Union College (1950). Comfortable in my self
estimate as a genius, confident in my intellectual skills in math, logic and
writing and with the mutual support of two other self-acclaimed “truth
seekers”, I was on top of the world.

Suddenly….betrayed by Physics during Professor Stanley’s assignment to “explain
everything in the world” by any one of the various disciplines, -  under continual attack by Darwinism (having seen mutations in fruit flies induced by radiation and chemicals), – aware of my own moral weakness brought on by several “exploits” in the male-female
department, – finding my mental skills challenged by Heisenberg’s “uncertainty principle” as well as Tensor analysis – Suddenly, my comfortable world Imploded.

Unable to study or take exams, I coasted along on my past excellent grades and the
sympathetic support of my professors.

Off to Columbia, the Navy, Berkeley, first marriage, sailboat racing “career”, New age
episode, second marriage, and finally – automatic gate technician.

In each of these episodes, I would find temporary “comfort” as an equal or bigger fish in
a very small pond – but always with the awareness of the limited distance to the pond’s shore.

What is interesting now, in retrospect, is that I never felt drawn to look into
religion. I had done some reading in the Bible – I had read “The Fear and
Trembling and the Sickness unto Death” by Soren Kierkegaard, where he examines
Abraham’s dilemma as he prepares to sacrifice Isaac, – but none of this even
held out a glimmer of hope to ease my emptiness.

Only that first account, in 1995,  of a woman’s Near Death experience -  “Embraced by the Light” -suddenly awakened hope, soon to be fulfilled by “The Visions of the
Children”, after a long, long, 45 years!

What is beautiful and interesting in all of this is that, now, secure in the sure knowledge
of God’s love for me (just as I am at present), I can look back at all those painful phases in my life and see that they were all necessary to prepare/protect me for my present “mission”.

Examples:

1. - Limited intellect – prevented me
   from trying to hold onto a research/teaching position – salary, tenure, etc.
2. Failed first marriage – showed me
   that physical attraction is not a guarantee of success and saved me from a
   marriage where I would be the husband of an intellectually superior wife who
   did not want children.
3. Olympic sailing competition to keep my ego alive for a while, but saving me from becoming locked into forever defending my reputation.
4. The emptiness of the New Age “disciplines” and the charlatans who promote them.
5. The “failed” second marriage of 13 plus years which gave my life some meaning and provided me with one of my desires – a family, and now,with my wife’s passing, three loving children.
6. The gate job which provided nice physical/intellectual/modest income producing work with friends until God claimed me as his adopted son.
7. My parents, knowing that, unlike my two practical sisters, I would need a trust fund set up for my later years, thus giving me the freedom to pursue and evangelize my new faith.
8. The Korean War ended in time to prevent me from trying to seek glory as a destroyer or submarine officer and the GI bill enabled me to enroll at UC Berkeley, get a masters in Physics and meet my first wife.
9. Born in 1930 during the depression
   and having to learn to live on little, I acquired the habit of living frugally.
10. All of the details of the above clearly show me that God’s hand was always there, allowing me to suffer the consequences of my choices, but not allowing them to derail me irreparably.

I’m writing this in the hope that some of you, who find yourselves in a position somewhat like mine back then, may find it useful in your search for meaning.

I was thinking about the upcoming election and the positions held by the various  candidates (assuming that they intend to hold those positions) and I wondered “Why are the Jews God’s chosen people?”

The nice thing about God – as soon as you sincerely ask Him a question – there is the answer.

“I chose them because they kept good historical records. That way all their mistakes
would be available for everyone else to learn from as well as all the lessons
they learned from their mistakes.”

We’ve all seen the typical behavior of a child when he is about to get a “whupping”. He kicks, screams and runs away. He is not yet intelligent enough to try and learn and correct the cause of the punishment.

Perhaps, if we spent less time and trillions on protecting ourselves from the radical
Jihadists, and looked instead at those aspects of our lives that our intelligent (He invented DNA), loving (He sacrificed His Son to prove His love) creator might like to have us change, we might write a chapter in our history that future generations could profit from. (How’s that for a run on sentence, St. Paul?)

You know, if someone insults me, I may be big enough to let it pass, but if the insult is
aimed at my wife, that’s a different matter. Perhaps we could be less concerned
about how offended we are by some of the distasteful elements in today’s
culture and try to be more aware of how God feels as He watches the corruption
of His creation. Of course, this requires that we love our God.

I wrote the above, this morning, January 11, 2012. After the noon Mass, I looked ahead at tomorrow’s scripture:

A reading from the first Book of Samuel: 4: 1-11…After a fierce struggle Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who slew about four thousand men on the battlefield. When the troops retired to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines?”

I like God’s timing. The elders were doing what I had suggested we should be doing. Unfortunately, they came up with the wrong conclusion and sent the troops back into battle – this time with the Ark of the Lord and to a worse defeat.

How many times did the Jews have to relearn the lesson of obediance? How about us?

First of all, I just want to say that I am very optimistic about the New Year. Those of
us who pray can take reassurance that God is answering our prayers – in
particular those prayers for our country.

“What?” you say. “It doesn’t seem like He is listening”.

He certainly is ! He is answering them in the perfect way so that things can improve – He is allowing them to first  get worse ! By allowing the increasing contrast between BLACK and WHITE He is helping those sleeping citizens to awaken – He is making the “writing on the wall”  more legible.

I personally am politically ignorant – I know that the practical details needed to solve the
various problems we are being faced with are many orders of magnitude beyond my
capacity and so I only briefly sniff at the political rhetoric in the media.

For some time though, I have been praying “Lord, please send us an “Honest Abe” – Your candidate – a man who knows that he needs to be guided – a man who has no
desire for fame, fortune or power. Make his qualities stand out from the pack.”
We all have the ability to detect those qualities (although sometimes we allow
worldly desires to cover up our detectors).

Well, You answered my prayer in 24 karat gold.  One
of the clear indications is the fact that young people are rallying around his
campaign – they are good at sniffing out hypocrisy.

May we, like the wise men, follow our personal star of truth, and share our treasures in
support of our political messiah. (It is completely unnecessary for me to name
him – if his name isn’t jumping out in your mind,  your sky is overcast)

As I was thinking further on the three wise men and wondering why God seemed to “cause” the slaughter of the innocents, I finally broke down and asked HIM. The clear
answer came immediately.

He allowed their deaths as a clear indication of the corruption of their king, the corrupting effects of power and the corruption of the consciences of those who now, still
endorse slaughtering the innocents.

.

Like Christ, I started life as a helpless baby – powerless – sustained only by my parents’ love.

Like Christ, I will end (this) life, crucified by old age (and senility), sustained only by
the  Father’s love, only recently found.

Now, for the all-important time in the middle : Christ loved the Father. He loved the
Father’s Will – not his will. The power that was manifested in his life came through
him from God. He was always open to the Father because the Father’s will
was attractive to him. There is the *jumping out” word for me.

My life has been spent following attractive goals. The initial goal – seeking the truth –
was legitimate enough, but only was attractive while it fed my need for fame.

It’s interesting, that in all my various attempts to achieve fame, I tried to appear
humble and modest, because I disliked the naked craving that was behind it.

Now, in the newfound security of the Father’s love, His goals are more attractive to me. I can more easily shush those other voices and perk up my ears for His whispers.

Occasionally He allows me to see some of His electricity flowing through me – just a taste to reassure me.

(The above was inspired by today’s meditation on the Epiphany by St. Leo  in the January Magnificat.)

I just started doing the 5 first Saturdays and today is the
third. I was doing the final requirement – meditating on the three mysteries
for fifteen minutes.

We just had the feast of the Holy Innocents. I bet that before Jesus ascended, he gave instructions to his disciples to go and find all the women who lost their babies to Herod’s assassins and let them know that their children were in Heaven and joyfully waiting to be joined with their parents.

But now I’m trying to make sense out of the three wise men.
There they are following the Star. Suddenly it disappears, so they go to Herod to get
directions. After they “blow Jesus’s cover”, the star reappears and leads them
to Bethlehem and the Holy Family. OOPS !

Now God warns the Kings to go back without returning to Herod, but the damage is done. At least Mary and Joseph have enough time to go to the Temple and offer Jesus to God before they have to flee to Egypt.

There goes Jesus’ normal childhood !

Why didn’t the star finish the job?

Was there some important mission in Egypt for the Holy
Family? We’re left to rely on the mystics such as Blessed Ann Catherine
Emmerich for the answer to that.

I suppose you could argue that the shepherds who were led to
the stable would have spread the word, but it would take a while to get back to
Herod with any level of legitimacy and he would have had to enlarge the age
bracket of boys to be “offed”.

Maybe Satan got wind of God’s plan and messed with the Star’s
power supply temporarily.

Obviously God’s plot is too complicated for my poor brain