Bad Analogies

 Wow. I was just talking about this subject today.

Score one for the Lutherans who made me snicker.  Enjoy St. Patrick's Bad Analogies of the Trinity. 

h/t The B-Movie Catechism

Parallel

So we had Hurricane Irene come through town in DC and the verdict is in -- meh.

I know that it was much worse elsewhere. Although I'm grateful for everyone's safety, I must say that I've seen worse thunderstorms on a hot summer's day.

So, here's a little idle speculation. We've had a hurricane and tornadoes and an earthquake; what's next: fire?

Anybody remember this reading from a few weeks ago? (1 Kings 19)

Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD;* the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake, fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound.* [whisper]

When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Now, I'm not saying that just because we had a couple of natural disasters [Acts of God as the insurance company calls 'em] and that similar events happened in the Bible once that this amounts to some kind of cosmic replay.  That's just crazy talk.

What I _will_ say is that, hey, we've had a couple of natural disasters (that weren't actually that bad), and hey, that reminds me of this Scripture reading that we had a couple of weeks ago, and at the end of that list of calamities Elijah heard a small whispering sound that actually _was_ the presence of God ... 

and isn't every time the right time to be listening to God who chooses to be found in the quiet stillness of our hearts because He will not force Himself upon us?

We had an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. We had a hurricane, but God was not in the wind. But in the small, still quietness that is right now God is present and whispering. Can you hear that?

A Good Point

I make my living using the computer: building, configuring, securing, reporting, breaking, synthesizing, connecting, creating.

It's a common trade these days, but one of great variety. Nobody can know it all, but you'd better be flexible and able to learn what you need to for today in order to keep the skills relevant.

It's a field that is rife with atheism, agnostics, pragmatists, and practical people. One thing you can bank on, is that something always goes wrong with the computer in the process. Most of my professional life has been spent waiting for some computer to finish a task, fixing one that has gone wonky, or finding another way of doing something that Can't Be Done.

Mostly, I've been successful. My secret? Jesus knows a lot more about computers than I do. Yup, when I remember to pray when things go wrong with this most scientific of devices, the breakthrough is usually right around the corner.

Thanks, Lord.

How Do They Know?

I have two beautiful ornamental cherry trees in my yard lining my driveway. Every year they are the first to bloom and the first to drop their leaves at the end of summer.

I have no need to traipse into Washington, D.C. for the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, I can look outside my window and get the same effect.

It's just barely September and still hot, hot, hot outside. My cherry trees are madly dropping their leaves like it is some kind of race. Now most deciduous trees drop their leaves to prepare for the oncoming winter and preserve the main trunk. Since it is still so stinkin' hot outside, what in the world are these trees preparing for? How do they know winter is coming? If it stayed warm year round, would they bother to shed their leaves?

I know we can quickly point to genetics, acclimation, biological clocks, or some such. But really, how does a tree know? If I were to design a tree, how would I go about that? How can I get this much reflection from a three-second glance at my trees as I back out of the driveway?

Sometimes I just sit back and marvel at the wonder of it all.  God saw the world and all the things He had made and it was very good. I'm going to have to agree.

Always Attractive

Never popular, always attractive.

These are words that have been used to describe the Catholic Church in our culture. Other than for brief periods the Christian faith has always been counter cultural. We are constantly belittled as backward, unenlightened, misogynistic, repressed, perverted, evil, grasping, or simpletons. And YET, the faith continues to flourish.

Boccaccio's Decameron is a collection of ten stories told by a band of travelers on the road. Many of these stories are bawdy or shocking, but there is one in particular that I find illuminating.

Abraham, a Jew, is continuously disputed with by Jehannot de Chevigny of the truth of his religion v. Catholicism. Finally, he is won over, but decides to go to Rome and see the Curia and Pope. While there, he hears of the debaucherous and decadent lives of the clergy from his fellow Jews. He returns and converts to Catholicism, reasoning that if Christianity can still spread even when its hierarchy is so sinful it had to have something else going for it.

Although the story is meant as a "caustic anti-Catholic tale", there is yet a kernel of truth in it. Long before Boccaccio's time another virtuous Jew and teacher of the Law, Gamaliel, prophesied:

For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself.

But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God. (Acts 5:38-39)

How can something so "obviously flawed" continue to draw, to inspire, to nourish billions of people? Even our staunchest critics need us - the Catholic Church must exist in order for them to draw distinctions, to rail against, to hurl the "wisdom of this age" upon her buttresses - everything is measured by the yardstick of the Church, whether pro or con.

This is the secret that our enemies dare not whisper except in the recesses of their hearts: without the Church they are nothing. Because without Christ we all are nothing. The human institution of the Church is flawed, our leaders flawed, the people in the pews (despite their protestations) are flawed. But the Church is more than a human institution; it is a Divine institution full of people. The true Guardian is the Holy Spirit and God Himself has sworn that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

The true treasure that the Advocate preserves is knowledge of the Lover of Souls who continues draw every one to Himself.

For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.

And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?

But you spare all things, because they are yours,
O LORD and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things! (Wis 11:22-12:2)

Seeing In Context

We humans are built for context. We have natural powers such as seeing, hearing, thinking, and the like. But sometimes these powers are not enough by themselves.

Many times I have seen things with my eyes that I couldn't understand. The light photons hitting the rods and cones in my eyes didn't change, but once I figured out the context of what I was seeing, then it all made sense and I could "see" what I was looking at.

Our brains are wonderful in this way; it will happily fill in the "context" for us. Take this illusion of a spinning dancer. Is she spinning towards you or away from you? Clockwise or counter-clockwise? See the in-motion picture here.

[WP] The Spinning Dancer, also known as the silhouette illusion, is a kinetic, bistable optical illusion resembling a pirouetting female dancer. The illusion, created by web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara,^[1][2] involves the apparent direction of motion of the figure. Some observers initially see the figure as spinning clockwise and some counterclockwise.

The illusion derives from the lack of visual cues for depth. For instance, her arms could be swinging either in front of her to the left or behind her to the left, and hence with her circling clockwise or counter-clockwise on either her left or right foot. She changes leg because she is facing either towards or away from the observer, there being no surface features on the silhouette to indicate at any point which side of her is presented: the least ambiguous positions are her profiles when she is on either side of her circle, though it's still not known whether the foreground or background leg is on the floor, and from where she moves indeterminately either on the near or far arc across to the other profile.

So the plain fact is, you're looking at it, but you can't tell - it's ambiguous. It depends on what your brain thinks is the context. This particular illusion drove me crazy until it was explained to me how it worked.

A lot of us have spinning dancers in our lives. These are things to which we think we know the answers until something comes and stands it on its head. Or conversely, situations which we simply cannot understand even though we are in the midst of them until they are explained to us. Then the context is provided and we see clearly.

God is like that sometimes. There are things and situations that are beyond our understanding, but not His. He sees the illusion clearly for what it is, whereas the confusion is only in our own minds. If we allow ourselves to be led by Him, He provides the context that makes it all clear - if not here then hereafter.

When God Takes Your Money

I've heard guys complain that their wives are frivolous or spend a lot of money unnecessarily. That may or may not be true, but at least their wives don't just throw the money away -- literally.

A number of weeks ago, Mrs. Nod was dutifully paying the bills, which she had spread out on the counter along with the checkbook. You may have noticed we have a number of Nodlings running about the house and two of them are the toddler variety, which makes for lots of distractions and some unintended "help". Mrs. Nod also pays the bills with a trash can handy so she can pitch the junk mail and stuff that no longer matters.

You can see where this is going.

Fast forward a few days and we need to write a check for something and the checkbook has gone missing. Panic ensues. I say Mrs. Nod is supposed to keep track of the money, she says the toddlers must have moved it when she was wasn't looking. Fortunately the bills have just been paid so we have a little breathing room to find it.

It doesn't turn up; the whole house has been searched multiple times. We decide the only thing that could have happened was that it fell in the trash with a little help from little hands. Feeling only slightly paranoid, we switch to the backup checks and resolve to keep one eye out for random charges on our account.

Two weeks later, Mrs. Nod moves some books that were sitting on the china hutch and the checkbook falls out of our old Bible. (That Bible has seen better days; it used to be my travel copy and got beat up from sliding around my bag for a number of years.) The guys in my men's group use it occasionally if they forgot to bring their own Bible.

How about that? Pennies from Heaven? Saint Anthony interceding on our behalf?

Jokingly, Mrs. Nod said, "The Holy Spirit stole our money!". If He did, nobody could fault him; after all, God is the provider of all good things -- even money.

The Seven Names Of God

Here is an excellent article at The Q Continuum: Reflecting on 21 Centuries of Faith regarding the seven Names of God.

Q writes:

The name of a person is sacred [...] If our names are sacred, how much more is the name of God?

Exodus 20:7 mandated the special care over the name of God – which the Scribes exercised diligently. The Jews, out of respect for the holiness of God did not pronounce the tetragrammaton YHWH meaning the “Eternal One or Eternal Lord”. In the Holy Writ, the revealed name of God is often replaced by the divine title of “Lord” (Adonai in Hebrew or Kyrios in Greek). The title of Lord is also ascribed to Jesus which is a proclamation of His divinity. Due to the sacredness of the name of God, and the vigilance to respect His name, titles were given so the Name would not be spoken.

Below are the traditional Seven Names of God. For this reason it was sometimes common in the Middle Ages to refer to God as The Seven:

Click here to continue reading The Seven Names of God.

WBN Joins In Non Nobis Domine

After the unlikely defeat (read butt-kicking) of Martha Coakley in Massachusetts by Republican Scott Brown, Democrats were forced to slow the freight train of the Senate health care bill to a virtual stop. The Senate version of the bill would have institutionalized taxpayer funded abortions nationwide.

Although the fight is not over, God has used the unlikeliest of instruments to gain this victory -- our own enemy, a pro-choice politician. Therefore, WBN joins Creative Minority Report and countless others in saying: Not to us, not to us, O Lord, but to Your Name give glory.

[CMR] In a way that seemed almost impossible, the entire battle has turned. I need not go into detail here, you all know the story. We understand that the war on life is far from over, but today, at least for a while, by the grace of God, we have avoided institutionalized and tax-payer funded abortion. There will be other battles and perhaps they will be very soon, but it is incumbent upon all of us to acknowledge the great miracle that we have witnessed and to thank God for delivering us from this evil.

So what I propose is that we Catholic, Christian, and pro-life bloggers everywhere give thanks to God by way publishing the Non Nobis in gratitude for this wondrous day.

Non nobis, non nobis, Domine
Sed nomini tuo da gloriam.

Not to us, not to us, o Lord,
But to your name give glory.

Merry Christmas

From the Nodlings and all of us here at WBN, Merry Christmas.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

[CCC] 457 The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins": "the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins":⁷⁰

Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?⁷¹

458 The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him."⁷² "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."⁷³

459 The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me."⁷⁴ On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: "Listen to him!"⁷⁵ Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love one another as I have loved you."⁷⁶ This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example.⁷⁷

460 The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":⁷⁸ "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."⁷⁹ "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."⁸⁰ "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."⁸¹

Merry Christmas.

Thanksgiving: A PROCLAMATION

In the founding days of our country, our forefathers recognized the duty of all men to give thanks to God, the source of all beneficence. It's not a Church/State issue; it's a recognition of natural law and the reality of God.

See the proclamation from the U.S. Congress in 1782. Cribbed from History.com:

By the United States in Congress assembled.

PROCLAMATION.

IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf: Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged; the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war, in the course of the year now drawing to a close; particularly the harmony of the public Councils, which is so necessary to the success of the public cause; the perfect union and good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between them and their Allies, notwithstanding the artful and unwearied attempts of the common enemy to divide them; the success of the arms of the United States, and those of their Allies, and the acknowledgment of their independence by another European power, whose friendship and commerce must be of great and lasting advantage to these States:----- Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.

Done in Congress, at Philadelphia, the eleventh day of October, in the year of our LORD one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, and of our Sovereignty and Independence, the seventh.
JOHN HANSON, President.
Charles Thomson, Secretary.

PRINTED AT EXETER.

Upside Down Theology

We all know what life is like, for we have lived it. Yet none of us has seen what lies in store for us in the heavenly kingdom, or even really what living here is really like. We think that things are a certain way, but really God shows us that they are upside down.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)

Fr. Bill said an interesting thing at Mass today on the Feast of All Saints: "Wanting what the saints have isn't envy because you don't want to take it away from them, you just want to share in it."

That got me to thinking about other "upside down" facets of our theology.

• 1 Corinthians 14 says: "Pursue love, but strive eagerly for the spiritual gifts" yet it is not gluttony
• In Mark 8 Christ says: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel ⁹ will save it."
• In eating Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist, we do not kill Christ; instead we live more fully
• And in giving away all of our love, we end up with more of it than we started

Amazing!

God Is In The Small Things

We've all heard the scripture where Elijah goes up on the mountain because he is told the Lord will be passing by. The Lord is not in the earthquake or the wind or the fire but in the quiet whispering sound.

Life is sometimes like that. This week there have been no "big events" -- no spontaneous conversions, no deep experiences of God, no marathon prayer times -- and yet it's been one of my favorite weeks of late.

Work has been interesting with a little side project, Nod-girl has been delighting with her musical knowledge, we're on our fifth night of fuss-free bedtime routine with the kids, and we had a romp at the park.

We have enough money to pay our bills, we invested in a side of beef, and Mrs. Nod and I got to enjoy a little Father Brown movie together.

Nothing huge, just ordinary life humming along. And yet I knelt in Mass today and whispered to my God, "Thank you."

Fallen Things

The night had just fallen on this early fall day.

Only 30 minutes ago I was walking outside under that tree at twilight looking at the fence with the contractor. We were just shuffling the last of the Nodlings off to bed when we heard that horrifying crack.

Blynken screamed, Mrs. Nod jumped out of her seat, and I went outside with a flashlight to investigate.

A giant section of our Bradford Pear tree broke clean off and came crashing down in the back yard. The high winds must have weakened it earlier in the day. Bradford Pears are notoriously weak jointed and prone to splitting at the crotch. Those branches must weigh several hundred pounds and fell at least 20 feet -- enough to kill.

But as God willed it, it fell exactly between the deck, house, and fence hitting none (including me). I used this event to reassure Blynken and Nod-girl of the Providence of God and his constant care and concern for us. I hugged the girls and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving that we had been spared.

Spared of Fallen things. Hm. Past time for a trip to Confession to repair my own fallen state. Deo gratias.

Clarion Call: Catholics Come Home

A few weeks ago I mused on my own belief in this Catholic Myth: the Church doesn't advertise.

The basic preconception I had was: if you're Catholic you go to a Catholic Church, no question -- that's just how it is. I was surprised then when Washington Apb. Wuerl hit the airwaves with the Maybe It's God campaign.

So now I was a little better prepared to read the CNS report of the Phoenix media blitz which recalled upwards of 92,000 Catholics to the pews.

An estimated 92,000 inactive Catholics in the Phoenix Diocese have come back to the church in the last year thanks in large part to a groundbreaking television advertising campaign called Catholics Come Home.

The promotional spots featured people and locations from around the Phoenix Diocese to promote the church during prime-time television. The cornerstone of the campaign, the Catholics Come Home Web site, addresses often misunderstood aspects of the faith.

This is obviously good news to have so many new and fallen away Catholics returning home where they can experience the sacraments and the love of the Church for them and their eternal welfare. It's always exciting when people encounter God directly -- I could tell stories -- or through the ordinary ministers of grace in the Church. Many, many people are simply waiting for an invitation, an apology, or an offer to reconcile themselves. There will always be those who reject everything and choose to live in their bitterness, as evidenced by such pejoratives as recovering Catholic, but in the final analysis methinks the lady doth protest too much.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about. The part that caught my eye was the use of the term "groundbreaking" to describe the Phoenix campaign. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines groundbreaking as: markedly innovative. Hey, that means that nobody has done this before, right? As in, this is new and different.

Ok, so a little double-jointed pat on the back for recognizing that this is out of the norm. The Church traditionally hasn't advertised using the media. This is new ground here people: I mean even the Pope has a YouTube channel these days!

But even this new media blitz for the Church isn't quite the same as marketing; it's evangelistic, teaching; it's care for souls, restoration and reconciliation -- not "come to our Church because we've got bingo and great music". The closest we get to the hard sell is usually the annual Bishop's Lenten Appeal.

"Wherever they've been, they can come back home. It's a message that resonates," Hanning said. "I never thought I'd have thousands of Catholics calling and e-mailing me and saying, 'I'm proud to be Catholic and I want to help others.'"

Squid and God

Discovery reports:

Jan. 23, 2009 -- The circular teeth squid use to snag and handle prey could lead to strong but lightweight, environmentally friendly composite materials, according to new research. [...]

The teeth get their strength from architecture. A series of tooth pores runs through the protein, and on the outer edge the pores are spaced widely for a hard, shape edge that digs into the flesh of hapless prey. Toward the base, the pores are closer together, making a softer material that can absorb the prey's thrashing without breaking. [...]

Such products would likely be environmentally friendly and relatively cheap to manufacture, since the reactions that produce squid teeth don't require exotic ingredients, harsh chemicals or temperature extremes.

Reproducing nature's proteins has proven difficult at best. Spider silk, which pound for pound is stronger than steel cable, has yet to be mass produced despite decades of work.

And what have we learned class? After noting that the best designs are those that are mimicked from nature (and the difficulty in copying that design) we must conclude that nobody makes it better than the Master.