Brooklyn SoulWow!

Saw this and decided it was too good not to share (h/t Amy at Via Media).

The Church is starting to grasp the enormous power of the new media. The Brooklyn Diocese is going all out. Unlike the product this "commericial" is based on, this one really works -- guaranteed!

The Entire Cohort

The phrase that struck me about the reading of the Passion this week is an odd little detail that I never paid attention to before now: Pilate assembled the entire Cohort to participate in Jesus' scourging and execution.

So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort. Mark 15:15-16

So how much is a cohort?

Following the restructure [of the Roman Army] by Gaius Marius (157 BC–January 13, 86 BC) the format was again changed so that the Century would be raised to its literal number of 100.

• 1 Legion = 10 Cohorts

• 1 Cohort = 6 centuriae

• 1 Manipulus = 2 Centuria

• 1 Centuria = 10 Contubernia

• 1 Contubernia = 10 Soldiers

The fact that Pilate assembled the Cohort means that this was no minor whipping of the local boy, but rather a flogging of the first order and a particularly grisly execution: a public spectacle, meant to discourage any and all resistance.

They lined up at least 600 people for this event -- and those were just the soldiers. Remember that the next time you are "just a bystander"; you are still complicit in the event even (or especially) if you did nothing.

A Non-Titus 2 Moment

This was an irritating moment which I just want to get off my chest so I can forget about it.

A certain lady offered some "fraternal correction meant in a loving way" to my wife after Mass today. Her advice ran along these lines:

"Your kids were terrible in Mass today [they weren't], so you should have taken them out. Since I have 5 kids the same as you [not the same], and my kids were never that misbehaved in Mass [oh, really?], therefore you should listen to what I say. Oh, and your friend was no help either." [thanks for nothing]

First of all, that lady is lucky I didn't hear what she said or she would have gotten some less-than-fraternal correction from me. My wife, being infinitely more gracious, merely thanked her and walked away.

Second, I didn't see that lady's 5 perfect kids with her in Mass today.

Third, we sit in the unofficial Kid Row in the back of our Church; it is well known for having half a hundred small children in various states of behavior who sit there and nursing mothers who need to head to the bathroom to change diapers at a moments notice. The crying room is useless for the number of families with small children in our parish; it would be more appropriate for the persons without small children to sit there given its size.

Fourth, our pastor has specifically stated that he desires that the children remain in the Church with their families and he doesn't care if they make noise (other people might, but he doesn't). Let the little children come to me, and all that.

Fifth, and finally the point: if you are going to offer "fraternal" correction to someone, you had better have a relationship with them before you try it. Otherwise your correction is not going to be kindly received, it is not going to have its intended effect, you may be meddling in circumstances that you have no clue about, and you unknowingly may be dealing a crushing blow to an unsuspecting person.

The scripture verse Titus 2:3-5 is popular among Protestants, in particular for encouraging older women to become mentors to younger women.

Similarly, older women should be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to drink, teaching what is good, so that they may train younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good homemakers, under the control of their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.

If this woman wants to offer her wisdom to my wife, she had better come alongside her first and offer her friendship and practical helps -- then and only then can she offer her advice and loving correction. You cannot speak to someone's life without being in relationship first.

Someone once said the steps in evangelization are: make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Jesus. The same goes for relationships and double for fraternal correction.

Freedom And Conscience Calling

The USCCB has been aggressively encouraging all people of faith to speak out to defend conscience rights in health care. You only have until Thursday, April 9, 2009 to make your voice heard by the Department of Health and Human Services as they consider whether to rescind the conscience protection laws currently in place. Repealing these protections will hit Catholic health care workers particularly hard.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is inviting public comment on a proposal to rescind an important federal regulation issued in December. The regulation implements and enforces three federal laws protecting the conscience rights of health care providers, especially those at risk of being discriminated against because of their moral or religious objection to abortion.

The Catholic community must speak out to protect Catholic doctors, nurses and hospitals.

Our church had a petition signing drive outside of Mass today, so if you can't or don't want to post your comments publicly the good old paper method works just as well. They had us sign it in triplicate (for some unknown bureaucratic reason), but I'd sign it nine times if I thought it would help. I joked that the triplicate was so the Gestapo could find you later; I was joking -- mostly.

Not to sound too alarmist, but this is one of those watershed moments. Speak out before you're told what you can think.

My Mistress Beckons

I have a mistress to whom my wife bids me go; "Indeed", she says, "you have been away too long".

It is not a lady that beckons, but rather the earth in my garden. For three years she has lain fallow; no crops, no food, no fruit of the earth has she given me. "Alas", I sigh, "my lady lies barren, my mistress comforts me not."

A man comes from the earth, made by the effortless hand of God; a man toils in the earth to bring forth its fruit by the sweat of his brow -- such is his doom. And yet the garden is his refuge, he longs to feel the land beneath his feet; to plant and to furrow; to take delight in the tender shoots from the earth; to reap and to gather the work of his hand.

If God in His mercy sends His rain in due season, yet shall she bear forth. My fields are plowed, my garden prepared -- let the sowing begin! "Come.", my mistress beckons, "Come and let it begin again."