Thanks bro! Most informative!

The Doorway to Salvation
The Baptism of the Lord
by Father Michael Chua Kim Wah



As we come to the close of the Christmas season and begin the ordinary time in this liturgical year, the Church pauses on this Sunday and draws our attention to an important moment of revelation of the person of Jesus Christ, a moment that took place when Jesus willingly submitted himself to be baptised by St John the Baptist at the River Jordan. Pope Emeritus Benedict once said that the “joy arising from the celebration of Christmas finds its completion today in the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.” To this joy is added another reason for those of us who are gathered here: in the Sacrament of Baptism that will soon be administered to these infants, who will be adopted as Children of God and made into living members of Church, and we cannot help but rejoice.

Today, you parents have taken an important step in deciding to have your children baptised. Why isn't it sufficient for discipleship to know the teachings of Jesus, to know the Christian values? Why is it necessary to be baptised? Many would of course answer in the negative. Living a good life according to one’s conscience, abiding by the golden rule of “doing to others what you wish others to do to you”, and avoiding evil, seems sufficient in today’s society that sees no need for God or religion.

The question may also be asked of our Lord’s decision to submit himself to the baptism for the repentance of sins administered by St John. Was this necessary? If Jesus is truly the Holy One of God, the sinless one, would he be in need of repentance or conversion? The action seems utterly pointless and superfluous. But it is here that we recognise the intimate connection between what took place on Christmas Day and what takes place today in the gospel. In both stories, we encounter the path of abasement and humility that the Son of God freely chose in order to adhere to the plan of the Father, to be obedient to His loving will, even to the offering His Life as a sacrifice on the cross for the salvation of many. Our Lord Jesus, the sinless one, unites himself with the condition of humanity, a condition that was initially planned to be flawless, but now marred by sin. Jesus shows solidarity with us, with our effort to convert, to leave behind our old selves. He joins the line of penitents and sinners queuing up for what was the ancient equivalent of a public confession. In this, Jesus shows us the true meaning of mercy and compassion. The Latin root for the word compassion indicates “suffering with”, and Jesus chooses now to subject himself to the ignoble humiliation of asking for forgiveness.

What happens at the moment when Jesus was baptised by John? In the face of this humble and free act of love on the part of Jesus, the Holy Trinity was manifested. The Father speaks, the Spirit is manifested and the Son is revealed. The destructive waters of chaos which pre-existed creation, the Deluge that destroyed the world, the returning waters of the Red Sea that annihilated the army of Pharaoh, now becomes the source of a new creation, the origin of life. In this very act of God who chooses to humble Himself by assuming our human condition, sin and Satan is defeated, new life is reborn.

My dear parents, what happens in Baptism, which will soon be administered to your children? What happens is this: they will be united in a profound way and forever with Jesus, who chooses to unite Himself with all of us at His Baptism. These children will be immersed in the mystery of His power of recreation to be reborn to new life. When they emerge from the waters of baptism, they would no longer just be your children. They will be reborn as children of God, brothers of our Lord Jesus and will be able to turn to God and call upon Him with full trust and confidence, “Father!” The pleasure of God would be pronounced over them.

The water with which these children will be baptised will be accompanied with the words, “I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Your children will be inserted into the name of the Trinity. Pope Emeritus Benedict speaks of it as an interpenetration of the being of God and our being, just as in marriage, for example, two persons become one flesh, become one single new reality, with a single new name. This thought is staggering to say the least. As incredible as it sounds, what happens in baptism is that we become inserted into the name of God, so that we belong to this name and his name becomes our name. Every time when we make the sign of the cross in the name of the Trinity, we remember not only our baptism but the truth that God is no longer very distant from us, he is not a reality to be discussed – whether he exists or not – but we are in God and God is in us. We will no longer be merely defined by our parentage or heritage or culture, we will be defined by God Himself.

But being children of God they are also inserted into the Body of Christ. Being immersed in God I am united with all others, I am united with my brothers and sisters, because all the others are in God and if I am drawn out of my isolation, if I am immersed in God, I am immersed in communion with others. Being baptised is never a solitary act of “me,” but is always necessarily a being united with all the others, a being in unity and solidarity with the whole body of Christ, with the whole community of his brothers and sisters. This fact that Baptism inserts me into community breaks my isolation. There can be no Christ without the Body, and there can be no Body without Christ as its Head. These children would now be made living members of the Church. If baptism is necessary for their salvation, if Christ is necessary for their salvation, the Church must also be necessary for their salvation. You cannot choose one without the other.

And the final question that is always raised is: “But can we impose on a child what religion he wants to live or not? Shouldn't we leave that decision to the child?” Many may argue that infant baptism robs children of the freedom to choose their path of life. And yet parents make so many other decisions on behalf of their children without relying on this flimsy argument. Today freedom and Christian life, the observance of the commandments of God, move in opposite directions. Being Christian is thought to be a sort of slavery; freedom is emancipation from the Christian faith, emancipation – in the final analysis – from God. But the opposite is true. Christianity and the gift of baptism is what gives our children true freedom. Christ has come to free us from slavery to the world, to sin, and to the power of Satan. It is in baptism that we celebrate that very victory. So, is it necessary for your children to be baptised? Is it depriving them of their freedom to choose? The answer is a definite ‘Yes’ to the first question and a ‘No’ to the second.

Life itself is given to us without our being able to choose whether we want to live or not. No one is asked: “do you want to be born or not?” Life itself is necessarily given to us without previous consent. Likewise the same must be said of baptism, which promises eternal life. Can we honestly say that we wish to give our children the right to choose to be saved or not, to receive eternal life or not? The answer of loving parents would obviously be to always choose salvation and eternal life. Baptism is guarantee of that salvation and eternal life and thus must always be chosen as you have chosen to give birth to these children. Baptism is the doorway to salvation, it is now your duty as parents and godparents that they should walk through it and pass through the corridor of life in order that they may reach their final goal – communion with God in Paradise forever.

Source: http://michaelckw.blogspot.my/2016/01/the-...-salvation.html

Amen!



Source: http://amazingcatechists.com/2016/01/8639/

US bishop thunders against sloppy dress in church

An American bishop has launched a broadside against the way some people turn up at Mass wearing very casual dress.

Writing in his diocesan newspaper, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island complained of “an habitual lack of reverence . . .”.

Bishop Tobin wrote that he had seen and received complaints about “the sloppy and even offensive way people dress while attending Mass”.

“You know what I’m talking about; you’ve seen it too,” he wrote.

“Hirsute flabmeisters spreading out in the pew, wearing wrinkled, very-short shorts and garish, unbuttoned shirts; mature women with skimpy clothes that reveal way too much, slogging up the aisle accompanied by the flap-flap-flap of their flip-flops; hyperactive gum-chewing kids with messy hair and dirty hands, checking their iPhones and annoying everyone within earshot or eyesight.

“These displays reveal a gross misunderstanding of the sacred space we’ve entered in the church and the truly sacred drama taking place in our midst.

“C’mon – even in the summer, a church is a church, not a beach or a pool deck.”

Bishop Tobin said every member of the worship community should dress appropriately for Mass, especially those who perform public liturgical ministries.

The bishop admitted he was venting, and went on to complain about people coming to Mass carrying their water bottles and coffee mugs.

“Do they really need to be hydrated or caffeinated during that hour they’re in church? Is it a sacred space or an airport terminal?”

He went on to state he still finds it “inappropriate and disrespectful to have a church full of people talking and creating a boisterous atmosphere before Mass, completely ignorant of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament and the spiritual needs of their fellow parishioners who wish to spend a few moments of quiet prayer with the Lord”.

The bishop also said he is “frequently amazed . . . over how many of the faithful, young and old, simply don’t know how to receive Holy Communion properly”.

Source: http://cathnews.co.nz/2015/06/19/us-bishop...ress-in-church/

You can bet some noises will start using the oft-misused "do not judge" statement.

Uh huh, that's why I posted the visual on 'Spiritual Works of Mercy' first. Specifically #1, 'instruct the ignorant' ... I have heard a lot of excuses given for showing up for Church in a pair of shorts, or ripped jeans and flip-flop slippers, followed by that infamous, "Do not judge" statement.

The Lord hung upon that cross for our sins, so the least one can do is to show up for Sunday Mass dressed properly and respectfully!

Blessed Abbot Marmion on the Epiphany: Call to the Pagan Nations



On the Epiphany:
The Call to the Pagan Nations

by Blessed Abbot Columba Marmion

The Fathers of the Church have seen in the call of the Magi to Christ's cradle the vocation of pagan nations to the Faith. This is the very foundation of the mystery, explicitly indicated by the Church in the collect wherein she sums up the desires of her children on this solemnity: Deus qui hodierna die Unigenitum tnum GENTIBUS stella duce revelasti.

The Incarnate Word is first of all manifested to the Jews in the person of the shepherds. Why was this? Because the Jewish people were the Chosen People. From this people was to come forth the Messias, the Son of David. The magnificent promises to be realised in the establishing of the Messianic Kingdom had been made to this people; it was to them that God had entrusted the Scriptures and given the Law whereof each element prefigured the grace that was to be brought by Christ. It was then befitting that the Incarnate Word should first be manifested to the Jews.

The shepherds, simple and upright men, represented the Chosen People at the Crib: Evangelizo vobis gaudium magnum.., quia natus est vobis hodie Salvator (Lk 2:10-11).

Later on, in His public life, Our Lord would again manifest Himself to the Jews, by the wisdom of His doctrine and the splendour of His miracles.

We shall even find that He restricts His teaching to the Jews alone. See, for example, when the woman of Canaan, from the pagan regions of Tyre and Sidon, asks Him to have mercy upon her. What does Christ answer to the disciples when they interpose in her favour? "I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel" (Mt 15:24). It needed the ardent faith and profound humility of the poor pagan woman to wrest from Jesus, so to speak, the grace that she implored.

When, during His public life, Our Lord sent His Apostles to preach, like Himself, the good news, He likewise said to them: "Go ye not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the city of Samaritans enter you ye not. But go ye rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:5-6). Why this strange recommendation? Were the pagans excluded from the grace of redemption and salvation brought by Christ? No; but it entered into the divine economy to reserve the evangelization of the pagan nations to the Apostles, after the Jews should have definitely rejected the Son of God, by crucifying the Messias. When Our Lord dies upon the cross, the veil of the temple is rent in twain to show that the Ancient Covenant with the Hebrew people had ceased.

Many Jews indeed did not want to receive Christ. The pride of some, the sensuality of others, blinded their souls, and they would not receive Him as Son of God. It is of them that St. John speaks when he says: "The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (Jn 1:5, 11). Therefore Our Lord says to these incredulous Jews: "The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruit thereof" (Mt 21:43).

The pagan nations are called to become the inheritance promised by the Father to His Son Jesus: Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam (Ps 11:8). Our Lord Himself says: "The good shepherd giveth His life for His sheep," adding immediately: "Other sheep I have, that are not of this fold": Alias oves habeo, quae non sunt ex hoc ovili. "Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd" (Jn 10: 11, 16).

This is why, before ascending into heaven, He sends His Apostles to continue His work and mission of salvation, no longer among the lost sheep of Israel, but among all people. "Going therefore," He says to them, "teach ye all nations... preach the gospel to every creature... I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Mt 28:19-20).

The Word Incarnate did not, however, await His Ascension to shed abroad the grace of the Gospel upon the Gentile world. As soon as He appeared here below, He invited it to His cradle in the person of the Magi. He, Eternal Wisdom, would thus show us that He brought peace, Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis (Lk 2:14), not only to those who were nigh to Him- the faithful Jews represented by the shepherds, -but also to those who " were afar off "-the Pagans represented by the Magi. Thus, as St. Paul says, of the two people He made but one: Qui fecit utraque unum, because He alone, by the union of His Humanity with His Divinity, is the perfect Mediator, and "by Him we have access both in one Spirit to the Father" (Eph 2:14, 17-18).

The calling of the Magi and their sanctification signifies the vocation of the Gentiles to the faith and to salvation. God sends an angel to the shepherds, for the Chosen People were accustomed to the apparition of the celestial spirits; to the Magi, who studied the stars, He causes a marvellous star to appear. This star is the symbol of the inward illumination that enlightens souls in order to call them to God.

The soul of every grown-up person is in fact enlightened, once at least, like the Magi, by the star of the vocation to eternal salvation. To all the light is given. It is a dogma of our faith that God "will have all men to be saved": Qui OMNES homines vult salvos fieri, et ad agnitionem veritatis venire (1 Tim 2:4).

On the day of judgment, all without exception will proclaim, with the conviction produced by evidence, the infinite justice of God and the perfect rectitude of His judgments: Justus es, Domine, et rectum judicium tuum (Ps 118:137). Those whom God shall have told to depart from Him for ever will acknowledge that they are the workers of their own ruin.

Now this would not be true if the reprobate had not had the possibility of knowing and accepting the divine light of faith. It would be contrary not only to God's infinite goodness, but even to His justice, to condemn a soul on account of its invincible ignorance.

Doubtless, the star that calls men to the Christian faith is not the same for all; it shines in different ways, but its brightness is visible enough for hearts of good will to be able to recognise it and see in it the sign of the Divine call. In His providence full of wisdom, God incessantly varies His action, incomprehensible like Himself. He varies it according to the ever active promptings of His love and the ever holy exigencies of His justice. We ought herein to adore the unfathomable depths of God's ways and proclaim that they infinitely surpass our created views. Indeed "who hath known the mind Or the Lord ? Or who hath been His counsellor ? " O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei! Quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus et investigabiles viae ejus! (Rom 11:33).

We have "seen the star" and have recognised as our God the Babe of Bethlehem; we have the happiness of belonging to the Church whereof the Magi were the first fruits.

In the office of the feast, the Liturgy celebrates this vocation of all humanity to faith and salvation in the person of the Magi as the nuptials of the Church with the Bridegroom. Hear with what gladness, in what magnificent symbolical terms, borrowed from the prophet Isaias, the liturgy proclaims (Epistle of the Mass) the splendour of this spiritual Jerusalem which is to receive into her maternal bosom the nations become the inheritance of her divine Bridegroom. "Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see; all these gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and daughters shall rise up at thy side. Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee" (Is 60:15).

Let us offer continual thanksgiving to God "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col 1:13), " that is to say into His Church.

The call to the faith is a signal benefit because it contains in germ the vocation to the eternal beatitude of the Divine vision. Never let us forget that this call was the dawn of all God's mercies towards us, and that for man all is summed up in fidelity to this vocation; faith is to bring us to the Beatific Vision (Collect for the Feast).

Not only ought we to thank God for this grace of the Christian faith, but we ought each day to render ourselves more worthy of it by safeguarding our faith against all the dangers that it encounters in our age of naturalism, scepticism, indifference, human respect, and by living a life of faith with constant fidelity.

Moreover, let us beseech God to grant this precious gift of the Christian faith to all the souls who yet "sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death"; let us beseech Our Lord that the star may shine upon them; that, through His tender mercy, He Himself will be the Sun to visit them from on high: Per viscera misericordiae Dei nostri in quibus visitavit nos, Oriens ex alto (Lk 1:78-79)

This prayer is very pleasing to Our Lord; it is, in fact, to beseech Him that He may be known and exalted as the Saviour of all mankind and the King of kings.

It is likewise pleasing to the Father, for He desires nothing so much as the glorification of His Son. Let us then often repeat, during these holy days, the prayer that the Incarnate Word Himself has put upon our lips: O Heavenly Father, "Father of Lights," Thy Kingdom come, that kingdom whereof Thy Son Jesus is the head. Adveniat regnum tuum! May Thy Son be more and more known, loved, served, glorified, so that in His turn He may, by manifesting Thee the more to men, glorify Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost.

- from Christ in His Mysteries

• • •



Of Abbot Marmion's work, Pope Benedict XV said "Read it, it is the pure doctrine of the Church."

"When Our Lord died on the Cross, the veil of the temple is rent in twain to show that the Ancient Covenant with the Hebrew people had ceased. " - Bl. Abbot Marmion

Relic of the Crown of Thorns kept inside the hallowed Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.

THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. WHY DID JESUS SUBMIT HIMSELF TO ST. JOHN’S BAPTISM?
Posted by catholicsstrivingforholiness in Baptism, Feasts, Humility, Jesus Christ, Sacred Humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Self-abasement, Solidarity, Sundays of Ordinary Time, Uncategorized



After commemorating the Birth of Our Lord during Christmas and His manifestation as Savior Messiah and Light to the world during the feast of Epiphany, Christmas season draws to its close with the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In its liturgy, the Church remembers another solemn manifestation of Christ’s divinity. In the adoration of the Magi God revealed the divinity of Jesus by means of the star. At his Baptism the voice of God the Father, coming “from heaven”, reveals to John the Baptist and to the Jewish people — and thereby to all men — this profound mystery of Christ’s divinity.

“What happens in the moment that Jesus has himself baptized by John? With this act of humble love on the part of the Son of God the heavens open and the Holy Spirit is visibly manifest as a dove, while a voice from on high expresses the Father’s pleasure, who points to his only begotten Son, the Beloved. This is an authentic manifestation of the Most Holy Trinity, which witnesses to Jesus’ divinity, his being the promised Messiah, he whom God sent to free his people so that they might be saved (cf. Isaiah 40:2) (Benedict XVI, Homily on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, January 12, 2013).

The question arises: HOW COME JESUS, BEING THE SON OF GOD, ALLOWED HIMSELF TO RECEIVE FROM JOHN THE “BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS” (Luke 3:3)?

“To inaugurate his public life and to anticipate the “Baptism” of his death, he who was without sin accepted to be numbered among sinners. He was “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Father proclaimed him to be “his beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17) and the Spirit descended upon him. The baptism of Jesus is a prefiguring of our baptism (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 105).””

The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ “DISPLAYS THE PATH OF ABASEMENT AND HUMILITY THAT THE SON OF GOD FREELY CHOSE IN ORDER TO FOLLOW THE FATHER’S PLAN, TO BE OBEDIENT TO HIS WILL OF LOVE FOR MAN IN ALL THINGS, TO THE POINT OF THE SACRIFICE ON THE CROSS. Now an adult, Jesus initiates his public ministry, traveling to the Jordan River to receive a baptism of repentance and conversion from John. There occurs here something that might seem paradoxical in our eyes. DOES JESUS NEED TO REPENT AND CONVERT? CERTAINLY NOT. AND YET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN PLACES HIMSELF AMONG SINNERS TO BE BAPTIZED, TO PERFORM THIS GESTURE OF REPENTANCE; THE HOLY ONE OF GOD JOINS WITH THOSE WHO RECOGNIZE THEIR NEED OF FORGIVENESS AND ASK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF CONVERSION, THAT IS, THE GRACE TO RETURN TO HIM WITH ALL THEIR HEART, TO BE COMPLETELY HIS. JESUS WISHES TO PLACE HIMSELF AMONG SINNERS, MAKING HIMSELF (IN) SOLIDARITY WITH THEM, EXPRESSING GOD’S NEARNESS. JESUS SHOWS HIMSELF TO BE SOLIDARY WITH US, WITH OUR EFFORT TO CONVERT, TO LEAVE OUR EGOISM BEHIND, TO TURN FROM OUR SINS, TO TELL US THAT IF WE ACCEPT HIM IN OUR LIVES HE IS ABLE TO LIFT US BACK UP AND LEAD US TO THE HEIGHTS OF GOD THE FATHER. And this solidarity of Jesus is not, so to say, a simple exercise of the mind and will. Jesus has truly immersed himself in our human condition, he lived it through and through, except for sin, and is able to understand weakness and frailty. FOR THIS REASON HE HAS COMPASSION, CHOOSES TO “SUFFER WITH” MEN, TO MAKE HIMSELF A PENITENT WITH US. THE WORK OF GOD THAT JESUS WISHES TO ACCOMPLISH IS THIS: THE DIVINE MISSION HEAL THOSE WHO ARE WOUNDED AND TO CARE FOR THE SICK, TO TAKE THE SIN OF THE WORLD UPON HIMSELF (Benedict XVI, ibidem).”

As Christians, WE MUST IMITATE CHRIST, ENTERING INTO THIS “MYSTERY OF SELF-ABASEMENT AND REPENTANCE, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father’s beloved son in the Son and ‘walk in newness of life’(Rom 6:4). ‘Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go down with him to be raised with him; and let us rise with him to be glorified with him (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 40, 9)’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 586).”

Dear friends: let us THANK GOD FOR THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM through which we have become children of God and have received the sanctifying grace, the remission of original sin and at the same time the calling towards a life of holiness. Let us FOLLOW JESUS IN HIS HUMILITY AND SELF-ABASEMENT, knowing that we have THE CONSTANT NEED OF REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION.

“Almighty ever-living God, who when Christ had been baptized in the River Jordan, and as the Holy Spirit descended upon him, solemnly declared him your beloved Son, grant that your children by adoption, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, may always be well pleasing to you (Opening prayer, Mass of the Feast of Baptism of Our Lord).”

Source: http://catholicsstrivingforholiness.com/20...-johns-baptism/

This post has been edited by khool: Jan 10 2016, 03:30 PM

Coincidence or what, same topic at my hometown church a few weeks ago... and this morning at St John's ..... the power flowing through that US Bishop...

Amen brother!!

Evening meditation: "Lazarus."
By Father James Martin, S.J.

As many of you know, David Bowie died last night. What you may not know is that shortly before his death he released a meditation on life, death and, it seems to me, resurrection, in a song (and video) entitled "Lazarus." Mr. Bowie had been suffering for the past 18 months from cancer, and so when he made this video, released a few days ago, he knew death was imminent.



Most Christians, even many non-Christians, know the story of the Raising of Lazarus, as told in the Gospel of John. Mary and Martha, two of Jesus's close friends, who live in the town of Bethany, near Jerusalem, send word that their brother is ill. But they don't say "our brother Lazarus is ill," or even "Lazarus of Bethany is ill." Instead they say, "he whom you love is ill." It's a sign of the deep affection that Jesus has for the man. Jesus waits several days before traveling to Bethany, where he is confronted by the two sisters who say to him, separately, "If you had been here our brother would not have died." Jesus then is brought to the tomb, where he weeps openly. Then he stands at the tomb, asks for the stone to be rolled away, and calls out, "Lazarus, come forth!" The dead man emerges, "his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth." And Jesus says to the crowd, "Untie him, and let him go."

In his video, David Bowie, who like Lazarus is bandaged, sings, "Look up here, I'm in heaven. I've got scars that can't be seen. I've got drama, can't be stolen. Everybody knows me now." In the first part of the video, Bowie writhes in his bandages in a hospital bed; in the second part "another" Bowie stands and dances, freed from his bandages, in the same room. At the close of the video he enters into a closet.

The video is rich with imagery, and will speak to people in various ways.

For me it's a complex image of life, death and the afterlife. (As well as sight and blindness: as he lays in bed, his eyes are covered by small metal pieces, which may call to mind stories of Jesus's healing of the blind.) Much of the video resonated deeply with me. On the one hand, one will indeed enter into God's presence carrying with us all the "drama" of our lives. One will also be welcomed into the presence of those who know us, and into a place where we will be known fully, by God. And one will be freed of the limitations of physical pain and of the confining "bandages" of our existence.

On the other hand, the "scars," I believe, will be seen by those in heaven, God included. For nothing is lost to God. We are welcomed, scars and all. Remember that when Jesus returns from the dead he shows his disciples his physical wounds, his scars. The Risen One carries in himself, and on himself, the experiences, visible and invisible, of his humanity.

At the close of the video, Bowie retreats into a dark closet. It's a shadow image of conclusion of the story of Lazarus, who, in the Gospels emerges from a dark tomb into the light. (Needless to say, it may be a Johannine image, a nod to Bowie's sexuality, or something else entirely.)

It's not surprising that someone would struggle with issues of illness, death and the afterlife. Even believers do. And I'm not sure what Bowie's religious or spiritual beliefs were. But it's a gift when an artist shares himself or herself with the world in so personal and creative a way, particularly in the midst of the final struggle.

"Oh I'll be free/Just like that bluebird," he sings. "Oh I'll be free/Ain't that just like me?"

As an artist, Bowie always confounded expectations. Perhaps, like most of us, he struggled with a God who confounded him near the end. Now may that same God surprise him. With new life.

May he be untied and let go.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin/post...1926496?fref=nf

FYI ...

Yes, do not be ashamed to make the sign of the cross in public. Not the rushed, hushed type, but in a dignified manner....saying grace before your meals, in thanksgiving. Too many Catholics are ashamed or scared to make the sign of the cross publicly with a sense of false humility.

This post has been edited by yeeck: Jan 13 2016, 06:04 PM

Episcopal Ordination of Bishop-Elect Bernard Paul

It's more the case of Catholics being ridiculed and scorned for openly daring to profess their faith in public, hence the reluctance. No small thanks to all that 'religion is a personal and private thing' crap being touted and encouraged.

Isn't it totally ironic that alternative lifestyle is not only tolerated, even encouraged, but a religious one is frowned upon? Welcome to the 21st Century ...

They are kinda short on a couple of books bro, 7, to be precise ...