The Ultimate Trust Test

Everyone likes to talk about that test where someone stands behind you and then you let yourself fall back into their arms.

Will they catch you? Many a funny television bit has been based on this little test.

I've got a better one.

Say that your loved one, with his eagle ears trained by a lifetime in Texas, discerns that there could be a cockroach coming out of the air-vent that is right over your head when you are sleeping.

(Yes, this is partly a horror story. Those are the best tests of trust.)

He could only tell this by flipping the light on and off repeatedly looking for intruders as you were trying to sleep.

In brave, manly fashion, he does not reveal this until you irritatedly ask him what's going on, because he is so focused on your safety that he is straining every sense for danger. No time to talk. Must listen.

Once the danger is revealed and you have moved in one second flat across the room, wrapped in a blanket, he can act.

Cautiously, carefully, he sprays inside the vent with roach spray, springing back in readiness, the better to battle the danger. Together, you wait.

Nothing happens.

Cautiously, warning you to listen for possible encroachment, you both return to bed.

Five minutes later, when you have shrieked, "I hear it!" and bolted across the room in a blanket, your hero turns on the lights to see, emerging from the darkness, a gigantic cockroach.

Your head would have been right under it!

The danger. The horror.

"Ugh" cannot express it, but it will have to do for now.

He battles the foe in practiced style. The hounds leap about, seeking their share of the prey.

Safety plans are discussed. Sleeping on the couch. Sleeping in the guest room. All unsatisfactory. The ultimate plan, moving the bed across the room where there is no vent, is long-term and awaits the coming dawn. (Platform beds put the strongest hero's muscles to shame in the middle of the night.)

A hasty but reliable battle plan is developed. Tape the vent with packing tape.

You begin to wish that your favorite movie was not Aliens and this incident were not so reminiscent of the many plans to hold back the vile forms lurking in the darkness. The horror has taken hold in your soul. A cockroach could drop on your head while you are asleep.

Once again, less composed than usual for sleep, lights out, there is a rustle above. Your hero has heard it too and tells you that the heater is bound to cause some expansion of tape, but it is tight. No need to worry, he tells you, it's ok.

So, here it is. The moment of trust. One which you will relive throughout the night as you awake repeatedly, hearing a slight rustle overhead.

"It's the heater," you will think. "Or has something slipped through the perimeter?"

And then, it comes down to the final thought. "Do I trust what my hero did for my safety?"

Yes. Yes you do.

And you fall asleep again. Without turning on the lights to double-check his work. Without elbowing him awake to ask again if he taped it really tight.

You sleep. In safety. In trust.

What We've Been Watching: Pirates, Windmills, Stupid Celebrities, and Coffee Drinking Celebrities

COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE - Season 3

(Season Trailer)

I've talked about this before, right? Short episodes follow Jerry Seinfeld picking up a fellow comedian to go get coffee with him. Each time, Jerry, a car enthusiast, has carefully matched the car he's driving to the person he's picking up. I'm no car nut, but I love seeing all these cars and hearing his descriptions. A more mixed bag are the comedians, many of whom are wonderful to listen to in regular conversation about anything and everything. Some are more boring. But that's people for you and often it is simply interesting to see two comedians talking about their profession. 

We just remembered season 3 had begun and are enjoying working our way through the episodes. Available free on Crackle or YouTube. If you watch on Crackle you'll also see ads for the Accura, the show's sponsor. These are also often quite funny and we enjoy them a lot.

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (2013) ★★★★★

The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.

I watched this as part of my movie group's Oscar Series, based on what we can pick up on dvd before this year's Academy Awards. I'm glad this was out in time because I'd probably have avoided it for a long time, knowing I'd probably be anxious watching.

What an intense film. I didn't expect it to have such an intriguing cat and mouse game between the pirates and the crew. I also didn't expect to get so caught up in the the tactics taken by the tiny pirate boat to gain access, nor to the ways the ship tried to shake off the pursuer. It reminded me of a wolf stalking a buffalo.

The last 10 minutes of the movie were amazing. Simply amazing.

Don't miss this. Just be sure to remember to breathe.

LOST IN LA MANCHA ★★★½

This 2000 documentary shows Terry Gilliam's attempt to film an adaptation of the Don Quixote story, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Back injuries, extreme weather, delicately balanced schedules, and much more combine to kill the movie. The documentary was meant to record the film being made but when it was abandoned it was retitled Lost in La Mancha and released independently.

I have heard of this for years and finally ran a copy to ground. It is truly staggering thinking of the incredible run of bad luck that Terry Gilliam ran into trying to get this film made. It was also fascinating watching the logistics of moviemaking of any sort. Both gave us a lot to talk about in the day after we watched.

THIS IS THE END (2013) ★★

While attending a party at James Franco's house, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and many other celebrities are faced with the apocalypse.

Short version: Cheech and Chong 2013. Shaun of the Dead this ain't.

Longer version: I felt as if I were watching "Be Kind, Rewind" where a group of stoners made their home movie about the apocalypse and then had enough pull to get distribution. Parts of it were funny but it would have greatly benefited from an editor who went in and removed a lot of the sloppy, self-indulgence.

Most interesting were the last 20 minutes or so when they finally returned again to telling a story. From the point where everyone is suddenly convinced it is the apocalypse, the end of days, the movie takes an unexpected turn and focus. That isn't enough to save the movie or make me want to ever see it again but it was enough to raise it slightly above other similar lewd, crude movies.

"Keep it together. Work the problem." Reviewing The Martian by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m pretty much f**ked.

That’s my considered opinion.

F**ked.

Six days into what should be the greatest two months of my life, and it’s turned into a nightmare. I don’t even know who’ll read this. I guess someone will find it eventually. Maybe 100 years from now. For the record… I didn’t die on Sol 6. Certainly the rest of the crew thought I did, and I can’t blame them. Maybe there’ll be a day of national mourning for me, and my Wikipedia page will say “Mark Watney is the only human being to have died on Mars.” And it’ll be right, probably. Cause I’ll surely die here. Just not on Sol 6 when everyone thinks I did. Let’s see…where do I begin?

Astronaut Mark Watney is marooned on Mars after a freak dust storm literally blows him away from his crewmates. Thinking he's dead, the mission is scrubbed and the rest of the crew head back to Earth. Mark hopes to survive until the next NASA mission to Mars in four years.

Most of The Martian consists of Mark's log entries which read like a MacGyver episode. He keeps as lighthearted a mood as possible while recording the details of how he is attempting to grow food, find water, and so forth. It is this lighthearted element which helps keep this from being merely a manual of "how to survive on Mars." For example, Mark's selection of entertainment from among the things left behind by his crewmates yields the complete series for Three's Company. His occasional comments on the series afterwards made me laugh out loud.

Fairly early in the book, NASA's side of the story begins being interwoven with Mark's struggle for survival. Since Apollo 13 is one of my favorite movies, the comparison is inevitable and irresistible. NASA must juggle PR, competing agencies, rescue plans and more ... while we see Mark doggedly surmount one obstacle after another. It is a welcome element because an entire book of Mark's survival log was going to need some sort of additional depth to make it interesting.

Although I always felt fairly sure that Mark would survive, as the end of the book loomed near I got increasingly tense. What if these were his "found posthumously" logs? The author kept the tension up to the very end.

And at the end? I'm not ashamed to admit it. I cried.

Tears of joy? Tears of sorrow? Read the book and find out.

Or listen to it as I did. Narrator R.C. Bray did a good job of conveying Mark's sense of humor and absorption in problem solving and survival. He also was good at the various accents of the international cast comprising the rest of the crew and NASA. He had a tendency to read straight storytelling as if it were a computer manual or something else that just needed a brisk run down.

The main thing a bit at fault was Bray's German accent, which I kept mistaking for a Mexican or Indian accent. Those don't seem as if they should be that interchangeable do they? My point exactly. However, I always knew who was speaking, I felt emotions as they came across, and it was a good enough narrating job. Not enough to make me look for other books in order to hear his narrations, but good enough.

This novel is not a short story and I felt it would have benefitted from more characterization. Yes, we get to know Mark Watney and, to a lesser degree, his crewmates and the NASA crew. However, to hear Mark's story for so many days (sols) and get to know so little about him during that time ... well, after a while it got a little boring, aside from the new problems to be solved or emergencies from which to recover.

We also got occasional forays into NASA and the spaceship crew, but more about Mark would have enriched the story. It didn't have to be soul-baring and I realize he was writing a log, but after several hundred days some personalization would have crept in, one would think.

Anyway, that is not a huge factor because I enjoyed the story. But I was not surprised to see that the author is a computer programmer and it did cost the book a star.

Notes on Mark: This is My Body. This is My Blood.

The Last Supper, by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, 19th century
Click through on the link to see it larger.

MARK 14:22, 24

22 "This is my body."

Not "This stands for my body" or "This is like my body" or "This means my body." The Lord does not utter these words in the context of a parable. Mark does not use the word "parable" to explain them or in any way indicate that they were a parable. The teller of a parable uses the word "is" only to explain the parable, not to present the parable itself. If anything, Jesus at the Last Supper provides the interpretation of the Cross understood as a parable, but it is an interpretation which gives an instance, not a sign. That is to say, the last supper is a participation prospectively in the sacrifice of the Cross, just as the Mass is today retrospectively. It's as if a child hears the president announce a tax cut and asks his father what that means. The father pulls out his wallet and, knowing that he will have extra money, gives the child five dollars and says, "This is what it means." He is showing the child the meaning by giving him an instance of it.

[...]

24 "This is my blood, of the covenant..."

Not "This represents my blood" or "This is like my blood." Jesus uses the same form of words in the consecration of both the bread and the wine, indicating that the form of words matters. Otherwise he would have altered the form to indicate that the meaning, not the form, was important.

The word "covenant" means literally a disposition of goods, a testament, as in "last will and testament." The Lord, who is about to die, is transferring certain goods to others as an inheritance.

The Memoirs of St. Peter

I've heard a lot of arguments designed to remove literal meaning from "This is my body. This is my blood." but never that it was told as a parable.

 ===== 

Sources and Notes Index 

Notes on Mark: Judas' Motivation

Remorso de Judas (Remorse of Judas),
José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior

MARK 14:10-11

10-11 So Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, departed

People feel compelled to explain Judas' betrayal. Some think he intended to force Jesus' hand in establishing his earthly kingdom. Some think he was afraid that Jesus would provoke a Roman reprisal. Some thought that when Judas grasped that Jesus was claiming to be God, he thought he should be tested or punished with death. And others think that Judas, knowing that Jesus was aware of his sinfulness, was moved by guilt to eliminate him. But it is striking that Mark offers no theory at all of Judas' motivation, as if Peter regarded Judas' actions as evil because they had no reason.

The Memoirs of St. Peter by Mark Pakaluk

I actually don't care what the reason was. For one thing, worrying about someone's motivation in the ways mentioned above is relatively modern. The fact that other gospels show Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss is bad enough for me. How can someone betray their best friend? And maybe that's why Mark offers no theory. 

 ===== 

Sources and Notes Index 

How to Open a Bottle of Wine Without a Corkscrew

Another good video via my sis on Facebook.



Now, I couldn't help noticing that one video was from Guinness and this one is for wine. Not that I'm judging, mind you, I liked them both. But it does help me confirm this is indeed my sis and not an imposter using her name.

In which all is revealed. Well, not "all" (get your minds out of the gutter) ...

...but everything we need to finish our "half-clad Martian warrior maids invading Earth" adventure at Forgotten Classics podcast. Enjoy!

I Rarely Watch Videos But I'm Glad I Watched This

Via my sis on Facebook.

Well Said: Gentlemen, I am a Catholic ...

From my quote journal.

Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This [taking a rosary from his pocket] is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative.

Hilaire Belloc, 1906 speech in Salford

He won the election. I like his moxie.

Blue Rider

Wassily Kandinsky, 1903, Blue Rider
via WikiPaintings

WikiPaintings' commentary points out something I hadn't noticed:

The painting’s intentional abstractness had led many art theorists to project their own representations onto the figure, some seeing a child in the arms of the blue rider. Allowing viewers to participate in the representations of the art was a technique that Kandinsky would use to great fruition in his many later works, which became more and more abstract as his career wore on.

This puts me in mind of a large painting my parents had which was very abstract. I looked at it idly all through my youth, sometimes seeing the inside of a cave with stalactites, sometimes seeing a river and waterfall, occasionally wondering what the painter intended and what other people saw in the painting when they looked. I'm not sure but I think it might have been titled Mirage. Why I never asked anyone else in my family what they saw in the painting, I don't know. It was an internal meditation which I never felt needed airing.

In that spirit, is the rider going to something or away? Are the shadows an encroaching threat or receding in the face of the light? Obviously this is a painting which could reward the viewer with something new many times.

Mark Bible Study - Index

MARK

• Sources used
• The Author and Manuscript [Updated]
• Mark the Lion
• 1:1 - The Beginning of the Good News
• 1:4 - Word Study: Repentance
• 1:9-11 - The Baptism of Jesus
• 1:12-14 - Tempted in the Wilderness
• 1:16-20 - Choosing the Disciples
• 1:21-22 - The Synagogue
• 1:21-22 - The Law
• 1:21-22 - The Scribes
• 1:21-28 - Jesus' Assault on the Powers of Darkness
• 1:40-45 - Leprosy
• 2:1-12 - The Paralyzed Man and His Four Friends
• 2:7 - Forgiveness is Active
• 2:13-14 - Matthew the Tax Collector
• 2:23-28 - About the Sabbath
• 3:1-6 - Healing on the Sabbath
• 3:13-19 - Choosing the Twelve
• 3:28-30 - Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
• 4:1 - Broadcasting Seed Upon the Soil
• 4:1-20 - Plowing the Soil
• 4:10-12 - They See But Do Not Perceive
• 4:26-29 - Parable About the Seeds
• 4:30-32 - The Mustard Seed
• 4:35-41 - The Storm
• 5:1-20 - Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac
• 5:35-39 - Witnesses and Death Customs
• 5:40-43 - Hearing Jesus' Voice
• Chapter 6 - Unbelief and Power
• 6:1-3 - Degrees of Relationship
• 6:14-16 - John the Baptist's Self-Offering
• 6:16-29 - An Evil Woman's Revenge
• 6:35-44 - Feeding the Five Thousand
• 6:45-52 - Rowing Against the Wind
• 6:53-56 - Running to Jesus
• 7:14-23 - Real Defilement Comes From Within
• 7:14-23 - What Makes a Man Unclean
• 7:24-30 - Table Scraps
• 7:32-33 - The Deaf and Dumb Man
• 8:1-10 - Understanding the Second Miracle of Loaves
• 8:14-21 - Only One Loaf
• 8:22-26 -  Gradual Journeys
• 8:34-35 - The Cost of Discipleship
• 8:38-9:1 - When the King Comes Into His Own
• 9:2-8 - Transfiguration as Suspension of Miracle
• 9:2-8 - On the Mountaintop
• 9:2-8 - Radiant Glory and the Cloud
• 9:2-8 - Transfiguration and the Disciples
• 9:2-8 - Transfiguration and Jesus
• 9:14-29 - Foreshadowing the Resurrection
• 9:32-35 - True Ambition
• 9:38-40 - He Who Is Not Against Us Is For Us
• 9:41-42 - The Millstone
• 9:42-48 - Hell
• 9:49-10:1 - Salt, Salt, and More Salt
• 10:46-52 - Healing is a Sign of the New World
• 11:11-12 - Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
• 14:10-11 - Judas' Motivation
• 14:22, 24 - This is My Body. This is My Blood.

With Design This Good I Almost Don't Care About a Story: S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst

S. by J.J. Abrams, Doug Dorst



I can't rate this book yet because I just got it home from the library and took a good look at it.

That "good look" took me 15 delighted minutes.

Why so long? Because this "1949" book, perfectly designed in the style of the time, has a correspondence going on in the sides of the pages, between two biblophiles who discuss the author and learn about each other by leaving notes in the library book.

Flipping carefully through to see a few of the postcards, newspaper articles, and photographs left in the pages of the book (as part of the reading experience, of course) made me even more excited.

Based on reviews, people either love the story or find it disappointing. All give full credit for the amazing book design. Obviously, I am so hoping I'm one of the people who loves the story because the layout and design are enough to make me give it 5 stars without reading more than the title page and two pages of the introduction.

It is so authentic looking that when I showed it to one of my favorite librarians (yes, I have favorite librarians. It happens when you visit your library at least once a week for years), she opened it, saw the library stamp and the "Book for Loan" stamp and said, "When was this written?" She looked it up on her database before believing it was new.

Now, if there is one thing I know about J.J. Abrams it is that he can be more style than substance. (Yes, Lost, I gave you three seasons of my life before quitting.)

If there is a second thing I know, it is that he can tell a helluva good story sometimes (Alias, Person of Interest, Almost Human, the Star Trek reboot). All while maintaining that nice, shiny style that is so alluring.

This book is going to take a while to read, as most reviewers have remarked. But I am already intrigued enough to make this a "slow read" commitment and work my way through it.

One thing is definite. This is a love letter to books, turning pages, writing notes, and tucking reminders between the leaves. You couldn't do this with a Kindle, folks. All the postcards would fall out every time you turned it on!

Here's a video that shows the inside of the book.

Notes on Mark: Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

MARK 11:11-26
The whole incident of the cursed fig tree has never really made sense to me, seeming quite out of character for Jesus. This sheds a little light at least in terms of examining that fig tree in my own life.

Jesus' cursing of the fig tree has always been a difficult text for Bible commentators, especially in view of Mark's comment that "it was not the season for figs." It seems odd that Jesus would curse the fig tree when it was not the time to bear fruit...

The barrenness condemned by Jesus can cause us problems as well. We are called to bear fruit; Jesus wants that fruit. If we are willing to be satisfied with legalistic observances, we will remain barren. We can never plead that it is not the proper season to bear fruit, that we have no time for prayer, no need for repentance, no reason for faith. We can argue that we go to church on Sunday, that people call us Christians, that we observe certain religious rituals. God, however, wants faith that bears fruit.

Mark: A Devotional Commentary
(The Word Among Us)

Note: the link above goes to Word Among Us's book store. For some reason it gives a security certificate warning, but when I bravely went ahead, there I was ... where I could buy a book if I liked. Be not afraid!

Happy Feast Day, St. Francis De Sales!

Scott and I read this saint's classic book for everyday people, Introduction to the Devout Life. We discussed it a year ago on his feast day on our podcast. (Coincidence? I think now!)

Today Scott sent me a couple of beautiful quotes from his notes. Naturally, these are too good to keep to myself so I'm sharing them with you:

It is an error, nay more, a very heresy, to seek to banish the devout life from the soldier’s guardroom, the mechanic’s workshop, the prince’s court, or the domestic hearth.

+ + + + + + + + +

Day is continually turning to night, spring to summer, summer to autumn, autumn to winter, winter to spring; no two days are ever exactly alike. Some are foggy, rainy, some dry or windy; and this endless variety greatly enhances the beauty of the universe. And even so precisely is it with man (who, as ancient writers have said, is a miniature of the world), for he is never long in any one condition, and his life on earth flows by like the mighty waters, heaving and tossing with an endless variety of motion; one while raising him on high with hope, another plunging him low in fear; now turning him to the right with rejoicing, then driving him to the left with sorrows; and no single day, no, not even one hour, is entirely the same as any other of his life.

Day of the Little Way ... St. Therese and Twitter

Here's an initiative which seems like a good way to use Twitter, which I admit I largely use just for links in case anyone there is interested in what I do here with many more than 140 characters at a time.

The Day of the Little Way will marry the ideas behind the New Evangelization and the life changing power of St. Therese’s little way. On Feb. 4, we’re inviting Catholics everywhere to share their faith through 140 little characters on Twitter by tweeting about the ways St. Therese has impacted your faith and life and by using the hastag #LittleWay.

Will you please consider joining us for the Day of the Little Way movement and help us demonstrate the enormous power of simple faith?

Check the link above for more info.

In which we track a semi-naked woman, dodge nefarious Russians, and make a surprising discovery.

Yes, the second part of Warrior Queen of Mars awaits your listening pleasure at Forgotten Classics!

Today is a Day of Prayer and Penance in the United States

Every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world’s rejection. And every elderly person…even if he is ill or at the end of his days, bears the face of Christ. They cannot be discarded, as the ‘culture of waste’ suggests!

Pope Francis, Sept. 20, 2013

Today marks the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal throughout the U.S.

Since that decision, more than 55 million children's lives have been lost to abortion. That doesn't count those who suffer the loss after they are gone.

Hence the Church's establishment of today as a national day of penance for abortion.

“In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass 'For Peace and Justice' (no. 22 of the 'Masses for Various Needs') should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day.”

– General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373

My prayers are with those marching in Washington D.C. today as a visible sign . Someday I would love to be able to attend that March.

Actually, someday I'd really love to not have to have a March because our hearts have all changed enough that we value life itself for the precious thing it is, without having to "be" or "do" anything special. Just for itself.

Until that day, we work and pray.

The Dallas March for Life was this weekend and we were heartened by the huge crowds and the media coverage. Once again I cast my mind back to the first March for Life we attended when the organizers were ecstatic because they'd doubled the usual number ... to 1,000. How ashamed we were at that moment that we'd never come before. We haven't missed a March since then and have been blessed to see God's goodness reflected in the thousands who now march for life. I think there must have been something like 8,000 people there.

Whoever handles the media has stepped up their game and was able to get all the local television stations' attention, except for CBS. Extra kudos to WFAA, channel 8, for being respectful enough to call us "pro-life" marchers instead of "anti-abortion" marchers, the way the other stations did. We had lovely weather, in the 60s, unlike most of the country where it is freezing today as they march for life.

Notes on Mark: Healing is a Sign of the New World

Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus,
by Johann Heinrich Stöver, 1861

MARK 10:46-52

46 Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus

50 Throwing his cloak to the side and getting on his feet, he went to Jesus.

Mark gives his name and patronymic because he joins the disciples (verse 52) and becomes known to the Christian community in this way. This is the story of how he became a disciple. There is also an implied contrast with the unnamed rich young man, who did not follow Our Lord. This blind beggar, who had nothing to add, did. ...

Here is another of Mark's memorable "picture details," showing that this beggar, unlike the rich young man, immediately leaves behind everything that he has. He leaves his cloak behind without thought.

The Memoirs of St. Peter by Mark Pakaluk

I never thought about how the above detail fits into the whole chapter. I always just took it as part of an isolated incident as Jesus headed toward Jerusalem. Once again, this shows how Mark is telling a more complex story than he is often given credit for.

On another front, I do tend to forget this, that the healing is not an end in itself but a sign of the new world and of the internal changes taking place within us.

The healing of Bartimaeus occurs, in the structure of Mark's Gospel, in the section recounting Jesus' journey to Jerusalem. The context is important to keep in mind. Bartimaeus' healing was the last reported incident prior to Jesus' entry into the city. There, he would suffer his passion, lay down his life and take it up again. There, he would complete his ministry on earth. Just before the final act of this drama, in which Jesus accomplished the mission set by his father, we have an account of a miracle. Like all of Jesus' miracles, it is a sign that the Messiah is present. It is a sign that God saves his people...

... Faith is a gift of God. It was Bartimaeus' faith that led him to cry out to Jesus, to persist in the face of opposition, and come to Jesus when called. His faith opened him up to the work of Jesus in him, and that is an important message for us as well.

As we see the work of Jesus in Bartimaeus and in our own lives, we must remember that the healing we see is not an end or goal in itself. Rather, it is a sign of the new world that emerged from the coming of Jesus and his passion, death, and resurrection, a new world that we will know in fullness when Jesus comes again. Jesus is the door to a whole new existence for us, as he was for Bartimaeus. As great as it was for Bartimaeus to be able to see, he knew this was a sign, a call from Jesus, and he "followed him on the way" (Mark 10:52). As great as any healing is, it should be seen as a call into the new existence that Christ has won for us.

Mark: A Devotional Commentary
(The Word Among Us)

 ===== 

Sources and Notes Index 

Worth a Thousand Words: Grilled Pork, Saigon Style

Grilled Pork, Saigon Edition
from EatingAsia, taken by David Hagerman

I don't know about you but my mouth is watering. I'm so happy that the EatingAsia folks have a cookbook contract. Will I cook from it? Maybe. Hopefully. Will I read it and look at those photos over and over? Oh yeah.

Well Said: The End of Rome and the Catholic Church

I love H.V. Morton's talent for weaving his current-day travel commentary with the history of each place he visits. In this case, I was riveted by his tale of how Rome declined, the barbarians came in several waves, and the measures taken to try to shore things up. You'll know why I like this bit especially after you read it. It's a little lengthy but worth it.

Every expedient was tried by Diocletian to stave off the crash. He froze wages and prices in 301, and created a bureaucracy animated by the spirit of a century of extortion. The tax collector became the terror of the countryside. Men fled their homes rather than meet him and revenged themselves on the state by becoming brigands. Wealthy landowners, developing a technique of tax evasion, managed to exist on their estates, surrounded by serfs and armed men--a forecast of the Middle Ages--defying and bribing the Treasury.

Perhaps the worst aspect of state control was the decision to freeze men as well as prices and wages. It became illegal for a man to change his employment, and a son was obliged to follow his father's calling. All trades, occupations and professions became hereditary. A man who fled from a baker's shop, wishing to become a silversmith, would be hunted down and brought back like an escaped criminal. ...

In this grim caricature of Plato's Republic, the only place where a man ceased to be a tax-producing unit, and became a human being with an immortal soul, was the Church. The bishops were truly the shepherds of their flocks and had the courage to stand up to authority. St. Basil once offended a Praetorian Prefect by his plain words and was told that no one had ever dared to speak in such terms to him. "No doubt," replied St. Basil, "you have never met a bishop." ...

H.V. Morton, A Traveller in Rome, 1957