Summapalooza 2015 Class 10: Media

Media: sticks, bones, rags, shadows, seersucker. Scroll down at the link.

Pitcherfull

This post links to Convert Journal

that's a shapely one

Marriage is a recurring theme in catechism class because it is a recurring theme in the Bible. Typically we cover this story during our trip through the Gospels:

"Master, there were with us seven brothers: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and having no issue, left his wife unto his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? Jesus said, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."

Without fail a child will ask me why I won't be married to my wife in heaven- won't we still love each other?

Part of my answer is that post-Eden, marriage lasts until the death of a spouse. But I also want to say something bigger about life after the Second Coming; that is, in the New Jerusalem- like so:

"Somebody tell me what wasn't good in Eden. Adam was alone! Yes, and? God made Eve out of his rib. Yes, and when he got his missing rib back he was completed, just like I am completed by by wife. Y'all tell me about my wife. You love her! I sure do...but why? Umm, she's you're wife? Well, yes...let's say I love her because she is good. Where's that goodness come from? God? Yes; tell me about creation. It was all good! Yes! So all the goodness we experience ultimately comes from...God. Yes. So my wife is like a book...or a TV...or Elisha's bones...c'mon, y'all know this... she's a media, cause God goes through her! Yes, a medium, she mediates God to me, like sacraments and all kinds of stuff do. Do I get the full dose of God though my wife? Huh? Is all the goodness of God available to me through my wife? Well, God's bigger than she is. Yes. But if I'm hanging out with Jesus after the Second Coming, do I get all God's goodness then? Yes! And if my wife is there...she gets it too. Yes. So is there more love between us now- or in the future? In the future! Yes. So if we will have even more love for each other while we're in God's company, how worried are we going be about how married we are? Well, maybe you wouldn't care anymore. Sort of, but not exactly...let's think of it this way: instead of the limited dose of love we get from each other here, we'll experience infinite love in heaven. It'll include all the love we have as husband and wife, but bigger: it will include everybody. Yes? But aren't you still going to miss being married in heaven? I don't think so. Imagine it like this:

Let's say I need water to live- without water I'd be incomplete, right? What? Can I live without water? No, you'd die. Without water would life be good? No you have to have it. Yes, so think of my wife, and the love she brings me, as water. I need it. And I'm ok, because I have a pitcher of lovewater right here, next to me, which is... your wife! Yes. I hug this pitcher against my heart like Adam's missing rib. And all around me right now in the classroom- is there more water? There's no water in here. Right. Except for my pitcher-full.

But eventually my wife and I will die- let's hope we'll both be in heaven, where love might be like an infinite ocean. Now imagine I walk into that sea of lovewater with my pitcher-full. See, it gets deeper and deeper, until...your pitcher is underwater!  Yes. Tell me about it. Well, the water in the pitcher is part of the ocean now. Yes. But the pitcher is still there, and it's still full, right? Yes, but the ocean is way bigger. Yes. The lovewater in my pitcher has merged with the infinite lovewater that's all around me and my pitcher. My little pitcher-full doesn't disappear: it's just where it was always meant to be. There will be many pitchers, but one water. So what we love about being married today will still be true in heaven and in the New Jerusalem, but unimaginably bigger and better."

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BTW, the above is similar to how I answer the question about pets in heaven:

"Everything that you love about your pets (and everything else) will be more fully available to you in heaven; and in the New Jerusalem I would expect to see dogs and trees and all the rest of creation, so be happy."

Old Stuff

This post links to Convert Journal and RAnn's Sunday Snippets

see if it still works

Let's look at some miracles.

First, God thought matter into existence. That is, some of his immaterial love is so dense that it actually manifests itself as stuff. You know: fermions, gluons, bosons, all the impossibly tiny little grains of love that everything else is composed of. Then he thought the stuff into things such as our bodies. Isn't that miraculous? I think it is. And until the Fall, it was all good, being ultimately made of love.

But we sinners have made a mess of it, and now know God at a remove. Still, God helps us and communicates to us, often through physical bits. F'rinstance after the Flood, God used a rainbow to communicate something important to Noah's family...ehh...I forgot what it was.

Regardless, God later mediated his power through Moses' and Aaron's staffs. They whacked the Nile, canals, the Red Sea and rocks with miraculous results.

Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground due to the power in the Ark of the Covenant.

Elijah and Elisha each crossed the Jordan on dry ground by striking it, Moses-like, with a cloak.

At Elisha's instruction, Naaman the pagan leper was cured by bathing in the Jordan.

After Elisha passed away, a dead man hastily thrown onto Elisha's earthly remains was restored to life.

But miracles aren't just an Old Testament Thing. God kicked off the New Testament by putting a star in the sky...something to do with Jesus.

Jesus worked miracles too, often fixing not just physical problems, but spiritual ones, "healing the sin-sick soul" as the song says. And he worked these miracles through his physical nature, living stuff face-to-face with the afflicted or an intercessor.

Sometimes Jesus didn't even need to be directly involved, but simply physically available, like a cloak or a bone. Recall that the woman with a hemorrhage barely managed to grab the trailing tassel of Jesus' prayer shawl. Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the multitudes surround you and press upon you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; for I perceive that power has gone forth from me.” Just plug into the Holy Battery, get a nice jolt.

But miracles aren't just a Jesus Thing, either. After the Ascension, Paul and Peter could also heal without being directly involved. Peter's shadow could heal as it fell on someone. And "God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them."

Sticks, bones, water, aprons, cloaks, people, the common stuff of the world; none of them magic, all of them sacramental. God has related to the world sacramentally since the Fall, and there is no expectation in the Bible that he'll stop until the Second Coming. Miracles aren't just a Bible Thing. So think of the sacraments as Jesus-supercharged miracles in which divine power still flows through bits and pieces of love older than Creation itself.

Think big. Think Catholic.

O Fortuna

 This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

A Little House

Most Americans have heard the song O Fortuna in the movies or on TV, although they may not know its name or its composer. It's one of a suite of poems from the Middle-Ages (Carmina Burana, Bavarian Songs) which were set to music by the 20th century German composer Carl Orff. Carmina's a terrific array of moods and musics: Fortuna is epic; others are reflective; some langorous; and some boisterous, once sung in medieval pubs. The drinking songs are grouped under the heading In Taberna, i.e., In the Tavern. In the English sense of a 'public house' being a place to buy a beer, a taberna is a house; or a shed attached to the side of the house as a store or shop.

If you ever get the chance to see Carmina live- do so.

New topic, sort of: you may recall that when the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob reestablished his covenant with the Hebrews, he gave Moses very specific instructions as to how his dwelling, the Meeting Tent, should be constructed. In Hebrew, the 'tent' is ohel/ אהל;  the 'dwelling' is mishkan/ משכן  In the Old Testament their uses frequently overlap where the portability of a nomad's tent melds with the security and serenity of abiding within one's extended family.

In the New Testament, the Epistle to the Hebrews uses the Greek word skene/σκηνή (skein, tent) to describe both God's earthly and heavenly dwellings.

When St. Jerome later translated the Hebrew and Greek Testaments into the Vulgate, he used the existing Latin word tabernaculum, the diminutive of taberna, for the assorted older terms. The Roman Army, which was certainly practical about its religion if not particularly pious, had for centuries built a tabernaculum augurale, a tent, a "little house," in all of its camps for checking the auspices. How nice of Jerome not to invent a new word, but to baptize an old one instead.

[Is augurale related to inaugural? Why, yes it is.]

And how nice that the Church applies that same term to the little houses in which the Lord has dwelled among his people these last two millennia. As the New Testament fulfills the Old, the Church extends and deepens the connection between God and his people.

The Catholic Church doesn't invent anything.

Res Ipsa Loquitur 6

9 minutes from the November 16 class. Review of earlier Old Testament material connects to future New Testament material, as described in Plus de Review 2.

Notice that from :30 to :54 my bouncer decides to separate a couple of mischievites, and the kids are rearranged on the fly with very little disruption to the lesson flow.

Sorry about the rough edit.

Right Through the Roof

This article has been linked to Amazing Catechists.

Last week we saw John announce that Jesus was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world; not that anyone understood exactly what that meant. I don't think even John understood it all that well, but prophecies usually aren't too clear so that we, and even the prophets, have to think about it, figure it out.

Tell me please, if President Obama were going to visit Greenville, would he just drive down from DC, park on Main Street, get out and start to shake hands with people?  Huh? C'mon, new topic. Answer the question. No, there'd be a lot of people around him. Yeah, like who? Secret Service guys! OK, so they would all show up in a bus together? No, the bodyguards come first and check things out. Yes. When an important person comes to visit, other people come ahead of him to get things ready, to "prepare the way" as John the Baptist said. That's what John did, get people ready for Jesus. In the Greek churches they call him John the Forerunner; I like that. But now Jesus has started his public ministry, and John's job is done. In fact, two of Jesus' first followers, his first two apostles Andrew & John (not the Baptist) came to him from John the Baptist. A bit later, "Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were baptized." So both Jesus and John were baptizing at the same time; and people said to John, "he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here he is, baptizing, and all are going to him." John answered, "I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him (the Forerunner, see?)...He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3) So John's ministry is winding down and he is content. Notice that Jesus is baptizing along with his disciples; they are sharing that responsiblity.

But later on, "when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again to Galilee." (John 4). The Pharisees were starting to worry more about Jesus than John. Notice that Jesus isn't doing the baptizing now...who does it? The disciples? Yes. I suppose he's trained them well enough to take care of business. So if you went to Jesus to get baptized, what would he say? Go get them to baptize you? Yes. What does that tell you about the disciples? Jesus put them in charge? Yes. Jesus authorized them to do this work for him. You can't go straight to Jesus anymore to get baptized...you have to...go to his guys! Ummm, yes, the men that Jesus authorized. Later on we'll see other examples of how Jesus put the apostles in charge of his new Church.

Can anyone tell me Jesus' first miracle? He turned the water into wine. Yes, at a funeral? No, a wedding! Yes, at the reception; where'd this happen...y'all may know this...Cana! Yes. Were they drinking Cokes at the party? No, wine, but they ran out! And? They told Mary. Yes, and Mary said to Jesus "I'm your mom and I'm telling you, make this right." Huh? I don't think she told him what to do. No, she didn't. She just said, "They have no wine." But then Jesus says, "Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour is not yet come." Jesus isn't fussing, he's just giving Mary a chance to set a good example for the rest of us. What does she say to the wine stewards? Do what Jesus says. Yes, "do whatever he tells you;" that would be good advice for anyone, to do what Jesus tells you. So then? They fill up big jugs with water. Yes, and? Then they taste it, and it's wine. Yes, the best wine they've ever had; and there were 6 jugs, each one could hold about 20 gallons of wine. So Jesus made way more wine than they started with, and better wine, too. That's how God blesses people: with more than they imagined. My life is like that: I've been blessed better than I could have imagined for myself. And did the hosts go ask Jesus for this big fat favor? No, Mary did. Yes. That's called intercession, like when Moses asked God not to wipe out the Israelites for worshiping the Golden Calf. God the Father and Jesus both did favors for people who didn't even ask for the favor, because another faithful person asked for them. And that still happens today as we'll see.

Now, when Jesus changed water into wine, he was hinting at something he'd do later. What did he do with wine at the Last Supper? Changed it into his blood? Yes. I bet the apostles thought, "Well, if he turned water into wine at that wedding a few years ago, he can turn this wine into his blood." Jesus first works miracles that people can see, so they'll believe it when he works miracles later that...they can't see? Yes. Physical miracles prepare people for spiritual miracles. Let's look at a great example.

Hey, I need two sturdy volunteers, you and you get up here, I volunteered you...no whining. OK, now daughter, you volunteer next. Lie down over there on the floor. What? Lie down, it's carpet, it's clean. Don't be fastidious. What's fastidious? It means fussy. Lie down. Why? You're paralyzed, all you can do is lie down, stop arguing with Jesus. You aren't Jesus!  That's right, but I'm playing Jesus right now. Hey y'all, what is this story we're about to do? When Jesus heals the paralyzed man! That's right! So you're the paralyzed man, lie down. But I'm a girl! Yes I know...you're light so these two friends of yours can pick you up. C'mon y'all, why do they pick him up? To put him through the roof! Yes. OK you two, get ready to pick up your friend...don't pick him up yet! You're still outside the house where Jesus is. Paralyzed man, is Jesus a miracle worker? Yes. Why don't your friends just stand out here and pray for Jesus to fix you? Umm...I don't know. That's OK...friends, why do you think you have to go through the roof? Cause it's crowded? Yes. Let me ask it this way: why do y'all have to get your friend right in front of Jesus? If Jesus is God, he must already know you're out here, right? Yes. In fact, why didn't you just stay home and pray instead of toting your poor friend across town in the hot sun? Anybody in the crowd? No guesses...it's a tough question. Let's move on. The Bible says: "And they came, bringing to him a paralytic. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. OK two friends, go through the roof and put Mr. Paralysis in front of Jesus...hey, you're interrupting my teaching, Jesus is busy! We're sorry! That's ok, maybe Jesus can turn this into a teachable moment. Mr. Paralysis, what do you want? I want to be healed! Yeah? From what exactly? Well, I'm paralyzed, fix that. Two friends, what do you want? Well, the same thing, heal him please. Crowd, whatcha want? Heal him! Let's see what happens: "...they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And Jesus saw their faith..." Crowd, look at these two friends: do they have faith in Jesus? Yes! How do you know...can you see their souls? No we saw them make a hole in the roof and put their friend through. Yes, you know they have faith because of...what they did! Yes. That's how Jesus and everyone else could see their faith. Body'n'Soul go together. Crowd, can you imagine the paralyzed man's friends thinking, "let's lower our paralyzed friend through the roof so Jesus will forgive his sins?" That sounds weird. Yes. Everyone expects Jesus to heal the man, that's why they put him through the roof.

So Jesus looks down at the paralyzed man and says what? Get up and walk! No! Trick question! I win again! Jesus said, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Mr. Paralysis, is that what you want, forgiven sins? Are you happy now? Well, I guess so...but I'm still paralyzed. Oh. I'm sorry, I must've fixed the wrong thing! Friends, crowd, how about it: good news? I guess so.

But "some of the scribes said to themselves, "Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" And they are right! Could John the Baptist forgive sins? No! Elijah? No! Isaiah? No! Right. And we know that Jesus came to free us from.....sin? Yes, Jesus could forgive sins, take away sins. But like the scribes said, only God can forgive sin. So Jesus...must be God? Yes, or at least acting with God's authority. But watch now: "Your sins are forgiven, Mr. Paralytic!"...see any difference? No. Mr. Paralytic, do you feel any different? No. So can any of you tell if Jesus really forgave his sins or not? No. Right. It's an invisible miracle, forgiving sins. Why would it be hard for the crowd, or any human being, to believe in an invisible miracle? 'Cause we can't tell it really happened. Yes, we want some physical evidence, because we're made of a... BodynSoul! Yes. But sins are invisible...it's a problem.

So now Jesus asks a question. That's what Rabbis, teachers, do. They don't just answer questions; they ask them, and make people think. Jesus says, "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, "Rise, take up your pallet and walk?" Well? Your sins are forgiven. Why? Because nobody can tell if you did anything or not. Yes. And so the harder thing to say is...get up and walk! Yes, because...if he doesn't walk people know Jesus was just saying stuff! Yes! "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home." And? He gets up and goes home! Yes! Go on home, Mr. Used-to-be-Paralyzed, well, back to your desk. Do you feel any different? Yes! I bet you believe in Jesus now even if you didn't know who he was 15 minutes ago. So Jesus has done the hard thing, cured a paralyzed man; crowd, do you think maybe Jesus can forgive sins too? Yes! Because...we saw him walk! Uh-huh. Jesus works these visible miracles to help us believe in the...invisible ones! Yes, and this won't be the only time.

Tell me again, why do people die, get sick, have zits, all that bad stuff? Because of sin. Yes, back in...Eden. Yes. Now, how exactly did Jesus make this man's arms & legs start working all of a sudden? I don't know, it's just a miracle. Yes, but let's think a bit. Did Jesus first say, "I heal you from your paralysis"? What? Did Jesus first heal him physically? That's what people were expecting, right? Yes. But what did Jesus heal first? Well, he forgave his sins. Yes, what kind of healing is that? Huh? Is that physical healing, to have your sins forgiven? No, it's spiritual, your soul. Right.  Jesus was making a point: the man's physical sickness was related to...his umm, spiritual sickness? Yes, genius, and spiritual sickness is called....sin!  Yes. But even if the paralytic got his sins fixed and also his body fixed, would he still die? Yes. Would he still sin again? Yes! Creation is still messed up by sin. Now, one thing is for sure: everyone in the crowd is glad they aren't...paralyzed! Yes. Y'all felt sorry for him and you're happy that being paralyzed ain't your problem, thank ya God! But Jesus wasn't too concerned with the man's sick body; he was concerned about his...sick soul! Yes. That's why Jesus forgave his sins and didn't make a peep about his paralysis until the scribes complained. But crowd, even if you were relieved that your bodies weren't sick...our souls are sick! From...sin! Yes, so actually all of us sinners are as spiritually sick as the paralyzed man...maybe even more sick, it's hard to tell with sin, you can't see it. So instead of us just being glad the man was healed, we'd also be excited that Jesus could forgive our sins: "When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men." What men today have authority to forgive sin? Priests! Yes, and the authority comes from...Jesus! Yes.

But what sort of sins could a paralyzed man have? Suicide? Yes, good guess. He might've been so miserable for so long he'd wish he were dead. Maybe he was angry with God,  hated God because he was paralyzed, that'd be a serious sin, too. We can be sure he had sins that needed to be forgiven.

OK, now let's go back to question y'all haven't answered yet...why didn't the paralyzed man's friends just stay home and pray? No guesses. Listen to this about Jesus: "...he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him." Over and over in the Gospels we'll see people try to touch Jesus or his clothes to get healed. Are they superstitious? No. OK...so? Remind me why Moses had to hit the rock with a stick instead of just pray for water. 'Cause the power went through the stick!  Yes, God's power; and Isaac laid his hands on Jacob because...his blessing went through his hands.  Yes, and so sick people would touch Jesus because...Jesus' power went through his body?  Yes. So in the Gospels, God's power still goes through something physical, but it's not a stick, or manna, it's...Jesus' body?  Yes. So why did the paralyzed man's friends go to all that trouble to plop him down through the roof instead of staying home and praying real hard? To get him close to enough to touch Jesus! Yes. The Gospels don't say if Jesus touched the man or not, but the man still heard Jesus through his ears and saw him with his eyes; maybe even smelled him with his nose. We call that having a physical encounter with Jesus. Jesus has a body and a soul, and we have...a body and a soul, too!  Yes. So people who want to know, or encounter, Jesus completely want to do it in spirit and...with your body? Yes, physically. Now I need a genius to tell me how we can have a physical encounter with Jesus. Well, God's in all of us?  Yes, but be more specific...it's at Mass...oh, Communion! Yes, why? Because it's Jesus' Body and Blood!  Right. Just having a spiritual encounter is only half of the deal, as the paralytic's friends perfectly understood, as well as everyone else in the Gospels who wanted a miracle. Praying wasn't enough.

Another question: did the paralytic man have faith? Did he believe in Jesus? Yes?... No? Let me ask it this way: who do we know had faith? His friends!  Yes. And Jesus healed the man because "he saw their faith;" he saw what they did, just like the crowd could see. Tell me again how the wedding party at Cana got new wine. Jesus made it out of water. Well, yes, but why did he work that little miracle? Mary told him they didn't have any more wine!  Yes, Mary interceded. So what did the paralytic's friends do? They interceded too! Yes. We don't know if the Paralytic or the wedding party had faith in Jesus or not. But Mary and the paralytic's friends did, and that was enough. The Gospel are full of intercession stories, you'll see. And we still intercede for each other both in daily life, like "Honey, don't be too hard on Junior about not taking out the trash; he's feeling bad because he was teased at school today," and in our faith life. Y'all remember my daughter almost died in a bad fall this past Spring, and sustained serious brain damage; well, we ask people we know on earth to pray for her, and people in heaven too. I especially ask my grandmother in heaven to pray for Francie's complete healing. I ask Mary and my buddy saints to pray to Jesus for her healing too. Yes? How do you know your grandma is in heaven? Good question...I don't. But if she isn't, I believe Jesus lets another saint hear my prayers for intercession. We're all part of the same family. And if I pray to my grandma, do I worship her? No, you're just talking I think. Yes. Praying is just communicating; it's not always worship. Whom do we worship? God. Yes. Not Mary or saints or grandmas. That reminds me, y'all know Pope John Paul 2, JP2? Yes. He died a few years ago from Parkinson's disease, which slowly destroys your nervous system so that your brain can't control your body. There's no cure. People just get worse & worse until they die. Many people think JP2's a saint, that is, he's...in...heaven!  Yes. One way the Church figures out if someone is a saint is to see if the person in heaven intercedes for someone on Earth. In JP2's case, a French nun had Parkinson's disease just like the Pope; she prayed to JP2 for his intercession, and she was miraculously healed. So the Church concludes that he is indeed in heaven and interceded for her. How do they know it was a miracle? Good question. The Church does an investigation, doctors testify; it's a long process. Because of this miracle, JP2 will be called Blessed John Paul 2. If one more miracle is attributed to him, the Church will declare him Saint John Paul 2. So intercession works; the paralytic's friends believed in it, and we can too.

Finally, this whole paralytic business aggravated the scribes. What's a scribe? Someone who can write! And...read! Yes. They were religious authorities, they worked at the temple along with the priests. And like the Pharisees, they knew the Scribe-tures, the Scriptures, very well, and made their living from it. So when Jesus shows he has more authority than they do, that's a problem for them. We'll see Jesus aggravate them even more on other occasions, but that's it for tonight.

Class is over 15 seconds early!

The Holy Bubble

                                         

This post is also available at http://amazingcatechists.com/

Sons'n'daughters, what's this thing I've got here? A bubble-blower. Yep...I'm gonna blow one...phooo....isn't that a purty thang. What's in it? Air. Yes, but not just any old air. Suppose I smoked.....if  I take a big puff of my cigarette (my pencil), and blow another bubble, what's in it? Smoke. Yes. The bubble has my breath in it, which isn't the same as the air around the bubble. If I blew a big bubble full of smoke and it came down around your head, you'd breathe the smoke inside the bubble, not the clean air outside.  Suppose I blew one while I sucked on a breath mint? Then it would be minty inside. Yes.

I imagine that when people travel to places where the food, language and ummm, toilets are different from home, they like to travel in a bubble. Not a soap bubble, but an imaginary bubble made of familiar things from home: English, hamburgers, flush toilets. Once they get home what happens to that bubble? It pops! Yes. Bubbles don't last.

Y'all remind me: could bad stuff happen to Adam & Eve in Eden? No! How about the animals in Eden: would a lion eat a lamb? No! Right again...and what was was the only stuff that could be eaten in Eden? They didn't need to eat!  Well, that's a good guess; listen to this bit from Genesis & try again: "God said, Behold, I have given you every plant-yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food."  Plants! They could only eat plants and apples 'n' stuff. Yes, but how about the animals? Listen again: "And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." Animals had to eat plants too? Yes. There was no eating each other in Eden; just good things could happen: 24/7 pizza buffet, no going to bed early, beer for the grownups....anyway, life was perfect just being with God in Eden. Sometimes I imagine Eden as a Holy Bubble, where everything is perfect inside. But there's an outside too, right? Yes, it's where we are.  Yes...why'd Adam & Eve get thrown out? They sinned. Yes...did Eden disappear, was it ruined by sin? No, God made Adam and Eve leave. Yes and they took their sins along with them. And Eden was guarded by a monkey with a burning banana. It was an angel with a sword! Oh, right. Well, sin made a huge mess outside of the Holy Bubble. Was there death inside the Bubble? No! Outside the Bubble? Yes! Tornadoes in the Bubble? No! Outside? Yes! Diseases and deformities inside? No! Outside? Yes! All because of....sin! Yes. Yuck.

And maybe you can imagine Heaven as a huge Holy Bubble. No sin or bad stuff in there either.

Hey, what's a wage? Huh? Wages, what are wages? Oh, money, what you get paid. Yeah, we might say wages are a consequence of working. Remind me, St. Paul said the wages of sin is....death! Yes, what's that mean? That if you sin you die. Yes. Death, and every other bad thing, is a consequence of sin, as we know from the story of Adam & Eve. But babies can die, and they haven't done anything wrong...how's that work? They have Original Sin. Yes, we all share in the consequences of sin. Even cute little rabbits & lambs suffer the consequences of Sin, how? They can get eaten by other animals? Yes...remind me, can animals sin? No! And why not? They don't have free will!  Yes. So if I sin, it doesn't just affect me, it affects...everything?  Yes.

Hmm...d'y'all remember when Jesus healed the blind man? No we weren't born yet! Oh that's right, I forget how much older I am than you kiddies....who remembers the story? Yes, what happened? Jesus made some mud with spit and put it on his eyes and told him to wash it off. Yes. The man had been blind since he was born. Was it his fault, being blind? No, he couldn't help it. Right...why was he blind? Because his eyes didn't work. Yes, OK...but could he have been born blind in Eden, in the Holy Bubble? No! Ahh, and why not? Because there was no sin there! Yes. Could he be blind in the other Holy Bubble, Heaven? No! So a person can only be blind in a place where there is....sin. Yes.

Speaking of bubbles, here's another one...phooo. OK...so? So, suppose this bubble is a Holy Bubble and no sin is inside it....isn't that interesting? Not really. No? Well, suppose your finger had a bee-sting on it...no, a yellow-jacket sting, no, a snakebite, and it was killing you! If you could stick your finger in the Holy Bubble without popping it, what would happen? What? If you stuck your snakebit finger into the sinless Holy Bubble, what would happen? Umm, it would fix my finger? Maybe...why do you think it might? Because there's no sin in it. Yes. Now, imagine you were blind; if I blew a head-sized Holy Bubble you might...stick my head in and fix my eyes!  And if you were paralyzed? Ha, I'd get in the big Holy Bubble and fix my whole body! Yes. Now, I'm old, I could drop dead any minute. Suppose I was very sick, but could pop into Heaven for just an instant, what might happen? You'd be better! Yes, because where there is no sin there's no....bad stuff. Yes.

Let's see...who can tell the story of the Paralytic? Me! Yes, tell it. They put him through the roof and Jesus made him better. Yes. Everyone expected Jesus to heal the man, that's why they put him through the roof. Can you imagine the paralyzed man's friends thinking, "let's lower our paralyzed friend through the roof so Jesus will forgive his sins?" That sounds weird. But when he was plopped down in front of Jesus, did Jesus heal him right away? No, first he forgave his sins. Yes, that was a surprise! And then what did Jesus say? Get up and walk. And? And he got up and walked!  Yes. And we know that Jesus came to free us from.....sin? Yes, Jesus could forgive sins, take away sins. Tell me again, why do people die, get sick, have zits, all that bad stuff? Because of sin. Yes. Now, how exactly did Jesus make this man's arms & legs start working all of a sudden? I don't know, it's just a miracle. Yes, but let's think a bit. Did Jesus say, "I heal you from your paralysis"? What? Did Jesus first heal him physically? That's what people were expecting, right? Yes. But what did Jesus heal first? Well he forgave his sins. Yes, what kind of healing is that? Huh? Is that physical healing, to have your sins forgiven? No, it's spiritual, your soul. But then the guy could walk. Jesus was making a point: the man's physical sickness was related to...his umm, spiritual sickness? Yes, genius, and spiritual sickness is called....sin!  Yes. But even if the paralytic got his sins fixed and also his body fixed, would he still die? Yes. Would he still sin? Yes. See on Earth, Holy Bubbles pop after a few seconds; they're temporary. But the Heavenly Holy Bubble is permanent. Tell me about life in that Holy Bubble. You can't die or sin and everything's good forever. Yes.

Now I like to imagine when Jesus worked miracles he was creating sinless Holy Bubbles (not real bubbles) around people or things. Inside the Bubbles, Jesus could cancel out the "wages of sin," the bad stuff that comes from sin. Or change things in ways we can't in this sinful world. Think of some Holy Bubbles for me...no guesses? How about at the wedding at Cana? Umm...he made a Bubble to change the water into wine? Yes, good. How about at Mass? When the bread & wine change? Yes. C'mon think of some yourself. Umm, baptism? Yes. All the Sacraments occur in Holy Bubbles. Another? When Jesus was alive again at Easter? Yes...one more? How about with Moses? Oh, when he hit the rock! Yes. Anytime God does something miraculous, I imagine it happens in a Holy Bubble.

Hey, did God work any miracles in Eden? I don't think so. And why not? Well, nothing was bad there. Yes, because there was no...sin!  Right, there's no need to fix the bad effects of sin if there's no sin.

So when you're at Mass, or read about St Paul healing people, or hear about someone whose cancer just disappeared one day, don't just think "it's a miracle and I can't understand it." Think about how fixing people's bodies is connected to...fixing their souls? Yes, and body'n'soul both need fixing because of...sin? Yes. And if it helps you, imagine Holy Bubbles.