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.

Praying Twice

This article is also posted at http://amazingcatechists.com/

A constant Catholic theme in 6th Grade Wednesday Sunday School ™ is the relationship between Body & Soul, which naturally has everything to do with singing in church....right?

Occasionally I sing a bit in class (not more than a minute or so): Regina Coeli at Easter, Latin responses as part of our Mass classes, a bit of Supper's Ready, short stuff like that. I'm no great shakes as a singer, but it doesn't matter. I tell the kids if I'm not afraid to sing alone in class that they shouldn't be afraid to sing in church as part of the congregation. Singing is important; Catholics should sing.

"But I don't like to sing!"

"Everybody likes to sing; you're probably just self-conscious. Don't be. Once you get used to singing out loud you'll like it. I used to be afraid too, but nobody really hears your individual voice in church. Do y'all know St. Augustine? No? St. Augustine lived about 1,500 years ago. His momma, St. Monica, prayed for 15 years that he would take God seriously. Eventually he did, and became a Doctor of the Church. A doctor? Not a like a medical doctor, a teacher. 'Doctor' is Latin for 'teacher.' Well why do we call a doctor a doctor then?  Ask me after class. So, St. Augustine was a great teacher. He taught that singing at Mass was important. One thing he gets credit for is the saying, "He who sings, prays twice."

What's that mean..."He who sings, prays twice?" No guesses? OK, let's back up a little: why should anybody sing at all at Mass? Still no guesses...?

When we're at Mass on earth what's going on in heaven? They're at Mass too! That's right, at Mass heaven and earth are connected. Here's a bit about the Heavenly Liturgy from that last book in the Bible which is called...? Revelations!  Yes. Revelations says, "four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and...they sung a new song."  So: why do we sing at Mass? Because they're singing in heaven? Yes. When you're at Mass and afraid to sing out loud, remember you're singing along with everyone in heaven, not just the people around you.

Back to St. Augustine: "He who sings, prays twice." What's he mean? That if we sing with people in heaven we're singing twice? Good guess, that's not quite what I'm looking for.

What makes a hymn different from a song? Hymns are for church. Yes...but what if instead of singing a song, we all just read it? That'd be weird. Yes. Tell me, if you read something out loud and it rhymes, what is it? Oh...a poem? Yes. But if you read a hymn, what might that be? Well, a poem too? Mmm, sort of... usually in hymns we're talking to someone, who? God? Yes. When you talk to God, what's that called? Praying!  Yes! So a hymn is basically a prayer that you...sing!  Yes. So if you sing a hymn, then...you're praying? Yes. But why would that be praying twice?

Tell me please, we are made of...a body and soul!  Yes, together they make a person. If I pray quietly, which of those parts are praying? The soul. Yes; the whole person isn't praying, just the...soul. Yes. How could I get my body to pray too? Umm...pray out loud? Yeah...a little. Talking doesn't really involve my body all that much. It's pretty close to doing nothing. How about if you sing? Are any of you in the children's choir? I am. How do you feel after you sing for a whole Sunday Solemn Mass? I'm tired. But you're just singing, not playing a sport. Why are you tired? It's kind of hard to sing alot, I just get tired of breathing and stuff. Yes. And is your soul tired? No, my head and my lungs I guess get tired.  Yes, it takes real effort to sing out loud. What does the work of singing, your soul? No, my body. Yes. And tell me again, what's a hymn? A prayer you sing. Yes. And when you quietly say a prayer, what part of you does it? My soul. And if you sing the prayer, what parts of you do that? Both parts! Which are....bodynsoul! Yes. So what does it mean: "He who sings, prays twice?" It means when you sing both parts are praying! Yes. So when you're at Mass don't pray with just your soul; pray twice by using your...? body, yes by using your body to...sing! Yes."

Messengers & Bodyguards

Hey ya'll, last week we were talking about what? Mass. Yes, what part? When the bread & wine change to body & blood. Yes, when Jesus is offered up to heaven...who takes the offering up? An angel!  That's right! During Mass angels stay pretty busy, that's one of them. Actually there are six other angels in the church all the time...can somebody tell me where they are? There are two at the front! Yes, where? Up on the sides. Yes, what are they doing? Umm, just standing and praying? Yes, but remember that Mass happens on Earth and where else? In Heaven. Yes. So maybe in heaven they're up to something...who sits under those two angels? Huh? At Mass, who sits under the angels on the sides...the priest? No he sits over in the chair. The deacon? No, he's by the priest. Ok, so? Oh, two altarboys sit by the angels!  And are there altarboys in heaven? Ha, no! So who helps out with the heavenly part of Mass if there're no altarboys? Angels? Yes. What do altarboys do? Pray?  Yeah, well we all pray. What else? Hold stuff?  Such as? Water & a towel. Yes, and? Umm, they hold the book?  Yes, and? No more guesses? OK, listen to what an angel does in the Heavenly Liturgy, see if anyone does that part on Earth:

"And an[other] angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer"...well, what's a censer? No guesses, keep listening: "..and he was given much incense to...incense! The angel's burning incense!  Yes, where? In Heaven!  Good, keep listening: "he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God."

So. Who burns incense at Mass on Earth? The altarboys!  Yes. And in Heaven? The angel.  Yes. The altarboys and the angels all assist at Mass. And at Mass we see the altarboys, but all the heaven stuff is invisible. Why do we have those wooden angels if it's all invisible? Umm, to remind us that they are helping in Heaven? Yes...are they real angels? No they're just statues. Right, just reminders, like the other statues in church.

Back to the incense for a second: "the angel was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God." So the incense rises up along with the prayers of the people in Heaven, who are called....saints!  Yes. And on Earth why does the altarboy burn incense? 'Cause it goes up with our prayers? Yes, genius! Our prayers go up with the incense just like the saints' prayers do in heaven.

And remind me please, when St. Paul said we're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, who is he describing? The incense? No, not what; who. Y'all know this...who are the cloud of witnesses...who lives up in the clouds...sinners? No, saints! They're saints!  Yes, so on Sunday when the incense goes up in a cloud, think about the cloud of witnesses, the saints, praying along with you... everybody in Heaven and Earth praying together.

By the way, what book of the Bible am I reading from...the one with all the Heavenly Liturgy in it...and the Second Coming? Oh...the last book! Yes, named...? Come on, you know this, it's the book where stuff is reveal...Revelations! Yes, Revelations.

So that's one pair of angels; there are two more, who can tell us about another pair? I know, there are two in the back! Oh, are there? Where? Up in the balcony!  How would you know? I'm in the children's choir, I see them all the time. Uh-huh...what are they doing...praying like the two in front? No, they blow big horns. Yes...why would they do that? 'cause they're in the balcony with the choir and the organ and all. Yes, that makes sense. There's another reason, ya'll listen and tell me when you hear it. And I am still reading from...? Revelations. That's it: "When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them." Those are the angels in the balcony, they have their trumpets!  Yes. In Revelations, the angels blow the seven trumpets one at a time, and they announce the world is coming to an end. When I see them up in the balcony they remind me that Jesus will come again one last time. If y'all want to see them you have to look up at the balcony when you leave church, you can't miss those golden angels if you look for them.

Are we done now? Done?  Yeah, how many angels have y'all found? Four. And how many did I say there were? Six!  So where are the other two? Don't feel bad, they are hard to see.

Tell me about the Tabernacle, please. It's where Jesus is. Yes, his little...house!  Yes. And it's like a box that God told Moses to build to keep some manna and the Ten Commandments in, which is called...the Ark!  Yes, and what would you find on either side of the Ark? The handles, the poles!  Yes, good, and something else...listen again. What book in the Bible has to do with Moses...and the Hebrews...making their exit from Egypt...? Oh, Exodus!  Yes it's called 'Exodus' because the Hebrews...exited!  Yes...here we go: "...make an ark of acacia wood...and you shall overlay it with pure gold. And you shall make two cherubim of gold...Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, their faces one to another. There I will meet with you,  between the two cherubim that are upon the ark."  So? Umm...cherubs are angels aren't they?  Sort of: cherubs and angels both are heavenly creatures with wings. Remind me, what's angel (άγγελος, aggelos ) mean in Greek? Messenger!  Yes. But Cherub's not Greek...it's not Latin...who'd Moses lead out of Egypt? Hebrews! So 'cherub' (כְּרוּב kĕruwb) must be...Hebrew?  Yes. It's Hebrew for "to be near." Why would they be called that? 'Cause they are near to God?  Yes, cherubim are God's closest servants, like bodyguards. Nowadays we see cherubs on Valentine's Day cards drawn as chubby little winged babies. Real cherubs are very serious, not cute or silly. A cherub guarded Eden with a fiery sword after Adam & Eve were thrown out. So where were the cherubim on the Ark? On both sides. Yes, they faced each other across the Ark. And where does God meet with Moses? Listen again: "There I will meet with you, between the two cherubim that are upon the ark." Between the cherubs?  Yes, God's presence was between the cherubim, his bodyguards.

Now tell me again what's in church that's like the Ark? The Tabernacle!  Yes. So if the winged cherubim were above and on either side of the Ark, where would we look for cherubim in church? On both sides of the Tabernacle?  Yes, genius! Since we're not in church, look at this picture (and the photo at the top):

See them? They aren't statues, they're just carved into the wood panels, but they're above and on both sides of the new Ark, the Tabernacle. And where was God's presence in Moses' day? Umm...between the cherubs?  Yes, but say 'cherubim', not 'cherubs'. And where is God's presence today? Between the cherubim! Yes, God's most powerful presence on Earth is still between the cherubim.
 
Y'all be sure to keep an eye out for the angels and cherubim next time you're at Mass. Show them to your parents; I bet they don't know about them all.

Class over!

This post is also available at the Amazing Catechists website.

Bedroom Rain

We live in the city, in a 50-year-old residential area.

 

This is the view out of our bedroom window:

The city's name is.....

wait for it....

Greenville.

Christ the Victim

I was recently swapping Body & Blood comments with a cordial non-Catholic Christian. One of the Catholic concepts he took exception to was the presentation of Christ at Mass as a victim rather than triumphing over Death and Sin. One might express the difference as the Crucified Christ vs. the empty cross of the Risen Christ. Or note that Jesus died once as a victim 2,000 years ago, but now "is seated at the right hand of the Father," as the Creed says, borrowing from Ephesians, "he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places..."

So as usual, I'm in debt to to my Separated Brethren for prompting me to examine more closely an aspect of Catholicism, that I, the posterchild of Cradle Catholics, had not reflected on before. I'm determined not to discuss the Eucharist in general, but stick to the victim business.

First let's look at the Big Picture:

1. In Eden there was no sin; Man, body and soul, lived in perfect friendship with God.

2. Due to sin, Man was thrown out of Eden. Body and soul became separable; death was the inevitable consequence. Perfect friendship with God was no longer possible.

3. Jesus, uniquely Man and God,  atoned for all Man's sins, thus allowing Man's Soul, but not his Body, to once again enjoy perfect friendship with God.

4. After the Second Coming, when Jesus returns, Man will once again, body and soul, live in perfect friendship with God in the New Jerusalem. I expect this to be better than Eden, because in Eden God had no body. God had some kind of physical presence it seems, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day"; but not like Jesus, who could be seen, touched, heard, smelled, kissed, flogged, spat on and crucified.

So now we're in Phase 3, a good place to be, but not the best place. We know from Revelations that in Phase 3 Heavenly Worship, the "Lamb which has been slain" continually stands before the Throne. Jesus, the Lamb of God, as John proclaimed him to be, is going to stand there before the Throne as the slain Victim as long as we are in Phase 3. Why? Because we are all still sinning in Phase 3...at least, I still sin. So continual sin on Earth in space-time means the atoning Victim is continually presenting himself before the Father in heaven, in the eternal present where God exists outside of his creation. "But," you may say, "Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father." So which is it? Favored Son, or Slain Lamb? Well, being Catholic, I can say: both, and neither cancels out the other. OK...but just because this Victim business is going on beyond our senses in heaven doesn't mean we have to dwell on it here, right? Umm, no. When Jesus "ascended to the Father" 40 days after Easter, did he go up spiritually...or physically? And you say, "both."  Right. So Jesus is somewhere right now, both Body and Divine Spirit. And in Revelation's description of the Heavenly Worship, he's not triumphant, but the slain victim. So if we're going to worship together on Sunday, the Sabbath of the New Covenant, it would behoove us to be in harmony with the worship everyone in heaven is participating in, which features Christ as Victim.

Now, recall that after Jesus died and rose again on Sunday, Thomas wasn't persuaded until a week later that it was true by sticking his fingers into Him (and the 6th grade girls say: eww!). This reminds us that the Risen Jesus still bore the marks of his Victimhood. Odd that Jesus wasn't restored to a pre-Eden sort of body freed from every consequence of sin, but nooo, after eight days He's still bearing all those wounds, which apparently haven't even closed up, much less disappeared. So it's safe to assume that 32 days later (8 + 32 = 40) Jesus ascended, Body and Soul, to heaven with all those gashes still unhealed. This dovetails with John seeing Him in heaven as a slain Lamb: still doing the living Victim thing there, too.

But didn't Jesus triumph over Death & Sin on Easter? Yes, but Jesus' resurrection was pretty modest: he comes out of the tomb, scares some sleeping soldiers, and keeps a very low profile for the next 40 days, then poofs off to heaven at the drop of a hat (see Transition & Ascension). Compared to his entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, or the Transfiguration, there's a huge difference. The Resurrected Jesus made a very unassuming return to the land of the living.

As we know, Jesus is continually offering atonement for our sins in Phase 3: he may be spiritually free from the consequences of Sin, but not physically, based on his open-wound encounter with Thomas, and his slain-Lamb appearance in Heaven.   Until Jesus returns in triumph there's no complete restoration of his, or anyone's, Body & Soul to an Eden-like, preternatural, 'perfect' state. But why not?

Because Jesus is in the transitional Phase 3 just as we are, including those of us whose souls are in heaven. Sin still keeps the saints' bodies (well, most of them) in the ground, 'eaten of worms'. But haven't the saints triumphed over Death & Sin? Yes...but not completely. The saints won't be completely, perfectly triumphant until their souls are reunited with their bodies. And because Jesus is one of us, he retains his wounded, sin-consequenced body as long as the saints do. He gets his perfected body when we get ours. I think that's because he loves us, and in solidarity with the cloud of witnesses waits with them for that body'n'soul reunification. And when will that be?

That's in Phase 4, the Second Coming, when Jesus will return to Earth in triumph. Jesus himself describes it by quoting Daniel: "And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory."
Why triumph at that point in the future, and not at Easter? Because after Easter we kept right on sinning; but there will be no more sin after the Second Coming: the triumph will be complete. With no sin, there's no need for the atoning presentation of a Slain Lamb. And there'll be no reason for any saved soul not to be reunited with its formerly sin-flawed, but now perfected, body. And when the saved get their sin-free bodies, I expect Jesus' body will then, and not sooner, shed all its sin-marks as well. That will be the best time to worship a triumphant Jesus: when His victory over sin is complete, body and soul.

And in the meantime, like the heavenly hosts, we give our attention each Sunday to the Victim.

BTW, I'm not completely settled on this line of thinking, so I'm looking for reactions.

ICU

For the last 10 years or so, I participated in the Ministry to the Sick, bringing Jesus to the ill, the shut-in, and whichever Catholics were in the hospital on my day of the week. Most memorable were the visits to those who lay in the Intensive Care Unit. A few minutes in ICU will get ya countin' ya blessins. I had started writing this post on May 25, planning to talk about acting as a conduit of God's grace to people I don't know. But those plans went astray today.

This morning about 4am we got a call from the hospital; they wanted information on Francesca LeBlanc, isn't she our daughter? Do we have her Social Security number, medical insurance info, etc? What? What? She's had a bad fall, is seriously injured and will be at the Emergency Room shortly. My daughter, who only a couple of weeks ago came home from college, is fast asleep across the hall from us; what a mistake! No mistake, they have her ID. My wife says we can be there in 10 minutes and will bring the data.

She is not in her room. They said she fell?

The world is quiet and dark at 4:15, except for the brightly-lit ER entrance, and a concrete pad where a helicopter is landing. I reflect for an instant on the West and its incredible machines. We go in, are quickly received and processed to a waiting room in the back. Turns out we arrived at the same time as Francesca, who was delivered in the medevac. The ER doc sees us about 15 minutes later, says a CAT scan shows broken bones in her toes and foot, and a subdural hematoma, i.e., a blood clot in her brain like the one that killed Natasha Richardson in March. The neurosurgeon is already on his way, and we can see her now before she's prepped for surgery. The curtain to her cubicle is pulled shut; he pauses and says we should prepare ourselves.

Francesca is hooked up to the usual devices, including a ventilator. My recollection from ICU is that nobody gets off the ventilator alive. But maybe not in this case: she was yelling and fighting with the ER staff  when she arrived, so she was restrained and heavily sedated. They are gently wiping blood off of her head and face, her big toe is showing bone. Her appearance is absolutely shocking. Twenty-five years ago my car was totaled in an accident. Standing the rain I looked at it...that wasn't my car...my car looks pretty and new, not destroyed. And now I stare at this person who resembles my daughter, but must be someone else: busted mouth, swollen lip, swollen head, sightless eyes, tangled bloody hair, the ventilator, naked under a sheet with God-knows what-all stuck in her. I notice the urine bag: it's got a little bit in it already. I expected her to look more like...Francesca; my sadness was indescribable. How could this wreck be my little girl? Except that there's no way not to bear it, it's unbearable. And of course all Janet & I can do is stand around while the staff, in its efficient yet surprisingly affectionate way, goes about the prepwork. The chaplain is with us, and helps with the phonebook as we try to find a priest; we are close to three of them and are pounding every cellphone, tollfree, and church office number we can think of to reach one.

In the meantime the surgeon arrives, fired-up, ready to save a life at 5am. He explains what he'll be doing. He expects a good result, which means in a year or so she will likely recover completely, or nearly so. The fact that she arrived able to fight, yell, and focus meant there may have been no permanent damage. May. This blow was an insult to the brain, he said; we can't ever be sure how the brain will react. I thought that was an artful description.

The daughter is wheeled off to surgery and the chaplain escorts us up to the appropriate waiting room. The procedure "doesn't take long" and at some point I decide it is running long, way long. I accept that she will die. My wife & I sit and pray silently, and the chaplain sits with us doing the same. I'd have thought I'd pray for her to live. Instead I was praying that if this were the right time for her soul to go to heaven, then I wasn't going to argue with God about it. She had been a great blessing and a wonderful gift for 18 years, and I was thankful for that. So I prayed that God's will be done. I asked her 3 patron saints and my buddy saints Isaac Jogues and Max Kolbe to receive her if it became necessary, and pray along, too. I can't imagine how people get through this sort of horror without faith.

Two of Francesca's friends show up. The ER told them how to find us. They are about her age, 19 or so. I know Joey and Larry; last week they all played Parcheesi in the living room. Joey ate dinner with us yesterday, and afterward all the kids watched a movie. Turns out that later that night Francesca let herself out and they picked her up to go to an impromptu cellphone-coordinated get-together in an abandoned warehouse. She had the bad luck to fall through the upper floor and land about 25 feet below on a concrete slab. They had called 911 and thus she got to the hospital in good time. I told them that regardless of the outcome, we didn't blame them, and they shouldn't blame themselves. The two of them looked so miserable; they stayed with us the whole time.

The surgeon strode in all of a sudden...here it comes, accept it.  The operation went well, he reiterated his original prognosis. He advised us to go home, sleep, and come back around 1pm to see her in ICU. This isn't a sprint, he said, it's a marathon. Get some rest. Oh... so she'll live, then. I was surprised. We went home, told the other kids the news. They'd been praying rosaries and were stressed out. Francie's dear sister Alexandra had been crying. We slept a bit.

We returned to ICU about 1 pm, went right in to Francesca's bed. I know the ICU drill. I have seen so many dying, battered bodies in ICU over the years, no worries. But I could not look at my daughter for even 30 seconds without breaking down. Still on a ventilator, induced coma, and a partly-shaved still-swollen head, with a 4-inch long cut running from her right earlobe arcing up the side of her head, held together with metal clips. Looks like a brain zipper. I had to retreat to the ICU waiting room. Tried again after I felt better; same result. My little girl is the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen. Janet deals with it better and stays with her. Maybe mothers are tougher, I thought it'd be the opposite. No, wait. I was there at Francie's birth: the mothers are definitely tougher.

We're at home now, eating something, heading back around 8:30. Close friends have already come by with food, and our immediate family who live close by are ready to help as needed. The doctors may take Francie off the ventilator in a couple of days; in an induced coma, she keeps trying to yank it out. To me that's good. You go girl, get offa that thing. Once more I reflect on the West: its managerial and organizational skills; its knowledge base and educated populations; its flexibility, responsiveness, and preparedness; its machines.

At the top of the page is the shirt they cut off of Francesca in the ER. This would seem to be the perfect time to say thank ya Jesus.

Thank ya, Jesus. I know you love us.

This is an ICU blessing I never expected to count.



Update June 16: my daughter is at home, may recover fully, timetable unknown.

Fairy Circle

Have you ever seen a fairy ring, a fairy circle? Not the make-believe kind...the real ones (not real fairies, real fairy circles). Like this one:

My backyard has one, it shows up every year after the Spring Equinox (don't get all pagan on me; Easter is dated from the Equinox and the full moon.) Ours hasn't appeared yet this spring, but I was digging up some weeds, and the soil contained the little white filaments that the circle will inevitably spring from.

  I like to refer to fairy circles in Catechism class: if we look at only one mushroom at a time, we don't see how they're all connected, the big picture. And if we do look at them all, but only superficially, we see only the circle, but won't be aware of the underlying web of what is called mycelia. As Wikipedia says, "Hidden in the soil is a huge network of threadlike mycelia. Mushrooms are not individual organisms. Rather, they are just one part of the mycelia lurking beneath your lawn." I know, "lurking" sounds pejorative....just think of my yard's fairy circle as another amazing and harmless bit of God's creation where every part relates to every other part, and upon closer examination isn't really a bunch of parts anyway, but is One Big Unified Whole. Like, oh, Christianity....especially in its fullest expression, Catholicism.

Catholicism has a lot of parts that we can see one at a time, just like each mushroom that pokes up: the Bible, the Pope, each Sacrament, bishops, nuns, the Mass, the Catechism, Holy Water, the Rosary, fish dinners, Easter Vigil, Novenas, scapulars, saints, relics, etc., etc. We tend to look at them individually- like looking at a single mushroom. Sometimes we think more widely and notice that taken together they form a visible pattern, like the fairy circle does. But like the fairy circle, the real story is beneath the surface...all the thousands/millions of threads binding every part to every other part. The mushrooms are just the visible part of a greater unseen reality. Like all of us being parts of the Body of Christ...not figuratively, literally. I guess we'll see that clearly when our vision isn't clouded by sin....

Oops, digressing already. But sometimes digressing is a good thing for Catholics...maybe even a requirement.

Hey, remember the blind men examining the elephant? The elephant was for each man simply the part he could feel: a snake, a tree trunk...a rope? If they'd walked around a bit, they'd've got the big picture and their understanding would've increased exponentially. But training kids (or anyone) to be hip to all these Catholic tendrils of mutual connection and reinforcement can't be done in a class set aside for that purpose; it has to be woven into class all the time.

I envision a lesson plan as moving vertically. Class starts at the top of my legal-pad and reaches the bottom at the end of the period; at least that's the plan. But the lesson plan anticipates moving vertically only 3/4 of the time. The rest of the time I expect to be going sideways, because I think of something related to the topic, or better yet, because one of the children thinks of something.

For example, when we discuss Levitical sacrifice and ritual cleansing, I emphasize that blood or water is frequently sprinkled on the people, such as on these occasions:

The first Passover:

"Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Select lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the basin..."

Sacrifice of oxen as a peace offering:

"And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you..."

Ritual cleansing of a leper:
 
"...if the leprous disease is healed in the leper, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet stuff and hyssop; and the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water.  He shall take the living bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet stuff and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water;  and he shall sprinkle it seven times upon him who is to be cleansed of leprosy..."
 
Ritual cleansing of a house:
 
"And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet."
 
Ritual cleansing of a tent:

"And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day."

Passover and other Levitical sacrifices are soaking wet with information that will apply to Baptism,  the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Mass, all of which come later. So during this lesson I want the kids to think sideways for a bit, in anticipation of those future topics.

"...so y'all see how how often blood or water got sprinkled on people and things to make them holy: either by marking them with the sacrificial blood, or by washing them clean with water. If you want to make something physically clean will sprinkling do a good job? No, that won't do anything. So why just sprinkle then? Why not really wash? Well, it would take too long, and people have their clothes on. That's right, and it's not about getting physically clean anyway, what's the point? Spiritual cleaning? Yes, and because we're made of a...body'n'soul! yes, if we want our souls made clean, we...sprinkle water on our bodies? Yes, genius!  Now, has anyone ever seen any sprinkling happen in church? I have!  Tell us about it. Umm, the priest walks around with a bucket and a silver thing and slings holy water on everybody!  Yes. That thing is called an aspergillum, it's the Latin word for sprinkler. Has anyone ever seen a priest use a bundle of sticks, instead of the aspergillum, to sprinkle the congregation? I saw that at another church! Yes, good. It's very interesting. The bundle of sticks looks like a little broom, and I think it slings more Holy Water than the silver sprinkler, too. I like the sticks because that's what the Israelites used to sprinkle blood and water all the time. Listen to this bit of sprinklering again:  "...kill the passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood..." Hyssop's a kind of reed that grows around Egypt and the Holy Land, and most of the time you see that word in the Bible, it has to do with some kind of ritual water cleansing or blood sacrifice."

"Remind me, who was Mr. Slinghot? Oh, David? Yes. When David was the King, he had an affair with a married woman named Bathsheba, and got her husband killed to cover it up. Later he repented from this serious sin, and wrote a Psalm about wanting forgiveness:

"...cleanse me from my sin. ...Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." When David says "Purge me with hyssop" what's he mean? No guesses? What's Purgatory? It's where you go to get rid of your sins so you can go to heaven. Yes. Purgatory comes from the word purge which means to thoroughly clean comething by getting rid of all the bad stuff, sometimes by burning. Purging isn't pleasant like a bubblebath. So when David tells God to "purge me" what's he mean? He wants God to get him clean. Yes, even if it's painful. And he mentions hyssop, the bundle of sticks, why's that? 'Cause that's how they sprinkled Holy Water on people. Yes, just like we do today. David wanted spiritual cleaning, not a bath. Remember the Catholic Fairy Circle with all the hidden threads under the ground (I may draw this quickly & re-explain as necessary)? Yes. Well, hyssop's one of those hidden threads; when you see it, pay attention, it connects different parts of the Bible to Catholic things like Baptism and the aspergillum, the sprinkler we use in church. And listen to this Epistle: there's hyssop and some other threads I've mentioned."

"The Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us that there is no forgiveness of sin without sacrifice. Yell the first time you hear a word that has to do with cleansing, sacrifice, or washing. 

"..Moses...took the blood Blood! yes, of calves and of goats, with water Water! and scarlet wool, and hyssop, The Sticks! and sprinkled Sprinkle! both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament....he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged Purgatory! well, Purgatory is close enough, purged with blood..."

"Good. For the rest of the year watch out for these threads: Hyssop, and...? Blood? Yes, and....Water? Yes, and...what does the stick bundle do? Sprinkle! Yes, and...? C'mon, where might you go before heaven? Purgatory! Yes, which comes from what word? Uhhh, purge? Yes, purge. Which means? To clean! Yes. From now on when you hear these words come up in class, say so, and we'll see what they're connnecting to, especially in a few months when we discuss the Crucifixion."

And at this point we'd return to our vertical progress through the lesson plan.

During this lesson I walk around the class, acting out Moses sprinkling blood on everyone, and a child will often point out without prompting that it reminds them of when the priest sprinkles water on the congregation. In that case I'll praise them and digress from there. I might mention that blood and water are related to each other at the Crucifixion when both flowed from Jesus' side, and they should be ready to think about that a few months from now. So how we go sideways isn't especially planned out, and the kids will surprise me with the nimble-minded connections they make that I can build on. It depends on time, topic, and class participation. Regardless, though, some of the best learning occurs in those sideways moments, when we can glimpse yet another thread in the Catholic Fairy Circle.