Actually today's morning insight doesn't have anything specific to do with St. Francis - I expect you all know who St. Francis is - and he is one of my go-to patron saints. His home town of Assisi is one of my favorite places on earth, and I think, one of the holiest places on earth. Today is his feast day.
But here's my morning insight: Superman has a big problem.
What's that, you ask? Well, did you ever think about the fact that bullets bounce off of Superman (this is more obvious in the older versions of the story). But if that were real, it would pretty much always lead to some innocent person getting shot with a bullet bouncing off of Superman. That's why bullet proof vests cannot just be made of some really hard material. You can't have a bullet proof vest that bullets bounce off of - bullet proof vests have to ABSORB the bullet.
It's the same with a goalie on a a soccer team. The goalie can't just head butt every ball that is heading toward the goal, because by bouncing that ball back into play, you never really get rid of the risk of being scored on. So the goalie has to CATCH the ball.
And I've discovered that it's the same with suffering. If we echo suffering off of us, spreading it around to others, then we just cause the people closest to us to suffer too. We are not meant to reflect suffering, we are meant to absorb it. In Catholic-ese we talk about offering it up, or adding our suffering to the suffering of Christ on the cross, but however you think of it, the real Christian response to suffering is not resistance, anger, protest, complaining, or retaliation - it's to absorb it for the sake of those around us. I've become convinced that a man's job (and not to say it's not also a woman's job, but go with me here) - a man's job is to be the goalie for his family. Or if you prefer the ballistic analogy, to be the bullet proof vest for his family. To absorb that bullet and net let it get through to the family. To catch that ball and not let it get into the goal of the home.
Thoughts...?
This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App
Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.
Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.
Enjoy!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
As I'm going through all my belongings as part of our move, I have come across some audio CDs of my old music, from when I had my band, Remember Rome - if any of you still have a CD player, and you would like me to send you some of what I have, send me the address to send them to at this email address: [email protected]
Some of these CDs are in their original cases, and some were demo samples, but either way, it's all original music written by me, and performed by me and my band back in the late 90s and early 2000s.
I'll be happy to find a good home for these CDs in case you might enjoy them, and because you all have been supporting me (and I haven't produced much content in the last month or so) I'll send you one or more CDs for free. Just give me an address.
Thanks!
Here's the link to the new edition of my Rome book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Second-Pilgrims-Guide-Eternal/dp/B0F8TGTWZX
