Then what of fear? [Of not going to actual Sunday Mass on Father’s Day, 2021 but attending via the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word on their television channel, developed by Mother Angelica since the 1980’s]. Amen.
“Have you no faith?” Oh ye of little faith, I will not forsake you, should you maintain a will to be with me and I in you.
Today’s Reading: Mark 4:40
PONTIFEX MESSAGE OF LATE: You are not an island until yourself. You cannot do Christianity alone.
Q: What about the saints I’ve read about in Butler’s Lives of the Saints? Some of them felt it more “normal” to be without than among the crowds. Where was Jesus between 13-30?
“Teaching In My Father’s House”
I am somewhat sorry I did not choose serendipity about attending mass and meeting new people. In Hollywood, it’s usually about meeting new people. Wade Menezes from The Fathers of Mercy remind us of acts of Mercy like tending to people in need. What would my “role” be at Roman Catholic mass? Do I volunteer for an official role? And what about the background checks and the deterioration of the Priest-Penitent privilege? We saw two Showtime movies last night about Nazism in the mid-Twentieth Century and both movies showed priests taking advantage of privilege. I’ve been obedient enough to choose solitude for this time. I do have guilt and fear. No doubt about it. “[Humans] by nature are social beings.”–Jean Jacques Rousseau
And then there’s Joe Biden being denied communion. I’ve voted for candidates who supported abortion rights before. I’m a lawyer and studied it at Santa Clara University School of Law in Galloway’s class. Mostly a question of proactivity [saw a garbage can in the Boulevard but didn’t bother to take it up off the street, seconds later an SUV carrying passengers crashed into it damaging the Suburban’s plastic fender]. Or “Let It Be”? There was a method. I didn’t like cars illegally dropping off passengers. In a psychological way, someone put the barrier in the road for a reason, even though THAT was illegal too]. Hollywood may qualify for an exemption to proactivity. The garbage can was dirty, but Jesus touched lepers.
I’m tired. “So were the apostles the night they took me.”
John Rubens: I suppose I’ll go to the sacrament of reconciliation before attending mass in person…just in case. The blessing couldn’t hurt. It never has before, except when he told me to fish or cut bait re: marriage to my current wife.
June 20, 2021
JOHN RUBENS is no Mother Teresa. 