Pseudo-Homilies 20 – Flesh

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A This time I decided to focus on the Second Reading, if only because I wanted to explore an angle, a way of seeing it, which isn’t usually taken into consideration by today’s homilists. I’ll start slightly earlier; from the Letter to the Romans, chapter 8. My passage goes from verse 5 to the verses 8 and 9 which are read in churches on this occasion: For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit. The concern of the flesh is death,…

Continue reading

Pseudo-Homilies 18 – Enemies

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time– Year A   We must give credit to the Jews in general, and specifically to the Old Testament, because sometimes they know how to defend their interests without much pretense, showing us that it is not really required, strictly speaking, to become your enemies’ doormat, to let them crush you. You shouldn’t assume that your adversaries may always be right, hence somehow making the very thought of contradicting them unacceptable. No, the good guys must learn to be confident, bold and assertive. Starting from a clear judgment: it is not pride to defend God’s reasons, just because we have joined those who support them, albeit unworthily.   Self-confident,…

Continue reading

Charlie Gard executed by the wannabe Übermenschen

In-depth (fastidious) analysis of a post-human, anti-human authoritarian act (+a side of tasteful disinformation).   A.1. Presto, Godwin! In the worldview of the Nazis, the Jew wasn’t just a mortal enemy; it was seen as some unsightly subhuman, a thing, a disgusting thing. They rounded up millions of pacific, respectable and productive people, mostly (at least in the West) from the well-off, and (when they weren’t killing them immediately) they let those poor souls wither away in concentration camps, as terminally-ill, bony shadows of humans, fighting for their life like scared rats, begging for a morsel of moldy food. That’s when the self-appointed Übermenschen (the Superhumans), the “Aryans”, could triumphantly point…

Continue reading

The Trump Train vs. the station moving backwards

Donald vs. Francis There are 2 main “current events” subjects I want to cover in this blog: the US Presidency and the Vatican. Turns out I’m hardly writing about the Pope, and (based on the number of articles) people may think I’m fixating on Trump. The thing is, not only Trump represents a positive development, while the Catholic Church is depressingly close to its nadir point. The two realities move very differently. While “progressive” bishops are hard at work to destroy their Church from the interior, reflexively reacting in a predictable and passive manner, always manipulated or outmaneuvered by smarter players and pushing for ideas that were fashionable 50 years ago, the Trump…

Continue reading

The Young Prophet

Mary encounters St.Elizabeth

Today Catholics celebrate the Immaculate Conception: contrary to a popular misconception, this has nothing to do with the idea of Jesus Christ being born from a Virgin. It’s about the Virgin Mary receiving a special Grace from the moment of her conception (inside the womb of her mother, Saint Anne): being preserved free from the stain of original sin. If you don’t subscribe to popery you may find this concept odd and incomprehensible, but it’s actually profound and liberating, in a way. I’ve planned to further discuss it on December 8th, 2017. :-P   But for now let’s focus on a different topic. Who’s the greatest prophet ever? And what was…

Continue reading

From abortion to chemtrails, it’s only a small step

OK, let’s complain about idiotic, fake news memes making the rounds on social networks. I bet you too got a good excuse to lose your temper when you faced a scenario like the following one. An excited/indignant friend sharing on Facebook the n-th conspiracy theory/sensational fishy news bite/”anti-establishment” petition. Showing no self-awareness whatsoever. Spewing answers without ever seriously asking questions. Like saying that next week Mars will appear in the sky as big as the Moon, or that Facebook is becoming a pay service, or that you should rail against the Parliament for a new outrageous law that turns out to be imaginary, drafted by a non-existent Representative. That we…

Continue reading

Google and the power to distort

Some religions are more equal than others Talk about distortion. Let’s say you are looking for information about the following topic: violence against Jews. I just discovered that even the autocomplete function on Google is biased… After you type violence against it suggests women with a few variants (ok, feminism and stuff, par for the course). Adding the letter J the suggestion turns to journalists. Typing the E brings us the surprising bit jehova witnesses …you see, it’s a major crisis, with all those attacks on Jehova Witnesses you hear about every day… (?) Finally, adding W causes Google to stop suggesting anything at all… evidently violence against jews is…

Continue reading