Canto
XII
Gangster
Gospel
Canto XII
Petrus Romanus
Jeringalem
In Aborigine lore, there is a Divine Sequence, or Beforetime in which everything that happens in the world already took place and every decision made was preordained. They called it Altjeringa, but White settlers dubbed it Dreamtime, or 'the sacred once-upon-a-time time.' Mention of this parallel event sequence is alluded to in the movie The Last Wave from the acclaimed Australian film director Peter Weir:
Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the "dreamtime", more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. It was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with the dreamtime.
(Peter Weir, The Last Wave)
One of the most striking aspects of the Altjeringa with regard to their cosmology is that they don't perceive creation as a fixed moment in time, but rather as an on-going event. Rather than a six-day creation followed by a Sabbath, the Aborigine god, whose name is Altjira -- note the similarity to the Hebraic Jireh (as in Jehovah Jireh) -- is perpetually in the act of creating the Universe (a kind of perpetual first day).
Wouldn't it be pretty classy if we Christians could learn from our Aborigine neighbors and adopt a view of God not as a distant hands-off creator, but as a Spirit who is forever in the process of creation while at the same time resting on that which she has created? Wouldn't it be glorious as well to see, in creation, our own relevance to the creative and perhaps even the redemptive process through the decisions we had already made in a beforetime occurrence that we continuously affect each and every day?
Silly Sally
(An American Girl)
Silly Sally, ever longing
Think it not to be a darling
Little lass, to me belonging
'Tis my love for thee
Feminine and full of folly
Ample breasts, so pert and jolly
Says my Sally, "O my golly!"
When her love, I see
Simple Sally, dilly dally
With the gents of Tin Pan Alley
Stole their hearts, but kept a tally
(All of them but me!)
Petticoats of stringy love lace
(Vaseline kept in her glove case!)
Head cock't back just like a dove face
Perched upon my tree
Like a port for ev'ry sailor
Runs my Sally to each whaler
As their flesh harpoons impale her
On desire's sea
Blessed Sally, give me solace
By the stripes of William Wallace
(And the straps upon your bodice)
Have I been set free!
Is-Real and Is-Lame
The god of Is-Real is a god of truth
A god of wisdom, a god of proof
The god of Is-Lame is a god of submission
Bound by obeisance to a blind confession
. . . . .
The god of Is-Real is a god of beauty
Loving thy neighbor is your only duty
The god of Is-Lame is a god of disgrace
Forcing their women to cover their face
The god of Is-Real is a god of mystery
Blurring the lines between legend and history
The god of Is-Lame is a god of the mimic
Slavishly following a false prophet's gimmick
The god of Is-Real is a god of glory
Saving men's souls with a life-changing story
The god of Is-Lame is a god of ignominy
Shackling souls with devotional tyranny
The god of Is-Real is a god of wrath
But also of mercy to them that hath
The god of Is-Lame is a god of the sword
Forcing confessions through jihad and war
The god of Is-Real is a god of Shem
A river of life in a new Jerusalem
The god of Is-Lame is a god of Shame
A false Prophet burning in a Lake of Flame
The god of Is-Real is a god of wealth
A god of prosperity, a god of health
The god of Is-Lame is a god of brutality
Worshipping god by denying his humanity
So what have we learned from this quaint diatribe?
Worship Is-Real and let Is-lame subside!
Burned at the Stake
My last girlfriend was an absolute witch! No, seriously, she practiced Wicca. I guess that would make her my hex-girlfriend.
As with all witches, she had a pet cat named Charm (and what a charming little pussy it was!) However, as a devout Catholic myself, I didn't find her newfound interest in wicca particularly amusing.
Time and again, I tried to convince her that there is no salvation in sorcery or magic, and that the real magic resides in one's ability to love one's neighbor; but needless to say, she was not enchanted at all by my Christian apologetics. Relics and runes; covens and cauldrons; mystic potions and esoteric wisdom; what power do they possess that such an unbreakable spell could be cast on such a brilliant sprite?
Alas! We finally went our separate ways and although we no longer speak, I do continue to have her in my prayers; in my farewell letter to her, I did manage to conjure the presence of mind to render my most sincere advice regarding the path she had chosen, having had some previous dalliances in the dark arts myself (although I never mentioned this to her while we were together):
ADVICE FOR YOUNG WICCANS
(read if you dare)
Sweet Reina
Walking on life's 'la camina'
I perceived a sweet reina
¡Aye! -- she was so caliente
(Yo le miro adelante)
So I prayed to 'Dios Mio'
Like a statue en la Rio
Look, my arms are raised to God
(Hoping she'll give me the nod!)
You'll see me en la Iglesia
Y un casa we'll hacea
Dame este one more chance
As this boricua, I glance
Hoping she'll be responsivo
¡¡¡Por este mujer, Yo vivo!!!
Precious Princess
Delightful and pure
The wildflower unfurls
With radiant petals
Of blossoming swirls
And begs to be plucked
By these impolite girls
Who've cast off the lure
Of fake diamonds and pearls
To enjoy its sweet scent
In the breeze, as it were...
Precious Princess, almost seven
With a smile as bright as heaven
Never lose your spunk and spark
And in life, you'll make your mark
Precious Princess, ever-learning
As life's pages keep on turning
Never lose thy innocence
And in this life, you'll find success
Blackballed!
"I'll never understand your love of basketball!" I said to my father. "Why do you enjoy watching people running back and forth on a court? Why not attend a concert or a ballet?"
"A ballet?" he laughed. "Why do you enjoy watching people jumping up and down on a stage?"
I'm no major league sports fan, but of all the sports I've been forced to watch at my father's house, I find basketball to be the most edifying.
For one thing, I'll never understand the miracle of the three-point jump shot. How does a man leap into the air and throw a ball from so far away and yet still make the basket? Maybe if I paid more attention in school, I'd be able to calculate the rate of speed and parabolic trajectory of the ball, but these guys are obviously making these complex calculations using a different mindset. Maybe when the public school system integrates that "different" mindset into its curriculum (grading sports and music equal to math and science) we will have an overall better integration of our society.
As it is now, we only test a certain kind of intelligence in school and neglect other ways of thinking. This leads to frustration on the part of those who just don't think that way. We are stigmatizing a group of people based on outmoded and elitist standards which favor one metric of genius over another. Of course, this wholly arbitrary and oppressive standard was designed and perpetuated by the same group of people who benefit most from it.
So the next time you see a man on a court with a b-ball in his hand, remember the man in the heart of darkness who first hurled his spear through the heart of the dragon and ask yourself: Who is our teacher? What is His standard?
Forever Learning
Searching
Lurching
Perching on a precarious birch
Branching out
Reaching, teaching
Leaching off the Truth I be preaching
Practicing 'I Ching'
While your black skin's bleaching
The journey is winding
Blinding, teeth-grinding
To the destination I keep reminding
Myself to keep finding
This pen that I wield
As I see the blood, congealed
From wounds unhealed
In Potter's Field
We yield
To the Gospel of God revealed
In the Holy Ghost sealed
As my death sentence, He repealed
¿El Pueblo Unido?
I once asked Mary if Christendom will one day be as united as it was in the first millennium. But Mary told me this will not be the case. Why? Because we were in disunity even then!
It is somewhat of a Catholic mythology that the Church was united from the day of Pentecost until the Great Schism. Even the disciples had to put up with Protestants:
(Mark 9:38)And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. 39But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. 40For he that is not against us is on our part.
Of course, God is not the author of confusion -- there is one truth and that truth is Catholic. Nevertheless, God made use of Man's confusion in order to broaden the scope of her ministry. You can't fight a forest fire with flame retardant only -- sometimes, you need to start a back blaze. While the flame retardant and the back blaze are mutually opposed, both are necessary to lessen the extent of the fire damage and ultimately put it out.
In a cosmic civil war, the Protestants are like Sherman's army, cutting off the supply-lines with Catholicism in order to make Georgia howl! So let's have civility in our interfaith discourse, while looking forward to the day when all will be brought into the Catholic Faith:
(Eph 4:13) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
It is a luxurious ministry to sit in a helicopter dropping water over a raging fire, but the Protestants are having a pretty horrendous time. The children of Jehovah's Witnesses cannot take part in school holiday concerts; Episcopalians are repenting to gay priests; Cessationists are blaspheming the Holy Spirit; Pentecostals are telling their kids that they must speak in tongues -- or else!; Adventists face workplace discrimination because of their Sabbath commitment; White Evangelicals are being told who to vote for; Baptists lift up their hands in the abject fear of holy hell -- the only thing missing in this wild bunch is Ernest Borgnine! And yet, I understand that their ministry is crucial to the cause of the gospel. So when I use the term "separated brothers," understand that the emphasis here is definitely on the word "brothers."
Navigation
LORD JESUS CHRIST,SON OF THE FATHER,SEND NOW YOUR SPIRIT OVER THE EARTH.LET THE HOLY SPIRIT LIVEIN THE HEARTS OF ALL NATIONS,THAT THEY MAY BE PRESERVEDFROM DEGENERATION, DISASTER AND WAR.MAY THE LADY OF ALL NATIONS,WHO ONCE WAS MARY,BE OUR ADVOCATE.AMEN.
LORD JESUS CHRIST,
SON OF THE FATHER,
SEND NOW YOUR SPIRIT OVER THE EARTH.
LET THE HOLY SPIRIT LIVE
IN THE HEARTS OF ALL NATIONS,
THAT THEY MAY BE PRESERVED
FROM DEGENERATION, DISASTER AND WAR.
MAY THE LADY OF ALL NATIONS,
WHO ONCE WAS MARY,
BE OUR ADVOCATE.
AMEN.
