Entry Number 200

So it's time for entry number two hundred here on Mindmirage, and with readers or not, it is a milestone for me. This blog, unlike others I've run, is not primarily about random thoughts on any topic, but about attempts to have an insightful look into a variety of topics.

This morning I went to Mass after having almost no sleep, and the priest worked into the homily, a workshop he's attending soon on the new Mass Translation. How it was a return to more accurate wording, such as "and also with you" becoming once more "and with your spirit also"; he also worked in the Greek of the Our Father/Lord's Prayer, showing that it was unlike any other word in the Greek language when referring in one of the Gospels to the "Daily Bread", a word of such high reverence and substantiality that it was reserved for the Eucharist alone!

But more than anything, what reached down into my heart was Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham pleads with God again and again at how many innocent people must be there for it to be saved: 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10...and the Lord says, "For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it." Two things leapt out at me from that pleading of Abraham...the first is that the Lord keeps His promises to His children. It may not come quickly, it may not come as we expect, but as we plead with Him, we must be careful not to forget what we have asked, nor give up. I believe one day I will forgive and be forgiven; I believe one day He will answer my prayers.

The second thing that jumped out to me from the tale was that of how absolutely wrong people like Westboro Baptist Church are in proclaiming every natural disaster, every soldier's death and so forth is the hand of an angry God. Abraham desperately bargained with the Lord of the Universe for the cities to be spared, reducing the number each time and each time the Lord agreed that if only there were that many innocent people then He would spare the entire populace. That mercy...it's an astounding thing. Our God is so merciful that ten innocent people could have saved a pair of cities from certain doom; but there weren't enough innocent people to save them.

If God is so wrath happy, why would He allow a man to bargain with Him over a handful of innocent lives? He wouldn't.

Anyhow...I will so miss this parish when I leave. It is here that I came to the Catholic faith, under the tutelage of a convert priest and a convert layman with a wide breadth of knowledge. I will miss the people who show such joy around me at the Mass, who seem to hold such devotion to God.

Yet, time moves on, and so will I. I will forge a new life, a new state, a new parish, new friendships and relationships. That's my promise for this two hundredth entry. I will flourish and become the man that He calls me to be.