Today is ‘Bright Monday’, the second day of the Easter cycle in Orthodox and some Western traditions. It follows on the Resurrection of Our Lord (Easter), the Orthodox Pascha. Bright Monday is to begin the week as a time of joy re-experienced and renewed after the Lenten discipline and the spiritual austerity that characterizes Holy Week.
Pope Francis called for a cease-fire in the Russian-Ukranian conflict, at least a moment of peace, this in Orthodox country. We who lean toward the iconic East rather than the didactic West do applaud the proclamation for peace however brief, whatever our opinions of the Vicar of Christ.
As one plotting under the table, Putin largely ignored that plea and most others that do not comply with his goals, no matter the global presence of its source.
My own issue with these types of pleas go back to old TV serial war stories of the 1950s and 1960s and the seasonal Christmas cease-fires portrayals. The Allies and the Germans agreed to cross the lines and actually meet together to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Then the opposing armies would predictably return to killing each other.
After 48 years of religious inquiry, I still view Christianity as one who is yet outside of it. I wonder how those who are yet apart from our faith might see these episodic “time-outs” from the evils and cruelties of wartime to celebrate the commonality of religious expression shared by both parties in the slaughter. Such a cessation of hostilities is of course beneficial to the common folk and those who defend them, simply desirous of attending the Mass or the Divine Liturgy without feeling threats of ever more missiles and artillery fire, if only for a day. And I ponder how those not of the faith might view the hypocrisies of the militant leaders who grant commemoration of the Risen Christ one day, then degenerate into the terrors of slaughtering each other, bombing children’s hospitals and gang-raping both girls and boys (you may search the references for yourselves, as these are far beyond disgusting). Nothing more than a “time-out” from substantial religion for a bit of liturgical kum-ba-yah having little effect more than to diminish it.
Bright Monday?
RASKIN’S RELIGION AND FALSE WITNESS
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-RI) is of late notable for his collaboration with ‘cult deprogrammers’ and his statement about Pence that he found so very “chilling” as the then vice-president chose to remain in the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Raskin’s accusation that Pence refused the insistence of his own security team in order to remain is most certainly judgmental. Suppose, known Leftist Congressman, that our VP chose to do what he could to provide leadership in the midst of the madness as most any good leader does? We have just witnessed the admirable courage of Ukranian President Zelenskyy to likewise remain so as to provide the leadership that the people elected him to do? Rep. Raskin, would you be consistent so as to call that as well?
Then we read that you are consulting with ‘cult deprogrammers’ so as to pursue most anyone who do not agree with you.
BUT REP. RASKIN, AREN’T YOU A JEW??
You so-called Jew who puts the worst possible face on the behavior of your adversary so as to discredit him is a violation of the commandment to refrain from bearing a false witness against your neighbor.
And that is what We the People find “chilling” about your sort.
FBI AND JIMMY HOFFA’S REMAINS
So, the FBI has decided to embark on yet another, another search for the remains and supposed ‘clues’ therefrom related to the demise and disappearance of Teamster Union boss Jimmy Hoffa. When I was growing up, Hoffa was a household name due to his powerful presence among the truckers and dock workers.
For you younger folks, Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975, last seen at the Medusa Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Yes, that is correct. Hoffa disappeared over 46 years ago.
Hoffa’s history includes convictions for jury-tampering, bribery, conspiracy and mail-wire fraud and received 13 years, of which sentence he served 5. Hoffa was released in 1971 after a deal with then President Richard Nixon requiring his resignation as president of the Teamsters Union. Yes, he reportedly ran it from inside the prison. As you might expect, allegations of Mafia connections and conspiratorial theories abound.
Now, fed-up taxpayers, the disappearance of this individual nearly half a century ago screams for a new FBI investigation on a tip that his remains are buried in New Jersey. It seems to me that if the average age of the individuals involved in Hoffa’s disappearance was only 30 at that time, each of them would be nearly 80. To what end are the taxpayers of this country to be dragooned into funding yet another investigation into an allegation of a crime that just might have occurred, and a corpus dilecti yet to be uncovered, proferring no known results?
Or might this be some sort of a deflection from current attentions and interests that might have nostalgic appeal to the older set? You judge, you who are again and again called upon to have your Congress and President produce yet more phony money for this sort of useless nonsense.
Father David+