Et accesserunt ad eum Pharisaei et Sadducaei tentantes et rogaverunt eum, ut signum de caelo ostenderet eis. At ille respondens ait eis: “ Facto vespere dicitis: “Serenum erit, rubicundum est enim caelum”; et mane: “Hodie tempestas, rutilat enim triste caelum”. Faciem quidem caeli diiudicare nostis, signa autem temporum non potestis. Generatio mala et adultera signum quaerit, et signum non dabitur ei, nisi signum Ionae ”. Et, relictis illis, abiit.
Fr. Kirby opened the homily with a story about a fire in a warehouse. The firetrucks had arrived to put out the blaze, but it appeared all might be lost. The owner had some very important papers within his office inside the burning building. He repeatedly asked the fire chief to rescue those papers at all costs, even if it meant that the rest of the building should burn to the ground. The fire chief calmly responded that his men were doing everything possible to save as much as they could. The owner offered first $100K to rescue the papers and then $200K. Each time the response of the fire chief was the same. Finally a fire truck careened out of control and crashed through the side wall of the warehouse, reaching the office where the safe was located. The men in the truck grabbed the papers, put them on the truck and quickly backed out to safety. The owner was overjoyed to now have his papers and immediately wrote a check for $200K to the rescuers. He asked them for what they would now use the money. The driver of the fire truck responded, "We're going to get the brakes fixed." The moral of the story is that God will rescue us but often not in the way we envision.
In today's Gospel reading the Lord tells us not to worry about what we are to eat or drink or wear, for He knows we need all these things and He will provide. We however do not get to tell him how He ought to provide for our needs. The means, though, by which we invoke those graces are the Sacraments. Through them comes the ability by which we cooperate with God in His meeting our needs. One of these needs is often healing of the body, and the means of obtaining the necessary grace is the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. James 5:13-15 states:
Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praise.Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint [him] with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.
Fr. Kirby went on to explain that Protestants do not have the Sacraments, and thus do not have the graces of this Sacrament. When a Protestant minister or pastor meets with the sick and his family, it is for prayer, consolation and counselling. It is not to obtain the graces necessary for healing or for preparing for a holy death. While some Protestants like Pentecostals do a form of anointing of the sick, it is treated more as a magic formula: "You get sick, the Pastor anoints you, and you get miraculously healed." That can happen, but often does not. In fact, Fr. Kirby explained that recently at a healing Mass he had anointed more than 100 people and only three reports of divine healing were received. This account led me to recall what both my biological father (himself a Pentecostal) and my second AA sponsor of some 30 years ago said to me: we do not get to tell God how to heal. He usually chooses one of three ways: (a) divinely and instantaneously, or (b) through medical science or (c) by means of calling a person to be home with Him forever. The decision on which method should be used rests solely with God. We need to be purged of the arrogance and hubris that makes us think we can dictate to God: "The Pastor anointed him, now heal him immediately." My AA sponsor said that it may not be God's will to heal someone in that way, and I should learn a little humility, leaving the big decisions up to God because as an alcoholic I made a wreck of my unmanageable life.
Fr. Kirby also explained that one of the stumbling blocks he observed was at hospitals whose staff - educated solely in scientific materialism - often did not understand why a priest should be allowed into intensive care or the emergency room regardless of the condition of the patient. The idea that a man has a spiritual side which must be cared for is completely foreign to such staff. The one happy exception are Filipina nurses. Perhaps this is because the Republic of the Philippines is a Catholic country. No matter; when Father enters the hospital and a Filipina nurse is there, she automatically clears the way between him and the patient to perform the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick in order to prepare the man for whatever God may have in store for him: divine healing, healing by medical science, or a holy death.
ASIDE: my daughter-in-law, Abegael, is a nurse in the Philippines, so Father's story struck a resonant chord with me for I know how hard Abegael works and how devoted she is to her patients, and what a good Christian woman she is. END ASIDE
Father also gave a story about how he got sick one time in Rome and had to travel back to the US for surgery. The surgeon who would perform the operation had been called away from his vacation (or whatever) to work on Father, for which Father was grateful. Nevertheless, Father forbade the commencement of surgery until he himself made a good Confession (the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation) and received the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Father recalled the surgeon pacing back and forth, but Father was insistent that he wasn't going under the knife until he made his peace with God.
Lastly, Father used the example of a terminally ill man given six months to live. Some people in this condition wait until the last minute to receive the Sacrament. This is a horrible practice because sometimes a priest may not be available at the last minute. Furthermore, often the person who waits to the last minute for requesting the Sacrament often ends up facing death in abject terror and that isn't what the Lord Jesus wants. The right thing to do is to ask for the Sacrament immediately on learning of the diagnosis so that the Church can accompany one on the journey to a happy and holy death if that is God's will.
In conclusion, the Sacrament is not about getting magically healed on the spot. It is about getting the graces needed to cooperate with God's will for one's life. That reminds me of something else my second AA sponsor would always say to me: "Lucius, you turned your will and your life over to the care of God as you understood Him in the 3rd step. That means that what God does with your life from here on out is none of your darn business. Your job is to cooperate with Him. As the 11th step says, '....praying ONLY for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.' That is all you are ever entitled to ask for."
When a 30 something upstart feminist with zero commercial nuclear power experience claims that her molten salt reactor design can generate 75 times MORE energy per ton of uranium than the existing fleet of reactors that have been in operation in the United States for nigh unto 40 years, do NOT believe her! The article below explains this best:
It turns out that this little girl made a mistake in her math. Her reactor design can generate twice - not 75 times - the energy from a ton of uranium that an existing light water reactor can generate. She has corrected her white paper to reflect that:
Furthermore, her reactor design cannot burn spent nuclear fuel as she initially advertised. The article explains the following:
“They didn’t do any of this intentionally....It was just a lack of experience and perhaps an overconfidence in their own ability. And then not listening carefully enough when people were questioning the conclusions they were coming to.”
Now that statement is correct on its surface. But it fails to describe the problem underneath. These young spoiled brats are arrogant. Yes, they did not intentionally lie. But they think that because they are so darn innovative and so freaking smart with their natural born genius that they get to make the rules, they get to interpret the regulations and they get to say how science is supposed to behave. Even now when confronted to the immovability of math and physics this progressive Leslie Dewan thinks she's going to build her molten salt reactor by 2021. That isn't going to happen. First of all, the US NRC has no regulations for licensing non-light water reactors, and devising those regulations will take years. Second, it normally takes 10 years to go from where her company Transatomic is currently at to a fully licensed and operating reactor, and only if it's a light water design, not some esoteric design like molten salt. This little youngster has no idea what she is in for. Hubris of the highest order!
My advice to such individuals who think they know it all? Get some real operating experience from people two decades your senior in the commercial nuclear power industry instead of winging it on your own. Paper reactors designed by college students in liberal Academia will never survive the test of hard reality:
I had an interesting exchange today on Facebook with a person about immigration and related social justice topics. Of course I oppose illegal immigration of drug lords and gangsters from Mexico and South America, and unrestricted immigration of Muslims from lands of Islamic fascism. I used a personal example where I was able to help some immigrants and I stated that unless and until someone puts his money where his mouth is, then he does not merit having an opinion on the matter. This man then accused me of being bitter. I responded that if I say nothing about what I do and oppose illegal immigration, then I shall be accused of being a hater and a racist; but if I say what I do and oppose illegal immigration, then I shall be accused of being bitter. As I wrote in a previous post, it is much like what Matthew 11:16-17 records:
“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
Then I did some research on this man and found posted on his various Facebook pages photographs of other men in sexually seductive, sometimes half-naked poses. So it became apparent that I was dealing with a sodomite for whom the calls of "love, love, love" take on a very different meaning than what St. Paul envisioned in 1st Corinthians 13. Apparently this man ignores Romans 1:18-32. Needless to say, he is now blocked.
Female Islamic Terrorist
I mention this as a warning to everyone: when a person whom you do not know accuses you of being a hater or being bitter for no other reason than your support of defending the Republic against drug lords, gangsters, rapists, murderers and Jihadists, then chances are that that person has a secret and that secret needs to be exposed to the light of day. I am sick and tired of being marginalized and ridiculed for believing in the Constitution as it is written, and for expecting each person to pull his own weight, and for insisting that those who complain should do something positive to alleviate the problem that they see instead of just shooting their mouths off.
Yes, we should help the poor and disadvantaged. That's our job, not Caesar's, as adopted children of the Great King, and citizens in the Heavenly Kingdom. But that's no excuse to fail to protect our women and children against the murderous violence of Hispanic gangsters and Muslim terrorists. We can make the decision for ourselves to be martyrs, but we have no right to make our women and children martyrs.
NOTE: before I begin, in the essay below I describe an instance of what I do to help those in need. I was challenged by this elsewhere at a different forum. I use this example simply because it is personal. There are many others who have done far more than I am capable of doing. May God bless them. However, if I complain about illegal immigration and do not point out what I did do to help with the problem, then I shall be called a hater. And if I complain and I do point out what I did, then I shall be called bitter. It is much like what Matthew 11:16-17 records:
“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
There is no winning with those who persist in obstinate defiance.
TEACHING OF THE CHURCH
First, often I have heard the sanctimonious and pious declare:
"Pray for all the persecuted people of the world."
If one does not directly care for the persecuted, then the prayer is worthless. I did not say that. St. James did in verses 5-17 of chapter two in his epistle:
If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Do NOT abdicate unto Caesar what Scripture commands you personally to do. "Render unto God the things that are god's and unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." It is NOT Caesar's job to welcome the alien. That is our personal and individual moral responsibility.
2241 The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.
Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.
Note the last sentence which states that immigrants are required to obey the laws of the host country. This is consistent with what St. Paul writes in Romans 13:1-7:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.
Therefore, illegal immigration is prohibited.
HISPANIC ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
In all the discussion about illegal immigration of Hispanics, what is not being examined is the root cause for which Hispanics flee Mexico and South America to come to the US. That cause originates in what happened to Mexico (and elsewhere) in the early 20th century. The Mexican people voted for President of their country an atheist by the name of Plutacro Elias Calles. Once in power, he began a compaign of persecution against Christianity in general and the Catholic Church specifically. The barbarity of his actions was exceeded only by Josef Stalin in the USSR, Adolf Hitler in National Socialist Germany, and Hirohito in Imperial Japan. In the Cristeros War of the 20s and 30s bishops and priests were executed, and Christian men, women and children were tortured to death. The United States stood mute and impotent to do anything about it. Catholic Christianity was almost wiped out from the popular culture of Mexico except for superstition that did not threaten the secular government. With the emasculation of Catholicism from the public life, it is no wonder that the satanic influence of drug peddling and drug addiction arose. Thus today we have a Mexico suffering the aftermath of its de-Christianization.
Similar things happened in Argentina with the rise of Juan Peron and later Eva. It is no wonder therefore that the man from Argentina sitting on the Papal throne is a heretical Marxist Peronist who happily received a communist crucifix from a Latin American tin pot dictator, and encourages adulterers and fornicators to receive Holy Communion.
Therefore, I say that NONE of the problems afflicting the Hispanic people will be or can be fixed until they return to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. They flee what they have caused. They are reaping what they have sown in having elected such leaders as Calles and Peron. No matter how much money the US throws at illegal immigrants, no matter how welcoming we are to people fleeing from the very system of government for which they so willingly voted, they cannot and will not be helped. They must repent first because repentance comes BEFORE and NOT AFTER health and prosperity.
Further, I say that this same lesson applies to us in these United States. We sanctify the filth of homosexual sodomy and we legitimatize the infanticide of the unborn. We therefore fully merit the fate that has befallen Mexico and Argentina. The ONLY way to avoid that is repentance and conversion, not some new fangled worthless useless social justice program that cannot eradicate the sin in men's hearts which causes these problems in the first place.
Get with it, folks. Social justice does not, cannot and will not work. Bowing in abject humility before the Holy Crucifix however always does work.
MUSLIM IMMIGRATION
Islam - a religious political system and NOT a race of people (just in case any liberals reading this are confused) - is a dangerous and false belief system created by a pedophile false prophet who raped and pillaged his way across the sands of Arabia in the 7th century AD, and ever since that time, Islam has spread by the sword, either subjecting conquered peoples to the enslavement of dhimmitude or executing those deemed unfit to live like Jews and Christians. All of the Middle East and North Africa was Christian prior to Mohammed, and he and his demented followers changed that. They invaded all the way to Tours, France in the mid-8th century, and by the 11th century, after 400 years of Islamic persecution of the Christians in the Byzantine Empire, the West launch the Crusades as a defensive action. The effectiveness of that lasted only so long and by the 16th and 17th centuries Islam was again invading Europe all the way to the gates of Vienna, Austria, to be turned back by the Catholic Poles. Here is a video summarizing what happened:
Islam is not a religion like Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shintoism and others. It is a political system of enslavement and forced conversions. In Islam there is no secular government and separate religious authority. Just look at Saudi Arabia and Wahhabi Sunni Islam, or the mad mullahs of Shiite Islam in Iran. Women are treated as second class people, children are taught to be suicide bombers, and testosterone crazed, demonically possessed men decapitate or immolate Christians and Jews at will.
Now many will say that the majority of Muslims do not behave that way, and that there are just and sane Muslim nations. Jordan is a prime example. King Abdullah II and his wife Queen Rania are indeed righteous and just people. But they are the exception to the rule. Furthermore, let us posit that a majority of Muslims are not terrorist fanatics. Let's assume that a mere 5% of the Muslim population are that way. Out of 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, that leaves 80 million Jihadists. If there were 160 M&M candies in a jar and only 5% were poisonous, would you reach your hand into the jar to grab some to eat, knowing that 8 M&M's might kill you?
This is why all further Muslim immigration must stop. Yes, let's rescue the refugees - Christians and Jews. But let's leave the Muslims with the religion and the system of governance that they believe in - Sharia Law. Every time they are allowed to come into Western countries, they create enclaves in which even police dread to go; they rape the local women (as is happening in Sweden); they bomb shopping centers (as happened in France); they shoot innocent civilians (as happened in the United States).
Now ask yourself this: why are these Muslims fleeing their native countries and coming here to set up their Sharia Law? Why? Their rejection of the One True God - the Triune God - for the demon god Allah is why they have all the problems which they have. Until they repent, let them live in peace where they are and keep them out of Western countries.
Of course the flip side of that is this: we need to extricate ourselves from their countries. We need to stop buying their oil and natural gas, and start converting our economy over to nuclear energy instead of relying on mineral slime and mineral gas in lands of Islamic fascism. But that's a topic for a different day.
One last thing on this topic of Muslim immigration: in the Old Testament God told the Children of Israel to keep themselves unpolluted and undefiled by contact with their pagan Canaanite neighbors. We should follow that same advice, for Winston Churchill said it best:
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Liberal progressive feminists in the Church often invoke Matthew 25:31-46 when saying that as a nation we have to care for the sick, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the imprisoned, and welcome the alien. They say that, but what they really mean is this:
"Government should do it."
They do not want to get their hands personally dirty by doing corporal works of mercy for the unfortunate. They do not want to be bothered by such problems. But they damn sure do want to feel sanctimoniously self-justified and piously self-righteous by jumping on the "Trump is mean" and "Republicans are haters" bandwagon for no other reason than we insist on following the due process of the law for everyone equally, immigrant and citizen.
And yes, I do not want my tax money going to help welfare recipients and illegal immigrants and what not. I have helped both on my own without Caesar's damnable assistance and I have done a better job than Caesar ever could. For six months I cared for two immigrants in my apartment free of charge until they were able to stand on their own two feet. So until all the liberals out there put their money where their mouth is and actually DO good works for the poor, they have no justification to whine.
Don't go quoting Matthew 25:31-46 unless YOU do it personally.
Father began with a story about a great American warship and a lighthouse. This story is best related by the video below.
Father then explained that sometimes, no matter how great we become, it is not the light in the distance which must change course, but we ourselves. We see this in Sunday's Scripture readings . In Leviticus 19:2 we are enjoined to be holy as God is holy. The English word holy is a variant on the word whole. In Matthew 5:48 we are enjoined to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. the word perfect is from the Latin word perfectus which is the past participle of the verb perficio which means "I do thoroughly." Perfect then means, "Having been done thoroughly or completely." That is the same meaning as the word whole from which the word holy is derived. Unfortunately all too often we associate the word holy with the word divine. There is only One Who is divine, and that isn't we. Rather, we are to be complete as God has made us to be complete. And often that means we have to change the course of our lives when the lighthouse out in the midst warns us that collision is imminent. That common theme runs through Sunday's Scripture readings in Leviticus 19, 1st Corinthians 3 and Matthew 5.
A priest can often be that lighthouse warning the unwary to change course before it is too late. Thus did Father Kirby lead into the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
The understanding that Catholics have regarding priests is very different than the understanding that Protestants have regarding their ministers or pastors. A priest acts as Alter Christus. To him is granted the responsibility to consecrate the hosts of bread and wine into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. To him is granted the responsibility to forgive or retain sins in Confession. To him is granted the responsibility to anoint the sick for healing of body and soul. With the priest there are no Sacraments and Protestants have no priests. Thus, Protestantism is sacramentally impotent. I remember feeling exactly that way about what I observed passed for "communion" at Calvary Church on a Sunday night as I described in the post Vesper Diei Solis aput Ecclesiam Calvariae (two family members attended and wanted me to accompany them). What a difference there is between a real priest of the living God wearing the liturgical raiment appropriate for the responsibility of that august role, and what I saw.
And that was something which Father Kirby emphasized: a Catholic pastor (which means shepherd in Latin) is the Sacerdos Dei Viventis. Yes, we in the laity are all called to the common priesthood of the faithful. 1st Peter 2:9 does state:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The Greek word used for priesthood is ἱεράτευμα which derives from the word ἱερεύς which was used to denote the Old Testament priest. It is different than the word used elsewhere in the New Testament to denote the ministerial priesthood. That word in Greek is πρεσβύτερος, and it is used in conjunction with the Sacraments (e.g., the laying on of hands for healing). An ἱερεύς has no power to dispense the Sacraments of the Eucharist, Confession, Anointing of the Sick, etc. A πρεσβύτερος does, and no Protestant is a πρεσβύτερος because the line of Holy Orders from the Apostles to the present day was broken in the rebellion of Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII in the 16th century.
ASIDE 1: While separation still exists between Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, the mutual excommunications of the 11th century have been lifted by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoros I of Constantinople. See Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of 1965. Unlike Protestants, Eastern Orthodox (Greek, Antiochan, Russian, etc.) have preserved Apostolic Succession, have valid Holy Order, and have valid Sacraments. END ASIDE 1
ASIDE 2: For my Protestant readers, there are three Holy Orders: deacon (διάκονος) which means servant, priest (πρεσβύτερος) which means elder, and bishop (ἐπίσκοπος) which means overseer. All Bishops are Priests, and all Bishops and Priests are Deacons. But Deacons are not necessarily Priests and Priests are not necessarily Bishops. Our English word priest is a diminutive of πρεσβύτερος which is presbyteros when transliterated into English. The "BY" in the center was dropped as well as the "EROS" at the end to form the word "PREST" which eventually became "PRIEST." In like fashion ἐπίσκοπος when transliterated into English is episcopos. "EPI" means over or on top of and "SCOPOS" (going into the English word SCOPE) means eye or seer, hence the term overseer. Other titles such as Metropolitan, Patriarch, Archbishop and Cardinal are assigned by the Church, but they do not replace or override the three Holy Orders of Deacon, Priest and Bishop. Additionally, only a Priest or Bishop may dispense the Sacraments (except that a Deacon may Baptize and may witness a Marriage, in which the husband and wife are the ministers of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony). END ASIDE 2
Father Kirby went on to discuss the respect due a priest and the responsibility which a priest bears before God. He described how in today's society, especially in the Protestant south, a priest in his clerics is often regarded as a fish out of water. He also made an entreaty for young men to consider the priesthood, and to the rest of us to pray for our priests. I hope one day his sermons will be recorded into an audio file so that I can post a link to the file here and not have to rely on a faulty memory. All I can tell the reader is this: find a good, orthodox parish, frequent Mass and Confession, and really listen to your priest when he gives a homily (in fact, take notes which I failed to do this time because I rushed out of the house on Sunday morning, being late).
One other thing that I think is important before I close: tell your priest that you love him and are praying for him. Priests are human beings and need the same kind of positive reinforcement that we all want to receive.
I often here today among nuclear energy professionals, especially the young spoiled brat millennial upstarts and the arrogant, self-assured, narcissistic snake oil salesmen hawking a new kind of technology wonderware, the phrases, "Power to save the world," and "We will bring light to the world." This kind of mentality purports that technology fixes can cure social ills, and that all that is needed is simply enough cheap energy to bring everyone into wealth and prosperity; then mankind's ills - war, famine, and pollution - will somehow magically disappear in a new age of civilization fueled by heavy metal fission. This attitude existed before among the men whom Alvin Weinberg, former Administrator of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and now deceased, once led. He himself was called a technology fixer in the title of his book, The First Nuclear Era: The Life and Times of a Technology Fixer.
Now with all due respect to Dr. Weinberg and the men who worked for him, it is utter hubris of the highest for man to even countenance the idea that he can create a heaven on earth, a re-establishment of the Garden of Eden from whence God cast him out, by simply the right application of technology and engineering. Jesus said in John chapter 12, "The poor you will always have with you," and our first Pope St Peter said in one of his epistles that God will destroy the elements with fervent heat. And St John writes in Revelation that God will make room for a new heaven and a new earth; the old will pass away. So this idea that we by our own resources can undo the effects of sin that happened when Eve partook of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the same kind of pride that motivated men in Genesis chapter 11 to erect the Tower of Babel. God scattered the people and confused their language to prevent them from reaching up into heaven by their own effort. This reminds me of the parable of the man at the weeding feast with no wedding garment. The kind said to his attendants, "Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." Not even with the power of the atom are we going to create a paradise on earth. There is NO technology fix for man's wicked heart.
For the record, I am a nuclear energy professional. And yes, I believe based on my 40 years of experience in nuclear energy that it is the best means possible of safely generating clean electricity. And it can be used to desalinate ocean water, provide district heating in cold climates, manufacture liquid hydrocarbon fuels from coal, produce hydrogen from water, and myriad other benefits. But none of these - NOT a single one - can cure the sinful heart that rages within a man's breast. there is only ONE power to save the world, and only ONE man has brought light to the world: Jesus Christ.
But for some strange reason, the obviousness of this is lost on those who fancy themselves scientific literates and the rest of us illiterate. The communists of the Soviet Union in the 20th century murdered tens of million of Ukrainians in the Great Holodomor, most of them Orthodox or Catholic Christians, in spite of the technological prowess of the former USSR. And Nazi Germany with all its technological might did not turn such an advantage to good, but sought world-wife destruction, murdering six million Jews and uncounted tens of millions of other Europeans. Imperial Japan with its great technology rampages through southeast Asia murdering tens of millions of Chinese. And communist China itself murdered almost 100 million of its own citizens instead of employing its technology to save the world.
The same is true today of Islamic fanatics and liberal progressive feminists. The former, as soon as they get technology, use it to commit terrorism of the highest order and the later use technology to slaughter unborn babies by the tens of millions - 60 million dead babies since Roe v Wade in 1973 - instead of giving birth to them and caring for them as any decent and civilized society would do.
But nuclear-environmental fanatics insist that their form of energy production can save the world. If we didn't save the world in the 20th century when we could have, then we are not going to save it today. And giving murderously evil persons like the mad mullahs in Iran and the liberal progressive feminists in the west the power of the atom is a clear recipe for disaster. The former will make nuclear bombs and the later cannot be trusted to follow regulation in safely generated electricity. Even the great Dr. Weinberg had to admit to a limit on his optimism.
The only solution is what our Blessed Lord said long ago, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand."
I have seen too much ranting on gender equality by liberal progressive feminists to let the subject go without commentary. One basic principle must be understood and comprehended first:
All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. Thus, all human beings are equal dignity. However, human beings are often created unequal in function.
A woman can be a mother, a daughter, a sister and a wife, but she cannot be a father, a son, a brother or a husband. Likewise a man can be a father, a son, a brother or a husband, but he cannot be a mother, a daughter, a sister and a wife. Yet both are equal in dignity but both functions are needed in equality for a healthy society. This idea of equality comes from Christianity. St. Paul writes in Galatians 3:28:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
In that passage of Sacred Scripture St. Paul asserts the principle of equality in dignity. However, St. Paul acknowledges inequality in function. Indeed inequality does NOT mean that one person is superior (or inferior) to the next due to the function which that person serves. Rather, it means that the functions are unequal because they are different, not because one is greater and the other lesser. St. Paul discusses that very thing in 1st Corinthians 12:12-31. Verses 15 through 20 give an analogy between the different functions in the Body of Christ and different function in the body of a human being:
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
Consistent with this, St. Paul states in 1st Timothy 2:8-13:
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire but by good deeds, as befits women who profess religion. Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.
At this point feminists will say, "You are trying to relegate women to the kitchen barefoot and pregnant, always submissive to men," as though motherhood, pregnancy and wifely duties were unworthy functions, to which I answer, "You are willing to accept status as a mere engineer (or technician or doctor or lawyer or scientist or whatever)? Do you not know that the most august human being ever created was a woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary who became the Ark of the New Covenant, the Θεοτόκος (God-bearerer), the Dei Genetrix (Mother of God)? No mere mortal man did that! And you would surrender your womanhood for a status of mere equivalency to a lowly man? As a mother you have the greatest influence on the next generation. No priest, no politician, no male leader has power like that!"
Can, however, a woman be a good engineer (or technician or doctor or lawyer or scientist or whatever) equal in ability to a man? Of course! Indeed, the best engineer with whom I have worked in the 40 years of my career in nuclear energy was a woman. She was the system engineer for the emergency diesel generators at a Westinghouse pressurized water reactor. Before she became the system engineer the diesels never worked right. After she started, they began to function as expected. She and I often disagreed and had some knock down, drag out arguments about updating diesel generator drawings and technical manuals, and other related things. But she was dedicated and honest and technically competent. And she was the only one who could get the mechanics in the Maintenance Department to do their job right (perhaps they were motivated by her beauty, but no matter; the results were pleasing to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission).
Jael Defeating Sisera
So yes, a woman can easily be a good engineer (or technician or doctor or lawyer or scientist or whatever). Indeed, there are Biblical examples of women of valor who took up the slack for the men of Israel when they failed the Lord God. One of my favorites is Jael in Judges 4:17-22. Sisera was a pagan Canaanite army general who terrorized the Israelite population. No Israelite man was able to stop him. However, Jael did.
But Sis′era fled away on foot to the tent of Ja′el, the wife of Heber the Ken′ite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Ken′ite. And Ja′el came out to meet Sis′era, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. And he said to her, “Pray, give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is any one here?’ say, No.” But Ja′el the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, till it went down into the ground, as he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. And behold, as Barak pursued Sis′era, Ja′el went out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent; and there lay Sis′era dead, with the tent peg in his temple.
Judith Defeating Holofernes
Another of my favorites is Judith whom God raised up to stop evil Holofernes, chief general of the Assyrian army, from continuing to terrorize the Jewish people. Judith got Holofernes drunk one night. Judith 13:1-10 records the aftermath:
When evening came, his slaves quickly withdrew, and Bago′as closed the tent from outside and shut out the attendants from his master’s presence; and they went to bed, for they all were weary because the banquet had lasted long. So Judith was left alone in the tent , with Holofer′nes stretched out on his bed, for he was overcome with wine. Now Judith had told her maid to stand outside the bedchamber and to wait for her to come out, as she did every day; for she said she would be going out for her prayers. And she had said the same thing to Bago′as. So every one went out, and no one, either small or great, was left in the bedchamber. Then Judith, standing beside his bed, said in her heart, “O Lord God of all might, look in this hour upon the work of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. For now is the time to help thy inheritance, and to carry out my undertaking for the destruction of the enemies who have risen up against us.” She went up to the post at the end of the bed, above Holofer′nes’ head, and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to his bed and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, “Give me strength this day, O Lord God of Israel!” And she struck his neck twice with all her might, and severed his head from his body. Then she tumbled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts; after a moment she went out, and gave Holofer′nes’ head to her maid, who placed it in her food bag.
Queen Esther Confronting Haman
Queen Esther is another example. God raised her up to stop evil Haman, adviser to Persian King Ahasu-e′rus, from carrying out his plan to commit genocide against the Jewish people. Because of Esther, in the end the King ordered that Haman should be hung from the scaffold in the same way that he conspired to hang Jews. The account is in Esther 8.
And of course, the greatest example of all is the Blessed Virgin Mary who gave us Christ Himself through her fiat to the Angel Gabriel. Christ was the ultimate defeat for Satan. Thus in Genesis 1:15 does God say to the evil serpent who had deceived Eve:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
she shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
Mary Queen of Heaven
And Revelation 11:19-12:6 goes on to say this about the Blessed Virgin Mary:
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Robert Anson Heinlein
Yet today in these neo-pagan, post-modern times, in spite of the examples of valiant women of yore, today's women are taught to settle for the second best of mere equality in function with men. It is a man's job to be a soldier or sailor or airman or marine and defend his sacred home with his very body. It is a man's job to work in the office or field or forest and bring home the means of sustenance for his family. These roles are traditional for a reason and not in denigration of authentic womanhood. Robert Heinlein perhaps expresses my sentiments best when he writes:
All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly, which can — and must — be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly — and no doubt will keep on trying.
Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, 'equality' is a disaster.
I hate feminism, progressivism and liberalism. Feminism masculinizes all that is noble, august and honorable in authentic womanhood and true femininity. Progressivism never states the goal to which it is progressing; one wonders exactly what that goal may be. Is it heaven or hell? And liberalism is simply license to do whatever one has the power to do without consequence, without responsibility, without accountability. But Christianity says that a man must be a real man and a woman must be a real women accountable to God and responsible for the consequences of his or her actions.
In conclusion, the idea of gender equality must be smashed and eradicated from society as the pagan filth that it is. We must return to the time-honored principles of men being men and women being women. God created all human beings equal in dignity, but not necessarily equal in function. If you don't like that, then take the issue up with Him.
