Christ the King

I gazed into the visions of the night.  And I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man.  He came to the one of great age and was led into his presence.  On him was conferred sovereignty, glory, and kingship, and men of all peoples, nations and languages became his servants.  His sovereignty is an eternal sovereignty which shall never pass away, nor will his empire ever be destroyed.  Daniel 7:13-14

 

On Sunday the 25th of November, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast "Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe," or "Christ the King" for short.  This celebration occurs on the final Sunday before the begining of Advent.  It is the end of the Church's liturgical year.

 

Kingship

 

The system of government known as monarchy- that is, kings and queens - has for the most part gone from the world.  For all of the pomp and pageantry surrounding the British royal family, the Queen of England really has no power. 

Perhaps that's a good thing.  Contemporary wisdom has it that democracy is the best form of government. 

In Republic, Plato says that tyranny arises, as a rule, from democracy.  There are various reasons for this.  The main reason is due to a lack of equality among people.  The "have nots" increasingly vote to seize and redistribute the wealth of the "haves."  This requires a larger government bureaucracy with its attendant rules and regulations.  The great mass of people tend to prefer security over liberty and we end up with a nanny state that guides and manages a greater part of our lives.

It's interesting when reading the histories of the times of monarchies to see how little a role national governments played in people's daily lives.  Most of the rules and obligations people faced were at the local level.  Taxes were much lower under those systems as well.  The American colonists payed much less in taxes under King George than Americans pay in taxes today.  Hmm . . .

Christ the Judge, from Michelangelo's Final Judgement, Sistine Chapel

The End of Time

I can't imagine Jesus Christ being referred to as Christ the President, or Christ the Governor, or the CEO or mayor.  As Creator of all that is visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16), all power and authority are His.  Satan is allowed time to prowl the earth, "seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).  But Jesus promised to return at the end of time and put a final end to sin and death.

During these final 2 weeks of the Church's liturgical calendar, we get a healthy dose of daily mass readings from the books of Daniel and Revelations concerning the end of time.  We are asked to reflect on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Hell and Heaven.

Traditionally, human kings were lawgivers as well as final arbiters of justice.  In that sense, Jesus Christ is the perfect and ultimate King.

This anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ will carry over into the season of Advent.  Advent means "arrival" and during that season we will not only prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth, or arrival, at Bethlehem, but we look to his second and final coming at the end of time.

There's a lot of chatter about the end of the world occuring on December 21st 2012.  Apparently that date marks the end of the Mayan long calendar which signals the end of an age.  People should know that serious Mayan scholars dispute this.  (Also remember two things: the Mayans practised human sacrifice where their priests cut open the victim's chest and tore his heart out; and the Mayan civilisation collapsed.  How much authority should we credit them with?)  There's quite a bit of new age stuff about "galactic realignment" and "timewave zero" that also focus on the date December 21st.  Go to Wikipedia and take a wild ride through all that.

I think since Jesus Christ is the Universal King, He should have the final word on this: Jesus said, "In those days, after the time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.  And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too he will send the angels to gather his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of heaven.  Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.  So with you when you see these things happening: know that he is near, at the very gates.  I tell you solemnly, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.  But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father."  Mark 13:24-32

The Holiday Racket

The two definitions that I have in mind for the word racket in this post's title are: confused clattering noise and a fraudulent scheme, enterprise, or activity. 

I'm referring to the holiday season now underway.  When I was a kid, the holiday commercials appeared on TV and many people put up their Christmas trees on or right after Thanksgiving.  Many people thought that was too soon.  Now at least part of Walmart is decked out for the holidays before Halloween. 

When Renata and I left Poland 9 years ago, the holiday season didn't kick off here until sometime in December.  But now in Poland it starts right after the 1st of November.

So, what's the problem?  A lot, in my opinion.  First of all it's ugly both visually and aurally.  I've not yet seen a large plastic inflatable Snowman, Santa and Grinch that I would consider beautiful.  I love Christmas carols and even the light-weight holiday songs like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, but the never-ending quest for the novel and the silly has resulted in some horrendous versions of the old classics.  Do we really need the Chipmunks, redneck, rap and pop diva versions?  And do we need to hear them over and over at the shopping centers and on the radio for nearly two months?

That takes care of my confused clattering noise definition.  Now for my fraudulent scheme, enterprise, or activity definition. 

The retailers want us to buy, buy and buy some more for the holidays.  No matter that our closets are crammed full of junk we don't need (a lot of which was stuff we received at previous Christmases).  No matter that we wear our nerves to a thread trying to think of something to buy for everyone on our list and dealing with crowded and hyperactive stores and endless lines in the bargain.  No matter that many of us are already in some serious debt and shouldn't really be spending money on an unwanted battery-operated foot massager for some relative we haven't spoken 20 words to all year.  Nevermind that our children are chronically dissatisfied with the mountain of stuff we buy for them.

Do we think that the landfills aren't full enough?

Happy Holidays

I used to be one of those people who got upset when stores and people would wish us "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas."  They're taking Christ out of Christmas! and all that. 

I've changed my tune on that.  As you can tell from my rant on the holiday season, I hold it in little regard.  I don't think the holiday monstrosity is worthy of the 'C' word. 

Advent begins on December 2nd this year. I'll have more to say on Advent on this blog in a few weeks, but suffice it to say it's meant to be a time of quiet, prayerful preparation for Christmas.  Actual Christmas begins on December 25th and traditionally was celebrated for 12 days after.  Those 12 days used to be the time for noisy merry-making.  Funny how now after the nearly 2 months of holiday season bedlam, the time between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve is a quiet, subdued period.

And then, of course, there's the matter of that troublesome Christ-child inconsiderately having a birthday in the middle of all this.

November

So, just ignore all the holiday season stuff if you don't like it, you old grump!  Believe me, I try to.  But it's not easy when everywhere you turn your senses are assaulted by it.

But anyway, it's November; a rather somber month in northern lattitudes.  Most of the trees are now bare and it hasn't yet snowed.  The days tend to be chilly, rainy and often foggy.

I've been looking for an excuse to include something in this blog by Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets.  So, here goes:

My November Guest
by Robert Frost

My sorrow, when she's here with me,
    Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
    She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
    She talks and I am fain to list;
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted gray
    Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,
    The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
    And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
    The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
    And they are better for her praise.

What now?

On November 6th a majority of the American voters decided they wanted 4 more years of President Obama.  So, what does this mean?  It means Obamacare kicks in next year, the national debt keeps increasing, it means taxes go up to try to pay for that debt, fuel prices continue to rise, unemployment remains high, religious freedom is attacked even more ferociously and America's standing in the world continues to erode.

The people who voted for Obama are either ok with that or they were incredibly ignorant when they cast their vote.  We're at a point where nearly half of the nation's adult population is either dependent on the government and/or thinks big government is the solution to all our problems.  Somehow a President who added more to the national debt in 4 years than any of his predecessors, lied continuously to the American people about what happened in the Benghazi attacks and invented the notion of a crisis in access to birth control in order to pick a fight with religious organizations was re-elected.  I see my country disappearing before my eyes.

America has been in decline for decades.  Obama is not the cause of this decline but a symptom of it.  I had hoped that maybe the 2012 election was our chance to slow down the decline; maybe even begin to turn the country around.  Some are saying we have passed a point of no return.  I'm afraid they may be right.

America's new Statue of Libertinism

* * * * * * *

"Going over the top" - World War I trench warfare

November 11th, Veterans' Day

November 11th, marking the end of the First World War in 1918, is celebrated in many countries.  In the USA it is Veterans' Day.  In Great Britain and other European nations involved in WWI it is Remembrance Day.  In Poland it is Independence Day, since the end of WWI meant the renewed independence of the country after 123 years of subjugation by foreign powers.

I remember when in school we used to have an assembly in the gymnasium to commemorate November 11th.  There were typically war veterans present, even some from WWI (those old guys have long since died).  At 11 a.m. we would all stand for a minute of silence since the First World War ended "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."  There were always a few kids who whispered or giggled during this moment of silence, but most of us were respectful.  I always felt a strong wave of emotion at this moment.  It's hard to describe what my emotions were exactly: a mixture of patriotism, gratitude and grief for the fallen soldiers, I suppose.  I always hoped the other kids wouldn't see that my eyes had moistened up and so after the minute of silence I'd keep my eyes lowered to the ground and clear my throat a few times until I was "back to normal."  Oh, the anxieties of school days!

I have a slim volume of First World War poetry that I've been reading through this past week.  Many of the poets were soldiers in the war - and a lot of them died in battle.  Rudyard Kipling, famous for his novels Kim, The Jungle Book and others, lost his only son in that war and there are a handful of his war poems included.  The poems in the book range from enthusiastic and patriotic to bitter and disillusioned (sometimes from the same poet!).  There's plenty of beauty, tenderness, black humor, sadness, anger and resignation in this volume.

Frederic Manning was an Australian who had settled in England before the war.  At the age of 33, though in poor health (he'd been sickly since childhood), he managed to enlist in the British army and saw combat in France as a private in the infantry.  He survived the war and died in a nursing home in 1937.  Two of his poems from this volume are particularly touching for me as they deal with both the personal and universal in a profound way.  Feel free to see the relevance of 'The Sign' to our present day turmoil.  I do.

The Face

Out of the smoke of men's wrath,
The red mist of anger,
Suddenly,
As a wraith of sleep,
A boy's face, white and tense,
Convulsed with terror and hate,
The lips trembling . . .

Then a red smear, falling . . .
I thrust aside the cloud, as it were tangible,
Blinded with a mist of blood.
The face cometh again
As a wraith of sleep:
A boy's face, delicate and blond,
The very mask of God,
Broken.


The Sign

We are here in a wood of little beeches:
And the leaves are like black lace
Against a sky of nacre.

One bough of clear promise
Across the moon.

It is in this wise that God speaketh unto me.
He layeth hands of healing upon my flesh,
Stilling it in an eternal peace,
Until my soul reaches out myriad and infinite hands
Toward Him,
And is eased of its hunger.

And I know that this passes:
This implacable fury and torment of men,
As a thing insensate and vain:
And the stillness hath said unto me,
Over the tumult of sounds and shaken flame,
Out of the terrible beauty of wrath,
I alone am eternal.

One bough of clear promise
Across the moon.

Democracy

The word democracy comes from a Greek word δημοκρατία (dēmokratía) meaning "rule of the people."  In a "pure democracy" every citizen would vote on all laws.  As this is impractical in the running of a modern government, especially in a nation of over 300 million people, democracies typically use a system of representation involving periodically held free elections.  The United States of America are technically a republic.  Per Webster's, a republic is a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.

In some ways the constitutional system of government in the United States is rather un-democratic.  Both California and Rhode Island each are represented by 2 senators.  Presidents are not elected by popular vote but by an electoral college.  One key to understanding the electoral college is to understand that United States is plural.  We are a nation of (more-or-less) sovereign states.  The individual states are not just administrative districts.  If they were we would not have such disparities in size and population as we do between California and Rhode Island. 

No system of government if perfect, but there is plenty of wisdom in how the American form of government was established.  Every American ought to try to understand how and why our system works the way it does.



Constitutional Convention, 1787

Election Day

In the Webster's definition I gave for republic, it mentions elected officers and representatives governing according to law.  That's important to remember this election day.  The current Obama administration has been negligent in governing according to law.  When Mr Barack Obama was inaugurated as President in January 2009, he swore to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States and to execute the laws of the nation. 

This administration has not upheld the Constitution and the laws, from its declared refusal to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which was constitutionally passed by the United States congress, to its lawsuit against the state of Arizona when that state passed a law to try to curb illegal immigration (because Arizona and other border states feel the federal government isn't doing its job to defend our borders), to the administration's mandate that forces religious institutions to carry insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs (a direct violation of the first ammendment) with the accompanying mandate that forces private insurance companies to provide such services "for free."  Of course, nothing is free and the insurance companies will pass that cost on to their customers.  But since when does the government have the right to dictate that any private business provide anything for free?

There have been other presidential administrations less than squeaky clean (the LBJ, Nixon and the Bush Jr administrations come to mind) but the Obama administration takes lawlessness to a new level.  Sitting here in Poland and watching events in America from afar, I get the sense that the Benghazi horror has opened many more people's eyes to the disgusting deceitfulness and ineptitude of this administration.

American turkey

On a lighter note:  About a month ago I was driving through a nearby village when I saw a very striking spectacle.  I saw a big black tom turkey at the side of the road.  Many farmers here raise turkeys, but they are typically of the commercial white variety.  This was the first time I saw an example of what I think is the classic American black turkey.  The tom was all puffed up and strutting around amongst some black turkey hens.  A man and his sons were driving the turkeys across the road.  I had to stop and watch.  It was a beautiful sight that made my heart flutter.

In my opinion, the two greatest American poets are Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur.  I know a lot of people consider Walt Whitman to be the greatest, but I find his poetry too undisciplined and self-indulgent (which admittedly are very American traits).  Frost's and Wilbur's poetry include a wide range of metres and forms.  What's more, the poems of each are at the same time very profound and yet accessible to anyone with a reasonable level of education.  It's not esoteric stuff for professors sitting in ivory towers. 

So, without further ado . . .

Black November Turkey
by Richard Wilbur

     Nine white chickens come
     With haunchy walk and heads
Jabbing among the chips, the chaff, the stones
          And the cornhusk-shreds,

     And bit by bit infringe
     A pond of dusty light,
Spectral in shadow until they bobbingly one
          By one ignite.

     Neither pale nor bright,
     The turkey-cock parades
Through radiant squalors, darkly auspicious as
          The ace of spades,

     Himself his own cortege
     And puffed with the pomp of death,
Rehearsing over and over with strangled rale
          His latest breath.

     The vast black body floats
     Above the crossing knees
As a cloud over thrashed branches, a calm ship
          Over choppy seas,

     Shuddering its fan and feathers
     In fine soft clashes
With the cold sound that the wind makes, fondling
          Paper-ashes.

     The pale-blue boney head
     Set on its shepherd's-crook
Like a saint's death-mask, turns a vague, superb
          And timeless look

     Upon these clocking hens
     And the cocks that one by one,
Dawn after mortal dawn, with vulgar joy
          Acclaim the sun.