Friday, April 18, 2014

Good Friday: The power of Christ's blood

From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop

If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish,” commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors.” If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.

If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy Eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.

“There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,” and from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.

Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.

Friday, April 4, 2014

...Are you now or have you ever been a supporter of traditional marriage?...

I will be getting rid of Mozilla Firefox on all platforms I administer.  Why, you ask?

It is not on technical grounds.  Firefox is a very good browser: flexible, able to be secured. 

It is not because it is open source.  This is a good thing.

It is because of ideology.  It because the board of the Mozilla Foundation lacks the will to stand up to a heckler's veto of their choice for chairman, Brandon Eichs.   

This is as bad as the Komen Foundation Flap.  

The call to persecute and ban people from work based on ideology, especially the dysfunctional, short-sighted, amoral ideology that is behind the current LGBT acceptance at all costs is reprehensible.  The push reminds me of the old "blacks make me feel uncomfortable"  meme.  Straights, especially traditional marriage supporting hetrosexuals, apparently impel some in the LGBT community to act in an intolerant manner.  One might even use the words "shrill" and "hissy fit" to describe the reaction.

Disappointed is the best description of my reaction.  This is a "food sacrificed to idols" issue.  A browser is a browser.  Yet, if someone goes out of their way to point out an explicit political stance taken by a company that is in conflict with what is right (and what most sustainable cultures have embraced)  I must act.  

At some point I too may be unemployable for political reasons.  

Tuesday, April 1, 2014