Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
For a while I have wanted to reflect a bit on cremation. For over thirty years, now, the Church has allowed cremation. When I was growing up, that was a big taboo. Later, I understood the reasoning behind the prohibition. It related to European Freemasonry which encouraged cremation as a sign that there was no afterlife. Masons aren’t there now, at least in the U.S.

The bigger issue is the reverence the Church has always had for the body. As I’ve said at many funerals, “our bodies are living breathing walking talking temples of the Holy Spirit and God lives in us.” Credit St. Paul for that inspiration.

Dear Family,
Strive! Onomatopoeia is one way a poet can create sounds in a poem. So says Siri when I asked. I heard today’s gospel about getting into heaven, and the word Jesus uses, according to Luke, is strive. If you say it a little forcefully, you get a sense of energy and movement. But Luke didn’t write in English.

So, I cracked my (dusty) Greek New Testament, and sure enough there it was: ‘agonizomai.’ That’s even stronger. You can see the roots of the word agony there. So, the point is, Jesus really stresses that you need energy to get to the Kingdom and then INTO the Kingdom... and it ‘ain’t‘ easy. When Jesus says the way is narrow, it’s not the number trying to get through that makes it hard. I think Jesus means everyone has their own narrow door. Getting through to heaven takes dedicated attention and consistent strength.

Dear Family,
As I begin this Twitch, the very first thing I want to say is “Thank You” to those of you who sent me cards and good wishes for my birthday. Nancy Adams and her team put together a happy surprise coffee and cupcakes after Mass on the day itself.

You may have heard me remark in the past that I hate surprises. I was thinking about that and wondering why. Maybe subconsciously it’s a fear of not having control of something... of everything???

Dear Family,
Do you ever catch yourself looking at a word you just wrote and asking yourself if you spelled it correctly? That’s what I did with Grieving.

I spelled it right. It just didn’t look right. Maybe that’s the point; grieving never lets you see things quite clearly. Perhaps that’s why when someone is in grief, so often, well-meaning people around them almost rush them along through the grief in an anxious attempt to make things “normal” again. Even when we have to grieve about something personally, we still seem to be slow-learners.