Various Musings

I discovered today that I have cabin fever. Wikipedia (a trustworthy source to be sure) defines this condition as "a condition that produces restlessness and irritability caused from being in a confined space. The actual term is slang for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a party is isolated and/or shut in, alone or together, for an extended period." Today was the first "springlike" day of the season, and what with Spring Break fast approaching and assignments coming due, I had little time to enjoy it. I am looking forward to Friday when I will retreat to my own diocese where I will be class-free (which is not the same as having no class ;) to celebrate Holy Week.

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I did manage to get outside for for my usual walk tonight. The sidewalks were wet during the day and enormous puddles have formed on the concrete. I now have wet feet. In some places, a thin sheet of ice covered the pavement. I refer you to my earlier post, "Falling."

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I was working on a practice homily this evening and had hoped to draw an example from a song that was popular when I was younger. This led to a frolic down Memory Lane wherein I watched the music videos for a whole array of songs from my childhood. My parents had/have eclectic tastes. Dad grew up on a ranch and knew all the old country favorites; what is more, his parents had both been members of a dance band (about which I will post in the future). So, he also knew some of the classic songs from the 40s and 50s. My mother listened to all the popular music of the late 70s. So, as a child, I knew the lyrics to songs performed by everyone from Johnny Cash and Fats Domino to Bob Seager and Charlie Daniels. Tonight was spent with the country artist Dan Seals. It doesn't get any better than that.

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I am currently enrolled in a class entitled Christianity Since the Enlightenment. I mentioned this course title to a peer recently and he asked, "Has there been any history since the Enlightenment?" Herein lies a problem. Catholic theology is replete with language and ideas aptly articulated in vocabulary and categories derived from the Scholastic period. Thus, seminarians spend a good deal of time in their philosophical studies simply re-learning that vocabulary and understanding the categories in which it operates. That task accomplished, we then have to try to figure out a way to re-articulate the same truths in post-enlightenment vocabulary and categories. It seems to me that the only good answer is that people must have a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ. He, unlike our language and ways of thinking, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Truth, after all, is a Person not a thing. When Pilate asked, "What is truth?" he didn't realize that Jesus had already answered that question. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." This problem is of profound importance. Only the Truth will make us free.