Wednesday 25 December 2013

Merry Christmas from Guyana

Merry Christmas from Vivian & Eric in Guyana

[Shots on the street are from 24 December; we worshiped at St. Thomas, LochAber on 25 December]











Tuesday 24 December 2013

God bless us, everyone.

 My son, Christopher, was the only person I knew who had actually read Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  I am happy to announce that I, too, have now read it.  The story is familiar to nearly everyone, since it has been adapted to film with such persons as Jim Carrey and Patrick Stewart taking the lead role,as well as a bunch of British guys I can't name off the top of my head.
   And a lot of people can quote Marley's ghost saying, 'Mankind was my business.'  But the novel is a bit harsher than just that.  The Spirit of Christmas Present speaks thus:
"There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived.  Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us."
 While Scrooge's greed seems to be motivated by the desperate need not to be poor, those mentioned above are more like some today - if I may be so bold - who are willing to do many things in the name of progress or of helping the poor or of returning to traditional values, when their actions look more like selfishness and bigotry.  It seems to me that helping the poor by removing the safety net that was built by a previous generation is very little help indeed.  Identifying poverty as a moral failing ['those lazy bums'] seems not to fit with reality very well.  Bob Cratchit was poor for all his hard work, and there were poorer still who worked just as hard - and so it is today.
   Yet, when speaking of Scrooge, his nephew says:
I am sorry for him; I couldn't be angry with him if I tried.  Who suffers by his ill whims! Himself, always.  Here, he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won't come and dine with us. What's the consequence?  He don't lose much of a dinner.
So we go on, making merry in our various ways, yet remembering those two children - Ignorance and Want - and trying as we can to make their lives a bit better.

Thanks to my Son who inspired me to read A Christmas Carol.  I encourage you all to read it.  It is short and can be found online in several free versions.

And may the Spirit of Christmas Present descend on you this Holiday season.  God bless us, everyone.

~Eric Roberts
feeling warm in Guyana


Friday 13 December 2013

Magnificat & Pope Francis

Even though this is not the Lukan year in the Lectionary, Pope Francis has made me think of that wonderful song in Chapter 1, the Magnificat, which is often sung during Advent. The news has been full of Francis' elevation of the poor as our proper concern.  Yet the Holy Father only reflects the Magnificat.  Everyone knows the first part: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.[Lk 1:46-47] But the part that connects with Pope Francis is further on: He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,  and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things,  and sent the rich away empty.[vss 52-53]
   The interesting thing about Francis' EVANGELII GAUDIUM - The Joy of the Gospel is that the part everyone is talking about ["Money must serve, not rule!" etc.] is in the first few pages of a work that goes to 85 pages [111 pages on my Kobo]. As one might think from the title, the Holy Father says a lot about the joy which should be ours in the Gospel, and the things that keep us from that Joy.  
  In this Advent season we need to remember that "True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others." [¶ 88] And again, "The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness."
   {There are so many good quotes in this work that I may mention others in future posts.  If you would like to read the entire 'Apostolic Exhortation' you can find it here.}
Let me take this chance to wish all of you a Blessed Advent and a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday. "God bless us everyone."