Divine Minesweeper

This past Sunday, I went to the Melkite Rite Church nearby.  The Gospel was about the rich man who observed the commandments, but wanted to know what else to do to gain Eternal Life.  Often, I have heard the gloss which describes the man's lack of generosity, of being willing to live a great life, not merely a good one.  However, Fr. ____ , in his sermon illuminated a different aspect of the story.  He said that the rich man was looking at Eternal Life all wrong, as we do so often ourselves.  We regard our actions and so often say: "I didn't do anything wrong, I broke no commandment, so I must be doing alright." However, this scarcely puts us on the right path.  Avoiding evil is a lukewarm response to the Gospel, at best; and we all know of Our Lord's words about the lukewarm at heart. When we look at our actions with an eye to having avoided sin, we are playing minesweeper with Eternal Life as the prize.  At any moment we are likely to strike a mine (a sin) and damage or destroy ourselves.  Rather, we should take the positive aspects of the law, as shown by Our Lord, and make them a road map.  If we take His words, we have an infallible map to Eternal Life, and can avoid the mines.  We should aim at the prize--we should run so as to win-- rather than drift along hoping to avoid mines.

-Quaestor

Who Wants to Go See This Movie?

I am intrigued by the upcoming Adventures of Tintin.  I grew up reading the the books, and now a well-produced theater version is on its way.  What about you?

I found some reviews, which seemed to be pretty positive: http://screenrant.com/the-adventures-tintin-early-reviews-kofi-139776/   I can't wait!

 -Quaestor

Politics Today

The day before the last state election,  I got this flyer on my doorstep.

I rolled my eyes.   If political campaigns run at this level,  it's no wonder our country is in dire straits.  Either our politicians don't respect us,  or they really believe what they tell us.  Either way,  we are toast...

-Quaestor

Greed is Greed, Whether Communist or Capitalist

A horrifying and unreported aspect of the drive for the best in electronics is the role that Chinese imperialism has to play.  I read the following story, and noted how similar it sounded to the horror stories from the Industrial Revolution and radical Imperialist times (especially the Belgian involvement in Africa).  Take a  moment to read this, and note that, just at in Dubai, there is a dark back-story to much of what we buy or use in the Western world.  The question is, how complicit are our corporations, the shareholders, the purchasers?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1063198/PETER-HITCHENS-How-China-created-new-slave-empire-Africa.html

-Quaestor