Show America what “CHOICE” really means.
In “Keepers of History,” Joanna Lotta asks the question: Who holds your history? Lotta describes the “griots” who have amazing memories and whose role it is within their West African society to recite long histories and genealogies as well as songs of praise.
We can ask this question of our own lives. When we came into this world, we already possessed a history; one going back in time to all our fore-bearers. We held recorded in our genes, if not our memories, our mother and our father, our grandparents and great grand-parents; add to that as many greats as it takes to take us back to the very beginning of human beginnings. Even for one so small as each of us was in our zygotic beginnings, that’s a weighty argument for the worth of our being. From the beginning, you and I are not a nothing, nor a nobody, nor a blob of substance. Each of us is one in the line of the order of Adam called into existence by the breathe of God and cooperation of our human nature.
So now, for the unborn, I ask, “Who holds their history?” Further, I ask, “Who holds their destiny?” Will industries such as Planned Parenthood, abortion mills, research institutes, and unethical fertilization plants, manipulate the Present and the Future by abrogating our mortal and moral Past. Our souls, as well as our genes, tell a story; one that will be sung one day before our Creator as a song of praise or profanation. Eternity waits on an answer.
I am nailed to myself. In mercy, Lord, pick up this cross and carry me to Calvary.
I’m thinking about Jonah, the reluctant prophet. He usually pops up in the readings of the Liturgy of the Word during Lent. He made his appearance yesterday and has been wondering in the back of my mind giving his prophetic word, “Repent!”
Jonah needed to be hurled into the sea (a place of chaos) before he realized there was no escaping his responsibility before God. Jonah needed a second chance to get it right. Fortunately, for the people of Nineveh (the worldly city of sinners), having gotten Jonah’s attention, God called the prophet a second time. God was not going to fix things without his servant’s cooperation.
How like Jonah I am. I need to be carried kicking and screaming to the Lord’s will. How slow I am to remember that the only sign I’m going to get is the Now of my life. I do want Resurrection without the Crucifixion. So, here I sit in the belly of the whale, my only sign, the sign of the Cross. As Jonah spent three days in the belly of the great fish (a sign for Christ ) so Jesus spent three days in the tomb, and I must be there with Him waiting with faith. Maybe, my Now says I have to do something. Maybe it says I have to change. Three days with Jesus in the tomb will prepare me for both mission and mercy.
“Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish.”
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out. Jonah 3: 10
While I busy myself, beating at the wind, You, My Lord, are content with a Cross; hands bleeding and unbusy, nailed to Your Father’s Will, unresisting and uncomplaining.
Silence my hurried breathlessness. Be all stillness. I surrender all.
Thoughts from the Quiet:
If I can’t find my balance, Lord, at least help me set a rhythm to my life. Let me return to You each day as though I’d never been away. Flow in upon me, wash over me and carry away the debris of daily life. Flotsam and jetsam too much for me, float like foam upon your waves. My sands pristine and ready for tomorrow. With eyes of faith, I see Your footprints on the shore.
I wrote these lines this morning and just a bit ago thanks to the Anchoress found this from Zoe at InsideCatholic.com that goes beyond my thoughts.
From Flannery O’Connor’s letter to Alfred Corn on May 30, 1962:
Even in the life of a Christian, faith rises and falls like the tides of an invisible sea. It’s there, even when he can’t see it or feel it, if he wants it to be there. You realize, I think, that it is more valuable, more mysterious, altogether more immense than anything you can learn or decide upon in college. Learn what you can, but cultivate Christian scepticism. It will keep you free — not free to do anything you please, but free to be formed by something larger than your intellect or the intellects of those around you.
Be Holy! 