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Jesus calms the tempest, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cleveland, O.
In part, this window was symbolic, in the early part of the last century, in announcing the end of discord between two, neighboring, polish parishes, IHM and Saint Stanislaus.The letters of decision came from Bishop Lennon, saturday afternoon. The diocese will be reduced by 52[or so] parishes. Ethnically, the slavonic parishes were hit the hardest, perhaps the poles most so by number. Before the official paper, some expected parishes were not amenable. IHM was spared, nearby Sacred Heart of Jesus was not; three Sacred Heart parishes were suppressed (Akron, Cleve., Elyria).To-day is traditionally, the ides of March, it is also the day the buzzards return to Hinckley, Ohio. The news received from other birds is being ruminated about, and will not be fully digested for quite some time.
As physical sites, Saint James is marvelously muralled, but has suffered great water damage, and has plastic buckets of several sizes under the proscenium arches of two altars. It is a magnificent church in the form of a norman cathedral in Sicily. St. Ignatius of Antioch has a wonderful campanile, that is, a beacon from the interstate. Saint Peter is the oldest, surviving parish building in the city, and has financial resources, and many programmes of service and education. A few years ago, a fellow, with some relationship with local CWRU, wrote a book on exciting congregations across the country. Two catholic congregations were profiled, one was Saint Peter’s. These three were suppressed, there are fine arguments for an appeal to Rome.
Saint Peter was in the same cluster with the cathedral, and with the Shrine Church of the Conversion of Saint Paul, which has a monastery of Poor Clares and a friary of Capuchins, and has a resident confessor, and each day has a line of penitents waiting to be heard. The shrine will not operate as a parish, but was previously promised to remain celebrating mass publicly.
St. Colman is to be merged with Saint Stephen. The “new” parish will be at the site of Saint Stephen. The political infighting, of the cluster committee, was very unpleasant. This group voted to close Saint Procop, and Saint Stephen. Saturday evening, the pastor of St. Colman posted a letter, on the internet, of uncharitable animus,* in regards to that merger decision, and it was available in church to-day. Saint Colman is a beautiful, italianate church blessed with white, sculpted marble. They have a well attended St. Patrick Day mass, and the sentiments may be rowdy that day.† Those are some of the unfortunate stories, there are more; many people are saddened and hurt.
During this process, some parishes have already been suppressed: St. Philip Neri, St. Jude (Warrensville Hts.), St. Wenceslas (Maple Hts.), and St. Andrew Svorad. St. Catherine, St. Henry were merged with Saint Timothy. Saint Andrew was demolished, very recently. The dust is still settling.
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postscriptum: As of Mayday, a partial recension has occurred, the parishes of Sts. Colman, Ignatius and Stephen have been given a four year reprieve. Before the end of the month, the first of these redundant Cleveland parishes, Epiphany, has closed, with very, little public announcement, save for the radio station, WCPN. Prior to that, Holy Cross (Polish) in Elyria was suppressed.
*postscriptum: 29 July 2009, I have found out, that, I need to apologise to Saint Colman's parish. I was not in the cluster meetings, but have learned that perhaps two of St. Stephen's cohort had made themselves obnoxious, perhaps unto odiousness, especially one. That may be part of the reason of Colman's hostility.
† and it was, Father Begin can be a very spirited and dauntless cheerleader.
To-day is the Ides of March (Idus Martias). Most of us, who, have even a rudimentary knowledge of history, know this is the day Cæsar was warned about. We know he disregarded the warning, and met a dramatic and bloody end, in 44 b.C.The ides came every moon and, therefore, month, sometimes on the 13th, sometimes on the 15th. The ides* was, ideally, the day of the full moon. Now, March was the month of the god Mars, the god of war and a fine occasion for a military parade. Cæsar was a brilliant soldier, a man of many talents, much ability, accomplishment and ambition.Now, Georg Kaiser [ironic] wrote a novel, Der Silbersee: Ein Wintermärchen, The silver lake: a winter tale. The title alludes to both Shakespeare and Heine†, and to a fairy tale. Often in a fairy tale, a fanciful event and characters can refer to other realities and people. Kaiser wrote a libretto from this to Kurt Weill’s music. A singspiel (operetta) Der Silbersee premiered in three german cities 18 February 1933.In 1923 Kaiser was jailed for stealing bread. In der Silbersee, a character is shot for stealing a pineapple. He and his shooter reconcile on the frozen lake. Sometime before this, the castlekeeper’s, soprano niece (Lotte Lenya, Frau Weill) sings a song of the death of Cæsar in seven verses, Ballade von Cäsars Tod.The song relates the famous tale. It begins:Rom war eine Stadt, und alle Römer
hatten in den Adern heißes Blut.
Als sie Cäsar einst tyrannisch reizte,
kochte es sofort in Siedeglut.
Nicht die Warnung konnte Cäsar hindern:
"Hüte vor des Märzes Iden dich!"
Er verfolgte seine frechen Ziele
und sah schon als Herrn der Römer sich.
Immer schlimmer schlug ihn die Verblendung,
nur sein Wort galt noch im Capitol.
Und den weisen Rat der Senatoren
schmähte er gemein und höhnisch Kohl...
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Rome was a city, and all the Romans
had in their veins hot blood.
As Cæsar became tyrannical,
it boiled immediately in seething ardor.
Not the warning could hinder Cæsar:
“Beware of the Ides of March you!”
He pursued his cheeky intention
and saw himself already the Lord of the Romans.
Evermore worse hit him the delusion,
only his word [was] valid in the capital.
And the wise counsel of the senators
he reviled [as] common and derisive nonsense...
A bit earlier, 30 January 1933, the nazis took power when Hitler became chancellor. The Reichstag fire was set the night of 27 February 1933. This event was a spectacular event of terror that was orchestrated, by Hitler, to take severe measures, and was the justification for the elimination of civil liberties, in the guise of homeland security.
The production ran sixteen times before it was banned, well before the ides. The careers of the principles were ended in Germany. Substitute Cæsar for the over reaching leader‡ of the time, as certainly people did.
Ute Lemper recorded the song, on an album, Ute Lemper Singt Kurt Weill, in 1987, Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill, in 1988. I knew of Weill and Lenya. I was very taken with the second cut on the disc. Later in 2001, and the years thereafter, I remembered the song. I wonder if other people did. The lyrics cut deeply into a tyrant, but we still have tyrants, und der Senatoren im Capitol hat getan nichts, und diese Leute hatten keines heißes Blut, als Cäsar einst tyrannisch bekommt.________________*and sometimes the seven days prior†Heinrich Heine wrote a poem Deutschland: ein Wintermärchen, Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale‡ der Führer is german for ‘the leader’
The area about New Haven Connecticut has had a new source of population coming from the south of the Rio Grande. This is not new, but yesterday, the Associated Press picked up a story from East Haven. On the 19th of February, police accused ecuadorian storeowners of abusing government property. The police then had the owner, of My Country Store, remove five dozen car license plates from display on a rear wall. A priest, Father James Manship, pastor of Saint Rose of Lima church in New Haven, was inside the store, and began filming.The police accused the storeowners of abusing government property, and the priest of pointing a weapon on the police. Store surveillance images, and the priests video too, have surfaced onto YouTube, and other internet sites. Oddly, the videos contradict the police. At first the police were not aware of security cameras, the police wanted the surveillance images or to erase the hard drive, but could not secure it, over the owner’s insistent refusal. The owners received a $372 ticket, and the confiscation of most of the plates.Conversation on the priest’s camera:
policeman David Cari: "Sir, what're you doing? Is there a reason you have a camera on me?"
priest: "Yes."
police: "Why's that?"
priest: "I'm taking a video of what's going on here."
police: "Well, I'll tell you, what I'm going to do with that camera."
--end of recording
The priest pled not guilty on the 4th of March (there was not a police report until then) to creating a public disturbance and interfering with police. There is to be a trial on the 27th.The police have ‘lawyered up’. Hugh Keefe says the video does not show what happened after the camera went off, and the priest is “creating controversy where none needed to be.” “He refused two or three times and at that point Officer Cari approached him wanting to check out if it was a weapon. He wouldn't tell him, the officer went up to him and grabbed him and finally saw it was a camera.”
Now, of course, there are always two sides of the story: what actually happened and the official story. Certainly there are many who will support all armed authority, and there are people who believe catholic priests brandish guns, and are meddlesome dangers to the community, and the safety of police officers. Then there are the left wing troublemakers, who invent stories of racial and ethnic harassment. Where in the second amendment are people allowed to carry dangerous cameras?
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Postscriptum: Father Manship appeared in court on the 26th of March. The state prosecutor admitted there was not evidence to prosecute. The judge dismissed the case. That day, parishioners petitioned the federal government to investigate the East Haven police for harassment of civil rights. Now, since the busheviks, presumably, are not running the Justice Department, perhaps some justice will come.
14th Station (Saint Mary of the Assumption, Cleve., O.)XIV Jesus is laid in the tomb14. Jesús es colocado en el sepulcroJohn xix ― 39 And Nicodemus also came, (he who at the first came to Jesus by night,) bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. 40 They took therefore the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths, with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now there was in the place where he was crucified, a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein no man yet had been laid. 42 There, therefore, because of the parasceve of the Jews, they laid Jesus, because the sepulchre was nigh at hand. 39 Venit autem et Nicodémus, qui vénerat ad Jesum nocte primum, ferens mixtúram myrrhæ et áloës, quasi libras centum. 40 Accepérunt ergo corpus Jesu, et ligavérunt illud línteis cum aromátibus, sicut mos est Judǽis sepelíre. 41 Erat autem in loco, ubi crucifíxus est, hortus : et in horto monuméntum novum, in quo nondum quisquam pósitus erat. 42 Ibi ergo propter parascéven Judæórum, quia juxta erat monuméntum, posuérunt Jesum.Porque no pensemos, hermanos, que nuestros muertos se han apartado de nosotros, su cielo, su recompensa eterna, los perfecciona en el amor, siguen amando las mismas causas por las cuales murieron, lo cual quiere decir que en El Salvador esta fuerza liberadora no sólo cuenta con los que van quedando vivos, sino que cuenta con todos aquellos que las han querido matar y que están más presentes que antes en este proceso del pueblo. ― Monsenor Romero. 2 March 1980. Don’t think, brothers, that our dead have left us. Their heaven, their eternal recompense, makes them more perfect in love. They are still loving the same causes that they died for. That means that in El Salvador this liberating force not only counts those who remain living, but also counts those who they wanted to kill who are more present than before in the people.
13th Station (Saint Wendelin, Cleve., O.)XIII Jesus is taken down from the Cross and given to his Mother13. Jesús es bajado de la cruzMark xv ―43 Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counsellor, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. 44 But Pilate wondered that he should be already dead. And sending for the centurion, he asked him if he were already dead. 45 And when he had understood it by the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 And Joseph buying fine linen, and taking him down, wrapped him up in the fine linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewed out of a rock. And he rolled a stone to the door of the sepulchre. 43 venit Joseph ab Arimathǽa nóbilis decúrio, qui et ipse erat exspéctans regnum Dei, et audácter introívit ad Pilátum, et pétiit corpus Jesu. 44 Pilátus autem mirabátur si jam obiísset. Et accersíto centurióne, interrogávit eum si jam mórtuus esset. 45 Et cum cognovísset a centurióne, donávit corpus Joseph. 46 Joseph autem mercátus síndonem, et depónens eum invólvit síndone, et pósuit eum in monuménto quod erat excísum de petra, et advólvit lápidem ad óstium monuménti. Maria es la expresión de la necesidad del pueblo Salvadoreño. Maria es la expresión de la angustia de quienes están en prisión. Maria es la tristeza de las madres quienes han perdido a sus hijos y nadie les dirá donde están. Maria es la ternura que busca con angustia una solución. ― Monsenor Romero. 24 Diciembre 1978. Mary is the expression of the need of the Salvadorian people. Mary is the expression of the anguish of those who are in prison. Mary is the sadness of the mothers who have lost their children and no one will tell them where they are. Mary is the tenderness that looks with anguish for a solution.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi *1869,†1948.(some one thought the Cleveland winter cold, and placed a muffler about the neck)
It is becoming common for many large cities and moderate cities to have a statue of Gandhi. There is one in London, the capital of the empire he defeated, other cities, that, have no connexion to him, Moscow and New York City.
During the last depression, in one of Franklin Roosevelt’s projects, there was built, in Cleveland, on then Liberty (now M. L. King) Blvd., Cultural Gardens. They have not been finished. In the new Indian Garden, a bronze statue of Gandhi, by Gautam Pal, was installed in 2006.
Gandhi so impressed his fellow nationals, they acclaimed him ― Mahatma (great soul) ― for what he did, and how he did it. The english empire held south Asia and South Africa. Gandhi was familiar with how the english ruled.
There is a passage from Luke first half of vi. 29:
And to him that striketh thee on the one cheek, offer also the other.
This was the key passage to Lev Nikolajevič Tolstoj and to Gandhi. They corresponded.
I want to tell others what I feel so particularly keen about, namely what is called non-resistance, but what is essentially nothing other than the teaching of love undistorted by false interpretations…This law has been proclaimed by all the world's sages, Indian, Chinese, Jewish, Greek, and Roman. I think it has been expressed most clearly of all by Christ…―Tolstoy to Gandhi, 7 September 1910.
That, and the Golden Rule:
And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner. ― Luke vi. 31.
All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. ― Matthew vii. 12.
See thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to thee by another. ― Tobiæ iv.16.
Seek not revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of thy citizens. Thou shalt love thy friend as thyself...― Leviticus xix.18.
But there is evil, and injustice in the world, and people want better. As Aristotle taught ― man is a political animal. How to act? Non coöperation with evil and injustice. The irish under the english used the boycott. Labor refused to labor. In using a variation of the golden rule, ahimsa (non-injury), and non coöperation Gandhi confronted the empire again and again.
In America, the bostonians dressed as red indians, and dumped british tea in the harbor, to protest british taxation. They did this secretly, and in dark, and in disguise. Gandhi and his indians protested british taxation of salt. They marched 24 days, beginning on 12 March 1930, peacefully, in the open, from Ahmadabad to Dandi on the Arabian sea, and made salt. The british responded brutally. They arrested Gandhi, again. They ran a world wide campaign of black propaganda against him and his people. The campaign of peaceful refusal began. The english lost, eventually [they did not want to leave France either 500 years previous].
Gandhi had campaigns against the evil of his people. He opposed the caste system and the treatment of dalits, the untouchables. The laws to-day are in their favor, but not the actions of indian society.
Slowly the world is beginning to commemorate his presence, if not his ideas. The little dedication ceremony in Cleveland did not have much hoopla. The indian community recognised one of their own. Congressman Kucinich, a war opponent, was in attendance. The Quakers had given him a Gandhi prize for peace*. Many people admire Gandhi in the US, but few politicians, and fewer will act in his fashion. Peace does not win votes here.
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I am being led to my religion through Truth and Non-Violence, i.e., love in the broadest sense. I often describe my religion as the religion of Truth. Of late, instead of saying God is Truth I have been saying Truth is God, in order more fully to define my religion.
Gentle Jesus, the greatest passive resister the world has seen.
Live simply, that others may simply live.
Those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics, do not know what religion means.... Spirituality that has no bearing on and produces no effect on everyday life is an ‘airy nothing.’
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Nonviolence in its dynamic condition means conscious suffering. It does not mean meek submission to the will of the evildoer, but it means putting of one’s whole soul against the will of the tyrant. Working under this law of our being, it is possible for a single individual to defy the whole might of an unjust empire to save his honor, his religion, his soul, and lay the foundation for that empire’s fall or its regeneration.
Jesus gave mankind, in these lessons and in his life, the great goal toward which to aspire. It is because there is such a goal, and because there was such a figure as that of Jesus, that I cannot be pessimistic, but instead am hopeful and confident of the future. And it is because his life has this significance and meaning for me that I do not regard him as belonging to Christianity alone, but rather to the whole world, to all its peoples, no matter under what name they worship.
...to be a good Hindu also meant that I would be a good Christian. There was no need for me to join your creed to be a believer in the beauty of the teachings of Jesus or try to follow His example...
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* Gandhi did not win a Nobel prize for peace, Kissinger did though.
12th Station (Saint Augustine, Cleve.,O.)XII Jesus dies on the Cross12. Jesús muere en la cruz Luke xxiii ― 44 And it was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 46 And Jesus crying out with a loud voice, said: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And saying this, he gave up the ghost. 47 Now the centurion, seeing what was done, glorified God, saying: Indeed this was a just man. 44 Erat autem fere hora sexta, et ténebræ factæ sunt in univérsam terram usque ad horam nonam. 45 Et obscurátus est sol, et velum templi scissum est médium. 46 Et clamans voce magna Jesus ait : Pater, in manus tuas comméndo spíritum meum. Et hæc dicens, expirávit. 47 Videns autem centúrio quod factum fúerat, glorificávit Deum, dicens : Vere hic homo justus erat. Mientras miramos a Cristo clavado en la cruz nos invita la Sagrada Palabra a descifrar un misterio de actualidad. Si Cristo es el representante de todo el pueblo en sus dolores, en su humillación, en sus miembros acribillados con unos clavos en una cruz, tenemos que descubrir el sufrimiento de nuestro pueblo. Es nuestro pueblo torturado, es nuestro pueblo crucificado, escupido, humillado al que representa Jesucristo Nuestro Señor para darle a nuestra situación tan difícil un sentido de redención ― Monsenor Romero. Marzo 24, 1978. While we look at Christ nailed to the cross, he invites us to discern from the sacred word a real mystery. If Christ is the representative for all people, we have to discover the suffering of our people in his suffering, his humiliation, his body scarred by the nails of the cross. This is our people tortured, crucified, spat upon, and humiliated from whom Christ our Lord is represented in order to give our very difficult situation a sense of redemption.
Jesus calms the tempest, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cleveland, O.
