In case you think I'm picking on scientology, here's another false religion in open rebellion against God.

WARNING: Make sure you take your vomit bag along when you visit this one, kiddies. It is most sick-making.

A New World Order: Coming
USA & Papacy Behind it: Are you Ready for it?
Learn Bible prophecy
www.worldslastchance.com

May God have mercy on your souls, you ignorant fools.

The Israeli crackup continues apace.

Olmert: We must evacuate Jews
New PM expected to withdraw from West Bank, divide Jerusalem --WND

With almost all votes counted from yesterday's national elections, Kadima leader Ehud Olmert is set to become Israel's next prime minister as results showed his party won the most Knesset seats by a slim majority.

During his victory speech last night, Olmert made clear his administration will immediately seek to "evacuate Jews" from most of the West Bank. Kadima officials also have stated the party would seek to give parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians to form a state.

"The people have spoken clearly, they want Kadima," Olmert said in a nationally televised victory ceremony. "A chapter in the history of the country has ended. We're tasked with shaping the future of the state, and before we bring peace with our neighbors we must make peace within, us patiently and with love."

Olmert spoke about the need to renounce the dream of the "Greater Land of Israel and evacuate, with much pain, Jews."

The "Greater Land of Israel" usually refers to a Jewish state that includes the Gaza Strip, West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem.

Ballot counts showed a minor election victory for Kadima, with the party winning 28 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, much less than it had anticipated. The leftist Labor Party took 20 seats. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party won 13 seats. Yisroel Beitanu, a new Russian immigrant party, garnered 12 seats.

Likud, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, finished in fifth place with 11 seats. Calls for Netanyahu to resign already started pouring in from senior members of his own party.

The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day.*

WorldNetDaily: Weinberger finished 'heroes' book before death
Upcoming release wins praise for gripping stories of war on terror

Before he died Tuesday, former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger completed a book honoring heroes of the war on terror that already is drawing praise.

Set for a May 16 release by Forge publishing, "Home of the Brave: Honoring the Unsung Heroes in the War on Terror," chronicles the stories of 19 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines and includes a defense of the Iraq War.

Co-author Wynton C. Hall said Weinberger had seen and approved the final draft.

"Cap and I had spoken as recently as two weeks ago about the book and he was extremely excited," Hall said. "He wanted his last book to be a salute to the 2.4 million men and women he loved and served..."

Best-selling military novelist W.E.B. Griffin called it an "inspirational portrait of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things."

Retired Marine Corps Gen. P.X. Kelley called the book's stories "Riveting sagas of extraordinary heroism in combat by members of our Armed Forces during one of the most difficult, frustrating and critical conflicts in our history. A must read for all Americans who care about the future."

* Who?

Religion of Peace and Love Update.

Group presses Bush to grant convert asylum
Afghan Christian flees to Italy amid death threats by Muslims --WND


Anti-conversion law passed in 'tolerant' Algeria
Up to 5 years in prison for anyone aiming to 'shake' faith of Muslim --WND

NCAA talent.

Here are three shots of one of LSU's finest. Go Tigers!

In scientology, no one lets you scream...

Just when you thought these sick freaks could not get sicker or more freakish...

Herald Sun: Katie Holmes in silent delivery
Tom Cruise's partner, Katie Holmes, will be silent while delivering their child, obeying the strict rules of Scientology. The actor will have to be quiet because followers of the religion believe the baby can be traumatised by hearing its mother's screams or groans.


FREE KATIE HOLMES!
FREE ISAAC HAYES!

Since that is not likely to happen, let us pray for the salvation of their immortal souls.

Cribs. Old school cribs.

That old blind Greek guy didn't make it all up, after all. How cool is this?

Archaeologist Links Ancient Palace, Ajax

Among the ruins of a 3,200-year-old palace near Athens, researchers are piecing together the story of legendary Greek warrior-king Ajax, hero of the Trojan War.

Archaeologist Yiannis Lolos found remains of the palace while hiking on the island of Salamis in 1999, and has led excavations there for the past six years.

Now, he's confident he's found the site where Ajax ruled, which has also provided evidence to support a theory that residents of the Mycenean island kingdom fled to Cyprus after the king's death.

"This was Ajax' capital," excavation leader Lolos, professor of archaeology at Ioannina University, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

"It was the seat of the maritime kingdom of Salamis — small compared to other Mycenaean kingdoms — that was involved in trade, warfare and piracy in the eastern Mediterranean."

Ajax was one of the top fighters in the legendary Greek army that besieged Troy to win back the abducted queen of Sparta, Helen. Described in Homer's Iliad as a towering hero protected by a huge shield, Ajax killed himself after a quarrel with other Greek leaders.

On a wooded hill overlooking the sea at Kanakia on Salamis' southwestern coast, Lolos' team has excavated a town surmounted by a fortified palace complex.

The site flourished in the 13th century B.C. — at the same time as the major centers of Mycenae and Pylos in southern Greece — and was abandoned during widespread unrest about 100 years later.

Scholars have long suspected a core of historical truth in the story of Troy, and archaeological evidence from the Kanakia dig appears to agree.

Lolos also believes that, faced by an external threat, part of Salamis' population left for Cyprus, founding a new town named after their homeland.

"There is no other explanation for the creation on Cyprus of a city named Salamis," he said. "We established that there was a population exodus from Salamis, which was completely abandoned shortly after 1200 B.C. ... They must first have gone to Enkomi on Cyprus, which was already an established center."

Salamis was founded around 1100 B.C., when Enkomi — some 2.5 miles away — was abandoned. "It was probably the refugees' children that moved there," Lolos said.

The emigration theory would explain why almost no high-value artifacts were found at the Greek site, which bore no signs of destruction or enemy occupation.

"The emigrants, who would have been the city's ruling class, took a lot with them, including nearly all the valuables," Lolos said.

The rest of the population moved to a new settlement further inland that offered better protection from seaborne raids.

Kanakia, was first inhabited around 3000 B.C. The Mycenaean settlement covers some 12.5 acres, and features houses, workshops and storage areas.
So far, archaeologists have uncovered 33 rooms in the 8,000-square-foot palace, including two central royal residences containing what appear to be two bench-like beds.

"This recalls a reference by Homer to the king of Pylos sleeping at the back of his house," Lolos said.

Finds include pottery, stone tools, a sealstone and copper implements.
Lolos is particularly pleased with a piece of a copper mail shirt stamped with the name of Pharaoh Ramses II, who ruled Egypt from 1279-1213 B.C.
"This is a unique find, which may have belonged to a Mycenaean mercenary soldier serving with the Egyptians," he said. "It could have been a souvenir, a mark of honor or even some kind of a medal."

Excavations will continue in September, while future targets include the settlement's cemetery, which Lolos has located nearby.

Situated just off the coast of Athens, Salamis is best known for the naval battle in 480 B.C., when the Athenians defeated an invading Persian fleet. The ancient playwright Euripides was born there, and a cave excavated by Lolos in 1997 has been identified as a hideout where the poet composed his work.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Zosimus, a monk, abbot, and Bishop of Syracuse. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Exodus 32:7-14.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 106:19-20, 21-22, 23.
Today's Gospel reading is John 5:31--47.


[Links to the readings will be from the NAB until I can find another chapter and verse searchable Douay-Rheims Bible on-line.]


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today


Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Circuses for the oppressed of Slave China courtesy of corporate America.

Can't these clowns stick to the stuff they know, like regulating touchdown celebrations?

NFL mulls 2007 preseason game in China

Religion of Peace and Love Update.

Agreement reached on U.N. Iran statement


Hamas takes power, loses Canadian aid


AP: Moussaoui Sentencing Goes to the Jury
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The death-penalty case against al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui went to the jury Wednesday after the prosecution asserted his lies were responsible for deaths Sept. 11, 2001, and the defense argued he had no part in the plot. The nine men and three women on the jury will decide whether Moussaoui bears blame for at least one death that day. If so, a second phase of the trial will open that will determine whether he deserves to be executed.

Prosecution Argues Moussaoui 'Lied With Lethal Intent' at Washington Post

Timeline: The Case Against Zacarias Moussaoui at NPR (Ha! -F.G.)

Trial Q&A at BBC

Moussaoui Trial Documents at FindLaw

Bonus Hottest TV News Babe Contestants.

ABOVE: Natalie Swaby of KOAT in Albuquerque.

BELOW: Sonia Baghdady (!) of WTNH in the wilds of Connecticut.

The Find The Hottest TV News Babe Contest continues...

These are the babes of WFAA in Dallas-Ft. Worth.

Israeli Crackup Update.

But first, a quote from Israel's new Fearless Leader that pretty well sums up the whole mess. (BTW, don't be shocked to see a rather large migration of Israeli Jews to the US sooner rather than later.)

"We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies, we want to be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies." - Ehud Olmert in a June 2005 address to the Israel Policy Forum in New York

Wow. That quote is just plain creepy. Do I detect a whiff of suicidal despair? I wouldn't want to bet my life that he was just playing to his American Jewish audience.



Olmert's Kadima, down to 28 seats, expected to form coalition government Actual election results showed acting PM Ehud Olmert's Kadima Party dropping to 28 seats, followed by Labor at 20, the Shas religious party at 13, upstart Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Beitenu at 12, Netanyahu's right-center Likud at 11, and the right-religious National Union-NRP at 9. Despite the disappointing showing, Olmert is expected to handily assemble a coalition government in the coming weeks. [more]



Olmert says Israel has entered a new chapter in its history
Ehud Olmert said in a victory speech that the Israeli election marked a new chapter in Israeli history and that he planned to draw the country's final borders in the coming years. Olmert, head of the Kadima Party, did not explicity claim victory, dedicating his speech instead to outlining his governing plans. He said he was ready for new peace talks and was prepared to make painful compromises.



Sharon, from hospital bed, dominates Israel's elections
The man who dominated Israel's elections on Tuesday was the one who didn't run: Ariel Sharon. Israel's leader has lain comatose in a Jerusalem hospital since suffering a stroke Jan. 4.



Likud crashes, Labor maintains, Pensioners surprise, Lieberman soars
Leaders of the hawkish Likud, for three decades Israel's ruling faction, said the results of Tuesday's election, based on TV projections, spell disaster for their party.



After elections, Israelis and Palestinians appear on collision course

Ariel Sharon's patented go-it-alone approach to Mideast diplomacy received a boost in both Israel and the Palestinian territories on Tuesday.

Joe Sobran versus the democracy fetish.

The link above will take you to Joe's current on-line column. The archive is here. Not all of his past columns are available in the archive.

Joe and Pat Buchanan are absolutists and thank goodness they are. They are a necessary corrective to the middling pull of politics.

Even some old hawks are chickening out — the “to-hell-with-them hawks,” as the grizzled veteran Richard Lowry nicely calls them. As a triple amputee who regrets that he has but four limbs to give for his country, Lowry, editor of National Review and author of the prophetic 2005 article “We Are Winning!” sees all too clearly that the war on Islamofascism can be lost only at home. And now our warriors face a new domestic problem: the neo-chickenhawks who have lost their stomach for paying the price for freedom.

Guys like Lowry’s (and my) former boss, Bill Buckley, are really showing the yellow streak. Talk about pusillanimity. Buckley and his ilk can’t even go on pecking out columns urging our brave men and women to fight to the death. How cowardly is that?

Happily, some of the true hawks are showing their mettle. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican renowned for his straight talk, still supports the war all the way. He wants to succeed President Bush in 2008, they say, and staying the course in Iraq — or Iran, if it comes to that — is just the ticket. The whole world is watching, and that includes big Republican donors for whom no war in the Middle East can ever be quite big enough.

Paul Krugman, the liberal columnist of the New York Times, sees McCain as a phony who has sold out to “the hard right.” As is usual with liberals, Krugman never explains what he means by right-wing, though you gather it’s something pretty icky. Everything liberals disapprove of is “right-wing,” even things that are mutually exclusive.

Fascist totalitarianism is “right-wing,” but so is its exact opposite, libertarianism. And so are monarchism, theocracy, strict constitutionalism, military dictatorship, neoconservatism, and so on — even, at times, Soviet Communism, though anti-Communism was “right-wing” too. By right-wing, liberals seem to mean everything but us. No wonder people don’t listen to them anymore. They define their enemies as broadly as our president defines terrorism.

Conservatives are finally realizing, with varying degrees of clarity, that you have to define conservatism very broadly indeed to make it cover President Bush, who is rapidly mowing down just about everything they once hoped to conserve. Never mind the Iraq war; look at domestic spending since 2001.

Contrary to a popular impression, conservatism isn’t passive. It can actually be a frantic activity, like rescuing possessions from a burning house. In this world of flux, most things are always perishing, and you have to decide what’s worth saving.

The question now is what can still be saved from President Bush, the political pyromaniac who decided to set the Middle East on fire. The idea was that when everything else burned down, only democracy would remain.

And now, better late than never, the “to-hell-with-them hawks” are dimly sensing that there is something just a wee bit goofy about their fearless leader. Conservatives used to understand that democracy isn’t a synonym for liberty. (BINGO! - F.G.) We owe our freedom much less to occasional elections than to effective checks on power, such as habeas corpus, which can come in handy against George W. Bush as well as Saddam Hussein.

Actually I’d feel at least a little less uneasy about the Iraq war if it were being waged for the purpose of giving the Arabians habeas corpus. But habeas corpus, like the privilege against self-incrimination, is hard to fit on a bumper sticker, and it’s pretty useless as a battle cry.

Well, it’s still my battle cry! Shove your “democracy”! Give me habeas corpus and a fast-talking lawyer, or give me death!

Amen, Brother. Amen!

Pat Buchanan versus the democracy fetish.

Pat 's been a skeptic all along. I object to what seems to be a main supposition here, that those who accept Islam cannot be free and tolerant of others. Didn't we used to think the same of the Japanese?

On the other hand, we did have to nuke them. Twice.

"If I must die, I will die," Abdul Rahman told a human rights worker.

Facing execution for converting to Christianity, Rahman had just been moved from a jail in Kabul, where his life was in imminent peril, to the notorious Policharki prison outside Kabul, where 2000 are incarcerated, including 350 Taliban.

Rahman is a man of faith and courage, the stuff of which Christian martyrs have ever been made. And, thanks to U.S. intervention, he is a free man, though he will live, if he remains in Afghanistan, in constant danger of being assassinated or lynched.

The ordeal of Abdul Rahman, whose death was demanded by the imams of Afghanistan, causes one to ask: What is this new democracy President Bush celebrates? Is it really something for which we ought to be sending young Americans to fight and die?

If the Afghan people are comfortable with Rahman being beheaded, what does that tell us of their tolerance of Christianity and of the depth of their commitment to freedom of religion?

"We have but one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet," devout Muslims proclaim and believe. As for infidels who enter the Dar al-Islam to preach heresy and convert Muslims, they deserve death, as do any Muslims who apostatize to Christianity. As for those who mock the Prophet, like Salman Rushdie, author of "Satanic Verses," or European journalists who publish blasphemous cartoons of Mohammed, a fatwa for the lot of them.

Christianity does not seem to be faring much better in that other new democracy, Iraq. Under Saddam, Christians practiced their faith in peace and security. But, three years after liberation, their churches are being bombed, and Christian families are being threatened with massacres. They are fleeing to Syria, the new Christian sanctuary.

Our neoconservatives are, of course, anxious to "liberate" and "democratize" Syria, too. If they succeed, God help the Christians there. No one else will.

If democracy means anything, it means rule by the people, i.e., rule by the majority. We Americans add that liberal democracy also means the minority has rights no majority may violate: freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of religion.

How many Muslim nations accept freedom of the press if it includes the right to call for regime change? How many Muslim nations protect the right to contradict Islam in the public square? How many Muslim regimes allow opponents to protest publicly and demonstrate against them?

Evangelical Christians have preached and proselytized in the Catholic countries of South America for decades. How many ever have done so in the Middle East? In many of these countries, to exercise what we regard as a First Amendment right is an invitation to a public stoning.

Where, from Morocco to Pakistan, do women enjoy the same rights as men in marriage and divorce? In Berlin, lately, three Turk brothers were charged in the "honor killing" of a sister living "a Western lifestyle." In the Turkish community, the brothers had numerous defenders.

As President Bush campaigns for democracy across the Middle East, he might reconsider the consequences of a one-person, one-vote election in, say, Jordan, ruled by King Abdullah, a friend and a benevolent ruler who shares Western values.

According to a 2005 study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, 100 percent of Jordanians have an unfavorable opinion of Jews, 98 percent regard Judaism as the "world's most violent religion," 60 percent have "confidence in Osama bin Laden to do the right thing regarding world affairs," while 21 percent view the United States of America in a favorable light.

With such attitudes pandemic in Jordan, but also in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco, a question arises:

Though President Bush says democracies do not go to war with one another, would free elections in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco be more or less likely to produce a confrontation with Israel and a demand that the United States get out of the region?

What did the spate of elections in 2005 produce? The Muslim Brotherhood swept 60 percent of the races it contested in Egypt; Hamas won an astonishing victory on the West Bank; Hezbollah and the Amal Militia triumphed in southern Lebanon; the Shia of Ayatollah Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr emerged as the big winners in Iraq; and Ahmadinejad, who thinks Israel should be wiped off the map, won the presidency of Iran.
Is this kind of "democracy" worth fighting and dying for? And if this is what the Islamic world would do with greater freedom, why not let these folks, as did we, win it for themselves?

You were warned. And now it has begun.

Crazy Cat Terrorizes Connecticut Town...

The Antique Media Has No Clue About Italian Hand Gestures Update.

I underestimated the left-fascists' hatred for an orthodox Catholic with power and thought this nonsense would go away quickly and quietly.

Silly me.

From Breitbart.com (via Drudge):

Scalia Chastises Boston Newspaper...

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a scathing letter to the editor of the Boston Herald, accused the newspaper's staff of watching "too many episodes of the Sopranos" for interpreting a hand gesture he made at a cathedral as obscene.

The Boston Herald reported Monday the justice made "an obscene gesture, flicking his hand under his chin" in response to a question about whether lawyers might question his impartiality in matters of church and state. The incident occurred after he attended Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

But Scalia said in his letter the gesture is not obscene at all, but dismissive. Scalia said he had explained the gesture's meaning to no avail to the reporter, whom he referred to as "an up-and-coming 'gotcha' star."

To back his interpretation of the gesture, Scalia in his letter quoted from Luigi Barzini's book, "The Italians:" "The extended fingers of one hand moving slowly back and forth under the raised chin means 'I couldn't care less. It's no business of mine. Count me out.'"

Scalia said in the letter, written to Executive Editor Kenneth Chandler, that the reporter leapt to conclusions that it was offensive because he initially explained his gesture by saying, 'That's Sicilian.'"

"From watching too many episodes of the Sopranos, your staff seems to have acquired the belief that any Sicilian gesture is obscene _ especially when made by an 'Italian jurist.' (I am, by the way, an American jurist.)," he wrote.

The Herald had referred to him as an "Italian-American jurist."

The Theology of the Body: 73. Virginity or Celibacy for the Sake of the Kingdom

In his General Audience of 10 March 1982, the Holy Father began a new series on virginity/celibacy for the kingdom of heaven, in furtherance of his catechesis on theology of the body. A vocation to celibacy is an anticipation of that eschatological state when men "neither marry nor are given in marriage."



Virginity or Celibacy for the Sake of the Kingdom

During the general audience in the Paul VI Hall on 10 March, the Holy Father commenced a series of talks on the subject of virginity or celibacy "for the kingdom of heaven".


1. Today we begin to reflect on virginity or celibacy for the kingdom of heaven. The question of the call to an exclusive donation of self to God in virginity and in celibacy thrusts its roots deep in the Gospel soil of the theology of the body. To indicate the dimensions proper to it, one must bear in mind Christ's words about the beginning, and also what he said about the resurrection of the body. The observation, "When they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage" (Mk 12:25), indicates that there is a condition of life without marriage. In that condition, man, male and female, finds at the same time the fullness of personal donation and of the intersubjective communion of persons, thanks to the glorification of his entire psychosomatic being in the eternal union with God. When the call to continence for the kingdom of heaven finds an echo in the human soul, in the conditions of this temporal life, that is, in the conditions in which persons usually "marry and are given in marriage" (Lk 20:34), it is not difficult to perceive there a particular sensitiveness of the human spirit. Already in the conditions of the present temporal life this seems to anticipate what man will share in, in the future resurrection.

Christ on divorce

2. However, Christ did not speak of this problem, of this particular vocation, in the immediate context of his conversation with the Sadducees (cf. Mt 22:23-30; Mk 12:18-25; Lk 20:27-36), when there was reference to the resurrection of the body. Instead he had already spoken of it in the context of his conversation with the Pharisees on marriage and on the grounds of indissolubility, as if it were a continuation of that conversation (cf. Mt 19:3-9). His concluding words concern the so-called certificate of divorce permitted by Moses in some cases. Christ said, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except in the case of concubinage, and marries another, commits adultery" (Mt 19:8-9). Then the disciples who—as can be deduced from the context—were listening attentively to the conversation and especially to the final words spoken by Jesus, said to him: "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry" (Mt 19:10). Christ gave the following reply: "Not all men can receive the precept, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it" (Mt 19:11-12).

Christ's words on voluntary continence

3. In regard to this conversation recorded by Matthew one could ask the question: what did the disciples think when, after hearing Jesus' reply to the Pharisees, they remarked: "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry"? Christ considered it an opportune occasion to speak to them about voluntary continence for the kingdom of heaven. In saying this, he did not directly take a position in regard to what the disciples said, nor did he remain in the line of their reasoning.(1) Hence he did not reply: "It is expedient to marry" or "It is not expedient to marry." The question of continence for the kingdom of heaven is not set in opposition to marriage, nor is it based on a negative judgment in regard to its importance. After all, speaking previously about the indissolubility of marriage, Christ had referred to the beginning, that is, to the mystery of creation, thereby indicating the first and fundamental source of its value. Consequently, to reply to the disciples' question, or rather, to clarify the problem placed by them, Christ recurred to another principle. Those who in life choose continence for the kingdom of heaven do so, not because it is inexpedient to marry or because of a supposed negative value of marriage, but in view of the particular value connected with this choice and which must be discovered and welcomed personally as one's own vocation. For that reason Christ said: "He who is able to receive this, let him receive it" (Mt 19:12). But immediately beforehand he said: "Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given" (Mt 19:11).

Grace needed to accept continence

4. As can be seen, in his reply to the disciples' problem, Christ stated clearly a rule for the understanding of his words. In the Church's doctrine the conviction exists that these words do not express a command by which all are bound, but a counsel which concerns only some persons(2)—those precisely who are able "to receive it." Those able "to receive it" are those "to whom it has been given." The words quoted clearly indicate the importance of the personal choice and also the importance of the particular grace, that is, of the gift which man receives to make such a choice. It may be said that the choice of continence for the kingdom of heaven is a charismatic orientation toward that eschatological state in which men "neither marry nor are given in marriage." However, there is an essential difference between man's state in the resurrection of the body and the voluntary choice of continence for the kingdom of heaven in the earthly life and in the historical state of man fallen and redeemed. The eschatological absence of marriage will be a state, that is, the proper and fundamental mode of existence of human beings, men and women, in their glorified bodies. Continence for the kingdom of heaven, as the fruit of a charismatic choice, is an exception in respect to the other stage, namely, that state in which man "from the beginning" became and remains a participant during the course of his whole earthly existence.

Continence is exceptional

5. It is very significant that Christ did not directly link his words on continence for the kingdom of heaven with his foretelling of the "other world" in which "they will neither marry nor be given in marriage" (Mk 12:25). However, as we already said, his words are found in the prolongation of the conversation with the Pharisees in which Jesus referred to the beginning. He was indicating the institution of marriage on the part of the Creator, and recalling its indissoluble character which, in God's plan, corresponds to the conjugal unity of man and woman.

The counsel and therefore the charismatic choice of continence for the kingdom of heaven are linked, in Christ's words, with the highest recognition of the historical order of human existence relative to the soul and body. On the basis of the immediate context of the words on continence for the kingdom of heaven in man's earthly life, one must see in the vocation to such continence a kind of exception to what is rather a general rule of this life. Christ indicates this especially. That such an exception contains within itself the anticipation of the eschatological life without marriage and proper to the "other world" (that is, of the final stage of the "kingdom of heaven"), is not directly spoken of here by Christ. It is a question indeed, not of continence in the kingdom of heaven, but of continence for the kingdom of heaven. The idea of virginity or of celibacy as an anticipation and eschatological sign(3) derives from the association of the words spoken here with those which Jesus uttered on another occasion, in the conversation with the Sadducees, when he proclaimed the future resurrection of the body.

We shall resume this theme in the course of the following Wednesday reflections.

NOTES

1. On the more detailed problems of the exegesis of this passage, see for example: L. Sabourin, II Vangelo di Matteo, Teologia e Esegesi, Vol. II (Roma: Ed. Paoline, 1977), pp. 834-836; "The Positive Values of Consecrated Celibacy," The Way, Supplement 10, summer 1970, p. 51; J. Blinzler, "Eisin eunuchoi, Zur Auslegung von Mt 19:12," Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 48 (1957) 268ff.

2. "Likewise, the holiness of the Church is fostered in a special way by the observance of the counsels proposed in the Gospel by Our Lord to his disciples. An eminent position among these is held by virginity or the celibate state. This is a precious gift of divine grace given by the Father to certain souls (cf. Mt 19:11; 1 Cor 7:7), whereby they may devote themselves to God alone the more easily, due to an undivided heart" (Lumen Gentium 42).

3. Cf. Lumen Gentium 44; Perfectae Caritatis 12.

Remember the Icy Hot in the jockstrap joke that was so funny in your high school lockerroom? Get a load of Roger Clemens!

From Deadspin.com:

Roger Clemens Hates His Crotch

You might think that Peter King’s gruesome description of the preparations he took to prepare for his colonoscopy would be the most disturbing thing you’d read all day. It would seem like a good bet; Peter, we love the freedom you have online, but there is such a thing as decorum and good will to your fellow man. Please: No more in-depth descriptions of your need to poo. Thank you.

But anyway, that’s not the most horrifying mental image your sports pages bring you today anyway. From Peter Gammons’ Sunday blog, about Roger Clemens’ “training habits:”

All the Team USA pitchers — and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann — were in awe of Roger Clemens. But one thing they weren’t ready for was Clemens taking that Icy Hot that pitchers rub on their shoulders and arms and spreading it over his upper thighs and private parts. “He doesn’t want to get comfortable on the mound,” says Jake Peavy, who tried the same trick Friday night in Phoenix.

That’s right, folks; Roger Clemens spreads Icy Hot on his crotch. This explains so, so much.

Peter Gammons’ Blog [ESPN Insider]
Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback [SI.com]


Memo To The Ladies: Don't ask. You really don't want to know.

In case someone noticed..

...is the guy in white with the German accent in the new VW commercials the snuff film maker Dino Velvet (actor Peter Stormare) from 8MM?