There are more important languages to learn than Latin

This past Sunday, the Sixth Sunday of Easter of 2013 saw a debate between an orthodox conservative and an avowed liberal. The conservative discussed a fellow parishioner who had kneeled while taking the blood of Christ, and had asked for the blessed chalice before in a complete kneeling state.

     This did not seem to upset the liberal in any way. The orthodox conservative next presented the view that Latin is the official language of the church and should be the preferred language to learn. The liberal argued for other languages to be the preferred language to learn.

Unlike Protestants, who believe in Solo Scriptura, Catholics and Semitic people have a strong preference for reading the divine writings in light of tradition. They receive this idea from the Ten Commandments, which begins:

Moses summoned all those who struggle with God and told them, Hear, you who struggle with God, the customs, and correct judicial precedents, which I proclaim in your ear, this day, that you may learn them and guard to observe them. The Personal Name, our Almighty Judge, cut a Social Contract with us at Mt. Sword; not with our fathers did the Personal Name cut this Social Contract, but with us, each of us, alive, here, this day. Deuteronomy 5:1-7

In the Summa Theologica, The Second Part of the Second Part, Question 81 noted how our word, “religion,” relates to the Latin understanding of the concept.

Religion may be derived from “religare” [to bind together], wherefore Augustine says (De Vera Relig. 55): “May religion bind us to the one Almighty God.” In addition to the founding of Rome itself, the Roman sense of authority comes from the sanctity of house and hearth. The Romans understood how the gods had Shekinah, (presence) lived among the Romans, so was re-ligatus, bond together in present time, through all time, with the people.

The interesting things about customs, “הַחֻקִּים” and correct judicial precedents, “מִּשְׁפָּטִים,” is that they develop over time. They do not develop over night, and are therefore not the kinds of things Moses could have received at Mt. Sword. The Jewish tradition is that all the rulings that have come since are the customs and correct judicial precedents, which we are to view as if they came from Moses at Mt. Sword. Catholic and Easter Orthodox teachings mirror this ancient Semitic understanding.

The Ten Commandments begins by telling us, “Not with our fathers did the Personal Name cut this Social Contract, but with us, each of us, alive, here, this day.” To argue that the Roman Rite is somehow different from any other rite is to argue that it does not link back, tie back to Mt. Sword in present time. It is to cut the church off from its roots, both the roots of Sinai, and the roots of the cross.

This brings us to the idea of home and hearth. Revelations 12:17 tells us how the great sea serpent went off to wage war with the woman and her offspring, those who keep faith with the witness and the Mitzvah of God. Revelations 12:5 tells us how this woman gave birth to a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.”

This child is clearly Jesus, so the woman must be our Blessed Virgin. We, alive, here, this day, are the offspring of Our Blessed Virgin, in present time, as are all those who lived from the time of Our Blessed Virgin until today. To argue for Latin, the Roman Rite in Latin is to cut ourselves off from this woman, Our Blessed Virgin, who almost certainly did not speak Latin.

The orthodox Catholic is correct in understanding that it is important for the blood of Christ not to fall on the floor. The liberal thinker was also correct in understanding that there is something more at issue here than wine, the blood of Christ falling on the floor. Through the Eucharist, we relive the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. We also relive the events of Mt. Sword, our rescue from oppression. We undergo a religious transformation from death to new life.

St. Paul tells us in Romans 5 and Galatians 2, “We, who are Jews by nature and not deviants from among the nations, know that a person is not justified by works of Torah but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

St. Paul comes from the Jewish neighborhood of Tarsus, Turkey. The native language of the first century for that town was Koine Greek. On the other hand, St. Paul comes from the Jewish neighborhood of that town. We need to think of the late nineteenth century, and early twentieth century Brooklyn Jewish neighborhood. The people of Brooklyn spoke English.

The Brooklyn neighborhoods, on the other hand, spoke the languages of the immigrants who lived there. The people of the Jewish quarter spoke Yiddish. When the more religious of that neighborhood went to college, they went to Yeshiva, most likely in Jerusalem. Likewise, St. Paul learned the Yiddish of his time, Aramaic. As a religious, he went off to Yeshiva in Jerusalem, the Academy of Shammai. There he learned Hebrew.

Thinking in Hebrew, St. Paul would have meant, using the Hebrew and Aramaic word for Justice, Tzaddic, We, who are Jews by nature and not deviants from among the nations, know that a person is not Tzaddic/made charitable by works of Torah but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be Tzaddic/made charitable by faith in Christ and not by works of Torah, because by works of Torah no one will be made charitable.”

Elsewhere, St. Paul tells us, “Put on the new self, created in God’s way in Tzaddic and dedication of truth.” The rest of the chapter, of which Ephesians 4:24, resides describes this Tzaddic as God means for us to live out our everyday life.

Deuteronomy 6:20-25 tells us what St. Paul meant by Tzaddic as well:

When your son asks, “What do these witness statements customs and correct judicial precedents mean?” which the Personal Name, our Almighty Judge, enjoined on you, you shall tell your son, “We were once slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Personal Name brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and wrought before our eyes signs and wonders, great and dire, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and his whole house.

He brought us from there to bring us in and give us the land he had promised on oath to our fathers. The Personal Name commanded us guard all these customs in fear of the Personal Name, our Almighty Judge, that we may always have as good a life as we have today. This is our justice/Tzaddic.

In our transformation, we no longer worry about the little things. Our neighbor in Christ is far more important than even the blood of Christ falling on the floor. Christ will protect his precious blood. During the Passion, far more blood that is precious fell on the floor, the Via Delarosa, than the few drops that might fall if the chalice spills. Yes, we do need to be careful with the precious blood, but the precious blood points to something even more important, human life as life lived in the image of God.

This brings us to the importance of Latin in Mass. For doctoral seminary, Latin might be an important language to learn, in order to read the Summa, the City of God, the Moralia, and other writings of the church fathers. If we plan to discuss theology with the church doctors at the Vatican, Latin could come in handy. For the rest of us, Latin is a great language of nostalgia, to help us remember the Tridentine Mass of Pre-Vatican II.

Presenting this view, brought the discussion of whether Jesus knew Latin. Interesting it was, that the liberal presented the view that Lake Galilee, where Jesus and the apostles did their preaching and fishing, is so much like Lake Tahoe. So interesting it is how the orthodox Catholic opposed this view. They are the same, inland, crystal blue lakes. They are lakes famed for being resort hot spots where celebrities and other rich folk lived out their lives. As such, to live in these areas, one almost has to be multilingual.

The “Church Language” of the first century was Hebrew. The language of the masses was Aramaic, which people of the time mistakenly referred to as Hebrew. As a rabbi, Jesus would have known both Hebrew and Aramaic. To be a fish trader on Lake Galilee one would almost certainly have had to know the language of trade, Koine Greek. St. Peter shows an understanding of this language in the two letters he wrote, and which are in our New Testament. James also shows fluency in Greek, in his New Testament letter, as does St. Paul, in his letters.

The question is about Latin. The Latin people had the ethnocentric trait Americans have. They sent their soldiers and state department officials to countries with no training in the languages or cultures of their conquests. If Jesus talked with soldiers as he did in Luke 7:1-10, it was almost certainly in Latin.

Further, in John 18:28-40 Jesus has a discussion with Pilate. If Pilate did not speak any language other than Latin, the discussion must have been in Latin. St. Mark calls the crazy man Jesus heals, Legion, a Latin name.

Dei Verbum, from Vatican II states:

God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, (6) the interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words. To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to “literary forms.” For truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts, which are variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse.

This means, the question is not, whether Jesus, or anyone else could have had an intelligent discussion in Latin, but in what language Jesus and the apostles thought, and that language was Aramaic. In the case of Torah, Navy, and Writings, that language is Hebrew. Because the oldest extant writings are in Koine Greek, Koine Greek has a claim for study.

It is important to notice how Greek, Latin, and the Semitic languages used the present tense. From our pre-Vatican II days, we use to interpret Matthew 3:1-2, “In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea, saying, “Do Penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” English has what grammarians call the “dandy do.” The original word in Greek, Latin, or the Semitic languages can be interpreted as, “Repent,” “Be Penitent,” or “Do Penance.” In church language, “Do Penance” means going to confession and doing as the priest asks as one’s “Sign of contrition.” Those not knowing ancient languages were confused by this ambiguity.

Dei Verbum, from Vatican II tells us that we need to read the text in light of how the original writers understood the text. Our “Instruction on the Historical Truth of the Gospels,” tell us, “The sacred writers when composing them followed the way of thinking and of writing current amongst their contemporaries.” John the Baptist wrote long before confession, as we know it today, so could not have had this in mind as he preached. Contemporary translations correctly translate the text as “Repent,” and not, “Do Penance.” Learning Latin would help us understand the ambiguity of Pre-Vatican II history, but not help us much in understanding current translations of the Bible.

This brings the questions of which languages would be important to learn, for the serious Bible scholar. Clearly, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek make this list. Where does Latin fit in? Jesus probably spoke Latin, but “Legion,” is one of the very few Latin words used in any of the Gospels, and the New Testament never uses Latin in the context of explaining Christian doctrine.

The church fathers used Latin, but most of the Scholastic teaching is being replaced by German existentialist teaching through the writings of Johann Mohler, Karl Rahner, Richard Rohr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Bernard Lonergan. Learning German would be far more beneficial in the academic setting than Latin.

The goal of reading any ancient language is being able to present what we learn to the masses. That means learning French, German, Polish, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Chinese, and with the rapidly growing African church, the African languages. Latin is way down the list.

We need to understand what is going on at Mass. We need to understand how we are not just taking in bread and wine. We are taking in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. That means know who Jesus Christ the first century Jew, and the Son of God is. That means enmeshing ourselves in the Semitic culture.

“Jesus is the same, Yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” Hebrews 13:8. “At the beginning, Personal Name, you established the earth, you are the same, and your years will have no end.” Hebrews 1:10-12.  The word of God did not change as the church moved from a Semitic group to the Latin church, as those who emphasis the Latin Rite would have us believe.

The difference between corporeal and spiritual food lies in this, that the former is changed into the substance of the person nourished. It cannot avail for supporting life except it be partaken of. Spiritual food changes man into itself, according to that saying of Augustine (Confessions 7.  Third Part of the Summa Question 73 Article 3

I found myself to be far from You, in the region of dissimilarity: I am the food of strong men; grow, and you will feed upon me; nor will you convert me, like the food of your flesh, into you, but you shall be converted into me. Confessions, Book 7, Chapter 10

Jesus was the great healer and forgiver. If we are to get into him, who is what we are to become, we need to become healers and forgivers.

We need to define what life is to follow our Declaration of Independence Part 1

The collectors of the temple tax approached Peter asking, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” Peter replied, “Yes.” Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth tax, from their subjects or from foreigners?” Peter replied, “From foreigners,” Jesus replied, “The subjects are exempt.” Matthew 17:24

Jesus told them, “The kings of the nations lord it over them and those in authority over them are addressed as ‘Benefactors. Among you, it shall not be so. Allow the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant. Who is greater: the one seated at table or the one who serves? It is not the one seated at table! I am among you as the one who serves.”Luke 22:24

If there is anything, which separates liberals from conservatives it is the conservative quoting, “He who governs least governs best.” Henry Thoreau said this. The question is, “He who governs least governs best to do what?” The socialist thinks government control of everything is governing the least. The capitalist, the communist, and the anarchist believe it is no government.

Without a goal in, “He who governs least governs best,” government regulation falls upon those who are foreign to us. For the rich, it is the poor. For the poor it is the rich. A liberal Congress pushes taxes and regulations upon the rich. The conservatives do the same to the poor. We are leaves blowing in the wind. Jesus, in Luke 22:24, calls us to act better.

The topic of this discussion is “Faithful Discipleship as presented in the tradition of Catholic social teaching.” How do we prepare for the next election in four years? Our role is not to bring solutions, only a framework for understanding the question.

If there is anything, which separates liberals from conservatives it is Thomas Jefferson’s, “He who governs least governs best.” Thomas Jefferson never said this; Henry Thoreau did. The socialist thinks government control of everything is governing the least. The capitalist, the communist, and the anarchist believe it is no government at all. The phrase, “He who governs least governs best,” needs a predicate, the least to do what?”

Without answering the “To do what,” government falls upon the foreigner, those who are foreign to us. For the rich, the poor need more government. For the poor, it is the rich. When the liberals control Congress, they push more government upon the rich and when the conservatives are in power, we see the reverse. We are not one nation, but two, one black, one white, one enslaved by wealth, one by poverty. We have liberty for the rich and the best justice money can buy.

We are leaves blowing in the wind. Humanae Vitae came in 1968. Roe V. Wade came in 1973. We come to the 40th anniversary of the latter event. Catholics were 22% of the U.S. adult population in 1948. We reached our high point in the late 1970s, when the U.S. population was nearly 30% Catholic. In the last several years, the Catholic percentage has been around 23%.”

After 40 years of engaging in talking points, the five non-negotiable points are still with us. All we have done is dropped 10% of the population from being Catholic. It is said that insanity is repeating the same things, and expecting different results. As liberal Catholics, we want results. We must decide, do we want to end abortion, and solve the other four non-negotiable points, or do we want to engage in an idle boxing match with the other side for another forty years.

Jesus, in Luke 22:24, calls us to act better than being leaves blowing in the wind, choosing between the left and the right. There is no reason for Matthew 17 applying to our nation. There is no reason for the rich viewing the poor as foreigners, or the poor for viewing the rich as foreign.

The mural at our Cathedral provides our predicate; at the upper right of the mural stands Pope Pious X who wrote about Catholic Action. Pope Benedict said this about Pope Pious X:

The faith as such is always the same. The Catechism of Saint Pius X always preserves its value. Ways of transmitting the contents of the faith can change instead..” I remember reading staunch anti-Catholics argue that Vatican II changed nothing. Our current Pope agrees. Referring to Torah St. James wrote in James 1:17:

All noble giving and every complete gift are from above, coming down from the Father of lights. Through him, there is no alteration or shadow caused by change…

The packaging changes; the truth remains the same. In IL FERMO PROPOSITO Pope Pious X writes: We take to heart the interests of the people, especially those of the working and agricultural classes by endeavoring to dry their tears, to alleviate their sufferings, and to improve their economic condition by wise measures. We strive, to make public laws conformable to justice. (7) All these works… constitute what is known by “Catholic Action.” (8)

All Catholics must prepare themselves prudently and seriously for political life in case they may be called. It is of the utmost importance that the same activity be extended to a suitable preparation and organization for political life. (19)

All those works which directly come to the aid of the spiritual and pastoral ministry of the Church and which labor religiously for the good of souls must be subordinated to the authority of the Church and also to the authority of the Bishops placed by the Holy Spirit to rule the Church of God in the dioceses assigned to them. (22)

We all have the obligation to be educated on political matters, and we must subordinate our efforts under our Bishops. Our Bishops have the obligation to help us educate ourselves and to prepare us for Catholic Action. This includes preparing political leaders who will support all of Catholic Social Doctrine.

This is part 1. Please click here for part 2

Molly writes about Beth Erev

There is a new writer in Reno. This new writer, a Molly Maguire McGill manages to mix an interesting mash of Romance, religion, nostalgia, and politics. In her novel, “A Sappy Piece of Crap,” of all titles, she points to the poverty and despair, which grips a sizable percentage of our population, and shows how all it takes is one person who cares to change a world.

Molly Maguire posits a Beth Erev, a homeless girl who has suffered throughout her life. As a second grader she had been forced to compete with a schoolmate to find out who was the dumbest in class. She developed a crush on the boy she had to compete with. He went into boxing and pretended never to notice she was around. She won the title, dumbest in class. In the same year, she was the only child not to receive a valentine.

Molly never went to her Junior or Senior prom or even her graduation because she did not have a date or the money for a dress to dress up for the affairs. Later in life she found herself a drift less wanderer, traveling as a migrant laborer to the deep south and then back north to her home in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. In her travels, she meets an enigmatic Mt. Black who teaches her the survival skills of the Lenape Indians. It is here that she learns to make fine furniture and clothing using only the materials available from the land. That includes tree sap, tree bark, flax, and the fat from local road kill. She is sappy, not because she cries allot, but because she works with tree sap. People call her a piece of crap because she is homeless.

Inside lies a great treasure. It only takes the kindness of a local farmer, a Don Boker, with several of his friends to find the treasure inside to convert her into a very beautiful diamond. First, Don, just being a nice farmer, allows her to live on an abandoned section of his farm. Then he friends Cal and Bo start working as matchmakers trying to get Beth and Don together. What follows is a comedy of errors. They go to a baseball game. Don’s past girlfriend dumped him at a baseball game. During a typical Pennsylvania thunderstorm, Beth will run into a conservative and have a major argument. This will spill over into the perception that Beth come to believe she is the group’s pet, not a person in her own right. Only skillful negotiation on the part of Don, Bo, and Cal will save the day.

Bo and Cal will also try to take Don and Beth to meet friends in New York. They have a plan to create a theme park on Don’s farm, using Beth’s Lenape skills as the theme for the park. Neither Don, nor Beth are interested in the idea. They see in the plan their becoming man and wife. Don is only interested in farming, not looking for a mate. Beth does not want to be hurt again. It takes the skilled negotiation of Romero and Rose Grant, the friends from New York, to point out to Don and Beth that they are in fact meant for each other.

To find out what happens, you will want to read this well written novel. You can find it at Amazon.com, as one of their Kindle Books.

There is a great new writer in Reno Nevada

There is a new writer in Reno. This new writer, a Molly Maguire McGill manages to mix an interesting mash of Romance, religion, nostalgia, and politics. A Hope for a Different Future is a Coming of Age novel with an interesting spin. Molly Maguire McGill stars in this novel as a woman transported back in time, from today, back to October of 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis is just beginning, John F. Kennedy is still president, and Vietnam is some relic of World War II.

A great novel about a great place to live in America.

Molly Maguire goes to bed one evening, an adult woman, with her husband Karl by her side. When she wakes up she is in second grade and a life to live all over again. She tells her school friends about her nightmare, Dallas of ’63, Vietnam, Watergate, the president with Alzheimer’s disease, the Texas Oilmen running the country for their own advantage, and the rest. She also tells the boy next door about how they are married in this dream.

Molly’s friends talk her into writing the President about her dream, which she does. In her letters, she related to the White House about the President’s affairs, listing names. She had also discussed the Cuban Missile Crisis and nuclear tests in Nevada, classified information at the time. With the name, Molly Maguire, and the classified information, she finally catches the attention of the Secret Service. They arrive at her home on the Eve of Thanksgiving. Her parents are busy listening to their favorite music, folk music extolling the virtues of the common laborer. This only serves to heighten the sensitivities of the Secret Service. Still, when they meet Molly, they are convinced the letters really did come from the heart of a small child.

Molly gets to meet the President, for Christmas and Easter. In the process, she convinces the President to allow the communists to take over Vietnam in exchange for allowing America to help them develop a modified form of their government. Instead of war, Hanoi welcomes McDonalds, Burger King, and the like. Peace reigns in Southeast Asia. Molly also presents President Kennedy, who she has a crush on, with details about the assassination plan. The president launches an investigation, which leads to the arrest on hundreds. He remains at the White House in November of ’63 and the assassination never happens.

A Hope for a Different Future revolves around how history may have changed if these to events of world history, the assassination, and Vietnam had never happened. How would the Civil Rights movement been affected? For her sixteenth birthday, Molly receives a VW Bus. Would the VW Bus had become the Hippy wagon if there had been no Vietnam? Like the movie, “Pleasantville” points out; the utopian suburbia could not last in a vacuum forever. How might this view of reality changed had President Kennedy lived and Vietnam not happened?

Much of A Hope for a Different Future revolves around Molly and Karl as they grow up and grow together as friends, and then in High School, as lovers. A Hope for a Different Future is a coming of age novel. We again hear the joys and the pains, of growing up in Levittown Pennsylvania, suburbia.

A Hope for a Different Future also presents Vatican II as it presents itself to mid-sixties America. As a result, A Hope for a Different Future mixes a coming of age novel with folk politics and progressive religion. You will love A Hope for a Different Future. You can find this novel at Amazon .com.

Creation in Genesis relates the fight between Shalom and Violence

Genesis 1 starts with a grand portrait of the creation of the world. This portrait beings with God saying, “וַיְהִי-אוֹר “.יְהִי אוֹר “Be light, was light.” The big question is, “What color was the light?” “The Joy of the painter Bob Ross the Nicene Creed and I believe in One God Creator,” relates how the answer to that question is that light is diffused light. Light by itself has no color; it only reports what it reflects off of. Light allows God, and us to see how the cosmos God creates out of תהוּ וָבהוּ, wilderness and chaos, is good. “A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament,” relates how the writer of Genesis 1, a member of the northern tribes who uses the name, “אֱלהִים” for God did not necessarily believe God created the ordered world ex nihilo.

Genesis 1 is a rich verbal tapestry preparing us for all that is to come.

The text relates how Genesis 1 has been interpreted many ways through the centuries. The writer of Hebrews, chapter 4 relates the tradition, since for God one day is as a thousand years, Psalms 90:4, since St. Peter also relates the same tradition, and since Genesis 1 states, “Evening and morning, first day, second day… but no evening and morning seventh day, the seventh day has no evening, no end. There must only be seven millennium of history, before the Parousia.

When we look at Genesis 1 in light of the Great Assembly we find a different interpretation. The writer of “Striving to make an ideal world out of chaos” relates the chaos at the time the second temple was being built. The writers were codifying the traditions of J,E, and P. The D tradition was only written during the time of the last king of Judah. Within the priestly tradition there was dispute as to what a new Israel would look like. Israel and Judah had long since had their day. It was a glorious time when the eight tiered a acrostic was composed, along with the beautiful Song of Songs, about Judah and the Jewish temple. It had been a time of great art.

As scholars debated what they were going to include in their epic statement about who they were as a people, they must have debated what the cover of this work would look like. Today, publishers spend vast amounts of funds looking for the perfect book cover. With a glance, it must state what the book is about. Genesis 1 may well just be the book cover to the entirety of Torah. It may simply be a verbal tapestry written by an Elohist writer, pointing to what Torah is about.

If the writer of “Striving to make an ideal world out of chaos” is correct, the writer has two audiences. The first is the Persian satrap who commissioned the work. The second is the grand audience who hears Torah read to them for the first time, the common people who look to the rich tapestry set before them. If Torah does not reflect the rich heritage of their ancestors, they will reject it. If they reject it, so will that satrap. If there is a two audience theory of writing, there is also a two writer theory of writing.

Professional writers do not give their writing to clerks for proofreading, who check for basic grammar, punctuation, spelling… Professional writers give their writing to skilled rhetoriticians who look for rhythm and meter, who put in puns, rhymes, and alliterations. Genesis 1 was written by such a craftsman, who put everything into his craft. He would be insulted to find an advanced culture took his work of art as a literal interpretation of reality. As a verbal tapestry, Genesis 1 must point to who the Jewish people were as a people and their relationship with the rest of the world. Genesis 1 must paint a picture of how it sees the rest of the world. It is not history, nor is it meant to be so. It is a work of art.

We can believe the writer of Genesis 1 was so stupid that he did not know you cannot create light on the first day, the trees nourished by the light on the third day, and the source of the light of fourth. We can also believe that this writer came from an advanced culture and was writing art. Bob Ross, often drew the diffused light, with rivers, then put in dry land, and populating his land with plants, and trees. After his plants and trees, he often would add animals and maybe a person or two. This is the order of creation in Genesis 1, a literary landscape, not history.

יְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אתוֹ כִּי בוֹ שָׁבַת מִכָּל-מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר-בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת

Genesis 1 ends with Kiddush.

A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament relates how Exodus slavery to deliverance to worship. Genesis 1 ends with Kiddush in chapter 2. The writer of Genesis 1 could be writing part of his tradition, which included this prayer. He passes his tradition on to the entire Jewish nation, and to the world. Torah proper begins with Genesis 2:4. It does not begin with history, but with folk traditions by a writer who uses יְהוָה אֱלהִים to identify God.There is a problem about relating traditions. We all remember the game of telephone. A group of around 20 children sit in a circle. The lead child gives a message to the second child who in turn passes it on to the third… at the end the last child repeats the message, which seldom resembles the original message. The traditions reflected in Torah work much the same way. As scholars, we try to find the original message when all we have is the last message. It is impossible to know for sure if Kiddush was around when the writer of Genesis 1 wrote his work.

If the stories look like Aesop’s fables, there is a reason. Αἴσωπος, from around 620–564 BC comes from the Middle East. Although we identify him as Greek, north of Israel, one tradition holds that he was from Ethiopia, south of Judah. A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament relates how the writers of Torah borrowed styles and even stories from their neighbors. Genesis 2 could relate how Torah writers borrowed from Aesop’s style.

“Striving to make an ideal world out of chaos” relates how Genesis 3 may refer, not to some historical past, but to the writer’s present. The apple was the way of the nations, the cherubim were  Babylonian soldiers. The message is, if the Jewish people are going to be a people, they must first be Jewish.

Genesis 4 starts the discussion on violence and the importance of proper liturgical sacrifice. Genesis 4 is the story of Cain and Able. Immediately we find another name for God a different writer who refers to God as יְהוָה/השם the Personal Name. God moves from the impersonal force hovering over nature in Genesis 1, to the very personal, Personal Name who cares about his planet and all who are in it.

Cain means upraised one, and Abel means mist. Genesis 3:3 relates how Cain brings an offering of the ground. Abel brings from the first of his flock in Genesis 3:4. Cain brings from whatever. Abel brings from his best. “Striving to make an ideal world out of chaos” relates how important the temple was for the Jewish people. It also relates the difference between what is ללח or common and what is fit for sacrifice. Abel knows the difference, while Cain does not.

Another important lesson occurs when Cain becomes sad because God does not accept his sacrifice. Failure faces us every day, and we must face our failures as men. We must control our inclinations, not allow our inclinations to rule us.

The most important lesson comes in Genesis 4:10, “קוֹל דְּמֵי אָחִיךָצֹעֲקִים אֵלַי מִן-הָאֲדָמָה.” This odd reading literally translates, “The voice of my blood of your brother calls to me from Adam-ah.” Adam comes from the ground, and that is how he receives his name. Any attack upon any human being, for any reason is an attack, not just upon that person, but upon the image of God himself. Genesis 1 tells us, “וַיּאמֶר אֱלהִים נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ “ let us make man in our Shalom, and in our bloods. The Hebrew spelling of Shalom is different, but the two words sound the same. דְמוּתֵ is the Hebrew feminine plural of blood. God’s blood, his image was the image Cain attacked.

We find a similar message at the end of Genesis 1, “God blessed them, telling them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth. God also said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food.”

Hebrew rhetoric has a rule, “The General and the Particular.” This rule states that when we see a general statement followed a particular and then the general statement again, the general statement teaches us about the particulars. The general statement is about having dominion over wildlife. The particular is about eating the plants. The general statement is repeated about having dominion of wildlife. The passage ends with the particular about eating plants. The writer of Genesis 1 was a vegetarian, as was Daniel.

Genesis 9:3 tells us, “Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants.” The green plants were the staple of all who went before. That was the original plan, and if we want to follow God’s plan closely, that will be our plan. Genesis 9:4 goes on to say, אַךְבָּשָׂרבְּנַפְשׁוֹ דָמוֹ לא תאכֵלוּ “Only the flesh in its soul, which is the blood, you will not eat.” Deuteronomy 12:23 also states, “הַדָּם הוּא הַנָּפֶשׁ” “The blood is the soul.”

Genesis 9 goes on to tell us, “I am now establishing my Brit/Social Contract with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you all that came out of the ark. I establish my Brit with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.

Genesis 6 has two traditions about the founding of the flood. J beings the first by mentioning how The Personal Name saw how great the rot רָעַת of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but rot, רַע. The J version of the text states, “The earth was ruined/ שָּׁחֵתbefore the face of God and full of violence/ “חָמָס.” The modern violent Palestinian group is Hamas/חָמָס. The root failure is a lack of faith/participation in the image of God which leads to violence.

In Genesis chapter 9 the Elohist goes on to say, “God said: This is the sign of the Brit I make between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the Brit between me and the earth.” This Brit, this Social Contract is not between Noah, Rest, and God. It is not between Noah with his family, and God. It is with all of creation and God. When the Lakota talk about, “All are my relatives,” they are on the same page as Elohist.

We find this concept among the Muslims, Buddhists, Tao, and all major world religions. We are all in the web of the world and we suffer when the world suffers. When we do not care for the world, the world has a way of getting even. God put us in the garden to guard it and to keep it. He never rescinded that command. God is active in the world making sure that when we do care for it, he does his part and takes care of us, and the world.

The Hebrew word for prayer, “תפלה” is reflexive and comes from a root word meaning to judge. We sit in judgment of ourselves when we pray. The Greek προσεύχομαι is in the Middle Greek, so is also reflexive. The best example is what we do in confession. It is not coming to God with a list of “Give me’s.“ It is sitting down with God to decide our role in his plan. Genesis 1-11 relates this to the original audience, and to us, if we listen.

For another article in the Genesis series please read The Jewish people have three fathers and four mothers with something to teach us part 1

The Eucharist and Baby Jesus as Christmas Day Mass

This Christmas we went to Mid-night Mass at our Cathedral in Reno Nevada and heard our Bishop Calvo give an excellent homily, as he always gives. This writer did not think it possible to give such an excellent homily. In the morning, Father Joseph Kim gave the Christmas Daytime Mass and showed everyone considering the priesthood how to do homiletics. He began, touching on many of the same themes as Bishop Calvo. We need to find room for Jesus in the Upper Room. Father Joseph based his homily upon, “The word became flesh, and dwelt among us.”

Baby Jesus is not lifeless and plastic

Father Joseph discussed how the hundred-mile journey for a woman nine months pregnant is arduous today. It was more arduous for a woman traveling that distance two millennium ago. Father Joseph correctly related how Jesus came to the simple, poor humble shepherds, and not to the powerful in Jerusalem. In Aramaic, the language St. John may well have originally spoken his Gospel, the word for “Word,” is not “Logos,” as used in Stoic Philosophy, but “Omer” the Aramaic word for “lamb,” the humble animal who is like shepherds/us. The lamb is also the animal of peace.

Father Joseph related, however arduous the travel and the travails of childbirth was for our Blessed Virgin, the moment of birth was a moment of peace. Jesus is the light of the world, and life brings joy to all. Bishop Calvo related Jesus comes to bring a new way; the Gospels are the recipe for that way.

The example is the paralytic healing. For those looking for the incantation to bring miracles, healing paralytics, making bad politicians and religious leaders look stupid, Jesus asks the bad politicians and religious leaders of his day, “What is easier to say?” This relates the power is not in the words. If the child is the victim of child abuse, he must believe what he did that was wrong will be right now. What failed in the past, will work now. Only society /we can bring this hope. We bring this hope and Jesus’ role is to teach us this new way.

Father Joseph walked to the altar, took the plastic Baby Jesus out of the crepe, and put in on the altar. He put the lectionary in place of the plastic and lifeless baby Jesus and discussed how our faith is a vibrant life lived. The word of God is not black splotches placed upon white pieces of paper in a closed Bible. St. Francis once said, “Go forth and preach the Gospel and if necessary use words.” The word of God is not “Logos,” but “Omer,” word proclaimed by the sacrificial life as Omer/lamb we live.

After Father Joseph finished his homily and prepared the Eucharist, he removed the plastic and lifeless baby Jesus and placed it under a table so we could not see it. The Real Presence of the real Jesus in the Eucharist pushes aside the false and the lifeless and impels vibrant life. Our faith is a faith of love and peace of Christ. The word is not the flapping of gums and exhaling air, we call speaking. It is not black splotches on a page. Our faith is a life lived in the image and likeness of God. The Eucharist is the Real Presence dwelling among us, in us, and each other. All we have to do is look and see him in the Eucharist and in the poorest of the poor and each other.

Letters from Antioch, Learning to see

Salvador asked us, “Try sitting in a room sometime and doing nothing. You will hear noises that you did not notice before. This is because you now have time to hear them. The landscaping that professionals spent thousands of dollars installing along the side of the road are a thing of beauty to those who have time to enjoy them. They are a nuisance to those who are in a rush. Do not be in a rush and miss the fragrance and the beauty of the landscaping.”

Academics is great, but how does it apply to the outside world?

He gave this command, “Do not be like the theology students who miss the beggar on the street corner in the name of preparing their homily on the Good Samaritan or the rich man and Lazarus. The man found along the side of the road and Lazarus are in your parish and they are on the street corners of your town, wherever your town is. Look for them.”

Never let the following poem be said about you, “I was hungry and you formed a humanities club to discuss my hunger. Thank you. I was in prison and you crept off quietly to your chapel to pray for my release. Nice. I was naked and in your mind, you debated the morality of my appearance. What good did that do? I was sick and you knelt and thanked the Mighty Savior for your health. I needed you.

Do we see this woman, or do we see a lifestyle?

Salvador commanded, “Never have people speak of you saying, “I was homeless. You preached to me of the shelter of the Mighty Savior. I wish you had taken me home. I was lonely and you left me alone so you could pray for me. Why didn’t you stay? You seem so devout, so close to the Mighty Savior; But I am still very hungry, lonely, cold, and still in pain. Does it matter?”

As Salvador and his group continued in their travels, they entered a village where a women, May Dee Princess welcomed him. She had a sister named Princess Amy who sat at Salvador’s feet listening to him speak. May Dee Princess, burdened with much serving, came to him, “Professor, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”

Salvador replied, “May Princess, May Princess, you are anxious and worried about many things. You feel that you are a princess carrying the burden of much authority and responsibility for getting things done, your way. I hear you as you say your rosary in the morning, when you have time to say it. It is rushed and without thought. Your cooking is good, but it always tastes the same. You are very diligent in following your recipes. Your home always looks the same. Would it hurt to move the sofa to the other side of the room, just to be different?

Princess Amy is my princess. She lets the Mighty Savior and I, be in control. No one put you in charge. You assumed the role. You do not see yourself as special, as a princess. Princess Amy does see herself as special, even if the establishment people in the world do not. Princess Amy says her rosary every morning and her novena of 18 benedictions as well.

May Princess and Princess Amy Identical on the outside does not mean identical on the inside.

Never has Pop heard her say the prayers twice, the same way. Every meal she cooks is different. She uses the spice that changes its flavor every day. It is the spice of the Whittling Breath. Your life is that of the Protestant work ethic. When you say the rosary, it has to be 5 decades. You rush through them so you can get on with the next task.

Her life is that of natural rhythms. Unlike you, in the spring, she notices that the days just seem to get longer, by a minute or two each day. In the fall, she notices that they get shorter. Unlike you, she can tell you what phase the moon is in.

She may not be able to name the constellations in the sky, but she follows them nightly. She has seen the great line in the sky that separates night from twilight, not because she was rushing to work at that time, but because she took time to notice it. Her day starts with prayers.

Sometimes she gets five decades in, sometimes one. She continues that with contemplation of Pop, his world and her place in it. She sprinkles it with physical labor. With her, I can never walk into the same house twice. There is always something different. With her, it is not idly moving everything around, however.

True prayer is measured by how much you put into itand,how much it puts into you!

Her home and her meals are a reflection of herself. She changes little by little and day by day. Why should her home always look the same? She talks to the finches and the flowers. She realizes that they speak only finch and flower, while she speaks only English, but she talks to them anyway. You call this folly.

As Tiny says, “The folly of the Mighty Savior is greater than the wisdom of men. There is need of only one thing, feeling the rhythm of life. Princess Amy has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

Letters from Antioch Of Timber wolves and coyotes

There was a scholar of the law from the University who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Salvador said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”

The scholar replied, “You shall love the Personal Name, your Mighty Savior, with all your hearts, with all of your animate being, with everything you use to measure yourself with,[1] and your neighbor as yourself. In the commandment, “your” is singular, and “hearts” is plural. This is to show us that the Mighty Savior made us in his own image and that we have the original mistake.

Salvador responded, “You answered correctly; do this and you will live.” Because he wished to justify himself, the scholar asked Salvador, “Who is my neighbor?” Salvador replied, “I ask you to remember the Great City of Peace, Sacramento, California.[2] There was a man in that city who wanted to ascend from that great city to that great place of romance, the moon.[3] As a result, he left our great city of peace in search of romance.

This is so much like the early 1960’s when we first set out to go to the moon. Instead, what he found was bad times and robbers. These left him cynical, lifeless, and on the street. Vietnam, Watergate, The Iranian Hostage Crisis, Iran Gate, Monica Lewinsky, Tax Cut Mania, Budget Cut Mania, and the resulting disaster in New Orleans did the same thing for the U.S.

Our religious leaders, priest and pastor went down the same road with us. Still, their status as priest and pastor blocked them from poverty. When they see our plight in the street, they just walk to the other side of the street to avoid ritual defilement. What will people think if they see priest and pastor hanging around with the underclass?

Salvador looked at his followers and asked, “Remember that town of Omaha back a few days ago? They are many scrub cattle, abused by the Crooked Knives and the Lakota over the last couple of centuries. Because we as Native Americans are so often outcasts in the grander society, we know what it is like to reach for the sky and as a result descend into hell. We also descended that road.

There was a member of the Paiute. His home was a singlewide travel trailer, primer red, a Dodge Colt. This man saw a victim of robbers, took compassion, as a mother has compassion on the fruit of her womb.[4] This man bound up the victims wounds and took him to a place called “All Praise Outreach Center.”[5] There he offered to pay all expenses to bring the man back to health. Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?

Timber Wolf

The scholar answered, “The one who treated him with mercy. Salvador retorted. “Go and do likewise.”

In Reno, there was a tough neighborhood called Neal Road. Few dared to enter. In the eastern section of town there is a gang called the coyotes. In the western part of town are the timber wolves. These kids are tough. Their parents work in the meat packing plants there. Once, a working class kid with a shaved head made the mistake of driving through the eastern section of town. Further, he was driving a Chevy pickup with a large NRA sticker on it and a sticker with Semper Fi on it.

On the route, he had to stop at a stop light on Montello Drive in Reno. Some of the toughs then pulled him out of the car, beat him to the point of near death. They took his car off so they could strip it and sell it.

Later that night, a car full of doctors from the local religious hospital in town drove by. On their bumper was a sticker that read, “Smile, God loves you.”

They were going to a formal dinner south of town, and were afraid. They were not just afraid of the gangs in the area, but of what their cloths might look like when they got to the party. Most important, they were afraid to sully themselves by touching something as repugnant as a corpse. As a result, they did not smile as they drove by, as rapidly as possible.

Coyote

Later, Senators from Carson City also drove by. They were sporting their new corvette. They were on their way to see the results of their work on a new state office building. It was dark and they wanted to see how it lit up at night. The driver was talking on his cell phone to other people that they expected to meet at the building.

On the bumper of the car was a sticker that said, “Honk if you love Jesus.”

They swerved into the left lane, to avoid even coming near a dead man. They did not honk.

Last, a beat up old Dodge Colt came that a 20 something black person with a sweatshirt that had a timber wolf emblazoned upon it drove. Knowing what might happen if the coyotes’ area saw him, and knowing what this kid, whom he saw before him, must stand for, he got out of his colt, took time to bandage the youth, put him in the back of his car, and took him to his home.

There, he asked family and friends to care for this kid while he went back out into the streets to make his living as a rent-a-cop. He could not help but smile and honk at his friends, including the new one he just made as he drove off.

Salvador asked, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”

The scholar answered, “The one who treated him with mercy. Salvador retorted. “Go and do likewise.”

---

[1] Neusner, Jacob, the Misnah, tractate Barakhot 9:5 F, page 14, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1988

[2] Jerusalem in Hebrew translates as city of peace.

[3] Jericho, in Hebrew, translates as the moon.

[4] In Hebrew, the word for compassion is related to the word for a womb.

[5] The Original Greek of the Gospel has two words for “Inn.” The first is used in the nativity and literally translated as the upper room.” As such, it looks forward to the upper room of the last supper. The other word used for “Inn” is used here, the story of the Good Samaritan. It here translates as “Place of All Praise.”

Letters from Antioch Salvador sends out 72

Salvador appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. This was one person sent out for each year between the founding of the American Constitution and the year Abraham Lincoln first took office. It is also one person sent out for each Senator in the US Congress the day the Civil War ended.

He told them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few. Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way. I am sending you out like buffalo calves among wolves. You are not to carry a wallet, or back pack. You are not to have extra shoes and you are not to greet people along the way.

The harvest (of the children of God) is plentiful, but the gatherers are few

Whenever you enter a house, you are to say first, ‘We bring tranquility for this house.’ If a peaceable person lives there, your peace will rest on him. If he is not peaceable, your peace will return to you. Stay in the same house, eat, and drink what they offer you. The laborer does deserve his wages. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The rule of The Mighty Savior is at hand.’

Whenever you enter a town and they do accept you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town clings to our feet. Even the dust we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the Rule of The Mighty Savior is here. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Hiroshima on that day than for that town. “I pity you, Norfolk! I pity you, Tahoe Pines!

If Pop did the mighty deeds done in your midst what he did in Dresden and Nagasaki, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. It will be more tolerable for Dresden, Nuremburg, and Nagasaki at the judgment than for you. Moreover, as for you, Incline Village, ‘Will you be exalted to the sky? You will go to the landfill.” Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. In addition, whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.

The seventy-two returned rejoicing, and told Salvador, “Professor, even those hearing voices are subject to us because of your name.” Salvador observed, “I have observed The Great Accuser fall like lightning from the sky. I have called you as 72. You are not to be like the 72 that were before the Civil War, who rushed to accuse, north against south, and south against north, white against black and black against white.

You are to take on a new focus. This focus is on bringing life in its fullest to all people. Pop made all people in the image of himself. All people also have the original error. In the old world order, people focus on the results of the original error in everyone not like them. You are to represent the new world order. In the new world order of Pop, all people look to see the image of Pop in all people. This is whether they think or look alike or not. You are to be the example of this new world order.

Look, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon the real nana-Sioux’ and the rats and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. This is like the Exodus of Moses. Those people also had the power to trample on the rats and the vermin out in the desert. They had this power because Pop was rescuing them from the great accuser of that age, Pharaoh. Pop rescued them and they felt this rescue. Therefore, nothing could harm them.

Therefore, do not rejoice because those with voices are subject to you, but rejoice because Pop wrote your names in the great flow of things. Rejoice, Pop rescued you and all he will give all these things to you.

At that very moment, he rejoiced in the Whittling Breath, “I praise you, Pop, Ruler of the great flow of things and of the earth. Although you have hidden these things from those in the universities, the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the innocent common folk. Yes, Pop, such has been your kind will. Pop handed over all things to me. No one knows who the Son is except Pop, and who Pop is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

Turning to the Akicita in private he related, “Happy are the eyes that see what you see. I say to you, many Proclaimer of the divine truths from of olds and rulers desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Letters from Antioch, Salvador’s dream for Echumenism and brotherhood

Curtis barged into Salvador’s discussion about redwoods and shouted, “Salvador, we saw some clown out there, and he was actually preaching and healing in your name. Boy we really got on his case.”

He did this fully expecting an atta boy. That is not what he received.

What Salvador instead told him was, “Have you also not seen the Wizard of Oz? The Wizard was an ancestor of Curtis and me, William Jennings Bryan. Remember Scare Crow? All he wanted was a brain. The Wizard did not give him a brain. What the Wizard gave Scare Crow was a piece of paper and a talk about how the world puts too much importance on paper. It is not to be this way with you.”

The Wizard of Oz, William Jennings Bryan, and Scare Crow, real brains versus a college degree.

Salvador informed us, “He preaches the message of healing and transformation, and he heals in my name? Great! The time is coming when we will learn what Martin Luther King was saying, “We are all God’s children, therefore we long for the day that we will not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the strength of our character.”

Salvador added, “Therefore what denomination we call ourselves, is just not that important. We need to be Catholic, yes. We need to acknowledge the primacy of Peter. Yes. If others acknowledge the greater primacy of Pop, that is greater. If you stop the man, he might turn against us. If you encourage the man, you might make him a follower. If others perceive him as one of our followers, he will have a harder time turning against us later. Go back and apologize for what you did.”

When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to that city near the city of Oz, Folsom City, which is Sacramento California. He sent messengers ahead of him. On the way, they entered a town populated mainly by Omaha Indians to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him. They said it was because his destination was Sacramento and they were afraid of what politicking they might do there.

When the students Abe Prentice, and Curtis saw this they asked, Professor, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Salvador turned got in their case about it.

Salvador commented, “This world has suffered just about enough violence, don’t you think? Fire and brimstone has not worked in the past to correct people. Why should it work now? We need to keep on focus. Worrying about what the other guy is doing is taking us off our focus. The people of the world will judge us based upon where we have been. Do you want them to look back and see fire and brimstone? Would you not rather have them see joy and peace?

Pop calls us to bring life to this world. That is not life of bare subsistence and suffering. It is life in its fullest. It is looking for common ground with those who hate us, but without compromising our principles of loving Pop first, our neighbor second and Pop’s world third. They journeyed to another village. As they were proceeding in their travels, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Foxes have their dens

and not all foxes have four legs and chase rabbits

Salvador answered him, “Even the foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Ben Adam has nowhere to rest his head. You need to look at what you are getting into before you say such things. This is not the road to the middle class life style. This is the road to Sacramento California and the very possibility of death by hanging. To another he said, “Follow me.” The other person replied, “Professor, let me go first and bury my pop.”

He answered, “The train leaves now. Let the dead spiritually dead bury their physically dead. You are to go and proclaim the rule of the Mighty Savior. Let those who are dead to Pop but alive in this world worry about the details of burying the dead and the other trivialities of life. Pop calls you to greater tasks. Another said, “I will follow you, Professor, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”

Travelling on US 50 to Sacramento CA from Incline Village NV

Salvador told him, “No one who sits in his combine and looks back is fit for the rule of The Mighty Savior. The train is moving. The process of creating the new rule of the Mighty Savior has started. If you do not get on now, you will never be able to get on. The train is on its way to Sacramento where things are really going to start happening. The world cannot stop and wait while you give the old world its last goodbyes. Join hands now and let’s start walking.