MERRY HOLY CHRISTMAS -- REDEEMING GRACE IS BORN -- VIOLENCE VANQUISHED

Illumination by Kathy Brahney

CHRISTMAS STAR TO DISPEL VIOLENT DARKNESS----GOD’S UNCONDITIONAL MERCY, NONVIOLENT LOVE

Scene from Newtown Conn. mass shooting -- Dec. 15, 2012 -- NBC News photo

Jihad Misharawi, of BBC Arabic, cradling the body of his 11-month-old baby Omar after his house was struck in Israel’s air strike on Wednesday 14 November 2012—AP photo

The death of Holy Innocents is all around us.  Too many children destroyed.  Over the past years a couple of thousands in Syria, 35 in eight days in Gaza, 20 in less than one hour in Newton, Connecticut.  We are appalled at some—those that make the media.  The images of suffering children in Gaza are sequestered and little seen.  My dear Ande watched their online video for minutes and tears of compassion came quickly, with a resolve to say the rosary daily till Christmas.  Countless children killed in all wars day after day; in abortion they number millions each year. 

We pray with Thomas Merton for light in the darkness—a Savior is born in a stable. 

Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because He cannot be at home in it, because He is out of place in it, and yet must be in it, His place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied status as persons, who are tortured, bombed, and exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in the world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst.

  --- from Thomas Merton’s essay ‘The Time of the End is the Time of No Room’.

An idolatrous lie replaces the Credo--the Great Deceiver insinuates: I believe in Gun the power almighty, protector of heaven and earth.

Lord Jesus, save us from evil one, who whispers that killing is sometimes required to secure the way to the Kingdom of God. 

 

 

This sign to appear in downtown Port Huron, Dec. 24th .  May we unite against violence everywhere it lurks.  May we unite the devotional charity [The Merciful] and social justice [The Just] aspects of our churches--conservative and liberal sides of our community--which have too often been at odds. They both must work and pray for each other---repent of violence-based cliff-hanger politics, and commit to the common good.

Pray for all the children --
To help with those in Syria see Catholic Relief Service active during the whole past year of hostilities https://secure.crs.org/site/Donation2?df_id=5080&5080.donation=form1&s_src=emergencypage
or our local contact http://www.optrans.org/syria.html
And please see my report on the complex Syria war-- http://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2012/08/making-sense-of-syria-dominoes-of.html

For help in Gaza see http://crs.org/jerusalem/jobs-in-gaza-helping-grads-connect-with-work/
Some ideas to support families in Newton, CN http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/newtown-connecticut-community-effected-shooting/story?id=17998133
http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/12/17/nra-endorsed-sen-joe-manchin-calls-for-assault-weapons-ban/

THE “RIGHT TO WORK” IS THE RIGHT TO SHIRK—REPONSIBILITY TO CO-WORKERS AND COMMUNITY

 

Political cartoon from 1955--era of a different perspective

Michigan is the latest target of, powerful moneyed people who want to explode solidarity--want to wipe from consciousness the idea that employers have responsibilities to their workers, and workers to each other, and both of these, to the whole community.  Walter Reuther, Pope Leo XIII, Cesar Chavez, countless union maids, and so many others are rolling over in their graves.

Michigan has just been voted by its lame duck legislature, a “right to work” state.  The rust belt {insult to injury} is now made the union bust belt—Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and more, the targets.  If they can break the UAW and teachers unions in Michigan of strong labor tradition, they can do it anywhere. 

After many slick operators like Bain Capitol have shipped most of our manufacturing out of the country, then corporate groups like ALEC and the Mackinaw Center cleverly engineer legislation that says we have “the right to work”-- not having to join the union that’s won the right to represent the worker at their workplace.  These think tanks like to say this makes states more likely to draw business.  But on important indicators of a good economy, right-to-work state studies show conflicting, murky results.  Some “job creators” are becoming job devastators.

Soon there will be no more good paying jobs, and no more unions.  Because the “right to work” is really the right to shirk—reject your responsibility to co-workers.  Get the benefits that the union wins in negotiation, but no personal by-in, no shared sacrifice.

Every man and woman for themselves, divide and conquer. The gospel of Ann Rand tries to marginalize the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Unions are disparaged; disunion is celebrated.  I’ve got mine, good luck getting yours.  Selfishness battles shared destiny.

Our grandparents sacrificed to build unions which bargain for the middle class with upper class owners.  We do live in two different worlds.  If you don’t believe so, just try to visit a gated community, join an exclusive club, or fly in a private jet. There doesn’t have to be class warfare, but there surely is class distinction.  The need for mediators to negotiate between bosses and workers should be self-evident.  Yes, there is bad union behavior, just as there’s bad boss behavior, but paying a little attention to the history of organized labor in the USA should convince, that good unions are the foundation for good jobs and productivity.  Many employers now recognize this.  But they didn’t always.

 

he stories of the Flint Sit Down Strike; Ludlow Massacre; Haymarket Riot 1886 Chicago; 1913 Massacre at Italian Hall, Copper Harbor; the International Ladies Garment Workers Union of NYC; the Grape Boycott--United Farm Workers Union; the Battle of Blair Mountain, WV; and hundreds more—these should be told and retold, to afford an appreciation of how hard it’s been, to give workers a fair wage and common voice in America.  There are certainly some union members, along with the corporate CEO’s, who need to become aware of this history.

At a hospital emergency room seeing patients, shoveling in a mine, hoeing sugar beets, or working the assembly line, all the long day—these teach a lesson.  Having done the first and third of these, I’ve learned something.  Most working people know what’s fair and what’s not, if management sits down and levels with them.  This is the purpose of sensible union activity, to achieve the goals of the company / organization, all contributors at the table.  For the rich especially, a thorough contemplative reading of the Gospel of Luke and his Acts of the Apostles, would be a wise prayerful choice during this troubled, holy, season.

St. Luke the Evangelist was bullish on the responsibility the Rich have for the rest of us.

 

May we renew our solidarity, deepening its spirituality—our common good binding us all, rich and poor and middle class, together.  

 

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From Sec. 20 Rerum Novarum, 1891, Pope Leo XIII---“Lastly, the rich must religiously refrain from cutting down the workmen's earnings, whether by force, by fraud, or by usurious dealing…”

From Economic Justice for All, a pastoral letter of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1986)

“No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself. Therefore we firmly oppose organized efforts, such as those regrettably seen in this country, to break existing unions or prevent workers from organizing.”

Another form of rights--that includes everyone--Today

http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/

December 10th --  Human Rights Day

 

 

 

DOES THE LEFT HAND OF OUR CHURCH KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT IS DOING?

Two sides of card offered by "Catholics United"

 

 After these elections: less politics, more Jesus.  The answer to the “fiscal cliff” is found in our looking to the heavens for the Second Coming as in today’s gospel, erect, unafraid, because we’ve listened to the Last Judgement message of Jesus in Matthew 25:40 —“whatsoever you did to the least of your brothers and sisters, you did to me.”  And there is practical evidence the “cliff” is just another manipulation by the powerful of the public’s dire imagination, to keep people so anxious they can’t think straight, and forget that it is in God, not Wall Street, that we trust.

 

Why was there such fierce animosity and distrust this last election?  Where did this come from?  Why do those that disagree have to call each other--lost souls?   Many crusaders for respecting life, and ending war, competed in disrespecting each others’ persons.

We need to unite the social justice and devotional charity aspects of our churches, which have too often been at odds.  They both must work and pray for each other.

mixed message

Does the right hand of our church know what the left is doing?  Or does the left know the right?  Our conservative and liberal elements have been placed in pitched battle, especially in this past election season.  Yet red and blue we worship in the same pew.  If both hands can be clasped together offering each other their best strength, depth and humility, maybe the proposed “new evangelization” can become a reality.  “See how they love one another.”

 Celtic knot -- by Kathy Brahney

 

 

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/120212.cfm

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/11/07/fiscal_cliff_it_s_not_a_cliff.html