Pentecost XXII
Bishop’s Corner
What beautiful Fall days have fallen to our lot this month! We are grateful for the glorious weather, and are getting ourselves, slowly, ready for Winter. An icy patch of parking lot has been corrected near the garage, and the fish pond is being seen to. The asphalt in the parking lot needs some repair, but this will have to wait for Spring, as the asphalt factories have closed for the season.
An amiable gypsy popped into the sacristy after Benediction the other Wednesday, with a “too good to be true” deal on asphalt for us. It was. One has a certain sympathy for Sarkozy, president of France, who took quite a bit of heat from the liberals for deporting some of their squatting Gypsies or Roma people.
France seems to be in even worse shape than America these days, with rioting and strikes and fuel shortages to protest the proposed retirement age of 60! It is currently 58, which sounds good to me!
Besides politics, America’s great folly at this season is football, which has gone from a game for the young to a national religion for all. Football has its temples (stadiums) its priesthood (the players) and its long and complex sacred ceremonies which may be viewed with devotion in the comfort of one’s living room all week long, etc. Can you think of an added analogy or two? It even has its martyrs, the poor players who suffer a concussion, on the average of one per game, the N.F.L. reports.
In summary, I’ll remind you of that quotation I cited in my sermon the other Sunday: “In his senate days, Minnesotan Gene McCarthy had it right when he said that ‘being in politics is like being a football coach; You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it’s important.’ ”
Enjoy this glorious season, follies and all. Try to get out and appreciate the fragile beauty of the last of the fine weather. Come on out and join us this afternoon to pray our Vespers Rosary for our missions and missionaries, who are our real heroes.
St. Raphael guide and protect your journeys!
–Bishop Dolan