Fr. JC Maximilian

(Above are pictures of the two Young Theologians I am heading off to visit. They are my niece and nephew, with my sister and Dad. In the post below I did not use their real names.)

Tomorrow, after celebrating the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Anthony’s, I take off for St. Louis, MO. Apparently I will be participating in the “Council of Chesterfield,” LOL. Actually my sister, her husband and their four kids live out there (Chesterfield is a suburb of St. Louis), and my brother-in-law’s nephew is getting married, and they want me to do the wedding. However, I have been warned that I best be prepared to delve into the depths of theology. Let me explain…

As I mentioned, my sister and her husband have four children; the youngest two, whom I will call Clare, age 5, and Francis, soon to be 4, apparently engaged in theological debate the other day as my sister was driving them home from daycare (while the niece and nephew are real, the names are not, to protect the innocent). Francis was holding firm to the position that there were two Jesuses: the baby Jesus and the man Jesus. Clare was passionate in trying to convert him to the orthodox position that there was in fact only one Jesus; that the baby Jesus grew up into the man Jesus. I did not hear if Francis recanted his heresy, but of course I pray he has; afterall I baptized him. Then Clare made an interesting, albeit puzzling, theological observation. She declared that St. Joseph was a carrier. My sister, who is a pediatrician, was quite interested in this proclamation and inquired as to what St. Joseph was carrying (she feared it might be TB, the plague, or Avian flu). Alas, Clare explained that he was carrying the big stick with the curved top. The full significance of this theological insight is yet to be completely explored (I am told that the great Swiss theologian, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar was sketching the outline of a book on the topic, as part of his homily after being named a Cardinal, when the Lord called him home). Then round two of the Council openned when Clare declared that God was dead (though not in the sense that Neitchze declared Him dead). Francis, filled with the Holy Spirit, strongly proclaimed God alive, but Clare wished to explain her position. Her reasoning was very simple; since Grandpa (my dad) was dead, and she was told that Grandpa was with God, then clearly God must also be dead. At this point my sister, an amateur logician, intervened and tried to explain that God was alive, that He always was, is, and will be. To which Clare asked, “So, is God and Grandpa undead?” I think that was when a recess was called, largely because my sister was laughing so hard, that all she could say was “Wait until Uncle JC gets here, he’s a priest.” So, I am off to finish my laundry and pack my Summa Theologica; St. Thomas give me strength!

As I approach my second anniversary of being a blogger, I recently noticed on my little counter-thingy (yes, I still am not all that into the tech side of things) that I have recently passed the 10,000 visitors mark; and that’s in about 14 months of existence (I started this blog sometime in May 2005). I am sure that that is not much compared to many other blogs. After all, Catholic Rage Monkey, the first blog I contributed to, I think has had over 100,000 visitors, and they have only been around about a year and a half longer than my personal blog. However, I am amazed that so many people have visited. The counter-thingy allows me to go in and look at where people are from (I have no idea how that works, and it does not tell me who you are, just what country/state the server is in from which you entered the Internet). I expected most would be from NJ, or those places where I have family. After all, that was the many reason for starting this blog; so many of my out-of-state family and friends wanted to see my weekly homily that I thought a blog would be an easier way of making it available than remembering to send them all an email with it. But I know I do not have family, that I know of, in Germany but there is someone from there who visits from time to time. Some regulars seem to come from Virginia, Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and England. I am not sure how many are “regulars” and how many just stumble onto the site in passing, but it is still amazing to me that people would read what I wrote.

I have not developed this blog as I had hoped. Originally I had planned to include reflections/summaries of various spiritual readings that I do, hoping to spark some discussion. While I have been doing the spiritual reading, I just have not done the blogging. The reason for that has be varied; of course the busyness of being a parish priest. Of course there has also been the various personal challenges that I have had since I started blogging — being diagnosed with cancer, the treatment, my father’s death, and a new assignment. I do greatly appreciate all of your support and prayers.

How about we do some howdies? If you are a “regular” just post a comment saying hello, and where you hail from. God bless you all. BTW, I’m in Trenton, NJ.