BLOOD MOON, BLUE MOON, GREEN CHEESE MOON

Love that predictable stuff!  Don't you?

Not as rare as 4 blood moons in 30 mos.!
But, very predictable

Now this one I like.  Nobody, but nobody, altar boy, censer bearer, Gospel Reader, bell ringer, bishop, priest, deacon, pope, patriarch, visionary, you name it/him/her, no one is ever going to be able to nail this next one down.

When this happens, good luck and God bless you all.

I am presenting my thoughts on the Bible based"prophecies" concerning natural phenomena that are making the rounds these days.  The one that is making the most impact at this time is the one making a big issue of the "Blood Moon" scheduled for September 28, 2015.  This is because it will be the fourth in a series of lunar eclipses occurring at intervals of about six months.  The present tetrad will present its final "Blood Moon" on September 28, 2015.
  
There are those who think that this tetrad is of special significance because all four of the blood moons are coinciding with significant Jewish holidays.  The prophecies that are being proposed all come from self-identifying Christians, not Jews.  They are all warnings of calamitous changes in the course of Israelite history.  The prophecies are all fashioned from specifically chosen Bible verses and are of course aimed at preparing people, Christians and Jews alike, to turn to Jesus in order to be in line for whatever will happen, up to and including the Rapture.

I do not think, and I do not believe that these astronomical phenomena have any religious significance whatsoever.  Not for Jews, not for Christians, not for Bhuddists, nor Taoists, not for Muslims, nor anybody else for that matter.  These are nothing but ongoing, very predictable actions according to the laws of nature. It is but natural and very predictable that some of these galactic events will coincide with religious commemorations that are based on the lunar cycles to begin with. There is absolutely no extra-natural (supernatural) significance to these recurring and predictable phenomena.  None.  There is no human nor divine reason to inflate the meaning of the coincidence between the date of a predictable astronomical (astrological?) event and the date of the coinciding religious high day to a level that reaches prophecy.

In addition, I do not believe in the interpretation of the meaning of Scripture as presented to me by those who tell me on the one hand that Sacred Scripture is all I need to come to know the plan of God but then try to convince me that they have the right to impose their interpretation of Sacred Scripture on me based on a predictable astronomical event that they say has a reference in the Bible.  No, thank you. 

Furthermore, I have a deep and abiding faith in the Universal Unity of God's management capability over the entire world.  I do not believe that God sends signs to Jews and Christians to the exclusion or marginalization of the rest of the human occupants of the planet.  God created us all.  God keeps us all alive.  When He decides to end the world, He will give us signs so terrible that no one will have any doubt about what is coming.  No one.

Deeper yet, I say that I trust in faith that God, the creator of the laws of nature doesn't play games with them.  He doesn't make them say one thing to me and another to you.  He doesn't make them behave one way on Jewish High Days and another way on Catholic and Orthodox high days.  He also doesn't play games with the Muslims and their high days, such as Ramadan. No, I don't think that God really gives a hoot about our mutiple calendars.  I believe that we are one with God and that He sees that we all have our good times and our bad ones.  He knows the righteous and He knows the sinner and He deals with each according to His will.  When the Hour comes when He will deal with us all, we will not need any "prophet" to tell us what is coming...It will be unmistakable...It will be the night of the Green Cheese Moon.

I will surely die before then.  You all now know that you surely will not cry at my funeral.

I TREASURE YOU IN MY HEART, OH MY GOD

The other day, the priest who was celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass made a very powerful statement during his homily.  He warned us to be careful what we keep stored up in our hearts.  He said that if we are not watchful about what we have there, we could act in such a way that someone could be seriously hurt by a reflex action coming from our heart.  He warned us to work at storing only good things there so that our response from the heart would always be lovingly caring.
At the time that I heard this, I was moved and I wondered where he had encountered this piece of advice because it was not contained in any of the readings for that day.  To this day, I pray that if he had suffered an accident over which he was repenting, that his public confession would be recognized by God who would cleanse him and provide him with the courage to reconcile with the offended soul.
Furthermore, I have been thinking about this and asking myself why it was that I was so deeply moved by the warning.  I am becoming surer and surer that it is because I myself, like so many of us, I am sure, am not really totally pure in what it is that I treasure in my heart.  I know for a fact that it is not always loving kindness that leaps out of my heart during relationships with God's beloved people.  I was sitting there in church, happy and self satisfied that I had got out of bed in time to make it to Mass.  Then, the dynamic youthful pastor, shepherd of my soul, dug in, shook me and reminded me that I still have a long way to go.
The amazing thing about this warning is that it should not be new to me.  I know what Luke says about our Mother Mary, about how she kept loving things in her heart...

Besides the famous quote from psalm 119, 14, we have more places in the Sacred Scriptures where we are enjoined to keep our hearts clean so that what comes our of our mouth will always be holy.  For instance, Matthew quotes Jesus, "You brood of vipers, how can you say good things when you are evil? For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

A good person brings forth good out of a store of goodness, but an evil person brings forth evil out of a store of evil. (Chapter 12, verses 34 and 35)

Matthew has more to say about this in chapter 15 as well.  There is a lot to think about when we ponder about what to store in our hearts.  Let's all join together and work at making sure that what is stored within us is nothing but LOVE.

Peace to you all.