It is Sunday
And already the bells of Holy Name of Mary
Have rung out once
Calling the Catholics of my small town
And I have been up since the mewl of the cat
At the break of dawn
When the birds began to sing
And all was quiet of this Western front
And I have partaken
Of the well of social media, stumbling already
Across Glastonbury controversy
And Leonard Cohen being misquoted
And instead of being sat in a pew
I ruminate like a cow instead of listening to a homily
Based upon a strange set
Of readings, here, let us pause, and parse
Reading 1, Acts 12:1-11 (06/29/2025)
The subtlety of biblical anti-Semitism
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Curiously, a mention of Yahweh
Gospel, Matthew 16:13-19
The bestowing of authority of the rock of foundation on Peter’s Church
Reading 2, Second Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
6 As for me, my life is already poured away as libation, and the time has come for me to depart
7. I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept faith;
And as I have been good and faithful I shall enter Heaven as is my due from belief.
And like sheep, during the Communion Rite
We would be asked to offer the Sign of Peace
The Priest stating Let us offer each other a sign of peace
We would reach only within our tribe to shake hands, in rote
We are not told, go forth, spread peace, but that peace be upon us
We are not held to moral accountability to the preaching
We are supposedly practising, the following of,
The walking of Jesus’ love as in Matthew 5:44
44 But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you
And who are our enemies?
The diminished masses that founded Zion from
A hate too, too,
That after two thousand years recalled a home?
A people displaced, trampled by history,
Just as those now building walls once were?
Apart, displaced, not for years, but decades,
Scar upon scar with a voice unheard?
And we the west, living safe in our quiet
Of daily diet of televisized fictitious evil crime,
Advertizing that fosters our greed and envy,
And shame that permeates anything erotically charged
We the west, defined by those who want to sell
Us on being complacent
And keep chaos alive elsewhere,
So we can always worry about its contagion, transmission.
We without looking, or rather, looking
Without seeing
Perhaps we are the most complicit
As we horde our gold and worry that they
As we complain of our constraints and our battles,
We who have so very much, even the worst of us,
And we cannot care, not for our neighbours,
Not for neighbourhoods, not for anything beyond
Those that come over for hot dogs and beer
And flag waving cheer
That happily accept the tax reductions
While bemoaning the lack of services provided.
I do not know anything.
I am dumb and mute and blind.
And I have no power, and I am poor,
But I have a roof, and peace,
And time to think
As if I were sat upon that hardwood pew
Contemplating
The balance of good and evil
And people might say,
Just enjoy your stay
Ignore the clouds, see, here be sunshine
And just concentrate and everything will be just fine.
And we shake hands and say peace
And they say Shalom
And they say Salam Alaykum
And they say Tan’si
And you wonder
If the turtle has withdrawn her head
To weep tears of shame
For what her creations have became
Powerful writing….