Month: December 2018

In the days leading up to Christmas, our daily newspaper published an article by a local pastor entitled, Uncomfortable Truths in This Season of Light. As it turns out, the title gave the plot away.

The subject was the nationally reported story of a Roman Catholic church in Dedham, MA that’s outdoor creche featured baby Jesus inside a cage, with the surrounding wise men barred from reaching him because of a wall. The sign above the creche read, “Peace on Earth?” Here the obvious reference is to the current hot-button issue of immigration on our southern border.

In explaining the priest’s decision to erect the controversial creche, the author quotes him as saying that he was “just trying to start a conversation.” In the same vein, the author herself argues that regardless of whether one agrees with using the creche to raise the issues or not, the “bigger question” is “how do we talk about this.”

And yet, ironically, her article, along with its reproving title, does more to shut down conversation than start one. What one finds instead is soft-pedaled contempt for those who see things differently than she.

Continue reading “As I Was Saying…”

Though not commonly known, we Christians currently are in the liturgical season of Advent, not Christmas. Christmas always starts on December 25^th and lasts…for 12 days.

Even less well known is that Advent, historically, is a season of repentance! In fact, it’s been referred to as a “mini-Lent,” a time for self-reflection and introspection, the purpose of which is to PREPARE ourselves for the  arrival of the Christ child.

But the 3^rd of the 4 Sundays in Advent is known as Gaudete Sunday. Its theme is joy. It’s supposed to be a break from our preparations so that we might consider why we’re preparing in the first place. And that is the joy of Christmas morn.

Continue reading “Leinbach Lines – 1987”

In his 1989 book, The Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age, Canadian author Modris Eksteins characterizes the famous Christmas Truce of 1914 as the metaphorical last stand of the West, perhaps even its apotheosis. What was to follow unleashed sweeping changes that would define the 20^th century.

The Great War had broken out in August of 1914 and by December a wholly new and monstrous form of warfare had developed along the entirety of the Western Front. As the first truly modern war, and thus the first to employ advanced technology (most especially machine guns and heavy artillery), the loss of life on both sides was unprecedented. It resulted not in quick advances, as both sides had reason to expect, but a long, grisly standoff.

Reportedly, at certain points along the front, enemy combatants were as close as 70 feet away, holed up for days and months in makeshift trenches. Facing heavy losses, fatigue, insufficient supplies, rats, and the unusually heavy and sustained rains of fall and early winter, the soldiers’ constant companion was death and mud.

Continue reading “End of an Era”

Probably the worst accusation my father could level at anyone was to be deemed a “phony.” And this from someone who almost always kept his criticisms to himself.

“Just make sure you’re alright,” he would repeatedly caution his four children, an obvious appeal to modesty and circumspection.

Foremost, he was a humble man. My mother frequently would urge him to take more credit for his achievements, which were many. She chalked up his reticence to a case of low self-esteem, though I personally never saw it that way. For me, he was just genuinely humble. Continue reading “Being Better than Others”