Sunday/A Question

On this day:1613
The Globe Theatre in London, England burns to the ground.
1956
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.
1974
Isabel Perón is sworn in as the first female President of Argentina. Her husband, President Juan Peron, had delegated responsibility due to weak health and died two days later.
1974
Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with Bolshoi Ballet.
1995
Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.

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Defenseman Charlie Trethewey was drafted in the third round by Pittsburgh. He grew up with his dad, Bob, in Mt. Lebanon. When Charlie was 13 years old, he and his father moved from Maryland to western Pennsylvania so that he could play for the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Penguins Elite. They lived with Charlie’s grandpa while building a house in Cranberry, right across from the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. They lived there during Charlie’s time with the youth hockey organization for the 2020-21 and ’21-22 seasons.

These hockey guys are something else.

Trethewey plans to attend Boston University this fall.

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The Danish parliament has voted overwhelmingly to grant the US sweeping access to three bases on Denmark’s Jutland peninsula.

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Cristiano Ronaldo signed a two-year contract to continue playing soccer in the Saudi league. He will make $211 million per season.

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Sunday/A Question

Today's gospel is the declaration of Peter. It contains a rare use of the word "church," in Greek meaning a religious assembly. It also contains a question by Christ, often startling, for what does Christ not know?

“But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

This is, again, another example of Christ's demanding a conclusion from what has been seen, a collection of observations leading to a result. It is an edgy problem, creating local conclusions from small events when a gigantic, far-reaching event could have convinced the world. And it allows for a profound uncertainty, "Who do you say that I am?" as if part of the story is the quest.


The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,–the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.


Gerard Manley Hopkins