Sunday/Corpus Christi 2

On this day:

1284
The legendary Pied Piper leads 130 children out of Hamelin, Germany
1409
Western Schism: The Roman Catholic church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.
1848
End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
1917
The first U.S. troops arrive in France to fight alongside Britain and France against Germany in World War I.
1948
The Western allies begin an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockades West Berlin.
1948
William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
1996
Irish Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot in her car while in traffic in the outskirts of Dublin

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It seems the expectations that Trump would ruin NATO were less than accurate.

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China is confiscating the passports of rare earth experts.

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Why would the press fasten on the early, tenuous, "preliminary and low-confidence" report from DIA and run with it?

Is it reasonable to ask if these guys are on our side?

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Can the culture expect students to maintain self-discipline when their representatives, such as the representative at the holding facility in New Jersey, do not?

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Zohran Mamdani, the "globalize the intifada" candidate for New York mayor, clearly is a new politician. Mamdani, a Muslim, broke down in tears as he described the vitriol he has faced over his faith on the campaign trail.

The poor dear.

When asked about Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, Mamdani said he would be arrested if he visited New York City because of a warrant against him issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC)—a self-appointed UN organization that reviews global issues like war crimes and genocide, even though Israel is not a member of the ICC. Nor is the ICC recognized by the United States. It also has no enforcement power. Yet, Mamdani sees his job as mayor of an American city as enforcing the powerless wishes of some faceless external group because he claims to have a mystical loyalty to what he calls "international law."

This moral freelancing by vague, shallow thinkers is why the Constitution limits political behavior and highlights how vital the quality of politicians—and their overseers on the Supreme Court—truly is.

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So much has gone on in the last week, I'm still catching up from Sunday.

Sunday/Corpus Christi 2

Is the command "Do these things in commemoration of me" the most obeyed commandment? It is a component of every Christian church and is certainly more manifested than loving God or neighbor. And it is a difficult request. Many Church fathers were confused by it; St. Augustine himself was ambivalent about Transubstantiation. And it seemed to have a subsidiary but real social element that the Catholic Church at least has scorned.

Sunday's readings center on this, one directly, one symbolically, and two mysteriously. Paul quotes Christ--one of his rare quotes--at the Last Supper in his letter to the Corinthians. The Gospel reading is of the loaves and fishes, certainly a reflection of the meal at the Last Supper.

But the other two readings, from Genesis and the Psalms, are stranger. In Genesis, Abram meets Melchizedek after several successful battles. Melchizedek is introduced as the king of Salem--the early name of Jerusalem--and his name is translated as "my king is righteousness." Melchizedek brings bread and wine--like the Last Supper to come--and then, after a mention of Abram's victories, it is stated, "And [he] gave him tithe from all." It is generally translated that the giver of the tithe is Abram and the receiver is Melchizedek.

What does all this mean? How could Abram give tithes to this desert king? Who was he?

Later in Psalms is written: The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent: 'Thou art a priest for ever after the manner of Melchizedek.'" And Paul says in his Epistle to the Hebrews that Melchizedek is "without father, without mother, without genealogy." Whoa.

Psalms and Paul present Melchizedek as a representative of God who predated the Aaronic priesthood, perhaps descended from God Himself, before all people and clans, races and nations. Before the establishment of religious history itself.