St. Patrick's

Went to the Old Church today for lunch. It’s been a while, too long. It was a beautiful day for walking in the city – didn’t even have to button my coat.

I wasn’t expecting much in the way of a message for some reason – more than anything I just wanted to sit quietly and chill for a bit in the middle of a pretty hectic Monday.

Damn, that place is good for meditation. Even at home, it takes me a good 10 minutes to make my feet disappear and there, it’s instantaneous.

Today’s reading was a conversation between Samuel and some other Biblical shmo regarding consistency between the different sects. One sect fasts. But Jesus’ followers don’t. So somebody calls him on it: Hey, why do we have to fast and your guys don’t?

Then the priest went off on a tangent about putting new wine in an old container.

Here’s what I got: Jesus represents the new wine, a new message. But you can’t drink the new wine (believe the new message) if you’re still carrying around an old bottle of Boone’s Farm all the time. Don’t fast. Don’t burn sacrifices. Jesus said God doesn’t care about that shit anymore.

The priest then took it one step further: If you make a decision to change, it has to be profound. It can’t be cosmetic, you have to change the source, or the internal part, as well.

I remember reading something from the Gospel of Thomas (ever heard of it? It’s part of the Bible that got left out for political reasons. It’s fascinating. Look it up.) where Jesus said “Why do you wash the outside of the bowl if you do not wash the inside?”

Same thing. You can SAY you’re gonna be a good person. You can SAY you’re gonna treat others like yourself.

But you have to do it. You have to live it. Every day.
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On the other hand, there’s this: I’m walking to church, past the train station.

And a guy rushes up to me and says, “Excuse me, miss, but I’m just 75 cents short of a bus ride home.”

What did I do? What would you do? If you’re me, walking to church on your lunch break?

Surprise.

I frowned and said “NO!”

Why?

Because, working in the city every day, you learn the tricks. These people aren’t 75 cents short of anything but their next bag of crack. They’re liars who prey on people they perceive to be friendly.

I might look friendly, but I’m not a moron. And I sure as hell ain’t Jesus, either.
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Quote: "People who claim they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us. It's the people who claim they're good, or any better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of." - Wicked by Gregory Maguire