“The days of our years are threescore years and ten” — Psalm 90:10

When I was in my early 20s, it seemed that I understood everything, and if I was wrong at times, it seemed to be no more than anyone else. Now, in my 40s, I look at the 20-year-olds and they seem immature, silly even, lacking in life experience. This is not to say that they do not have good ideas, insights, inspiration, courage, and all that. Of course, they do! But just look at your 5-year-old. She also has good ideas, insights, inspiration, courage, and all that… but she is still only five, and you look, and smile. I often find myself looking at the 20-year-olds and smiling (or grimacing–depending on what they are up to).

And this made me wonder, are the 60-year-olds looking at us, the 40-year-olds, and smiling or grimacing at our lack of maturity and life experience?

And even more interestingly, are the 80- and 90-year-olds looking at all of us–the whole world–and smile, grimace, or just shake their heads? And just imagine how much head-shaking the 900-year-old Adam had to do looking at those silly 80-year-olds around him!?

 

 

“By your patience you will possess your souls.”

Today we celebrate the last Sunday of Great Lent. Next week, with the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem, our journey ends, and God’s journey–the path of passion–begins.

On this last Sunday of Lent, the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Mary of Egypt. We are all very familiar with the story of her life, and I will not retell it here. But what are we to learn from it? Why does the Church remind us about this wondrous saint every year at the height of our lowly efforts in asceticism? I think that two themes in the life of Saint Mary can be helpful to us: the power of fasting, and the power of patience.

No peeking, Lady Justice!

A curious case was argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on March 20th of this year–Flowers v. Mississippi (Docket No. 17-9572). Thanks to a very popular APM podcast, many people are well-aware of the basic facts of this case. But it is neither the facts nor the evidence of the case that is being questioned at the Supreme Court; it is the possible Batson violation perpetrated by the prosecution. In other words, the counsel for Curtis Flowers argued that the District Attorney Dough Evans who prosecuted the case repeatedly used his peremptory strikes to eliminate Black potential candidates from the jury just because they were Black. If the Court rules in Flowers’ favor, his conviction for a quadruple homicide will be overturned not because he happens to be innocent of the crime–the issue of his guilt or innocence is not at all of any importance in the case before the Supreme Court–but because Black candidates were eliminated from the jury.