blood from the beginning

Bernard Lewis describes Syria in the 11^th century as a “population of great diversity, with strong local traditions and independence…and had rarely known political unity.  The pattern was one of fragmentation, of sectarian and regional particularism, and of recurring conflict and change.”  It is no wonder then,  that today’s chaos and carnage continues and unfortunately no change will come regardless of who is finally in charge.  The Shia’s and the Sunnis and the rest use Islam in their defence but I propose a deeper cause that according to God, will always be:

“Behold you are with child; you shall call his name Ish’mael; because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.  He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

The lineage doesn’t know the meaning of peace because in their blood from the beginning they have known nothing but war and today we get to see it in high definition.  UN envoys weep as they watch children die after being exposed to chlorine bombs.  What can we do, what should we do, evacuate the entire country and then nuke it? 

God called this one for sure. 

Charbel knew better than to get involved with humanity.  We’re all Ish’maels sometimes, poor kid, it wasn’t his fault, God messed it up, giving Abraham a hot Ethiopian, why didn’t you fertilize Sarah from the beginning, because you knew four millennia later we’d watch the destruction of a nation.  And how do we stop what you started.  It doesn’t make any sense o Yahweh.

How easy it is to become skeptical and whoa wait Johnny boy how’s that novena going, day two?  I’m a hypocrite aren’t I,  it’s hard to do intercessory prayer when my concerns are compared to children dying from chlorine gas, really, it’s selfish to ask for direction or for mercy.  Maybe what I ought to be praying is for God to change time.

9:19pm

An earthquake 160km off the coast of Muscat shook the residents today at 3pm.  A frightened person on a facebook page feared the entire city could be wiped out.  Don’t look for jobs in Japan, ma’am or anywhere along the ring of fire.  It registered at 3.0, not big in comparison but imagine a big one, the peninsula would indeed be wiped out, surely most if not all the buildings were not built for such an occurrence.  Imagine, God forbid, if Dubai was nailed.  Wow is all one could say.

Tomorrow begins week eight, was it a good, restful weekend?  I took a long 2.2 hour nap, hardly registering on the seismic nap scale.  All the washing and ironing done, shopping yesterday meant today I didn’t leave the grotto which means a day I didn’t spend money.  Actually since I’ve been bringing my lunch to school there are many days I don’t spend a baisa and that is good though I spend more crossing the border so I guess it kind of works out in the end.  Once the border pass is done I’ll save more again.  In the first year I managed to save around 60% of my salary, and I wouldn’t come close to saving nearly that if I worked in the states.  How do you feel about that? If I have a job I am content doing and have a place to sleep and a fridge and an oven I could probably live with it. 

Any final thoughts on St. Charbel and world events?  Nah, we should all be hermits, imagine a world where there was less talk, like before the computer age?  When sending a letter meant waiting days, weeks, for a reply, even if there was a reply?  This weekend, along with St. George’s Day and that other anniversary is also the 100^th anniversary of Galipoli.  Anzac Day it is in Australia and New Zealand.  A whole world away they fought for England basically and lost their lives.  We shall remember, mates.

I’d like to go to mass tomorrow, one last time, there is much to pray for these days.