THE GREAT WALL

Thanksgiving Day in China!

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice." - Meister Eckhart

Just a few lines to report on the day.

The day started with the normal routine: the morning walk, mass in the chapel and breakfast with students in the office. Morgan joined me for breakfast with students and then she helped out with the morning oral English classes.

Jingmei cooked a Thanksgiving meal for the lucky group who had lunch at the apartment today. Chicken, mashed potatoes, fish, vegetables and pumpkin pie. I joined the gang, but skipped lunch as Rad and the young teachers were putting on a big feast for all of us at their apartments.

I just finished the evening class and need to get ready for the trip to Tianjin tomorrow with Chen Shuo.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

"The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts." - Baruch Spinoza

Yesterday was a long day and today was even longer, so I skipped the walk, got an extra hour or so of sleep and started the day with mass in the chapel. That was followed by two lively groups of students for breakfast in the office. 

I spent most of the morning at the radio station and then stopped at the Bank of China on my way back to the office to take care of some banking. The stuff at the radio station went smoothly; the banking was a real headache. It is usually is! 

The Saturday show deals with World AIDS Day and Sunday’s show highlights the trip to Hong Kong with the nursing students. I guess doing back-to-back shows on HIV/AIDS was a little much for the station manager.

I had classes all afternoon and in a little while I need to head off for a make-up class this evening. The afternoon class was with the freshmen nursing students for writing and that class went really well. They are doing a very good job with their writing and I couldn’t be happier at this time with their progress.

Morgan hung out in the office this afternoon and a bunch of students came by to hang out with her. She is going out for dinner this evening with two of my infamous former students. Liu Bo is planning to take her to Beijing for a five-day trip next week. That Bejing trip is only going to be possible if she survives tonight's meal and night out on the town with the infamous duo of Yi Ran and Jackie. Yi Ran stopped by the office to pick Morgan as Jackie had a late class at her high school.

I have classes all morning tomorrow and then plan to head over to have a Thanksgiving meal with the young Maryknoll teachers. I’ll shoot back for my evening class tomorrow night and then I’ll be leaving here early on Friday morning with Chen Shuo for our trip to Beijing-Tianjin and the big competition. I’m not sure if I will be able to find a computer to post a blog from Tianjin, but I will try. If not I will have plenty of pictures, etc. to show you on my Sunday post.

I want to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving….and use this opportunity to thank you all for being my friends!

The Nursing Students of Jilin Medical College

"Some men see things as they are and ask why? I dream of things that never were and say: why not?" George Bernard Shaw

The day started in the usual way: the morning walk, mass in the chapel and then breakfast in the office with two groups of students.

I spent the day in the office correcting the freshmen’s journals and working on stuff for this coming weekend’s radio shows. I’m heading to Tianjin on Friday morning and need to rearrange some of this week’s classes, so I want to tape the shows tomorrow morning and get that out of the way. Most of the stuff for the shows is already taken care of as I had these shows planned two weeks ago. We will be dedicating all the air time to World AIDS Day.

Morgan is feeling a little better today, which is of course great news. Dr. Jingmei is taking good care of her and under Jingmei’s care she should be back to full strength soon. There are a lot of colds going around here and the long trip from Sydney to Jilin along with her final busy week in Australia probably had her worn down. It also might be the direct result of here arriving in the northeast of China dressed in her sandals!! Anyway, she was feeling good enough today to come over to the office and spend the afternoon with Liu Bo, Unica, some of her old friends and Wang Wei.

Wang Wei was pretty busy today helping students to download lecture notes, prep for the radio show and teaching the office students.

After I got my palm-sized digital camera the students have a new name for me. In Tanzania, I was PadreBrian. Now I am being called Paparazzo Brian. Sometimes it is not easy being me!!

I had class this evening and that was followed by another study group, which just finished a little while ago.

Today’s gospel and some comments:

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them. "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately." Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.” Lk 21:5-11

“The disciples said to Jesus: ‘Tell us how our end shall be.’ Jesus said: ‘Have you then discovered the beginning, that you seek after the end? For where the beginning is, there shall the end be. Blessed are they who shall stand in the beginning, and they shall know the end and shall not taste death.’” (Gospel of Thomas, 18)

The beginning and the end are the same question, and it is a question that we can't think out fully, because it takes us beyond ourselves.

The end is always unthinkable – for while you are still there to think about it, it’s not yet the end. Death is unthinkable. I don’t mean that it’s terrible, but only that it’s unthinkable. We can say we are thinking about ‘it’, but that’s not the real thing. That's why we tend to see others as mortal, but not ourselves really...

The beginning too is unthinkable. When Zen teachers ask you to show them your original face before you were born (or before your parents were born), they don't want or expect you to come up with a thought-out answer. They are trying to drive you to the end of thinking and beyond. 

The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem was not like the destruction of a church building. There are countless churches but there was only one Temple. To destroy that Temple was to destroy the identity of the Jewish people. So when Jesus said, “The day is coming when there shall not be left one stone upon another of all that you now admire; all will be torn down,” he was saying the unthinkable.

Also unthinkable is the new beginning that is Jesus himself. In him God is doing a new thing. Through him, that new thing is happening in us too. “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Next Sunday is the beginning of a new Liturgical year, so this is the final week of the old year: that's why we have such strange readings every day. The year is coming to an end. Anything coming to an end reminds us of our mortality. This is a week for meditating on the impermanence of all things. Because we do it with the Liturgy it’s not a dreary or terrible subject; it’s about life and death together – the inseparable mystery.

The Irish Poet

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." - Benjamin Franklin

It feels good to be back. Being in my own place, sleeping in my own bed and following my own routine is just a great feeling! I got back into that routine with my morning walk, mass in the chapel and then breakfast with the students. I had the early bird group, but not the freshmen for breakfast in the office today; I think the freshmen weren’t sure if we were back on schedule starting today. 

Actually the freshmen did me a favor by not showing up as it gave me an extra hour or so to get ready for some meetings today.

I missed the birthday dinner for Morgan last night, but they had a good time and that is what is important. I had a counseling session with a former student who traveled a long distance to see me, so there was no way to make the birthday dinner. They all went out for a hot pot meal, which is one of Morgan’s favorites. The 21st birthday isn’t quite the same in China, as you are of legal age at birth over here!

Morgan has a little cold and was pretty tired after the long trip, so she went to bed shortly after I got back to the apartment a little after 9:00. As of today she has lunch with the second year nursing students and dinner with the third year nursing students for the remainder of her time in China. The students are excited about that. The third year students all know Morgan and the second year students are anxious to meet her. Wang Wei got her hooked up to the Internet after lunch today, so she is now back in contact with the rest of the world.

I had a nice visit in my office this morning with Dr. Zang, the young doctor who is working with the HIV/AIDS patients in our area. Next Monday is World AIDS Day and I wanted to talk over a few things with him in preparation for that day and a few things that are planned. 

This is going to be a hectic week, as I need to make up a few medical English classes that I missed while in Hong Kong and I also need to reschedule my writing class for this coming Friday. Thursday is Thanksgiving and the young Maryknoll teachers are holding a Thanksgiving meal at their place. I will be flying to Tianjin with Chen Shuo, one of our third year nursing students who advanced to the Regional Finals of the national English Speech Competition. The Regional Finals are being held this year in Tianjin.

TingTing stopped by the office today and she is looking very good. She walks now without any noticeable limp and says she feels great. The surgery to remove the many pins and plates from her legs is scheduled for sometime next month. That will involve another hospital stay and hopefully will bring to an end the long road to full recovery that she has been on. As always it is great to see her looking so good!!

I will be away again this Friday, which is a little dangerous. Last Friday the dangerous Miss Rad taught my students a little known poem, by an “Irish” poet. Fortunately the audio of the post she made on YouTube is not very clear. 

There was once a priest in Rome,

Who knew Father Brian had no home.

So he sent him to work in Jilin City,

Those poor Chinese people, what a pity!

His students thought he was a terrible teacher,

They said he was too much of a preacher.

 

So a secretary was hired to help him organize his day,

But little did he know, she always told him to go the WRONG WAY!

Finally, one day he went to Hong Kong,

And the students threw a party while he was gone!

Perhaps it is not his fault that we get mad

It might be because his football team is so bad!!

 

I have it from a reliable source who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, that the infamous Rad had trouble buying eggs at one of the big supermarkets today. She was apparently unaware that the supermarket sells eggs at a huge discount only to club members with cards. The price was so good, that Rad wanted some 50 eggs. When they wouldn't sell her eggs without a card, she started singing a song about how eggs should be available to all people regardless of the race, national origins, card holding or non-card holding, etc. Well it didn't take long for her to win the battle.

 

I have an evening class, so I am going to post today's blog and get out of here.

Today’s gospel and some comments:

He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on." Lk 21:1-4

In the verses just before this passage Jesus is going after the religious authorities for “swallowing the property of widows, while making a show of lengthy prayers.” Almost as if to give an example of what he had said, along came a widow who put money in the collection box! It was very little – two small coins – but it was “all she had to live on.” This passage tends to get a lot of attention in terms of the woman’s piety, or at least a lot of people focus on the woman’s piety, but common sense really would (should) lead us to see it as a criticism of the Temple system and its wealth. A widow in that society was entirely without resources or protection. Of course Jesus saw her generosity, and that too is important. But he also saw that she was an example of the system’s capacity to exploit the poor.

Morgan Arrives Safely

Morgan arrived safely a few hours ago. Wang Wei picked her up this morning at Longjia International Airport and they arrived at the apartment at around 12:30.

I had lunch with her and she is getting herself settled in at this time. We will have mass at 4:30 and then head out to celebrate her birthday with some of the gang this evening.

The students are pretty happy to see Morgan back in Jilin.

Back in Jilin City

"Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" – T. S. Eliot

The last twenty-four hours have been pretty busy. Actually the past week has been pretty busy!

We arrived safely back in Jilin at around 8:30 last night. We had a great time and it was certainly a trip that I will never forget. I think the crew was pretty tired, but they were also happy to be back and anxious to tell their stories to their classmates.

My niece, Morgan, will be arriving later today, so I am going to post this blog early with a few pictures. I will be back tomorrow with a full blog. 

Thursday, November 20, 2008 The Final Full-Day in Hong Kong!

"There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read." – G..K .Chesterton

The gang from the medical college headed out this morning after breakfast for the hospital. Today they spent time with the community nursing team, which involved home nursing visits. They really enjoyed today's part of the program and it was interesting to hear some of their stories at dinner this evening. They were told that they could wear casual dress today, so Wang Wei lent a hand and washed their nursing whites while they were out. I would have done that, but they probably thought I was too busy! ^_^ Wang Wei was a pretty good sport about it. She said something like: I have had more fun, but I can't remember when!

I stayed behind and spent the day correcting the freshmen’s writing assignments. I'm really happy with the students' writing and at this stage they are looking very good! 

I was able to take care of my bookings for the trip home during the winter break. The flights out of Hong Kong are pretty packed the first few days of January, so I will be leaving here and arriving home on January 7th. If I had made the decision yesterday, I would be arriving home on the 6th of January. I waited a day to see if we could find a better price and ended up paying the same the same price for a flight one day later. My problem in booking the ticket was that I needed to be in Hong Kong for a meeting in mid-February, so the best option was to fly out of Hong Kong and return to Hong Kong. Sometimes it is not easy being me!

I talked with my parents this morning; Mom and Dad are both doing great. They of course are looking forward to our reunion in January. I heard from my sister, Marcia, and she will be having hip replacement surgery while I am home in January, so I am now planning on doing very little traveling while I am home during the winter break.

I spent a good bit of time this afternoon in the chapel. The Stanley House is usually pretty quiet and the chapel is one of my favorite spots. I especially like going there in the evenings; this afternoon I needed a break from the students papers, so I went there for a couple of hours.

One of the nice things about the Maryknoll House here at Stanley is the huge number of books, newspapers and periodicals available in the house library and throughout the house. It is always nice to pick up a few books to read when I visit. I usually grab a couple of novels to read while here and a couple more to take back to Jilin with me. It is kind of like walking into a bookstore as there is a huge assortment of books. I'm not taking anything back with me this time, as I need to travel light and with my niece, Morgan, arriving on Sunday I don't plan to have too many slow nights at the apartment.

Wang Wei took the gang to visit a few more Hong Kong hot spots this evening. Tonight was their final night in Hong Kong.

Tomorrow morning we will take our stuff with us when we go to the hospital, as we will be heading for the border after finishing the day at the hospital. Our final night of this trip will be spent in Shenzhen, which is just across the border with Hong Kong. We have an early morning flight from Shenzhen to Beijing where we will connect to our flight back to Jilin. 

So as the sunsets on our final night here in Hong Kong, I can say it has been one incredibly good trip for all of us!

Wednesday November 19, 2008 Another Busy Day in Hong Kong!

"We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul force. There is still a voice crying out through the vista of time, saying: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you. Then, and only then, can you matriculate into the university of eternal life. That same voice cries out in terms lifted to cosmic proportions: He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword. And history is replete with the bleached bones of nations that failed to follow this command. We must follow nonviolence and love." – Martin Luther King, Jr.

I started the day by going to the hospital with the students. After they were settled in for their third day I traveled to another part of Kowloon to meet with Fr. Adam Gudalefsky M.M. to talk about some training for Mingli. Fr. Adam has been working with mentally challenged children and adults for about 30 or 40 years and is a real expert in this area. He gave me some great ideas to take back to Jilin and talk over with Mingli.

I then went to the Hong Kong AIDS Foundation for a short meeting and lunch with O.C. Lin who has been working closely with the Tianji Social Service Center and their outreach program for people living with HIV/AIDS in Jilin.

 

The students got back from another busy and interesting day at the hospital at around 5:45 and I was waiting for them at the front door. 

This evening Dr. Samantha Pang the head of the school of nursing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University came over to the house to have dinner with the gang from Jilin Medical College and myself and then Dr. Pang and I met with Fr. Scott Harris to talk about some funding for a few nursing programs that she has going with nursing colleges on the mainland.

It was a busy, but very productive day. I will be going back to the hospital with the students tomorrow and I am looking forward to that.

Today’s gospel and some comments:

As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, "A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, 'Do business with these until I come back.' But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We do not want this man to rule over us.' When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, 'Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.' He said to him, 'Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.' Then the second came, saying, 'Lord, your pound has made five pounds.' He said to him, 'And you, rule over five cities.' Then the other came, saying, 'Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.' He said to him, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.' He said to the bystanders, 'Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.' (And they said to him, 'Lord, he has ten pounds!') 'I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them – bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.'" After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. Lk 19:11-28

Jesus and his disciples continue on the road to Jerusalem. As the end of the liturgical year draws closer, the readings have Jesus teaching about the time when he will no longer be with his disciples.

The point of the story in today’s gospel is: “To all those who have, more will be given.” It sounds very unjust; it is just like the way the business world operates. The business world deals with things, property, and cash. How could the same rules apply to inner realities: mind, heart, spirit? 

The fact is that they do, but the significance is quite different. For the one who loves (for example), more love will become possible; to the one who uses the intelligence he or she has, more will be given; to the one who prays, more prayer will be possible. It is by using what is given to us that we become capable of more.

What does it mean? How can something be taken from me if I don’t have it in the first place? The answer I think is this: even if I don’t have something I have the capacity for it; and the terrible truth is that I can lose this too. It is a more drastic loss than the other: if I lose the capacity for something then I can't receive it even if the whole world were given to me!

Tuesday November 18, 2008 Day Two at the Maryknoll Hospital in Hong Kong

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." – Anatole France

My classmate, Jose, left early this morning for the airport and a long flight back to New York where he will begin a six-year term as the vicar general of Maryknoll on November 25th. I said goodbye to him at the front door of the Stanley House. It has been great having him in China for the past five plus years. His presence and leadership will be missed here in the Hong Kong/China group.

I wish Jose a safe journey and God’s blessings on his new ministry!!

Shortly after Jose left we headed off for day two at the hospital. It was another good day full of learning experiences for the students. Today we spent most of the morning on the geriatric ward, which was pretty interesting. They staff at the hospital are doing some great and innovative work with the patients and we got to see a lot of it today.

 

We spent the afternoon on the hospice ward. That was a very powerful experience for the students and one of them pulled me aside to say that this is the kind of work that led her to choose nursing as her major. The hospice wing of the Maryknoll hospital has 30 beds and covers the entire fifth floor of the East wing. That used to be the convent for the sisters who worked in the hospital. Quiet impressive!

The students are basically on the move from 9:00 in the morning till 5:00 in the afternoon. We took a short 45 minute break from 1:00 to 1:45 and some of us played ping pong in the staff recreation room while others got a short rest!

We take a taxi to and from the hospital each day and the conversations during the taxi ride are pretty interesting.

 

I have been spending my days down here with the students at the hospital and my evenings talking with some of my colleagues who are at the house. It makes for long, but very interesting days. The students have been coming back to the house for dinner and then taking off to visit some of the sites in Hong Kong with Wang Wei as their tour guide. They just returned a shortwhile ago; they are having long, interesting and exciting days. It is good to be with them and experience their interest, energy and excitement!

 

Today’s gospel and some comments:

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost." Lk 19:1-10

The story of Zacchaeus is unique to Luke, as are also the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. Luke always has an eye for what is lost, he even sees some tax collectors in a good light. The situation is, however, a bit ambiguous, because Luke usually portrays the wealthy in a bad light. How will he classify Zacchaeus, who was both a tax collector and wealthy?

Zacchaeus was “a chief tax collector,” the essence of tax collector. They were despised by their own people, because the taxes they were extorting from them were going to the occupying forces, the Romans. Jesus responds to him immediately, and they ended up having a meal together. “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus said. Zacchaeus was a rich man who had made it through the eye of the needle.

“Today I must stay at your house… today salvation has come to this house.” It is an important word in Luke’s vocabulary, which means it was most likely very important in Jesus’. How is it, then, that Jesus seemed to be satisfied with Zacchaeus’ promises, his ‘tomorrow’. "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." It is interesting that in Greek these verbs are in the present tense. But many scholars (including the translators of this version) see their meaning as future. One scholar argues that a present tense would show Zacchaeus as a boaster, which would not have cut any ice with Jesus. And besides, it would be harder to understand the crowd's hostility if Zacchaeus has already mended his ways. It seems Zacchaeus was talking about what he was going to do. Why did Jesus accept this?

The point is that he was able to see Zacchaeus’s face (and his heart), which we are not able to do. The fundamental language is a person’s whole demeanor, and not just the words they use. Jesus saw that he was lost, but he also saw that he was open to being found.

Monday November 17th, 2008...Day One at Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital

The students first day at Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital was a long and good one. They are out in Hong Kong tonight seeing some sights with Wang Wei as their tour guide, so I am here alone and have a little time to make a post. 

 

They got up early today and had breakfast at 6:30 before setting out for the hospital at 7:30.

We were welcomed by the staff at the hospital and before getting the program going had our pictures taken. We have our own meeting room for the week and the schedule each day calls for us to spend sometime in the meeting room listening to a presentation on a particular aspect of the hospital’s work and then a trip to a ward to see how they do it.

Before our first visit to a ward the students took a written test on safety precautions (they all aced the exam) and then had to do a practice washing of their hands to make sure they knew how to do it properly. The students did well, I failed!!! ^_^

We spent most of the morning in the classroom, but did get to one of the wards before lunch.

 

We had lunch in the staff canteen.

We spent most of the afternoon on two different wards watching how patients are moved from beds to gurneys and from beds to wheelchairs. The displays showed how to make sure the patient is safe while at the same time insuring that the nurse doesn’t hurt herself/himself (especially the back).

We finished the first day at the hospital at around 5:00 p.m. and then headed back to Stanley for dinner. The students finished dinner and then headed downtown to see a little of Hong Kong with Wang Wei.

Everyone is pretty excited about how the first day went and we are all looking forward to the second day of our week long experience tomorrow. I have a new photo album on the side of this blog with pictures of the trip. So as sun sets this first night in Hong Kong all is going well. I will be back tomorrow with a full blog!

The Trip to Hong Kong

We have arrived safely at the Maryknoll-Stanley.

 

We had a good trip down and everyone is ready for the first day at the hospital tomorrow.

 

I plan to give you a full report of the first day in tomorrow's blog.

 

 

 

Travel Day

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I slept in late and started the day with mass in the chapel around 9:00. That felt very good!! 

There was nothing on the schedule today other than starting the trip to Hong Kong. With so much freedom, I did a little catching up on my email and then came over to the office to clean up my desk.

I did spend sometime in Thomland and managed to bother the student on duty to the best of my ability.  ^_^

I will be posting daily from Hong Kong and hope to give my readers back home and here in China a good idea of what our students are experiencing on their Hong Kong trip!!

Radio Shows, English Corner, Fr. Roy Bourgeois M.M. and Travel Plans.

"By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day." – Robert Frost

I started the day with the morning walk, mass in the chapel and then breakfast with the students. I leave tomorrow for Hong Kong, so the early birds can sleep in next week.

I gave the freshmen nursing students a writing exam the first two periods this morning and then took off for the radio station. The shows for this weekend went well; the shows for the following weekend went well, too. They didn’t, however, go as planned. For some reason, I had in my mind that the following weekend was November 29th and 30th, which of course, it isn’t. I had shows planned for World AIDS Day, which is December 1st, and we will now go with those shows once I get back.

It was a little embarrassing, as I had interviews lined up. Anyway, we ended up talking about a bunch of small stuff for the shows that will air next weekend. I suggested that the president-elect get his daughters a Golden Retriever (great dogs) and Xuefei wanted to know why I like Golden Retrievers. The answer to that question for those who knew, Dallas, is an easy one. We also spent a little time talking about taxi drivers talking on hand phones while driving (today’s ride to the station occasioned that one) and a few other things. After doing the weekend shows for five years, it is pretty easy to talk about just about anything these days. We did not talk about long underwear on any of these show, as that is a pretty boring subject, if you ask me!! ^_^

The young Maryknoll teachers were here again tonight for a campus-wide English Corner. They brought a bunch of Beihua students with them this evening, so we had a nice dinner near our campus before the English Corner got started with the Beihua students.

I got more than a few emails today from friends back home asking about Fr. Roy Bourgeois M.M.. To be honest,I do not know much, in fact I know nothing, but apparently there is quite a bit in the press back home. I can, however, share with you the official press release of my group, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, concerning Fr. Roy.

The Maryknoll Society did receive a confidential communiqué from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, and forwarded the contents of that communiqué to Father Bourgeois. The Society continues to respect the confidentiality of the communications between the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and Father Bourgeois.

The Society will abide by the decision of the Congregation. At the same time, we have an obligation to ensure the canonical rights of our members, and we will fulfill that obligation.

Today’s gospel and some comments:

Jesus said to his disciples: Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them – it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left." Then they asked him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." Lk 17:26-37

“Just as it was in the days of Noah…. Just as it was in the days of Lot.” In both cases there was the sudden disruption of normal life, the unexpected occurred. “It will be like that,” he said, “on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.” This is Jesus talking about the end times and he will do so again in a later chapter of Luke.

“On that day,” he said, there will be no time to go and sort things out. There will be no more time because time itself will be no more. There will be no time to collect your things from your home. Don’t look back, as Lot’s wife did, lingering after things you had to leave behind.

That will be the ultimate Now, the moment of consummation. In the meantime we are to live the Now that is given us at each moment. The advice is the same: don’t go back to the past, trying to salvage something from there, don’t even look back. Don’t look forward either, that’s how you postpone your life, endlessly deferring the things that would satisfy the heart, while longing for things that never could. Those deeper things are given you in the Now. It’s not by day-dreaming that you come to the ultimate future, the consummation. It’s by living the present; the present is the only road to the future. The Kingdom of God is already among us. Its consummation is unimaginable, but we live it already in the humblest and the most truthful of all moments: the Now.

November 13, 2008 Finishing Up a Busy Week and Getting Ready For a Big Trip

 

"What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility ... a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." – Adlai E. Stevenson

The day started in the usual way with the walk, followed by mass in the chapel and then breakfast with students. Today’s walk was completed before the sun came up, so winter is approaching. It will be well into the month of March before I’ll get to see the sunrise on the morning walk again.

I had a full-day with classes in the morning and evening and meetings all afternoon. It was a busy and good day. The freshmen had their mid-term test in oral English class and for the most part they did really good. Tonight’s medical English class went smoothly (as the students get better I don’t worry as much about my pronunciation) the students now are able to help me with some of the stuff! ^_^ 

We had a meeting this afternoon with the students who will be heading down to Hong Kong this weekend. They are pretty excited about the trip (no surprise there) and everything is now set. We will fly to Beijing on Saturday evening and then to Hong Kong (Shenzhen) on Sunday morning. The students will be doing a nursing practical at the Maryknoll hospital in Kowloon from Monday-Friday and then we’ll fly back to Jilin on Saturday the 22nd.

My niece, Morgan, arrives in China on the morning of the 23rd, so I will be getting back just in time. Morgan is now in Australia doing a semester abroad. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, she will be arriving on her birthday, so I need to do a little planning for what will take place on the night of the 23rd.

Jingjing was in the office again today getting some help from Wang Wei on her teaching preps and visual aids. Liu Bo gave me a hand recording the grades for the short course I gave to the third year nursing students earlier this semester. Their final grade was based on a final paper I had them do; it took me a while to finish reading all the papers. Next time around I think I will give a final exam in that course and spare myself the added work that comes with reading 110 term papers. The term papers were actually pretty interesting and just a few students picked similar topics, so it was kind of enjoyable reading. It was also interesting to get the students take on a number of topics ranging from health care in the US and the UK to a host of western customs that we never think too much about. The kids did a good job.

While I was busy with one of the meetings, the infamous, Marina Wang, managed to find her way to my desk and grab my camera for a classic picture. I am not sure who her partner in crime was, but she had some assistance in taking this picture.

I have classes tomorrow morning and then a long session at the radio station to tape shows for this weekend and next weekend. Tomorrow night is our campus-wide English Corner and the young Maryknoll teachers are going to bring a number of students from Beihua with them, so it is going to be an exciting and busy night. I will try and get a blog posted tomorrow, but it is going to be tight. I journey to Hong Kong on Saturday, so we will see how the blogging goes for the next few days. I do plan to post daily blogs from Hong Kong and report on how things are going for our students down there.

Today’s gospel and some comments:

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you." Then he said to the disciples, "The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, 'Look there!' or 'Look here!' Do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation. Lk 17:20-25

“The kingdom of God is among you,” or is it “The kingdom of God is within you”? Some translations still say ‘within’. Today we may have a preference for ‘within’: it suggests interiority and privacy – in fact (if we take it far enough) a private God.

In this passage Jesus was speaking to Pharisees. On another occasion he had accused them of having no interiority at all: "You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.” So it is unlikely that he was telling them here that the kingdom of God was ‘within’ them.

Do we lose all sense of interiority if we say ‘among you’? No. ‘Among you’ means ‘in your midst’. He was saying to the Pharisees: the kingdom of God is here in front of you, it is in me; but you don't see it. These words are for us too. The difference is that we have St Paul’s teaching about the body of Christ: we are members of Christ’s body. So for us, ‘among you’ means ‘in the whole body of Christ’, of which he is the head and we the members. ‘Among you’ means ‘within you’, but the ‘you’ is the greater ‘you’, the vast ‘you’, the body of Christ, not your ego.

November 12, 2008 The Best of Times, The Worst of Times!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was   the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." – Charles Dickens

I got in late and got up early. It was the normal morning routine today: an early walk, mass in the chapel and breakfast with the students in the office. The temperature was up around 40 when I went out for the walk and it stayed there for most of the day. We are having some unbelievable November weather!

Wang Wei took the day off to spend a little time with her mom. She has been really busy as of late and will be heading to Hong Kong with the nursing students and myself next week, so she wanted to spend some time with her mom before taking off. The writing class is really going well this semester with her help explaining the students’ grammar and style problems. Today was as good a day as any for her to be out of the office, as I had afternoon classes and a number of small things to deal with this morning. I had Liu Bo here doing some scanning work, so she manned the phone for me.

I had afternoon classes and two study groups in the office this evening; I spent most of the morning in the office. I had a couple of quick meetings this morning, but neither took up too much time.

Jingjing has today and tomorrow off, so she spent most of the day hanging out in the office while preparing for a class she will be teaching tomorrow as part of her training. She seems excited (elated) about the future possibilities with her new job and it is really nice to be able to witness here enthusiasm. 

Li Nana stopped by the office around 4:00 to talk about her new business venture. She is opening an after-school English training center that also serves as after-school day care center. The kids go to her place after classes, until their parents get off work and come to pick them up; while they are there they also get English instruction. This kind of program is similar to what Li Wengang has been doing for the past year.

Lina is teaching English at St. Joseph Seminary this year and she really likes that. She has the first year seminarians for grammar and spoken English classes and according to her they are making great progress.

While I was having the first study group this evening, one of the students got a phone call from Beijing, notifying her that she had been selected as one of the finalists in the 21st Century Regional English Speaking Competition. Chen Shou (Lareina), is a third year nursing student  and a really talented young lady. She will be going to Tianjin for the regional competition on November 29th and I plan to make the trip with her. I am really proud of Chen Shou and this is a great chance for her to compete with some of the best students in the northern part of China. Last year another one of our students, Cui Xinxin, was one of the regional finalists and she ended up taking second place in the regionals. Lareina, is the student in the middle in the picture above. On the left is Fengxiang and on the right is Tianyang.

Today’s gospel and some comments: 

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." Lk 17:11-19

Lepers were outcasts, required by the law to stand at a distance from people. In the story of the Ten Lepers, it seems that shared misery had brought Jewish and Samaritan lepers together! Had they not been lepers, they would never have been found in one another's company! There was deep religious hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritans were heretics and foreigners in the eyes of the Jews, and their region a melting-pot of different cults and customs; Jews despised it as a blot on their country.

It was a very inconveniently situated blot: right in the middle. So when Jews wanted to travel between Galilee in the north and Judea in the south, they had either to pass through Samaritan country or to go around it. Things could be unpleasant for them if they passed through, but the journey was twice as long if they went around.

Doesn't everyone have Samaritan territory in the middle of his or her life? It is the part of your life that is a mess: where you are at your very weakest and worst, where your thoughts and motives are all mixed up and unclear, where you have never had peace and hardly dare to hope for it.

But many of the heroes and heroines of Jesus' stories were Samaritans: the one leper who came back, the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan woman. There’s hope for us all!

Office Work, Lectures and Appointments!

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

I skipped the morning walk and started the day with mass in the chapel. November 11th is Singles Day in China (11.11) and Veterans’ Day back in the USA. I remembered veterans living and dead in my mass this morning. I begin this blog with special greetings for my father, uncles and all Americans who have served the cause of defending liberty and freedom.

After mass this morning I read an email from my good buddy, Pat Sullivan. Pat’s daughter in law, Abbey’s, father has been diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer just a few days before he is scheduled to retire. He had surgery yesterday back in Michigan. I would ask all the readers of this blog to keep, Bob, in your prayers and keep Abby and her family in your prayers, too. Abby and Brian are expecting their first child in March of 2009!

I had afternoon and evening classes today and spent the morning in the office going over this week's lectures  and also working on some upcoming lectures and radio shows. The students were in classes this morning and I was in the classroom this afternoon and evening, so it was a rather quiet day in the office.

I did have a good chat with Fr. Rheal Desy today. He is busy with his work at the home for mentally challenged adults (Home of Harmony and Joy) and he's also preparing to attend a seminar on Taoism in Hong Kong later this month. They are getting ready to welcome a few more residents at the home later this year.

Wang Wei managed to finish making all the MP3 audio recordings of the Medical English vocabulary today (no small feat), and now students can make use of them in Thomland, or put them on their own MP3s if they like.

Before leaving the office last night I had a nice phone conversation with Runna in Beijing. She is doing well and keeping herself busy with her work. She was here for a short visit last month, but she didn’t have much time, as she was taking care of some paperwork concerning her residence etc,. I’m looking forward to her next Jilin visit.

I have an appointment after the afternoon class and will get together with Rad and Wang Wei after the evening class to celebrate Singles Day, so I am going to post this blog early today.

Today’s gospel and some comments:

"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'" Lk 17:7-10

Church leaders are told not to expect gratitude. This may seem harsh, but in fact it is what sets them free. It is a truth for all of us, not just for people in authority. If I expect gratitude I am automatically a beggar. Like a beggar I can't order or buy this thing I want; I can only sit and wait in hope that someone will give it to me. Like any beggar I could ask for it, but asking ruins this particular commodity. Gratitude that I have to ask for is not really gratitude.

Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed: that is what we have often been told. If you are taken for granted, that is a kind of compliment. We take most real things for granted: we don't thank the walls of our house for holding up the roof and keeping out the weather; we don't thank the trees or the rainclouds; we don't thank the well for the water: we turn our backs on it when we have satisfied our thirst. 

Should children thank their parents? We are always saying they should, but that ‘should’ makes beggars of their parents. Let them learn to say the polite thing to strangers, but don't imagine that they should pay you with that kind of small change. If their gratitude isn’t spontaneous it is not gratitude at all. 

There is tremendous freedom when we expect nothing. Because we expect nothing, we do what we do for the right motive: which is simply that it is the right thing to do. And when we finish doing it, we don't hang around like beggars waiting for the chance of a few coins. A rabbi said that the perfect kind of generosity was when the giver didn’t know who was receiving and the receiver didn’t know who was giving. Then the giver is not burdening the receiver with a debt of gratitude, and the receiver can see right through the giver (who is invisible) to God, the ultimate giver.

A New Week Begins with a New Sponsor!

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Yesterday was a busy day and I didn’t get back to the apartment until very late in the evening. I was pretty tired (and cold) at that late hour and as a result didn’t post a blog.

I started the day with the morning walk (cold), followed by mass in the chapel and then breakfast in the office with students. About half-way into my walk my rosary broke spreading beads all over the place. It was a real bummer, as I have used that rosary for the past 10 years. It was my China rosary! I will have to start breaking in a new one tomorrow.

It was really cold this morning, but by midday it had warmed up quite a bit and was a pretty decent day. I went out for a little walk at lunchtime and it didn’t take long to discover that I was overdressed. The weather forecast for this week looks pretty good for November in Jilin.

Tomorrow Nov 11PM Clouds	Wednesday Nov 12Showers	Thursday Nov 13Sleet	Friday Nov 14Partly Cloudy	Saturday Nov 15Sleet
Hi: 46° Lo: 34°	Hi: 40° Lo: 26°	Hi: 37° Lo: 28°	Hi: 37° Lo: 19°	Hi: 37° Lo: 22°

I spent most of the day in the office. I have an evening study group tonight, but didn't have any classes today, which gave me a chance to finish up some work on extra lectures I have this week. I also spent some time working on radio shows.

I will be away from Jilin next week (not sure for how many days), but most likely for the whole week, so we need to tape the radio shows for this weekend and next weekend later this week. The shows for the second weekend will be on the topic of World AIDS Day, which falls on the following Monday, December 1st. I made a few phone calls this morning to line up a couple of guests for those shows and Wang Wei will follow up on those calls tomorrow morning.

With extra lectures and a bunch of other stuff to take care of before leaving on Saturday for Hong Kong, I’m not having lunch or dinner with students at the apartment this week. Jingmei didn’t seem too upset when I told her about that decision! ^_^

With no meals at the apartment this week, Wang Wei and Liu Bo had to eat what I would call unhealthy meals here in the office. Liu Bo went with some hot and spicy vegetable soup from the No.2 Dining Hall while Wang Wei had some kind of Chinese stuffed bread. I have no idea where she got that! In my opinion neither of them a made wise or healthy choice, but they weren’t interested in listening to my opinion. Even if they were interested in listening they certainly wouldn't take any advice from me on eating healthy!

We have a new sponsor for the radio show starting this weekend. I am not sure exactly what happened, but the station manager did mention that it would be a good idea not to joke about sponsors and their products on the air or in things like blogs. (Who said I was joking? ^_^) I’m just hoping that the new sponsor makes something besides underwear ( having a sense of humor would be nice, too). Yes, it is an important product, but not something that provides perks that are easy to re-gift. The best sponsor we ever had was Huadan Beer, closely followed by the Century Hotel. Free beer and meal vouchers were both great perks that were easy to re-gift. Huadan was doing so well that they got taken over (bought up) by a big South African brewery. Just before China’s number one long underwear maker (whatever their name is) was the sponsor, we had what I considered a real nightmare sponsor. I will just say that having my show sponsored by a hospital specializing in male health problems, wasn’t very exciting! They also bought the advertising section on this year’s calendar for my month (September) which was a real honor! Anyway, I won’t be doing any commercials for a while. ^_^

Quite a few students stopped by the office this afternoon after classes were over. A few of them had missed out on the ice cream on Saturday and were looking for some-kind-of freebie of their own. The cookie jar was full and the candy dish actually had some candy in it today, so they didn’t leave empty handed. Most of them stopped in to say hello on their way to Thomland. 

The big news story here today is the government’s decision to pump an unbelievable 589 billion US dollars into the domestic economy to give it a boost during the global economic slowdown. The news reports were a little sparse on details, but most experts who were interviewed said they expected the Chinese government to put the money into three main areas: major infrastructure projects, social welfare programs and environmental protection projects. I would guess that a sizeable amount will also be directed to Sichuan Province’s earthquake reconstruction efforts. The money is to be allocated in the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years.

According to an article in today's NY Times the Chinese Financial Boost (Stimulus) Plan is not comparable to measures being taken by the government back in the US:

"China’s package is not comparable to fiscal stimulus measures that are being discussed in Washington. In China, much of the capital for infrastructure improvements comes not from central and local governments but from state banks and state-owned companies that are encouraged to expand more rapidly."

"The plan also differs from the $700 billion financial rescue package approved by Congress, which has helped strengthen bank balance sheets but did not directly mandate new lending or support specific investment projects in the United States."

President-elect Obama had a long phone conversation with Chinese President Hu Jintao over the weekend. Obama on a numerous occasions during the campaign stressed the importance of China's role in the world today. He also pledged to protect jobs at home and US markets. Given the present global economic crisis, I would be willing to bet that those two will be having more than a few phone conversations in the months ahead. President Hu will be in Washington later this month for the meeting of world leaders to discuss the economic crisis.

Obama's victory was well received in this part of the world. The election of a black American as president is nothing short of amazing to most of the students. President-elect Obama and the historical significance of his election has gotten front page coverage each day since the election last week. The first family-elect has gotten a good bit of coverage, too. 

Today’s gospel and some comments:

Jesus said to his disciples, "Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive." The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. Lk 17:1-6 

In the previous chapters of Luke’s gospel, Jesus faced those who were outside his immediate community – the crowds, the Scribes, the Pharisees – but now he faces his disciples. They will be the leaders of the new community, and he tells them they are not to be stumbling blocks to others. The “little ones” are not children but “the poor” of the Beatitudes: those who will be in the care of his disciples. In Matthew also the “little children” are adults, because “they believe in me.” Jesus had compared the true disciple to a child, but then he went on to talk not about children but about disciples. 

The millstones in this passage, then, are for Church leaders, if they fail those in their charge! They are not to scandalize their flock. They are to have the courage to point out wrongdoing, but at the same time they are to be ready to forgive wrongdoing against themselves – even to forgive the same person “seven times” a day. That means endlessly. “How could we ever live up to that?” they seem to ask, “Lord increase our faith!” 

And when the leaders have done all that, they are to say, “We are merely servants; we have done no more than our duty.” Thomas Kempis said, “It is much safer to be in a subordinate position than in authority.” And yet, if all members of the Church consulted only their own safety everyone would be a follower, but they would have no one to follow! The best advice for leader and follower alike is to stay in touch with his/her conscience. Power corrupts and it is so much easier to justify our errors by saying we were following the orders of someone in a position of authority. In such cases we become blind men following others who are blind!

Journals, Visitors and Ice Cream

"They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance." -Edmund Burke

I was up later than usual last night as a few of the Jilin padres stopped by late to have a chat. Jiajia got me up early, but I gave her some cat food and then when back to sleep. I started the day with mass in the chapel before coming to the office to correct journals.

Wang Wei also worked today. She put the finishing touches on the 2009 budget and made a few phone calls to make sure everything is set for the trip to Hong Kong a week from today with some of the nursing students.

Zhang Lei came by to give a few of the sophomores a hand in preparing for their second shot at the CET-4 exam and that went really well. The students really appreciate her assistance and with her helping out like this each Saturday morning it gives me a chance to see her once a week. She is carrying a pretty heavy teaching load at her college this semester, teaching American literature and a reading course.

The office was a litter busier than usual for a Saturday. A few former students stopped by to say hello and there were students in and out for most of the day.

Ni Fan, one of my third year nursing students stopped by the office to introduce her boyfriend. He came to Jilin for the weekend to see her which was pretty nice of him. He is a third year student in Shenyang majoring in automation. They are high school classmates from Jiangsu Province. We had a good talk before they took off to play some pool and sing karaoke.

Nie Xuan is one of my second year nursing students and the reigning champ of the national CET-4 exam. She just about aced the exam and is a really nice young kid.

The freshmen showed up at 5:00 to get their ice cream. It went pretty well and nobody was disappointed. (Check yesterday's blog for details) We had a good time and despite some freezing weather outside the kids ate more than enough ice cream inside. I took a little heat because the ice cream was supposed to be home-made. I didn't mention that they were suppose to register for the phantom party in room 2416. Their own error seemed to go unnoticed in this one. April Fools' Day is a good four plus months away and with a group of efficient freshmen like these, I have my work cut out for me in planning a few pranks.

Gao Jiuyi one of Rad's students stopped by this afternoon to talk about her plans for the future. One of the nice things about the office is that students can always check out their plans with Wang Wei, who is pretty sharp when it comes to giving advice.

The economic news coming out of the US is not very optimistic. It has taken a while, but from everything I am reading over here in the Middle Kingdom the global crisis is now starting to hit hard here, too. Depending on what sources one reads, the outlook for China's economy for the rest of 2008 and into 2009 is anywhere from poor to a major disaster. The job picture for college grads was already looking bad, it is probably going to be really bad now. Guangdong province is reporting huge job losses as factories lay off workers due to a huge drop in orders from the US and Europe. Some reports for that province alone estimate job losses in excess of 2 million.

An IMF report that was released today predicted China's economic growth will drop to around 8.5 percent for 2009, which is dangerously close to the 8.0 figure that most economists feel China must sustain in order to employ the huge number of migrant workers flooding cities looking for jobs. With an estimated 8.3 million college graduates hitting the job market next summer, the situation is getting serious. 

Today’s gospel and some comments:

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.” Lk 16:9-15

Today’s gospel passage is a continuation of yesterday’s gospel. It is a parable, so the key point is to pay attention to the single point being stressed. The problem for most of us is: What is the single point being stressed? A former professor said this parable is nothing more than an early attempt at Christian moralizing. Maybe, but that is pretty weak! During my studies in Rome, I heard a much better explanation of the passage. That professor there said that in terms of philosophy the meaning we get from any given reading is actually the history of the meaning, or to put it another way, it means all the things that people have ever thought it to mean. That at first seemed a little weird, but it isn’t as crazy as it sounds when you think about it for a while. Our own faith instinct will be a fairly reliable guide in keeping away any interpretation that is unchristian and therefore it means that we really respect and listen to every interpretation it has ever received. That means or calls on us to respect the people who went before us.

The Ninth Annual Reporters Day in China and Foreign Teacher Gets Burnt Playing with Ice Cream

"The heart of a fool is his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is his heart." – Benjamin Franklin

I started the day in the usual way with my walk, mass and breakfast with students. I then took off for the radio station to tape this weekend’s shows. The taping went really well and we added time to both shows for this weekend. I was prepared, as the station called last night to ask me if that was a possibility for these shows. As I mentioned the other day we are now at standing room only numbers for the early bird English group. It's not like they have to stand for hours or anything, but I'm seriously looking into some-kind-of rearranging of the morning breakfast program.They are a great group of students!

We cover the results of the 2008 US elections on this weekend's shows. One of the questions that Xuefei posed was: What do the Bush supporters feel like now. You cannot use pictures on the radio, but the one above is a great one. What a difference 4 years can make!

Today is the 9th Annual Reporters or Press Day in China. Everyone at the station was obviously in a good mood as a few perks came their way today. They had a big party last night at one of the big restaurants to honor some outstanding reporters for their work. Xuefei is feeling much better and is pretty much over her cold. She still has some voice problems, and as a result I did most of the talking on this weekend’s shows. She has been off her daily show for over two-weeks now. She plans to return to the show next Monday.

After returning from the radio station I spent the rest of the day in my office correcting journals, meeting with students and a few visitors and putting some stuff together for a few extra lectures that I have next week.

Fr. Peter Xu stopped by the office around noontime to talk over a few things related to the seminary and his work there. He is doing well. The former bishop of Shenyang (the diocese next to ours) passed away earlier this week and a number of the priests and sisters along with Bishop Zhang Hanmin of Jilin are on their way to Shenyang for the funeral which will take place tomorrow. Bishop Jin was a man of great faith and he will be missed by many.

The study groups preparing for the International English exam are doing well and one of the groups met in the office this afternoon. A few students had make-up classes or something so they weren’t able to attend; I did have a good time with those who were present. 

Two weeks from Sunday my niece, Morgan, will be arriving here in Jilin. Many of the students who know her have been asking about her arrival date, which just so happens to be her birthday. She knows many third and fourth year students (they were freshmen and sophomores when she visited) and the first and second year students are anxious to meet her. I plan to keep her busy! It will be great having her here with me again. She is scheduled to fly from Australia to Beijing and then up to Jilin on November 23rd. Next summer my nephew, Mark, and his girlfriend, Alisa, will be coming to spend a couple of months with me during their summer break (early May till July) which of course makes me very happy.

The young Maryknoll teachers were here again this evening for our campus wide English Corner. We had a good time once again this evening. They are all really happy with the results of the presidential election and we spent a bit of time talking about that after things quieted down tonight. Jackie, Rad and Kevin are quality people and having them here in Jilin with me has made my life a little more colorful. Jackie and Rad are 2008 graduates of Notre Dame and not all too happy with the football season to date. They crushed MICHIGAN, which to date is the highlight of their season. Not the best of seasons when your lone so-called quality win is against a team that is not just rebuilding, but rather involved in major urban renewal!!

Part of tonight's English Corner was a trash-talking competition between Rad and Fr. Brian. Rad was all psyched  for tonight's competition and before the main event got underway she had Jingjing try to help her relax a bit with a little head massage. Jackie was the official score keeper and the students were the judges. It was a standing room only crowd and many were turned away at the gates. Radhika Deva is a beautiful name and she is a beautiful girl, but she was on this night no match for the likes of Wang Peng. She got in a few good hits, but as the photo of the final score clearly indicates it was all Brian!! Probably the best line of night that thrilled the med students was this one: "Rad is so ugly that when she was born the doctor looked at her face and her butt and then told her mom that she has twins!!"

Yesterday I tried to pull off a prank on the freshmen that backfired and has now turned out to be a joke on myself. I told the students yesterday that I was making some home-made ice cream and if they wanted to taste it they should go to a certain classroom to register for the party. I had talked with students in that classroom and they were going to tell the freshmen who came to go to another classroom and then they would be directed to still another classroom, etc. Well, my freshmen figured the easiest way to take care of the registration and not waste time, was to not  go individually to the said room to register, but rather just fill-out a sheet with their names and the flavor of ice cream they wanted and deliver it to my office. While I was at the radio station this morning the list of names with their preferred flavor (I gave them three choices) was delivered to my office. ^_^ To make a long story short, at this point it looks like I am going to be springing for a good amount of ice cream tomorrow afternoon. This is a very sharp freshmen class that needs to learn how to follow instructions!! ^_^ Sometimes it is not easy being me!!

I had a nice email from Lu Ying this morning and a few pictures of her and Mike's daughters. Two lovely little girls. Lu Ying is a stay at home mom these days and Mike is busy with his work at the police department. He will become a Luthern minister and the pastor of the Luthern church in their town early next year. I am very proud of both of them and hope to be able to visit Alaska to see Gov. Palin Sue, Mike and the girls on my trip home this winter.

I am not sure how this one will play out, but I think the senate democrats are going to strip Senator Joseph Lieberman of his chairmanship on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Senator Lieberman is technically an independent who aligned himself with the democrats after the last election in 2006. He lost in the Connecticut democratic primary that year, but won re-election as an independent. His joining the democrats gave the democrats a majority in the senate and that was important. His support for McCain in the election makes him a very controversial figure at this time and while it might look good for bipartisanship, I don’t think he is going to win over enough democratic senators to retain that chairmanship. I personally think he is overrated and he is definitely a Bushite when it comes to issues like Iraq and diplomacy (or lack of) to name just two. If he loses his chairmanship he won’t necessarily be welcomed with open arms by the republicans who are now trying to begin a post-Bush era. After a meeting with the senate democratic leadership yesterday Lieberman was quoted as saying: “I am considering my options.” His best bet is to stick with the Democrats, so that he doesn’t end up sitting at the extreme end of that committee table!

Today’s gospel and some comments:

Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are shrewder in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. Lk 16:1-8

This is a very puzzling parable, and it has been a problem from the beginning. What exactly did the manager do? Was the ‘squandering’ mentioned at the beginning a case of incompetence that he then attempted to cover up? If so, then the cover-up was the beginning of the dishonesty. Or was his squandering a case of dishonesty from the beginning? Nobody seems able to decide how to read this detail of the story.

Some commentators try to make sense of it as follows. Such managers had great liberty in the way they did their work. To pay themselves, they would lend out the owner’s property and charge high interest rates on it. What this steward cancelled may have been these interest rates. In other words he himself, not his master, was the loser. This would explain how the master could commend him and admire his shrewdness, but it doesn’t explain why he is described as ‘dishonest’ in the last verse. The argument is sure to go on.

The use of wealth is a major topic in Luke’s gospel, and this parable is unique to him. He is keenly aware of the power that wealth has to make fools of us: “I will build bigger barns….” “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.”

Jesus said that worldly people are shrewder than people of the light (the disciples). We tend to be sharp when it comes to money, but slow and vague when it comes to matters of the spirit. Someone who is financially savvy is considered the very opposite of a fool. But Luke turns this kind of thinking upside down.

A Busy Thursday and Looking Forward to the Weekend!

"If a dog jumps into your lap it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing it is because your lap is warmer." – Alfred North Whitehead  

I’m feeling pretty good once again(I have just about licked the cold); therefore I started the day with my regular schedule. I got in the walk, had mass in the chapel and then came over to the office for breakfast with the students. After the morning mass I had a nice cup of brewed coffee and took some of the coffee to the office in a thermos. I got the ground coffee in a package from my good friend, Tom, and wanted to acknowledge the gift and thank him on today's blog.

I had classes all morning today and met with a group of nursing students this afternoon in their classroom. The medical English class met tonight and that went well.

I spent a little time after class tonight going over this weekend’s radio shows. Wang Wei handled most of the prep work, so I just needed to make myself familiar with some of the stuff tonight. We will be going over the US presidential election results on the weekend shows. A little about red and blue states, a little about the next first family, a little about what the election means in terms of America and race, the electoral college, etc. Actually most of the listeners are already knowledgeable on some of this stuff as we have done a number of shows on the US elections over the past few months. Hard as it is to believe this is actually the second time that we have covered a US presidential election on the show. We are just about finishing our fifth year on the air now and in the archives there are six shows on the Bush- Kerry election in 2004. I am going to really enjoy doing this weekend's shows. Regular readers of this blog know how happy I am to see the change we needed get a shot in the arm!

With the Obama victory America can breath a collective sigh of relief (most Americans that is) as Gov. Palin will now be back in Alaska monitoring those Russian planes that come near US air space. Her selection as the vice-presidential nominee was way too scary for me!!

I wrote an email to president-elect Obama this afternoon to congratulate him and to offer my advice (simple but sincere) on how to deal with the issue of abortion. His hopes and dreams for America will reduce the number of abortions over the years by improving many areas that lead to abortions. I voted for Obama because he offered that hope. Senator McCain's stance like that of the Republican party for so many years made abortion and issue, but offered nothing other than Supreme Court appointments as a solution. I will share my letter and ideas in a later blog.

As far as the weather goes it has been a very strange week here. We got our first snow on Monday and ever since it has been more like an Indian summer than a Jilin November. According to the weatherman we are in for more nice weather this coming weekend.

Tomorrow Nov 07Clear	Saturday Nov 08Fair	Sunday Nov 09Clear	Monday Nov 10Clear	Tuesday Nov 11Partly Cloudy
Hi: 33° Lo: 23°	Hi: 35° Lo: 22°	Hi: 38° Lo: 24°	Hi: 47° Lo: 29°	Hi: 46° Lo: 32°

The fourth year nursing students who will be heading to Hong Kong with me about a week from now got their Hong Kong travel passes today. They were pretty excited about that and stopped by the office to show me their travel documents. (I was pretty busy at the time so i failed to get a picture of the joyous occasion) The trip to Hong Kong and Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital should be a great experience for them. I am happy that I can be part of that experience!

I have the radio show tomorrow and journals to correct over the weekend. I am feeling a little tired these day, so I asked the students to turn the journals in a day earlier than usual and I hope to complete a bunch of journals tomorrow and give myself as much free time as possible on Saturday and Sunday.

Today’s gospel and some comments:

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Lk 15:1-10

Luke specializes in lost property! ^_^ This chapter consists of three parables on the theme of lost-and-found. There is the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost (or prodigal) son.

These parables were inspired by the Pharisees’ objection to his friendship with sinners. The Pharisees gave no evidence of any joy in their lives, but in all three of Jesus’ parables there is joy and celebration. Those Pharisees try to make you believe that religion is a kind of elevated boredom. Many Christians are remarkably like them; they take the joy out of religion, leaving it dull and uninspiring.

It is the drama of loss and recovery that sparks joy in each of the parables. If there is no joy for me, it is probably because I have never felt lost. And if I have never felt lost, that is proof that I have never attempted to go anywhere. I have made no personal journey; instead I have just followed suit; I have been a good boy or girl all my life. I am kind of like the elder brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Yes, the prodigal son behaved very badly; and no, I am not worse than he is. I really am good. But if you could speak of ‘bad goodness’, that would describe me. I am good in a way that equates goodness with playing safe, never risking getting spattered in trying to help another. The Pharisees said that you became unclean if you walked two steps of the road with a sinner. You won't catch any of them going after a person who is lost. They have never risked being lost themselves. They wouldn’t know what to do or say to a lost person. So they stay inside their own crippling definition of goodness and criticize anyone who isn’t similarly crippled.

Better to be a bad Christian than a good Pharisee.

Election Results...A Huge Win for Barack Obama!

We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present. Adlai Ewing Stevenson

I slept in again today and started the day with mass in the chapel and then breakfast with the students. Two good groups again today and we had a pretty good time. Instead of a topic for the week we’ve been using a book of interesting questions that you might ask your friend. The questions cover just about everything and it has made the morning sessions a little more interesting in my opinion. We go around the room with each student getting a question to answer it. No one-word answers are accepted!

It was a fantastic day today. Most Jiliners can't remember ever having such a nice day like we had today in the month of November.

I didn’t have class this morning, so I stayed in the office and got some work done while following the election returns on the Internet.

Needless to say I am very happy with the results. The turnout was huge and the victory was a clear and decisive one. The exit polls were, in my opinion, very revealing. African Americans voted overwhelmingly for Obama with almost 95 percent (no surprise there), Hispanics voted for Obama 2-1 (a higher rate than I would have predicted), 60 percent said Sarah Palin was not qualified to be vice- president (did they really have to ask?), Catholics voted for Obama 48-44 percent (must have been because the bishops indirectly encouraged the faithful to vote for McCain…most Catholics have little faith in their bishops these days and that might have been an unforeseen dose of poison for the Republicans), young people voted overwhelmingly for Obama while seniors voted 56-44 for McCain (an obvious generation gap); and in what might have been the two most telling exit poll stats, 60 percent of voters said the economy was their top issue and only 26 percent said they thought President Bush had done a good job. From all the above, it is clear that Sen. Obama won for many reasons, but the number one reason looks to be his link with the guy sitting in the White House.  

Rad stopped by the office this afternoon to say hello. She had dinner tonight with some of the Tianji volunteers and a visitor from Myanmar. Jingjing was happy to see Rad. 

There were two study groups in the office this evening. The first group met right after dinner; I just finished with the second group about an hour ago. We have a lot of fun in those sessions and the only problem so far is that every now and then we tend to spend a little too much time talking about interesting things and diverge from the task at hand. But so far so good and I think everyone is getting something out of it.

Today’s gospel and some comments:

Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” Lk 14:25-33

Hate your father, mother and life itself? This is a strange and puzzling statement, and we have to look carefully at it. A scholar writes, “The Semitic mind (Jesus was a Semite) commonly associated opposing pairs of words, without distinguishing intermediate shades of meaning. ‘To hate’ could signify ‘to love less.’“ (He gives examples of this usage: Genesis 29:31; Deuteronomy 21:15; Matthew 5:43; John 12:25.) Many modern translations of these and similar passages substitute some other word for ‘hate’. So the strange verse is not telling us to hate our fathers and mothers, but not to give them precedence over the Lord.

Are Christians extremists, then? Yes, if you mean that we are asked to take the most important thing in the world and put ourselves wholly behind it. Moderation doesn't mean never going to any extreme; it means not going to false extremes. There is no limit to the effort we are to put into living the Christian life. You couldn’t imagine St Paul, who said, “Fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience,” saying instead, “Do take a little interest in what's going on in the Church, holding onto a bit of faith if you can!”

When we were very small children we lived fully! We put everything we had into everything we did. We didn’t think about ourselves. If someone put a mirror in front of us we wouldn’t even recognize ourselves. But soon the fatal limiting begins. We begin to be self-conscious and to worry about ourselves; we begin to have a distinctive character. It is a kind of armor around one; the more character you have, the more you are limited. You sometimes meet an adult who is unable to be part of anything and whom nothing can please. But there is a kind of infinity about a small child – everything is welcome, everything is possible.

So when we meet Jesus, who is very like a child, we think he’s an extremist. No, he’s just alive! That's what makes him different from so many of us!

The Anti-Bush Wins!!!

Election Day in the USA! November 4, 2008

If I could wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!" – Soren Kierkegaard

I slept in a little this morning and started the day with breakfast in the office with the students. Our early bird gang has now reached the seating limit for the office. If we get more students coming regularly we might have so seriously consider a move to the classroom next to the office. The seating there is not as comfortable and as the temperature continues to drop it will be much colder than the office which has controlled heat in the winter months. The classrooms are heated, but they usually only get really warm after the students fill them up and provide some body heat to support the heating system. Needing more space for students is a nice problem to have, so we aren’t too worried.

My cold seems to be a little better today. I usually start feeling better after seven days, if I don’t use any cold medicine and I usually start feeling better after seven days, if I do use cold medicine, so I don’t use any medicine to fight a common cold. That kind of attitude is akin to heresy in a medical college. The nursing and medical students think I spent too much time in Africa and as a result have some strange and unexplainable beliefs!! 

I had the freshmen this morning for writing class and that went quite well. The new system of Wang Wei explaining common writing errors during the first period, followed by my presenting some new writing tips in the second period is working out really well. The students like it a lot and I can already see some significant progress in their journal writing.

After the writing class I came to the office and had a nice talk with Liu Bo. She is doing well and is going to give me a hand here for a while in the Thomland Language Center. I have a lot of software related to the medical English class that needs to be put on the computers and given the present situation it isn’t happening. Wang Wei is really busy these days helping students with their writing and teaching the office students. She is also trying to stay ahead on PowerPoints for the medical English class. The students who work in Thomland are pretty busy as it is; they are responsible for managing things when the center is open and it is always pretty busy. Liu Bo is a computer whiz so this is right up her alley.

I had a lively group of sophomore nursing students at the apartment for lunch today. (Rarely is there a group that isn’t lively) Today the sophomore class was celebrating three birthdays. It was Zhang Ying’s turn to be at the apartment for lunch so we sang Happy Birthday to him. Another birthday student, Zhao Yingying, was in the early bird crowd in the office and of course we sang Happy Birthday to her this morning. It isn’t that easy for me to keep track of birthdays, as most if not all the kids celebrate their birthday on the lunar date, which I don’t follow too closely.

On the way back to the office I made use of my small digital camera to grab a few photos of some campus couples. (Some photos are being withheld to protect the innocent) While many friends back home have written to say how much they like the new blog format of multiple pictures, a few students here on campus would just love to get their hands on that camera and loosen up the digits! I have even been accused of stooping as low as the mainstream media (MSM) in my relentless pursuit to bring my readers the news. By withholding a few photos today, I am trying to make a statement that unlike the MSM, I do have a code of ethics!

The office was really hectic this afternoon. From right after lunch until I went back to the apartment for dinner with the third year nursing students, the office had a constant flow of students and teachers. It was the kind of afternoon I love. The students were hanging around to practice their English, each some of the fruit that I got to help me conquer my cold and check out what was on my desk which is a favorite pasttime of most students. The afternoon hours always seem to pass very quickly in the office and today was no exception. We did have a great discussion with some of the young teachers and students on a number of topics. Liu Bo and Wang Wei joined the discussion group, too.

You might be wondering why these students are hiding their faces behind books and magazines. Choose one of the following explanations. A) They didn’t have time to wash their faces this morning. B) All three of them are suffering from papule (pimples). C) They have poor vision and are actually not hiding at all. D) It was just discovered that instead of being in the office reading magazines, they should be in a histology lecture. (The correct answer can be found at the end of today’s gospel comments.) 

This evening I had the medical English class. I really enjoy teaching that class. The majority of students taking the class have a pretty good English level and it goes without saying that their medical knowledge is very good. As I teach the class I can see on their faces a thirst for knowledge and a desire to master the medical terms and their pronunciation. Some of the students have studied a little medical English on their own or had other classes so they are a big help in terms of giving me some ideas on how to teach this course. This is the class that I need to get the software loaded onto the computers for.

One of the third year nursing students got her drivers license today. Zhang Yuanr was pretty happy to show me the fruits of her hard work in the office this afternoon. Congratulations Zhang Yuanr!!

Today’s gospel and some comments:

One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, "Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" Then Jesus said to him, "Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for everything is ready now.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.' Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.' Another said, 'I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.' So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.' And the slave said, 'Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room." Then the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.'" Lk 14:15-24

Today’s gospel is a continuation of a meal that started in yesterday’s gospel passage. The atmosphere at the meal is a little tense. Someone tries to lighten it up a little, by saying something rather nice, "Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" But Jesus tells a story, the point of which is, in effect, that there will be surprises in the kingdom of God. (He wasn’t always easy company.) In the story, people began to make excuses for not coming to the party. To be honest they don’t have very convincing stories. Why was the first one in such a hurry to check out his new field? I am sure he must have looked it over a few times before putting down the money to buy it! The second one had bought five oxen. Most ancient landowners had only one or two, so this was like saying “I must take my Corvette for a run.” The third one said he was just married and therefore couldn’t come. Ancient husbands were far from hen-pecked, so it wasn’t that his wife had refused him permission. The law allowed a newly married man to be free from certain obligations, such as military service, but going to a party wouldn’t spoil his honeymoon. He had already accepted the invitation, so it was more a case of his just not wanting to bother. They all just didn’t want to bother.

If you really want to do something, you always find time to do it. If you don't want to do it, one excuse is as good as another. Some of us spend a great part of the day making excuses. We even make excuses to ourselves, strangely expecting ourselves to believe them. So, with the chosen friends bailing out on him, the master sent out for others: “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” When there was still room, he sent out for more – from the highways and the byways.

We can appreciate that the “leader of the Pharisees”, who had invited Jesus to dinner, didn’t enjoy his dinner very much that day; and we can see him wondering which character in the story was himself. We all should be wondering which character in the story represents us!!

Correct answer is D

Our First Snow, A Very Busy Day, and I Hate the Common Cold !

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." – Unknown

It has been a very long day and it has just come to an end. I am still fighting a cold and today I sort of felt it taking away a little of my energy. Maybe it wasn't such a busy day; the cold weather and my own cold just made it feel that way. I survived and plan to skip the morning walk tomorrow and get a few more hours of sleep.

The nursing students are hard at work making sure that I understand the basics of defeating a cold. I have plenty of apples, oranges and fruit juice. I plan to open a fruit market tomorrow and my financial problems will be solved!! Sometimes it is really very nice being me!!! ^_^

I did get in the morning walk today, but I cut it a little short as it was very cold outside. It looked and felt like it was going to snow when the sun came up and during breakfast with the students the first snow of 2008 fell. We usually get our first snowfall in October so we were expecting this one to come at any time. The ground was white, but only for a short period of time, so the first significant snowfall is still to come.

I was in and out of the office most of the day. I got some work done on this week's lectures when I was in the office and a bunch of stuff done when I was out of the office. It was pretty cold outside, so I would have preferred to have been in the office more than I was.

A few former students stopped by around lunchtime to say hello, so they joined me and six second year nursing students for lunch. That was very enjoyable!

I could give you a few more details on the day, but like I said above, the energy level is a little low, so I will make this a short blog today. Hopefully, I will be back with a full blog tomorrow!

 

The Feast of All-Souls!!

"If asked for a brief explanation, I would say that the existential vacuum derives from the following conditions. Unlike an animal, man is not told by drives and instincts what he must do. And in contrast to man in former times, he is no longer told by traditions and values what he should do. Now, knowing neither what he must do nor what he should do, he sometimes does not even know what he basically wishes to do. Instead, he wishes to do what other people do - which is conformism - or he does what other people wish him to do - which is totalitarianism." - Viktor Frankl 

I started the day by sleeping in!! I gave my war monger cat some extra food and a can of tuna last night before going to sleep and as a result she had no reason to wake me this morning. She was in fact, so stuffed that she slept longer than I did, which was around 7:00 or so.

Mom and Dad called last night so I got a good report on what is happening back home. Everyone is doing well! Mom and Dad went over to my brother’s home for Halloween and had a good time watching tons of kids move through the neighborhood Trick or Treating! 

Today is the Feast of All-Souls, so I said mass three times today. I had mass after getting up this morning, mass again at midday and then celebrated mass a short while ago. I remembered deceased family and friends from back home this morning, friends from Tanzania at noon and friends from China this evening. The tradition of allowing a priest to celebrate mass three times on All-Souls Day is perfect for me and my three-continent ministry!

When I wasn’t in the chapel praying, I hung out with students. It was a very relaxing day.

Today’s gospel and some comments:

At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ Matthew 11:25-30 

Parents know how clever children are. If you don’t have children of your own, your nieces and nephews or friends' kids will let you see for yourself. They always were, but we didn’t know. A child psychologist said that if we were to continue all our lives to learn at the same speed at which children learn, we would all be extreme geniuses. Groucho Marx said, “A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.”

Jesus was not speaking about children in the literal sense (just as he was not speaking about them earlier in the chapter, in verses 16 and 17), but about people who have no voice: those who never get a hearing because they don’t look like the right people, or speak like them, or live where they live. To such as these, he says, something essential is made known that is hidden from the learned and the clever.

There were many learned and clever people in his time, and he reached out to these too, but for his closest followers he chose simple unlearned people. They would be like Israel in exile, hoping in God alone who “gives power to the faint,and strengthens the powerless” (Isaiah 40:29).

Rabbis spoke of the "yoke of God's kingdom," and Jesus used this expression but altered it in significant ways. He spoke of “my yoke,” implicitly claiming authority from God greater than that of Moses. It was because of this that he was able to interpret the sabbath laws, in ways that were different from accepted interpretations. “My yoke is easy,” he said. This is because he was able to see back to the heart of God. He could see its saving purpose, and wanted that purpose fulfilled: ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill it.

Jesus' yoke is not lighter because he is somehow less serious or less thorough than the Pharisees. On the contrary, he expects a disciple’s virtue to go deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees. His yoke is lighter because he does not see religious practice as an alien burden imposed on rebellious slaves, but as the open arms of the Father welcoming us home. 

The Feast of All-Saints!!

"Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of red cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a tempermental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty, more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals." – Samuel Ullman 

I got the day started with my morning walk and then had mass in the chapel to celebrate the Feast of All Saints. I had planned to skip the morning walk, but my beloved cat Jiajia gets fed each morning just before I take off for the walk and when I didn’t get up to feed her at the regular time, she gave me an extra fifteen minutes or so before she launched a pre-emptive strike. Hunger is terrible thing and Jiajia is a Bush Cat (or is that a cat from the bush)! Anyway, she is well versed in the doctrines of the Bush administration and wasn’t concerned about my health or well-being as long as she got what she wanted. In short it was a terrible way to start the day. She of course showed no remorse, even though her popularity ratings here have plummeted!!!

I spent the day at the office with students. Pretty much from the time I arrived at the office until I left a couple of hours ago, I had students with me. Zhang Lei came by to give me a hand with some of the second year nursing students who failed on their first attempt at the national college English exam (CET) and I had a great talk with her after she finished. 

Around 9:00 some of the nursing students showed up to clean my office windows. When it comes to office windows my office is in a class of its own. As you can tell from the picture above, my office has windows! It took the kids a good two hours to complete the job. When they were finished the office looked much brighter and I opened all the curtains to give it the fishbowl look.

I had a study group in the office for an hour or so this afternoon and another group this evening. Around 6:00 I went over to the physical education building to be part of the psychology club’s member get-together. That was a lot of fun; unfortunately I had to leave before it was finished to get back to the office for the evening study group.

Among this afternoon’s visitors were two campus couples. The couple above are celebrating their first anniversary; the couple below are just in the initial stages of campus dating. I gave Wu Mengmeng a hard time the other day for not bringing the lucky guy to the office to meet me and today she brought the poor guy to my office to not only meet me, but to give me a guitar concert. The kid is talented!

Today’s gospel and comments:

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Mt 5:1-12

“After he sat down....” This is a significant detail. Rabbis would assume any postion as they discussed matters with their students; but when it came to teaching officially, they always sat. In saying that Jesus sat down, Matthew is telling us that what follows is no small talk but the heart of the matter. The Beatitudes are the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, as the Sermon on the Mount is the heart of the whole Gospel.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Another translation says “How happy are the poor in spirit.” But there are differences between ‘blessed’ and ‘happy’.

You can be blessed without knowing it. Happiness, on the other hand, is just a passing state of feeling. The word ‘happiness’ is related to ‘happen’ and ‘perhaps’: it’s about randomness, it’s about hit and miss. Feelings, like the weather, come and go and are constantly changing. You can't stake a claim to happiness because it’s not firm ground and stakes take no hold there. 

Jesus doesn’t tell you that you are happy. He tells you that you are blessed. He tells the poor in spirit that whether they know it or not, whether they appreciate it or not, they are blessed. Blessedness comes from beyond the changeable world of feelings and ideas. As we go through our phases we are to know that there is a loving God who cares for us with the love of a father and a mother. It is especially when we are weak and without resources of our own that we come to know it. It is when we ourselves begin to embody some of God's own qualities, made visible in the face of Jesus – that we know it. The Beatitudes are the best portrait we have of Jesus himself, and he honors us by telling us they are our portrait too.