I attended a piano concert last night conducted by Ian Shapinsky. He gave three encores. I thought it was a bit much, but then I don’t frequent piano concerts often, so maybe that is the standard for world class pianists.
I thought about blog encores, if you will. Follow up posts and how often to do them. I get feedback at times that I should abandon a certain theme, that I have said enough.
Well, here is an encore posting. Not that I got any standing ovation for the first.
I was praying the Office of Readings this morning. St. Ambrose was talking to catechumens. There was a piece though that made me think about my post last weekend about on-line parish reviews and dividing the Body of Christ along lines of “contemporary” or “traditional” or “nothing special.” St. Ambrose encourages us to look beyond the appearances. Here is my translation from the Italian.
“Before the baptismal fount you saw the deacon, you saw the priest, you saw the bishop. Do not pay attention to the externals of the person, but to grace of his sacred ministry. It was in the presence of God’s messengers that you have spoken, as it is written, “The lips of the priest must preserve knowledge and from his mouth one finds instruction, for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts.” (Mal.2, 7). You cannot be mistaken here or negate this: He is a messenger who announces the reign of Christ, who announces eternal life. You must judge him not by appearances, but by his role. Reflect on what he says, ponder the importance of his task and recognize what he does.” — St. Ambrose, Catechism on the rite of Baptism
One of the comments made to last week’s post on this topic was that every priest, deacon and bishop has something to offer us. I agree. Let us look to the message and beyond the messenger. Let us look to Christ who deacons, priests and bishops represent.
I suspect that some of the Twelve Apostles lacked a bit in their style. Not all had the flair and eloquence of St. Paul, or the mystery of St. John. But they were apostles of Jesus. They were all sent to be messengers of the Good News. It wasn’t about them, but about the message and the person of Jesus.
