News - February 2020 RSS Feed

Many of you took part in the book study I led late last spring of the classic work of literature Brave New World, during which I reiterated my long-standing thesis that we are indeed living in the book.  Brave New World has again been on my mind these days, most specifically the parts of the story that deal with the drug soma.  If you are not familiar, in Huxley’s fictional, futuristic society, soma is a narcotic that is dispensed almost like cheap candy to the entire population so that people can use it to check out of reality.  No one is ever supposed to feel sad in the brave new world, or feel any pain; they are to be as much as possible in an ongoing state of elation, or simple numbness about life.  Soma is the ticket into the dizzy buzz of indifference.  If one takes a large dose of it, one actually goes to sleep for a couple of days, dreaming of bliss.  It is given by the government in Huxley’s book as a way to keep the masses calm and happy, and almost no one has any qualms about downing it often.  One is considered odd if one does not do so.

Dear Friends at Saint Frances Cabrini Parish and Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish: Praised be Jesus Christ!  The first reading for this Sunday from the Prophet Isaiah is one of the sources for what we classically call the Corporal (from the Latin word for bodily) Works of Mercy.  These would be actions that God commands us to do for our fellow human beings, and that have to do with supplying the most basic of human needs.   Give shelter, give water, give clothing we are told.   These commandments are woven all throughout the pages of the Old Testament so consistently and deeply that it is clear that the people of Israel saw these duties as a fundamental part of their identity.  This would be the case even if it is also very clear from the same pages of the Old Testament that the people of Israel often failed to follow these commands.