2018: A Year in Review

I thank God for the way he blessed me and extended my life through the work of giant physicians since May 1986 (over 32 years ago). I thank God for my wife and children who generously care for me as well as my brothers, sisters-in-law and their children and those who call me almost daily to ask about my health (If interested see the post in October 2018 here and this one ten years earlier in July 2008 here). I would like to mention my devoted students at Jesus the King Melkite Catholic parish whom I taught "Christian Questions Today" for 7 years.
Yesterday December 30, 2018 was the memorial of the Holy Family. At Holy Rosary parish in Toronto, Fr. Daniel Callam, CSB, PhD. gave a homily on marriage in Canada and the West in general where same-sex marriage is legal. He compared it to the sacramental marriage in the Church between a man and a woman that is permanent and open to procreation while love between husband and wife constitutes the way children are raised at home before they are in school. The reader may wish to read it here. Fr. Callam holds a doctorate in theology from Oxford University. Quite active, he often lectures at St. Thomas University in  Houston, Texas. A few days ago I found the conversion story of R.R. Reno (who is now the Editor of First Things) to the Catholic Church (here). The Pastor, Msgr. Robert Nusca - a renowned Biblical scholar, who earned his doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and is quite active, commented on it that it was a good story for the faithful to hold on to the faith.
Yesterday too Jesus the King Council of the Knights of Columbus released its December newsletter - I contributed an article titled "The Gospel of Life" based on the teachings of Pope Saint John Paul II  and so did the Grand Knight, the Ontario State Deputy and the Chaplain (attached).
On Christmas Day I wrote a post commenting on the homily at the Cathedral of the Transfiguration by Fr. Ibrahim El-Haddad, BSO and showing the beauty of the renowned Homsy choir, the Eastern Byzantine Church and its tradition - It shows also how an Eastern Christian Saint John of Damascus has influenced Christianity in the West in Medieval times - He spoke Arabic and learned Greek and wrote "The Fount of Wisdom" which is a collection of the Fathers and Church teachings  -  John of Damascus fought with his pen the Iconoclast heresy started by the Byzantine emperor Leo the Isorian as the emperor forbade Christians to venerate the icons of Christ and the saints (see it here).
My beloved mentor and Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad continues his active missionary work in Egypt, Europe (particularly in France and Hungary) and in Canada where he gave a retreat in Montreal in October. His latest homilies include this one on Sunday December 23 ("Marie, qui prépare la venue de Jésus ..." here). In his words, Fr. Boulad said that the Holy Spirit drove Mary (already pregnant in Jesus) out of herself as she was able to travel 200 kms on foot to go help her aged cousin Elizabeth.
It is important to recall and relive Christianity based on a good understanding of its history (a slightly long post written here in March 2018).
The Lord' Prayer is an integral prayer that Christians know by heart. It is important to note that "Give us this day our daily bread" is an invitation of Christ to be in us through the reception of his body and blood in the Mystery of the Eucharist (see this essay written in August 2018 here).
Building human civilization in a world that keeps changing with technology is not an easy task, but still an important one. 
If we go back to January 2018, we find "The Axis of History" here based on works by Fr. Henri Boulad, Bishop Robert Barron, and Sir John Polkinghorne. 
With regard to cosmic physics see also my post in June 2018 on Black Holes here.
Recent scientific findings in CERN were announced a few days ago where it published an article titled "The future of particle physics in Europe is taking shape" here. This does not mean that America, Russia, or China is behind in any way. On December 28, 2018, The Washington Post published an article claiming that Russia's military intelligence using advanced computer technology is active in Europe and other parts of the world. Read it here. China's XiPing too is working to assimilate the power of the United States and Russia. MIT Technology Review published recently an  article claiming that the U.S. attempt to keep Artificial Intelligence out of China could actually help China (read it here).
As the business corporate leaders rethink implementations of digital technology, TechRepublic wrote that technologies are driving business in 2019: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, 5G and edge computing. I had written on Artificial Intelligence and Big Data as well as other information here and here.
I am reading two books that I received a couple of days ago. 
1) The 500-pages "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" by Professor David Griffiths (He earned his PhD. from Harvard and taught modern physics at 5 universities including University of Massachusetts and Stanford University). It is a text book taught to university students
2) "Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology" by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI). In this voluminous book, Ratzinger show the anthropology and development of philosophical thought including the 20th century "Philosophy of History". His theological insight is decidedly "deep in the water", a reference to Christology. 
We have great hopes that in God's merciful love the new year will be a blessing to all of humanity.

Fr. Daniel Callam, CSB, PhD. : The Feast of the Holy Family

Holy Family                            30 xii 2018                    Holy Rosary

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t has always been difficult for the homilist to preach on the feast of the Holy Family. In the old days, the priest would deliver a string of platitudes about loving mothers, provident fathers and so on. There’s a joke people used to tell about such sermons. After Mass Mrs. Smith said to Mrs. Jones, “I wish I knew as little about marriage as he does.” It’s still difficult to preach on the feast, but for a totally different reason; for how in heaven’s name do you define a family today? There are single-parent families or families with two male, or two female parents. Polygamy—one man with several or even multiple wives—is practised in Canada, and not only by the Mormons in Bountiful B.C. A woman told me that one of her co-workers announced that she was going to be married “in the Moslem way.” When asked what that meant, she replied that she would be the second wife of her husband, not legally, of course, but in accord with the Koran that allows a man to have up to four wives. And then there’s polyandry, a word that you may not know. It refers to one woman with several husbands, in what I might call “the Canadian way,” that is, with only one being legal. The Globe and Mail had a laudatory article on one such “family” a couple of weeks ago, with a photograph of the woman, her two partners and their smiling offspring. Besides these, there are other arrangements that I would not dare to describe or even mention for the pulpit. Concomitant with these developments is the growing discomfort with the terms “husband” and “wife”—now simply “partners,”—with “mother” and “father”—now “parents”—and with “son” and “daughter”—now “offspring” or “sibling.”

What in the world is the poor preacher to say on the feast of the Holy Family? . . . now that we have been educated to be so tolerant that we can no longer tolerate anyone who would question the legitimacy of these new arrangements. It’s not only a difficulty for the preacher, for you like me are members of a Church that views Tradition as valid a vehicle of revelation as Scripture itself. Simply call to mind the language of the creed that we shall shortly recite: we believe in God the Father and God the Son. Are we now to abandon those hallowed titles and in baptizing, instead of using the time-honoured phrase “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” say something like this: “I baptize you in the name of the Source, the Effect and the Union”? Furthermore, in the Bible Jesus is described as the bridegroom of his bride, the Church. Mary, too, we address with the title “Mother of God” and also as our mother. And so on. I fear that if I were merely to enunciate our traditional teaching about marriage some of you would walk out and the rest would bombard me with their hymnals. And it is shocking to modern Canadian ears as you find it in, e.g., the Catechism. Its starting point is what Saint Augustine identified as “the three goods of marriage.”[1] The first is “fidelity,” which points to the mutual love and support of one spouse for the other. Then, “children,” referring to the obligation to provide, and provide for, the next generation. And finally, he speaks of the “sacrament,” i.e., the permanence of Christian marriage in that it is a sacramental sign of Christ’s love for the Church. As he will not abandon his bride, the Church, nor she him, so husband and wife are permanently joined until death separates them.

The most offensive statement in this traditional description of marriage is: “the primary purpose of marriage is the procreation of children.” A word of caution may be in order before your indignation becomes violent. The word “primary” here is used in the sense that we find it in, e.g., primary school—i.e., the foundation upon which higher learning will be built. Thus, learning one’s ABCs is not superior to reading Shakespeare, but is an essential first step. For, if you cannot read, the great works of literature will remain for you literally a closed book. So too with procreation. It is the biological fact upon which can be raised the edifice of mutual support, a loving relationship and a mature spirituality.

The implications of Saint Augustine’s approach to marriage are wide-ranging, in that the noble titles of husband and wife, mother and father, are paradigmatic for all of society, including those of us who are unmarried. For each one of us, what ever his condition, is called upon to imitate the generous and self-sacrificing service that marriage requires from the spouses in their relationship to one another and to their children. In general, then, we can say that all the machinery of the modern state—industry, government, education, entertainment—is in place to serve the family, i.e., to encourage, to facilitate the union of man and woman in the establishment of a home. Teachers, e.g., act to supplement the education of the young that begins and continues in the home. Commerce, too, exists primarily to provide household goods that it would be too difficult or too time consuming for a family to make on its own. Similarly, government should act to safeguard the public good in passing laws and providing assistance to preserve the well-being of all its members, especially in such things as affordable housing and family assistance. In short, family life, at best, reminds us that the essential purpose of the paraphernalia of society is service rather than profit or self-aggrandizement. You can see, I am sure, that this traditional doctrine constitutes a radical critique of Canada today. But what is one to do? I may not be able directly to alter what is going on in city hall or Queen’s Park or Ottawa; I may not be able to monitor the media; I may not be able to influence the stock market; but I can reflect on my own situation and act so as to conform my behaviour to what is required of a faithful follower of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.a

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[1] “Fides, proles et sacramentum”; cf. Augustine, De bono coniugali, XXIV.32.