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Editor’s Pick: Best Album of 2017
Arcade Fire | Everything Now
Montreal’s Arcade Fire has always made music that sounds and feels urgent, almost as if the day they recorded the song was the last day on earth. They took the music world by surprise with their 2004 debut album, Funeral, fusing lyrics dealing with loss and suburban isolation with anthemic guitars, heartfelt vocals, and, yes, even the occasional accordion.
From abortion to stem-cell research, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ pro-life committee is working hard to educate and empower Americans to save lives.
Is there any humor in the New Testament? Everything seems extremely serious.
Like the Old Testament, the New Testament has a fair bit of humor, much of it rather subtle.
Isn’t there humor in Jesus’ image of a camel trying to go through the eye of a needle (Mt 19:24; Mk 10:25; and Lk 18:25)? Some Scripture commentators conjectured Jerusalem had an “eye of the needle ” gate, but no one has found any evidence of such a gate.
Where in the Old Testament do we find even a hint of humor as we know it? I’m guessing that there just wasn’t much humor in those days! Was everything taken seriously then?
In fact, there is a fair amount of humor in the Old Testament, which many Christians mistakenly think has only thunder, lightning, and punishment. What follows is only a sampling of humor in the Old Testament.
Christmas honors what is possible in this world: the birth of a creature who can transform the entire universe by the power of his imagination and his vision for a better world.
If we could evolve to the point of global peace, the possibilities for human creativity would be astounding, and that creativity would have an impact in the universe just as human activity today affects the planet.
As you watch the little ones in your immediate or extended families, you know that there’s little to equal the wonder and joy in their eyes as they celebrate the lights, the decorations, the gifts and the festivities. But sometimes we get so frazzled by the preparations that we become impatient with the very ones for whom we’re expending so much time, energy, and money. Remember that children need our loving attention far more than they need another new toy under the tree.
In turning on the light of the Christmas tree, we wish for the light of Christ to be in us.
At Christmas we don’t wish each other perfect lives but only “comfort and joy.” This is what I look for: not an end to struggle, but a level of understanding and adjustment so that we can say to each other, “Merry Christmas.”
Many people feel an underlying anxiety due to world events and the challenges of getting along in a complicated world. Christmas allows a break from that gray depression, an inner darkness reflected in the winter sky. Solstice offers symbolic hope that there may be a turn in the “weather.” The turn could take us to more genuine peace, justice, and community—key values in the Jesus teachings and qualities we expect in a renewed life turning more toward the light than the dark.
“O Key of David, O Royal power of Israel, controlling at your will the gate of heaven: Come break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”
