CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM SHOULD BE IMPEACHED FOR “CLEARLY VIOLAT[ING] THE FIRST AMENDMENT”

POLICE THREATEN $5000 FINE FOR PRO-LIFER PRAYING OUTSIDE MARYLAND ABORTION BUSINESS DURING COVID-19

DRONES, CHURCHES MONITORED FOR VIOLATORS:  THE STUNT VIRUS CANCELS GREEK EASTER

BR. BUGNOLO: THIS INTERNATIONAL IMPRISONMENT COULD BE THE GREATEST CRIME EVER AGAINST HUMANITY

JERSEY:  HOW A PERVCARDINAL AND A GOVERNOR FOOLED THE FAITHFUL

OLDEST CATHEDRAL IN SOUTH AFRICA BROKEN INTO DURING LOCKDOWN, HOSTS STOLEN

TEXANS CHANT “LET US WORK!” AND “FIRE FAUCI!” AT CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN PROTEST AT STATE CAPITOL

COMMUNIST MAYOR OF NYC:  REPORTING PEOPLE WHO AREN’T APPROPRIATELY DISTANCED IS EASIER THAN EVER!

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS KANSAS LIMITS ON RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS

BRAZIL’S BOLSONARO, WHO PERMITTED MASSES, BUT WAS THWARTED BY THE COURTS, HOLDS DIVINE MERCY JESUS PAINTING HIGH ABOVE HIS HEAD

FR. PAVONE DOES THE THUG BROTHERS

MIRACLE MAN, DAN BURKE, CONTINUES HIS ‘DARK NIGHT OF THE VIRUSSOUL’ TOUR WITH LIFESITE’S WESTEN.  HOW WAS THIS NOT A CASE OF CHRONIC ASTHMA AND AN OVERHYPED FLU?

ENORMOUS MINN. FRANCISBISHOP DELAYS HIS OWN PERSONAL SYNOD, AFTER COLLECTING SHEEPY DATA AND ALL THAT, FOR THE BLESSED VIRUS

NEW MEXICO JUDGE RULES AGAINST CHURCH IN CORONAVIRUS SHUTDOWN CASE

PEOPLE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA: YOU ARE UNDER THE TOTALITARIAN DIKTAT OF A LITERAL MADMAN.  YOU SHOULD PROBABLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT.

THANKS TO FRED MARTINEZ AND ALL THE CATHOLIC NEWS SOURCES WHO STILL SPREAD THE TRUTH EVEN IN THE BLACK AND SILLY DAY OF THE VIRUS

TRUMP FINALLY SMACKS TOP VIRUSGOVERNOR CUOMO!

THE CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS ARE PHONY BALONEY! ESPECIALLY IN NEW YORK!

LOCKDOWN LOUIE AND THE VIRUS OF THE OPERA?

MOST CHURCHES HAVE PARKING LOTS

FR. Z: A GREAT DEAL OF WHAT I SEE WRITTEN ABOUT THE SSPX IS POORLY-INFORMED, MEAN-SPIRITED, SPIRITUALLY-STINGY TWADDLE HURLED DOWN AS IF IT WERE AN UNERRING BOLT FROM ZEUS.

Clichés should not be ignored just because they are clichés. Facile repetition of what is true does not make it false. Of course, it can be annoying to hear a phrase repeated often without giving it much thought. Some expressions are not false simply because they lack originality. There are many invented lies, but there is no truth that has not always been true.

Only a dull mind would be annoyed by the truism that “Life is full of surprises.” Our first surprise happened when we were born and realized that there is a world outside the womb. The most stunning surprise in history, literally earth-shaking, was the Resurrection of Christ. No one expected it, and those few who recalled Christ’s prediction, denied it: “Now, on the next day, which is the one after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember that when he was still alive that deceiver said, “After three days I will rise again.” ’ ” (Matthew 27:62 ff). Not to risk the chance of a hoax, they arranged for the tomb to be guarded.

The closest disciples did not understand that Jesus really meant what he said, beyond metaphor. Even in the afterglow of the Transfiguration, three of the apostles seem to have dismissed his prediction of death and resurrection as a pious cliché. There was even a subtle humor in the way the Lord surprised them: the way the Magdalen at first thought the distant figure was a gardener, and the way young John dropped for a moment his self-effacing humility by mentioning that he outran Peter to the tomb, and Jesus’ conversation with the two men on the Emmaus road almost like an elegant tease at first, and the food he ate in the Upper Room to prove he was not a ghost, and his commanding serenity when he showed Thomas the wounds.

The element of surprise affirms the integrity of an event. The Risen Lord said to Cleopas and his companion: “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25). That is the one instance when he called anyone a fool. At first it would seem to contradict his command not to insult people by calling them “raqa” which means empty-headed. But here, in the glory of the Resurrection, there is no malice attached to what he says. There is only what some have called a gracious mirth.

If life is so full of surprises that we are no longer surprised by them, the solution is to recall that for forty days after the Lord rose from the dead, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Father George W. Rutler

4.18.20