An excerpt from "On The Incarnation"

"For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. In one sense, indeed, He was not far from it before, for no part of creation had ever been without Him Who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things that are. But now He entered the world in a new way, stooping to our level in His love and Self-revealing to us. He saw the reasonable race, the race of men that, like Himself, expressed the Father's Mind, wasting out of existence, and death reigning over all in corruption. He saw that corruption held us all the closer, because it was the penalty for the Transgression; He saw, too, how unthinkable it would be for the law to be repealed before it was fulfilled. He saw how unseemly it was that the very things of which He Himself was the Artificer should be disappearing. He saw how the surpassing wickedness of men was mounting up against them; He saw also their universal liability to death. All this He saw and, pitying our race, moved with compassion for our limitation, unable to endure that death should have the mastery, rather than that His creatures should perish and the work of His Father for us men come to nought, He took to Himself a body, a human body even as our own. Nor did He will merely to become embodied or merely to appear; had that been so, He could have revealed His divine majesty in some other and better way. No, He took our body, and not only so, but He took it directly from a spotless, stainless virgin, without the agency of human father—a pure body, untainted by intercourse with man. He, the Mighty One, the Artificer of all, Himself prepared this body as a temple for Himself, and took it for His very own, as the instrument through which He was known and in which He dwelt. Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father."

 - Athanasius

Ah, the impetuousness of youth...

Ok, so I was looking around on YouTube and found a series of videos put together by CSPAN in which college students were asked what issues would be important to them in the coming elections. So, I've selected a few that I'm going to comment on right quick. 

Look, kid, getting a job has nothing to do with the government. There were numerous videos about how jobs were scarce and college was expensive. Well, that's generally known as LIFE. Yeah, college is expensive, yeah, getting a job is hard sometimes, but that's what you do. It's got nothing to do with politics. If you're lucky, maybe Barack Obama will descend from the clouds in a golden chariot and help you find a job, eh? Is that what we're looking for?

Mmmkay, so, superfluous spending, huh? Started when the Bush administration took control, eh? You don't say...  Apparently, this kid hasn't met any hardcore Democrats. Shall we introduce him to our friends Barack and Hillary? If this man doesn't want to vote for anyone who will engage in superfluous spending, then he won't be voting at all in '08.

Ok, I love this one. "What's important to me about this election is healthcare, because as a college student, it's very hard to get birth control." WHAT?! Sorry, I just sprayed spit all over my computer screen because I was laughing so much. She doesn't say, "Oh, look at all the poor people who can't see a doctor, the government should help them..." No! She wants birth control! The government should pay for her birth control! Your tax dollars: helping college girls avoid unwanted pregnancies since 2008. Other issues she thinks are important: the state of her economy, what jobs will be available for her... uh... that's about it. Gay marriage, abortion and the war are all just opinion, apparently, so why worry about them? It's not like anyone has morals anymore, what a quaint idea...

Well, well, well. Health care is a natural right? Hm. Honestly, I'm not sure what I think about that. Another one of these videos equated freedom with healthcare. Just because we live in freedom doesn't mean that our every need will be catered to. Besides, I'd like to see the government provide healthcare for every single American. That's the premise, right? Universal healthcare? In 2007, Americans spend around 2.3 trillion dollars on healthcare. Sooo... what happens after we blow the national budget on that? We'll be really healthy, but we'll have to fire all of our government employees and raise taxes or something to fund it. Maybe if we start a nationwide fundraising program, we can work something out. Selling popcorn to the Mexicans across the border, perhaps? Setting up a $5 carwash up in Canada? Sounds like a winner. But seriously, universal healthcare just isn't feasible.

Now, of course, these are only a few dumb college kids, but there were a lot of other videos saying basically the same thing. I may seem overly harsh, but frankly, I greatly dislike the people that are in "my generation," because they just don't think. 

"People try to put us down, just because we get around..."

"That Old Time Religion..."

"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones." - Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and philosopher

I think the above quote pretty much sums up the entirety of the "salvation by nebulous goodwill" method of reasoning. Aurelius assumes that a truly just god cares nothing for piety or devotion and requires none from his worshippers. Virtue(which, I might add, was very different for the pagan than it is for the Christian) is enough to please the gods. Of course, this is coming from a man whose "gods" were themselves imperfect, flawed beings, who could perhaps be sated by mere acts of goodwill and nobility. Aurelius seems to think he has his ducks in a row, asserting that diety would conform to his idea of what a "just god" should be. If the "gods" dared to differ from dear Marcus's template, he might simply choose to disregard them, declaring them to be undesirable and more or less unworthy of worship. Upon death, Aurelius might have prepared to step into a great void, (if, as he speculates, there are no gods) leaving behind nothing except a presence in the memories of his loved ones. And when they fell, too, his legacy would disappear, leaving absolutely nothing behind. His life of pagan nobility would have been for naught. 

Even in the simple assurance of salvation that is proclaimed every Sunday at my church, we are miles ahead of Aurelius. We need not strive to win the Almighty's pleasure with our nobility or attempts at virtue, for all who have tried to do so have failed, save Christ. The pagan works all his life to build a deposit in the Bank of Universal Karma, hoping that in the end, it will be large enough to purchase his ticket into Paradise. For the unbeliever, there is no resounding trump as he enters the afterlife, no "well done, good and faithful servant." There is only fear and doubt. The Christian, however, runs towards death with the anticipation of meeting his Lord at last, knowing that his life has been in the service of his King, by the grace he has received through Christ.

Aurelius cannot even definitively say that his gods exist. Their existence is dependent upon him and what he thinks. He has placed his gods into molds and bid them conform to what he views as good and just. Otherwise, he threatens to simply ignore them out of existence, for the power and worth of Aurelius's gods was reliant upon his belief in them. Can he look at these beings and call them gods? Gods who have no authority over their own reality? My God exists whether I want him to or not. He is not controlled by the whims and beliefs of men, his creatures. He reigns whether the unbeliever wants him to or no, something which Aurelius's gods could never do. The modern secularist would very much like to say that the Church and her members have no real bearing on society, simply because they worship a supposedly imaginary and irrelevant god. But Christ has indeed already conquered the earth, and even now rules over it, something which pagans refuse to accept, and many Christians seem to forget. In light of this fact, the Christian lives a virtuous life, not to gain favour with a fickle diety, but because he has been given new life in Christ. Virtue is not the cause of salvation, but the effect, and that makes all the difference.

"Nice Work If You Can Get It..."

Well, well, well... My cavernous brain is quite devoid of thought this evening. I think I shall discuss music, since that is always a jolly topic for me. I'm listening to some Thelonious Monk at the moment, really good stuff. There are two things that I enjoy about Monk. The first is that so many notes in his improvisations sound completely wrong, and yet sound so very right. That's also one of the great things about jazz in general, I suppose. The other thing is the saxophone. Although Monk is a pianist, he often features a saxophone, especially on the Monk's Dream album. There are some really great sax lines on that album, and I think it's pretty cool. I don't like vocal jazz and I don't really get into some of the larger ensembles, but I really like small ensemble instrumental jazz. 

So, that is what I am thinking about tonight. Perhaps something more substantive will emerge tomorrow. We shall see...

On a side note, here is a monologue I plan to use for the upcoming musical auditions. It's from the movie Amadeus and is delivered by the character of Antonio Salieri.

"My plan was so simple that it terrified me. First I must get the death mass and then I, I must achieve his death. His funeral! Imagine it, all of Vienna there, Mozart's coffin, Mozart's little coffin in the middle, and then suddenly, in that silence, music! A divine music bursts out over them all. A great mass of death! Requiem mass for Wolfgang Mozart, composed by his dear friend, Antonio Salieri! Oh what sublimity, what depth, what passion in the music! Salieri has been touched by God at last. And God is forced to listen!! Powerless, powerless to stop it! I, for once in the end, laughing at him!! The only thing that bothered me was the actual killing. How does one do that? Hmmm? How does one kill a man? Well it's one thing to dream about it; very different when you, when you have to do it with your own hands."