Chaoskampf

I want answers. I like neat, organized information. Cause and effect. Reason and meaning. There is this internal urge to find this answer that makes everything fit into proper boxes and then every encounter in life will make sense, have its solution ready to pull from its assigned drawer.

Life is not neat and tidy. Humanity has struggled with that fact for ages. We blame Persephone or Eve. We tell of heroes fighting off monsters of chaos (these battles are called chaoskampf in German). We offer rituals and programs, promising a solution that will bring order. Because we want order and we believe that order will ultimately defeat chaos.

But why? Why do we so long for an answer, an order, that does not seem to successfully appear? If we are creatures of a chaotic world, why are we not creatures comfortable with chaos?

Monday Motivation: Love casts out fear

 

St. Medard

St. Medard was born around 456 into a noble Frankish family in northern France. His mother was from a Roman family that had settled in Gaul. At age 33 Medard became a priest. He was known for his knowledge and his piety. In 530, he was made bishop of Vermand. In 532, he was also made the bishop over Tornacum. He moved the see of Vermand to Noyon and then combined the two dioceses.

He was a well-loved bishop, known throughout what is now eastern France, western Germany, and Belgium. He was known for his good disposition, often depicted with his mouth wide open, laughing (this depiction would lead to him being evoked for toothaches).

It was a period of turmoil following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. King Clovis I had formed France, yet the Burgundians and Merovingians battled for power. Medard served as a councilor to the Merovingian king Clotaire.

Lots of local legends arose around him. It was said that as a child an eagle spread its wings and sheltered him from the rain and that whatever the weather is on his feast day will continue for the next 40 days. It is also said that St. Gildard was his twin brother and that they were born, ordained, and died on the same day.

St. Medard died on June 8, 545. His feast day is June 8. He is a patron against toothaches and bad weather.

For the low, low price of 60 pieces of silver

I hate to jump on the latest outrage wagon, but…

The saying goes, “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross,” but must it be so literal?

The Christian nationalist “God Bless the USA Bible” went for sale on Holy Week (“Happy Holy Week” the video ad began). A fundraising grift for legal costs, the “Bible” indeed is wrapped in flag imagery, a political weapon shrouded in hallowed symbols. The item contains the KJV alongside the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Pledge of Allegiance, and lyrics to the song “God Bless the USA.”

Has anyone checked Monticello? Because Jefferson, who wrote his own edited-down version of the Bible, must be rolling in his grave.

The blatant disrespect, for both scripture and founding documents, is jarring, even in this day and age. Both are being commodified and weaponized. Maybe that’s nothing that new for America but it’s still insidious. It’s gross. This is not about the Word of God or the words of Thomas Jefferson. The hucksters don’t care about the actual message of these documents. The only message they care about is creating a warped version of both Christianity and patriotism, where you can only be a good Christian if you’re a conservative nationalist and you can only be a good citizen if follow a specific, narrow strain of Christianity.

Monday Motivation: The Grace of Easter

“The grace of Easter is a great silence, an immense tranquility and a clean taste in your soul. It is the taste of heaven, but not the heaven of some wild exaltation. The Easter vision is not riot and drunkenness of spirit, but a discovery of order above all order—a discovery of God and of all thing in Him. This is a wine without intoxication, a joy that has no poison in it. It is a life without death.” Thomas Merton, April 9, 1950