Caesar adsum jam forte. Brutus aderat. Caesar sic in omnibus. Brutus sic in at.
These words, from the Book of the Prophet Dogrel, are best read in the original Latin; not surprisingly, they are used only in the traditional Roman rite. For the benefit of my more stupid readers, I will translate them as follows: Caesar, I am present now, by chance. Brutus was present. Caesar, thus in all things. And Brutus (is) thus in.
Julius Caesar listens to the word of God. In Latin, of course.
The passage begins as a divine message to Caesar, asserting God's presence. Adsum, adesse, adfui, I want you to learn this verb before our next Mass, as there will be a small test as you come into church. Obviously God has manifested Himself in various ways (cf. Hebrews 1:1: In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways), and here He is addressing Caesar, the great-uncle of the man who sent Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.
It is the "by chance" that brings us up short. I think we must regard this as Divine irony. For He leaves nothing to chance.
God does not play dice.
What are we to make of the next sentence, where Brutus is introduced? Is this the celebrity conspirator, who inspired one of the shortest verses in the Bible: Et tu, Brute? Well possibly: but more probably he symbolises Brutality: the Devil, say, or perhaps the National Catholic Reporter [aka Fishwrap].
So the Lord is telling Caesar that, although He is present, there is Evil present too. The message is repeated again in different words, a literary device known to experts as Repeating again in different words.
This reading reminds us of the importance of God's grace. Without it, we are vulnerable to the attacks of Brutus.
Drop that dagger, Mr Brutus!
Numinous Nun Tea
For those who say they don't drink coffee [and this is something you would need to mention at Confession, so be careful!] the Numinous Nuns offer their own brand of tea.
A numinous nun serves tea.
Numinous Nun tea is blended by the Little Sisters of the Pot, a traditional Catholic order founded by St Camellia Sinensis. Order yours now!
Do not accept any other tea, especially not the soul-rotting rubbish that is on sale at StarWars.
The President of the StarWars chain of tea shops. Not numinous!
Fr x misses the point completely, in that the real story is the kidnapping by Ernest Blofeld of the Pope's cat. No doubt the former is in the pay of the modernists. Now I am off to bed with a cup of Friar Trade cocoa, in mySay the Black, get Fisked in Red mug.
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ReplyDeleteMarvlious post, Bruvver. What you and Father X have missed, though, is that not too long after Vatican II, the conflict of good against evil expressed itself in the early '70s Jeans Wars in which: Levis ( or Levites) = good, Wranglers = bad ( clearly the Zealots) but Brutus = the unspeakable cheap rubbish from the market....
from: 'All that and we suffered the Folk Mass, too.'
The post-conciliar Franciscans wore "Tesco bombers" which was a case of advertising their poverty.
DeleteIs this actually true? I can quite believe it - I had well-meaning lay pals who went to East Ham to 'live with the poor'.
DeleteOblivious to the fact that the poor 1. weren't all that poor 2. thought they were a load of scruffy hippies who were scrounging the dole...
In that case it was the Claretians who were the inspiration/instigators...they seem to have calmed down these days...
from: and the Rock Mass as well
Doesn't 'Et cum spiritu tuo' mean 'add a little something extra to that nunti'? Anti-Moly may hav some fun wiv dis one. What does Fauver Pau have to say about it?
ReplyDeleteThe last I heard Fr. X had embraced the joys of the conspiracy theory. It would be of interest to know which ones? I was unaware that there were any left to embrace.
ReplyDeleteX’s ‘brick by brick’ theory has never really convinced me and certainly not where I live where we gleefully lurch from one liturgical disaster to the next without a hint of dissent. It seems to be an on-going project of self-destruction, breeze block by breeze block ...
I had to Google "Camellia Sinensis". The road to salvation does make you learn things.
ReplyDeleteCareful, Eccs - St Richard Dawkins has got in on the act and is calling Blessed Hans Kung 'Brutus':
ReplyDeletehttp://catholicism.about.com/b/2012/10/19/grumpy-old-men.htm