The Babe Leaped In Her Womb - Older Children of Men Get It

“People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being,” he said. “They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.” Pope Benedict XVI

We had a very nice Mass this morning.  Babies and toddlers were sporting their Christmas togs and jabbering all through the service, which to my old hairy ears is what going to Mass is all about. They do not, as some of my more devout friends and neighbors hold, distract from the sanctity of the Mass, but adorn it.

I am a baby sap from a very long line of Hickey males, who delight in the innocent and encourage the cacophony.  My Grandfather, father and many uncles were like minded "children of men."  Little guys of three were tapped on the shoulders by an Uncle Bud, Mike, Pat, Jack Bart, Sy, or Donnie during Mass with nod to celebrant in all of his liturgical splendor and asked, ' Hey, Pad'jeen. . . How about that guy's dress up there?  What gives with that?  Thinks he's Milton Berle?'

There followed a flow of questions from the targeted cherub concerning the guy up on the altar getting all the attention -" Fa'r Garrady got a dress on, Mom!  Why he got dress, Mom?  Mom, He wear'nah dress!"  There followed good-womanly remonstrances to 'Hush, Clam up, Let it Alone, Pay Attention!'

It is good to go to Mass.  Kids fiddle with Golden books, grab toys from siblings, reach for whatever the hell they see and want but have yet to verbally identify, punch, shove, hug, nap and eat dry Cheerios like they were truffles.  These babies will soon conform into devout little ladies and gents of the pew -midget Moms and Dads and will also Hush, Knock It Off and quiet the human voice and heart at its best.

Suffer the older Squares and and Biddies, but  revel in the reason for God's Being -babies.  God's Will, as understood in Paradise Lost is the promise of Life and that is tied to love between a guy and girl that allows babies to join us in adoring Him.

After Mass, I read the papers.  No joy there.  One goof in the Tribune decided to mock Pope Benedict's Christmas message. That is because the Pope refuses to roll over on what constitutes a marriage - a man marries a woman and go half's on babies.  The goof in the Tribune is as doctrinaire as we Catholics, but his faith is grounded not on rock but on paper - Dewey's thoughts, Windy City Times, Boss Cosgrove's e-mails and Eychaner's currency.

Today's gospel which I had absolutely no trouble hearing above the jabber of many babies and toddlers, is very clear in its language - Mary is expecting a child.  A Babe is leaping in Mary's womb, just like all three of my babies, aged 17-26 in 2012, battered and bumped and treated my wife Mary's innards like an inflatable play zone for the better part of her 'confinement.'

Christmas would not be much with this Immaculate Conception.

Luke 1: 39 - 45 39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechari'ah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

"

Eric Zorn Ignores the UN Declaration of Human Rights

Gay Marriage is serious about Illinois - Is Illinois Serious?

Eric Zorn carries more water than Gunga Din - he carried buckets for Rahm's Garbage Grid and has strenuously liquefied the parched tongues of Civil Union advocates, abortion on demanders and now for immediate Gay Marriage in Illinois. Today, close on the heels of Rahm Emanuel's latest nod to his money base and the Progressive zeitgeist tagging Gay Marriage as Priority Three, EZ barrels the basic human right meme:

 All Illinois can do now is hop on the train of history. The trend lines show it's about to roll over the obstinate states where legislators refuse to recognize the inevitability, if not the wisdom and justice, of same-sex couples getting the same rights to formalize their relationships that are enjoyed by opposite-sex couples.

The same rights?  Even the United Nations does not view gay marriage as a human right, much less a requirement to equate Stonewall with Selma, or recalibrate homophobia to school-yard bullying. That is for the journalists and academic procrustean bullies to pound away at once the funding comes through from the usual sources.

The United Nations lays out basic humam rights and specifically sites marriage -

United Nations Declaration of Human Rights

Article 16.

• (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
• (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
• (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

The Civil Union Act, fogged as a Religious Freedom dodge by Greg Harris and company in the Illinois Legislature, immediately attacked Catholic Charities.  Catholic Charities was bullied out of its service to children without families.  Civil Unions just could not wait. Illinois got on the gay side of history and went to war on millions of Catholics.  How about that?

No Catholic ever said outlaw homosexuals (LGBTQ) or gay culture.  The opposite can not be said to be public knowlege.

Eric Zorn works the meme that Homosexual Marriage is a Basic Human Right.  Marriage is and has been a social contract between men and women for as long as Homo Erectus put two syllables together, Will and Grace, Glee, Modern Family and Ellen DeGeneres notwithstanding.

Illinois is bankrupt, to paint with as broad a brush as Zorn the Scrivener, families and businesses are doing the Exodus from this  Land of Progressive Pharaoh, school choice is unavailable to inner city and struggling rural families and our media do the bidding of Progressive PACS, academic eunuchs, and fiscal star gazers. Go Down, Moses!

Greg Harris armed with the fortunes of Henry Van Amerigen and Fred Eychaner, who wholly own a handsome portion of the Illinois legislators and the media in Illinois artfully bulled through the wildly misleading and divisive Religious Freedom and Civil Union Act, set the table for the Religious Freedom and Marriage Freedom Act, which was tucked away due to the Illinois fiscal collapse and the looming re- election of President Obama. He might be the 1st Gay President, but Barack wanted no rocks and hard places on his path.

The media and the elected officials who take the coin of the Pink Pharaohs argue the basic human right of sexual preference that can only be satisfied by the immediate recalibration of  the meaning of Marriage.

One may argue one's position, but do so with at least a wink to honesty. Gay Marriage will no doubt take effect in Illinois very soon, but let's not pretend that it will not be the result of vast piles of cash paid out in bribe money to clueless at best and spineless at most politicians.


UPDATE - I guess I hurt Eric's feelings:

ZORN REPLY -- Let me cut you off there, Beth. That's just Pat Hickey. More people would read his screeds if he wrote them with a Sharpie on a bathroom wall, which is where they belong. I'm not going to enable him by posting the link, though, as his arguments are ignorant, bitter and small. We don't need that here, now, do we?

Ignorant, bitter and small arguments.  Man I could be a Columnist!