The Greatest of These, III : Equanimity

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The Greatest of These, III : Equanimity

1 Corinthians 13

September 24, 2023 • William A. Evertsberg

Paul doesn’t quite say this, but almost: it is impossible to be loving and envious at the same time. If you love someone, you will never resent—or even want—their success or happiness.

It’s often pointed out that Envy is the only deadly sin that’s no fun. The other deadly sins have some kind of reward. With Gluttony and Lust, there’s a pleasant dopamine kick. If you have Pride, you feel good about yourself. With Greed, you get lots of stuff. If you’re slothful, you get to sleep till noon. Even Anger can be satisfying, but Envy is never any fun.

The New O Antiphons, III: O Prince of Life, Bridegroom to the Bride

December 3, 2023 • William A. Evertsberg • John 2:1–12

Now listen to this. We learn so much about the dynamics between a 45-year-old mother and her 30-year-old son. Mary hunts down Jesus among the other 150 wedding guests and says, without explanation, “They’ve run out of wine.” Now, Mary is not the MOB. This is not her party. Why does she think this is her problem to solve, and then why does she hand it off to Jesus? Maybe as a favor to the MOB and the FOB, she just wants him to go down to the local Binnie’s and come back with six more cases of wine. Or more likely, maybe Mary knows better than anybody else that Jesus, coming straight from God, is a chip off the old block and has God-like power, which by the way, turns water into wine every autumn on the hillsides of Burgundy and Sonoma.

The New O Antiphons, II: O Lord, who thought up kangaroos and cacti…

November 26, 2023 • William A. Evertsberg • Job 12:7–8, Colossians 1:15–20

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite said in the sixth century that in every creature, from dragonfly to behemoth, something of God’s inexhaustible nature is revealed, something that would not be revealed if that creature did not exist. At creation, God’s overflowing nature spills out of its bounds and out into every creature. Every living creature tells us something unique about God, so that in man and woman, for example, we see God’s very face and God’s vast intelligence; in the smiling chimpanzee we see something of God’s smirking sense of humor; in the wolverine we see something of God’s startling ferocity...;

The New O Antiphons: I: O Loud and Lavish Lover of the awkward…

November 19, 2023 • William A. Evertsberg • Mark 1:1–8

Maybe Jesus was so deft at handling the awkward and the socially inept because he grew up with them. One of the harshest questions you can hurl at a person is this one: “What’s the matter with you? Were you brought up in a barn?” When people asked Jesus that question, he always said, “Well, yeah! As a matter of fact, I was!”