 |
|
The Bishop's Dilemma By Ed Noonan CHAPTER ELEVEN
In The Quizzes
Fr. Ferro would later sort what Catie Jo said into several categories. God, the Trinity “All my special friends say God is fun. After all God knew being one was ok, but it was more fun sometimes being three. In Heaven, you sometimes are in front of God and before long you are playing with the three people that God is. It is like God is a party.” “When I say God the Father, Catherine reminds me that is only one of the names that “Numero Uno” goes by. God the 1st Person is always working and trying to be what everybody in the world needs God to be. It sounds confusing but its not. Once you get to know the 1st Person no matter what costume God’s wearing you recognize who it is.” “Jesus is everywhere and in person. We get so used to it we forget to notice that it he is the one that is with us. Jesus is also doing what everyone needs God’s love to do. Joan says that is why Jesus sometimes gets lost in the background because that is what Jesus is. You just have to admire God for being Jesus, everywhere in love with everything. On our computer at home I like to take a picture of like a flower, or friend, or something and make hundreds of copies until it fills a page. It is beautiful all at once or in each picture. That always reminds me to see Jesus with me and with everybody else.” “The Holy Spirit is the most unappreciated person of God and not afraid to say so. (Catie Jo giggled at this.) Actually the Holy Spirit loves people who see what a great job the Holy Spirit does, you know, by being ahead of what people do and behind them before they do it and with them when they do it. The Holy Spirit gets things done better when people trust and understand how great the Holy Spirit is or so the Holy Spirit says.” (She giggled again.) The Church “The Church is in danger. If a few men continue to make the Church like they want it to be, there will be big cracks where the Holy Spirit has to force out the truth. One of my friends, Pope John, (or as Catherine calls him “#23 in the big jersey”) laughed when they beatified him. He said, “They should beatify what I did.” He and the Holy Spirit hang out a lot together and are working on the big finale to Vatican II. It will happen because people will allow it to happen. As Joan says, “Those men don’t own Jesus, the truth. Jesus will surprise them.” “I get worried because when you try to “push the truth into an old-fashioned bottle” (Big Tommy the Ox), it could break. I just don’t want to be around when that happens. My uncle was in Vietnam and he told me what flying stuff does when something explodes. “All my friends in Heaven start shaking their heads a lot when they hang around Earth. They always say time to get back to the bigger picture in Heaven and go away and come back smiling. I wish I could see that picture. It must need a screen bigger than IMAX.” (Fr. Ferro was touched by an aside Catie made when she said the above. She looked at him and said, “That’s why its great that there are people like you and Fr. Hugh and my Mom who trust things will work out even though they don’t get to see the bigger picture.) “Didn’t somebody just apologize for a bunch of stuff, like to the scientist who said the world was a planet around the sun, oh yeah, Galileo? We studied him in class. In those days they were afraid of what would happen if the world was like Galileo said. So they tried to pretend the world was the way they wanted it to be. They are doing the same thing now with woman. Woman can do this and they can’t do that. Mary says, “Whose universe are they living in. It’s not mine.” Then she says, “They’d better move on because the universe isn’t waiting up for them.” I feel the room shake whenever someone says, “Jesus only appointed men.” Catherine says, “Jesus knew the women were already doing the work and he had to give the men a job to get them going. “(Of course, that was followed by a giggle.) Vatican II “It is “Joy and Hope” that they are afraid of. I don’t get all the stuff in that document but I know it lets me imagine what I want to. What I imagine gives me joy and hope and the faith that lets me tell you what I imagine. I’ve got to tell people that they need to treat “Joy and Hope” right. I mean not let anyone try to hide it or pretend it isn’t there.” Heaven “Heaven is obviously better than anyone thinks. There is always something going on and everyone is in more than one place. Things are always changing like a kaleidoscope but Heaven is always the same and at any moment you can meet with God or one of the three persons face to face and then be off on another exciting journey or be somewhere quiet where you can admire what God is up to.” Catie Jo’s Job (and his)
“My job is to be the little girl with the big friends who gets to tell people what they don’t want to hear. It’s worked before, but this time Joan says people better take care of me and Catherine says I’d better take care of myself. I’m going to go to Rome soon and have my say about what is happening today. I think I’ll have a lot of adventures, but the first one is the big one. When I get to Rome I’m going to see the Pope and you’re going to help me. Isn’t this fun. We get to be friends and you get to be happy, but first you’ve got to tell your boss that he also gets to help out. I know something that might convince him. The Bishop should be the one who helps change everything but he thinks that will make him just like everybody else. We have to try carefully to help him before he explodes.” (She shakes her head, no laughter this time.) After the quizzes, Fr. Hugh knew he was hooked. She was charming and funny and loving. She was smart and had the wisdom of ages in her eyes, but she also had a mischievous twinkle. He didn’t think that combination had happened too often in history. At the end of the meeting, she hugged him and gave him a kiss. She told him that they would meet again soon. Later that night, Fr. Ferro called the Nuncio and made his report. He told the Nuncio that Catie Jo said the Nuncio should remember the promise he made to his mother when she died. He promised her that he would do whatever Catherine of Siena asked him. His mother said she had prayed daily to Catherine for him and all that he was he owed to Catherine. According to Catie Jo, now Catherine and his mother wanted him to know it was time to pay up. Catherine now wanted the Nuncio to help Catie Jo meet the Pope. At this the Nuncio slammed down the phone.
|
|
Ed Noonan
Mary's Mountain PO Box 1067 Helena, MT 59624 (406) 443-0926 fax: (406) 443-0600
|