Gratuitous Crossing the Tiber Posting

The last few weeks of my RCIA class have been taught by a friend of mine (and my sponsor, as a matter of fact). He's a dour sort of fellah to begin with, plus he's a convert of about fifteen years' standing himself, with all the, ah, zeal not at all uncommon to such folk.

For better or worse, he was told off to lecture on the Commandments. And as you might imagine, when he gets going on modern social problems in this context, he sounds like rayther like one of the minor prophets on an extremely cranky morning.

Anyhoo, he was in the middle of the Catechismic teachings on the Third Commandment last evening when I started chuckling to myself because I had suddenly remembered the old Steve Martin routine which runs, as near as memory can make it, something like this:

Wouldn't it be weird if you died and then you woke up and found yourself in Heaven and it was just like they'd always said? With the Pearly Gates? And everybody had wings and everything? Wouldn't you feel like an idiot? "Oh, noooooo!!! You mean-? Awwww!!!!!...... In college, they told us this was all bullshite! Well, I'll just go on in and....What? You mean you've been keeping track? Awwwwwww!!!! Well, look, I wasn't such a bad guy! I mean, for instance how many times did I take the Lord's name in vain? A million six? Jesus Chri-."

That routine is, what, nearly 30 years old now and it still makes me smile. (My apologies to any purists out there if I did not repeat it correctly word for word.)

Anyhoo, I contained myself and avoided a disruption. And you'll be proud to know that I also successfully resisted telling the joke about the Episcopal Church now having four Commandments and six Suggestions.

Speaking of RCIA, thanks to all of you who have dropped notes in the Tasty Bits (TM) Mail Sack asking how it's going. In fact, it's going just fine. I thought at the beginning that I would have more to say, but really the journey has been so very short and - frankly - easy, that I've found this hasn't been the case. This really shouldn't be surprising, I suppose: Coming out of an Orthodox Anglican tradition, I was already about 98% of the way there theologically anyway. The change has been more akin to the optometrist switching from Lens A to Lens B than anything else - same wall chart but much greater clarity. And if I may be permitted to extend the metaphor, being able to read the chart more clearly has allowed me to read it much more deeply and meaningfully, too. The fact of the matter is that the past six months or so have been the, well, happiest and most fulfilling that I can ever remember.

BTW, for those of you keeping up with the Robbo Patron Saint Sweepstakes, I am leaning very heavily toward Augustine and Aquinas, while also keeping St. Cecilia's Day because of my musickal interest. A number of folk seem to think that Thomas More is a good fit, too, but the fact of the matter is that I wish to stear clear of the whole messy business of the English Reformation. Just because I'm leaving the Anglican Church now in its present - perhaps fatal - crisis, I have no desire to go back and savage its entire history. I leave that to other people. Plus, whether he intended it or not, I've always felt that More's introduction of Utopia into the collective conscience has allowed a great many very naughty people to do a great deal of harm over the years.

LOW HANGING FRUIT YIPS from Steve-O: Third Commandment? So what is Benedict's take on the quartering of troops, anyway?