Learning a New “Vocabulary” Word

Dear Parishioners,

As I checked my Facebook account this past Monday, there was a lot of buzz about Miley Cyrus (the former Hannah Montana star from the Disney Channel) and her twerking during the MTV Video Music Awards.  I had not heard this word before.  Usually I am quite pleased to learn a new word.  Maybe I can use it in Words with Friends or in a crossword puzzle?  Unfortunately, I’m not too happy this time around.

When I was still working in a high school, the students would generally keep me aware of the latest fads in pop culture—whether I liked them or not.  Am I really starting to become “out of it?”  After I thought for a while, I remembered something that I had written as a principal.  This message was directed to the parents of my Sacred Heart High School students back in 2008:

When acting as a chaperone at the school dances recently, I sat back and took clear notice of what I saw. For the most part during some of the songs it looked like an orgy with clothes on. Ladies and gentlemen no longer faced each other but the young men were dancing behind the ladies in acts that could only be described as simulated copulation.  In other instances three or more people combined in a line making some type of layered sandwich of bodies.  I could go on.

What happened to dancing?

I came to the conclusion that the music had to change. If you are doing the electric slide, the twist, the Y.M.C.A. or some type of country line dance, the music does not allow for this type of dancing. However, the acceptable pattern/style of dance for hip-hop or rap seemed to be simulated sexual activity of the basest nature.  I told the D.J. at the last dance to change the music.  Period.

I intend to hold to this in future dances if students do not learn that dancing in high schools should not come close to the lap dancing found in so-called “gentlemen's clubs.”  Only proper face to face dancing or traditionally recognized dances (i.e., the twist, line dances, the electric slide, the Y.M.C.A., etc.) will be permitted at Sacred Heart in the future. Gentlemen should respect the dignity of a woman and women should not throw themselves around in suggestive gyrations. (I think that the students learned a new vocabulary word here when I spoke to them about this.)

I had witnessed this type of obscene gyrating years ago and I was extremely upset by it then.  Now I can only say that I am completely sickened by it.

What happened to the funny, cute girl from the Disney Channel? Something tragically turned her into what I can only describe as someone looking like a cheap tramp leaving little to the imagination and displaying her body in a manner sadly befitting a prostitute or a lap dancer.  She is not the first—and certainly will not be the last—train wreck of pop culture.  Think of Lindsey Lohan, Brittany Spears, Whitney Houston, Charlie Sheen, Michael Jackson, David Hasselhoff, Amy Winehouse, Elvis—just to name a few of the many, many tragic stories surrounding celebrities gone awry.  Money, fortune and fame could not save them.

I am quite certain that Jesus could.

     

“What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.”  (Mt. 16: 26-27)

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor

To Live 100 Years

Dear Parishioners,

This evening I am going to have dinner with a close priest-friend and his family.  Our friendship originated from our college seminary days.  His family is gathering for a special occasion tonight:  the celebration of the 100^th birthday of their “mom-mom.”

Msgr. Greg’s grandmother turns 100 today.  Wow!  To live for an entire century!  Interestingly enough, she is not the first person whom I have known personally to reach that milestone.

Time for a brief history lesson:  on March 4, 1913, Woodrow Wilson became the President of the United States.  There have been 16 U.S. presidents subsequently. “Mom-mom” has lived through World War I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm (Gulf War), Iraq and Afghanistan and now the war against terror.  Communism came into being in her lifetime, as well as the historic fall of the Berlin Wall.

Back in 1913, a pound of bacon was a quarter and a loaf of bread a nickel.  You could buy a gallon of milk for about 35 cents (usually distributed in quart bottles delivered by the milkman).  The Ford Model T sold for $550.00 and gasoline cost about 8 cents a gallon.  Coffee was about 30 cents a pound—the price of K-Cups or anything Starbucks would have seemed insane!

 

Technology moved at a most unbelievable pace during this century—to the point that most people cannot be without their personal computer, Smartphone or the internet.  We have seen people travel to the moon, and currently have still others living continually in outer space.

Pope St. Pius X headed the Catholic Church in 1913.  We have most recently witnessed popes coming from Poland, Germany and now Argentina.

Through it all . . . Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.  (Heb. 13:8)  And we believe that He remains with His Church always—through everything that happens!  (See Mt. 28:20)

It’s hard to predict exactly what the future will hold in the next century—let alone in the next days, weeks or months.  When we need certainty and a sense of permanence--something to build upon into the future—it is Jesus Christ and the hope of eternal life that He offers to us that gives meaning, purpose and direction to our lives.

No matter how long we live—even if it is a hundred years or more—it is barely a blink of an eye when it comes to eternity.  Don’t be foolish and unprepared for eternity.

While every “thing” in the world will come and go, when we reach the end of our earthly existence, Jesus Christ will remain.  He was, is and forever will be.  In the end, He will be all that matters.

“For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”  (Lk 12:34)

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor