Michaelmas 1999 Newsletter

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"Logging on" to the real dragon

• C is for Challenge
  And the challenge is to you, gentle reader. See whether you can come up with a nine-word sentence whose words begin with these letters, respectively,

  C-R-O-S-S-I-N-G-S.

  Here is a sample: "Could Rudolf Otto Scare Sinners In New Guinea? Sure."

• R is for Retro-Specking
  Here the relevant biblical text is Jesus' teaching about the speck and the log. "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye." (Mt. 7: 3-5) This speck-to-log maneuver is a basic axiom for any Christian ethics.

• O is for Outsider
  This is the story of a Cuban Catholic priest in the Franciscan order who decided to "laicize." It was during a time of soul searching when many were questioning their vocations. The little priest decided he could make ends meet by teaching. This seemed to fit the call to preach, and certainly he had a wealth of knowledge from which to share. He was a Doctor, after all, of Philosophy.

• S-S is for Shalom Sharing
  That much of the story is factually true and, I might add, that is all there is to the story as far as I know it. I have no idea how the priest dealt with the pain of his conscience, but I have a good idea of what might have -- should have! -- happened, had I been aware of the problem earlier in the story. A better ending, as a Christian imagination fantasizes it, might have gone something like the following.

• I is for Introducing
  the next editor of this newsletter, Todd Murken. He is the unanimous choice of The Crossings Community's Board of Directors -- my unanimous choice, too. He begins his duties officially with the next issue but, unwilling to wait that long to show him off, we asked him to say a few words now already by way of self-introduction. (See his remarks under N, G and S.) Yet now that I've read what he wrote I fear he misunderstood the assignment. Or on second thought, did I?

• N is for New
  Which do you like to be: the new person or the old hand? Is it better to lead or follow, precede or succeed? Would you rather be the warm-up act or the headliner? Maybe it depends upon who is your counterpart: who precedes or succeeds you. For example the priest, in the preceding piece, in his popularity would be a tough act to follow. But subsequent to his embezzlement, anyone who came next would look good.

• G is for Greatness
  "Later lesser" cannot help but be a put-down. Following a great shows you to be a lesser.

• S is for Success
  But isn't that, or something like that, what we are counting on? Aren't we putting our whole selves, like a gambler putting his entire stake on one roulette number, on the idea that following a Great One, though he makes us look bad by comparison, is the way to look good in the End -- really, really good?