Posts by G K Zachary
The Tortuous Heart and the Fruitful Vine
The word “heart” appears around 900 times in the Bible, which begs the question, “What is the heart?”. Jeremiah 17:9-10 (one of my favorite verses) says, “More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy, who can understand it? I the Lord will explore the mind and test the heart, giving to all according…
Read MoreThe Fractal Pattern in Divine Workmanship
There are days when I do get overwhelmed by the ideological onslaught of worldly “truths” against our families (“love is love”; “a woman is whoever identifies as a woman”, “anyone can be any gender”, etc.). Now, this attack on the family isn’t new. Afterall, it could be said to have begun in Genesis, which behooves…
Read MoreThe You-Don’t-Know-How-It-Feels Clause!
Have you ever been in one of these situations, trying to convince a child or a spouse or a parent of something, maybe, involving personal change? Just when you feel you are making headway, the conversation gets emotional, and they throw the you-don’t-know-how-it-feels clause at you. This clause is usually considered a hard stop. It…
Read MoreCycles of Habitual Vice and Healing
There was a blind gentleman who used to come to our home twice a year seeking employment. He specialized in repairing cane and wire furniture, a common enough fixture in homes around the neighborhood. Given the presence of two young boys, prodigious quality control experts in their own right, this gentleman was never short of…
Read MoreThe Hard Tyranny of Raised Expectations
It can feel at times that we live in a tyrannical kingdom. But, if I am to be honest with myself, I also encounter in more sobering moments, a fleeting epiphany, that the ruler and sole inhabitants of that kingdom are I, me, and myself. It reminds me of the image, from Dante’s inferno, of…
Read MoreA Holy Telos
Last Sunday we were at lunch with a group of singles, married couples, and widows. Some Catholic, others exploring Christianity for the first time. Some married within the (Catholic) faith, others outside it. Given the presence of a bachelor in our company, the discussion soon turned to marriage; in particular, whether it was alright to…
Read MoreThe Simulacrum
I first heard the term, Simulacrum, in a 2007 sermon by Fr. Cantalamessa quoting Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard defined Simulacrum as a “copy that no longer has an original”. Baudrillard states that, “it has now become difficult to distinguish real events, such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Gulf War — from their media portrayal”.…
Read MoreBeing There
In the 1979 movie, Being There, Peter Sellers plays Chance the Gardener. Chance has spent his life living and working in the estate of a wealthy old man. Located in the center of power of the free world, Washington D.C. Chance’s only education is what he has seen on TV. On the old man’s passing,…
Read More“My Lord and My God!”
On the first day of swim camp, a 9-year-old boy stood with his buddies on the edge of the shallow end of the pool. You could cut the excited air with a knife as the boys awaited their first lesson. Two hours later it was generally agreed that the swim lessons had gone off, er,…
Read MoreRight Relationship
The antagonist in Tobit, one of my favorite go-to books of the Old Testament, is the demon Asmodeus, the personification of lust. Tobit’s son, Tobiah, marries Sarah, knowing that Asmodeus had killed her seven previous husbands, on their wedding night. Assisted by Archangel Raphael, Tobiah drives Asmodeus away, outlives the night, ends the “curse” on…
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