Gallimaufry

     Back in the 1950s, making Biblical movie epics seemed to be the formula for a theatrical hit.  I saw several - "The Robe", "Quo Vadis" - are a couple that come to mind, one reason being is that as I attended a Parochial High School, we got out of class to walk to a downtown theater to see the movie.  And as I remember, Vern and I went to see "The Greatest Story Ever Told" about a week before Leah was born.  I don't remember much about the movie, only that I had to leave several times for bathroom breaks.
    All this is leading up to the fact that all these years later, I DVDd "Ben Hur" and watched the entire movie for the first time.  All anyone has talked about over the years is the chariot race scenes.   Pretty exciting, but what is more interesting to me is how young and beautiful Charlton Heston was in the movie and the odyssey of his life and the end when his family is restored to him.  I liked that they never showed the face of the Man from Nazereth.  It is just a beautiful movie.  A good movie for this Lenten season.
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      Today is the Gospel reading about the temptations of Christ, some versions of which, He quotes:  "Satan get thee behind Me"  And this reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:
    The wife of a Evangelical Pastor loved pretty clothes and she spent a lot of money on them.  The Pastor asked her to please stop several times because his salary was small and she promised she would but always went back to buying more clothes.  Finally, he really got mad and told her if she bought any more dresses, he would divorce her.  She was so shocked and loved her husband so much and promised to stop purchasing new things  and she went several weeks not buying a thing.   
      A new dress shop opened in town and she walked by it several times and then  finally just 'had to go in' and she sheepishly came home with a new item for her wardrobe.     Her husband said:  "You promised you wouldn't buy anything."  "I know," she said, "I really wasn't going to but the dress was so cute and I tried it on and it looked so good and I just had to buy it."  "You were tempted", her husband responded, "You should have said, 'Satan, get thee behind me."  "I did," she answered, "And Satan said it looked good from there too!"
                                                                       
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      I may get drummed out of the Church for this but I have to give my opinion -  My belief is that everyone is entitled to my opinion.  This morning we were read a letter from our Bishop.  There will be a rally on February 20 in Springfield supporting the sanctity of Marriage.    I believe that Marriage is a Sacrament and should be just that a Sacrament to be celebrated between a man and a woman.  But I also believe that two people of the same sex who love each other and maintain the same values, if they choose, should be free to be joined in a civil service and have the same rights  - insurance, hospital visits, etc. as sacramentally married folks.
      I also feel that a couple of the same sex should be allowed to adopt children if they have gone through the same fitness testing that heterosexual or single parents go through.  I live in a neighborhood where there are same sex parents and I watch the care they show at our neighborhood parades, when they walk their children - I haven't seen them talk on cell phones while doing same and a lot of heterosexual parents do and also what other neighbors say about the kind of parents they are.   I heard someone on EWTN give an explanation why same sex adoptions shouldn't be allowed and, sorry, but their reasons didn't hold water. 
      I really hope the Catholic Church will get out of bedroom issues and get back to preaching the Gospel, helping the poor - which we have lead the world in doing, and teaching what Jesus taught: "Love thy neighbor as thyself."