This morning I finished the novel: The Muralist; by B.A. Shapiro. It is the story of a young Jewish artist, Alizée Benoit, whose family is caught in the clutches of the Nazis in France, where all her family dies at the hands of The Third Reich. The story is woven into the development of American Expressionistic painting of the time, and it is also woven into the shameful influence of Breckinridge Long, the State Department official in charge of U.S. visas. Long, an extreme nativist, manipulated U.S. State Department rules to stop Jewish refugees from Europe from getting visas to the U.S. The deaths of some 190,000 European Jews is attributed to Long's hateful blocking of visas for refugees. In light of Trump's blocking refugees entrance into the U.S., the book is a timely reminder that certain ancient evils circle back upon humanity again-and-again.
WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK
Wednesday of Holy week: the Bible is silent. I am reminded of the marvelous novel SILENCE , by Shusaku Endo: a story from the 1600's in which a Catholic Priest, Fr. Rodriguez, is imprisoned in Medieveal Japan. His crime: claiming Christ. The thing which will allow his release: to deny Christ by trampling on an icon of Jesus; which, in the end, he does after years of crying out to Jesus to speak to him and tell him what to do, but Jesus is silent. Only after he curses Jesus, does Jesus speak to him and let him know that Jesus' mission is to bear our betrayals and sins. The silence of Jesus finally leads him to understanding and to faith. Mother Teresa's confessional letters to her confessor are collected in a little book called Come Be My Ligh t. Pope John Paul II allowed these letters to be published so people would know how much Mother suffered from the Silence of God. St. John of The Cross titled these dark moments when God is silent: when God seems remote,
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