Finally, I found a first rate physicist, Brian Greene, of Columbia University yet, who asks the key question in his book, Until the End of Time.  Here’s his question, “Sure, profound questions abound, like what or who created space and time, and what or who imposed the guiding grip of mathematics, (note the presence of who where that was once ignored) and what or who is responsible for there being anything at all.”  Eureka!  They’re starting to look for the Creator.  Some of the rock-brained politicians were beginning to believe you don’t mention God at all.

Of course there’s a Creator.  The French Revolution did a lot of harm, too, by denying our Judeo-Christian heritage, and making us think it was modern to be an atheist.  The American Revolution set the pace with discretion, but the Paris mob went wild (Madame DeFarge).  The Tale of Two Cities, you might say, was the contrast between Paris and Boston, rather than Paris and London.

Science is good; it keeps us asking.  May our benign God keep us asking the right questions.

Einstein, mulling around with his equations on relativity, realized that they showed there could be an opposite of gravity.  Hans Guth found it after Georges LeMaitre – the Big Bang.  Wow, some opposite.  Instead of attracting one another, as particles do even in Quantum Mechanics, the particles in the Big Bang suddenly repelled one another, even to the four corners of the universe.  And then, to top it all off, they attracted one another to form stars.

Such mysteries have a simple answer, as Einstein used to maintain.  So I asked my granddaughter, who is going into the fifth grade.  Her answer was simple enough: “If you don’t know, God does!”  Of course, did I think I had a brain that could outdo Einstein, or God yet?

Was I not impressed by the wonders of the universe that I thought I could figure my way around Divine Advice and make my own moral and social rules?  Who am I, anyway?  Well, like my granddaughter, I hope I still am a child of God.

I was one of the first to live on the top of the Mahattan College campus, back in 1954, when the temporary student quarters were up for the veterans.  One bright sunny day I was sitting on a bench, depressed because the thin walls of the quarters did not shut out the radio sounds of adjacent rooms when I was trying to study.  I had taken decisive action to stop that, but all I succeeded in doing was alienating and alarming my fellow students.  I looked up at the sky, away from the sun, and saw what looked like a communion wafer against the blue backdrop.

Now I am not given to hallucinations, and I had not been drinking.  I tried to rationalize what that stationary object could be—a balloon, a flying saucer, an Air Force experiment?  It did not move.  So I gave my attention to going to the library.

Years later, I realized I had seen it some weeks just before packing up and leaving the college.  I believe in the Creator and His Son, and so I believe the paranormal is possible.  But if that was a sign, it was subtle, undramatic; yet, that’s the way he does things.

There is a city in Bosnia, almost 100% Croatian and Catholic, that has a 0% divorce rate.  They have had their share of affliction: conquered first by Turkish Muslims and then Soviet Communism.  Is the secret the added symbolism of their marriage ceremony?

After they have exchanged rings, the priest hands them a medium large crucifix, suitable for hanging on the wall and the bride places her hand on it.  The groom places his hand on the bride’s, and a white towel then drapes all three.  It stands for the tough times that will arise in the marriage, which each is to regard as his/her cross.  It works—they don’t go into marriage with any misconceptions.

They are prepared for the petty misunderstandings that come up in a marriage–the arguing about money, the different views of raising children, the jealousies, the reluctance to do your share.  They know from the start.

It is a minicourse attached to a symbol.  Would that we all could follow such a symbol.

Mary Magdalene, who was the first to see and touch the resurrected Christ, and who was never able to consummate her love for him this side of Eternity, is remembered today as a saint.  The Church celebrates her day today with the “Song of Songs,” Chapter 3, a love song so beautiful it could only be in the Bible.  She waited a relatively long time for her vindication, but valiant and strong woman that she turned out to be, she triumphed.

She was always St. Mary Magdalene, but in 2016 Pope Francis gave her her own feast day, elevating her to the same position as the Apostles.  The Church has what is known as the communion of saints, an ability and belief that we are able to send messages to those who are gone, by prayer.  I do ask her intercession on certain occasions.

Her love of Jesus seemed both intellectual and physical, one of the combinations truly human.  Christ’s sympathy for her and that of many fallen individuals was, of course, truly charismatic and heartfelt.  He meant what he said, “I have come to call sinners.”