Photo from End Time News
Pope Francis has declared we are in the midst of an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. The Vatican has been less than transparent regarding the Pontiff’s projected success metrics, but Papal watchers have hinted that the Vatican either must dial back expectations or perhaps give itself an extension.
The top floor is likely going to find it hard to justify year-end performance bonuses.
It does not help that the Pope’s Year of Jubilee, which runs through November, coincides with the Chinese Year of the Monkey.
There has been a sudden eruption of ancestral monkey-brain energy and skittish hopping from one perch to the next just as the church should be laser-focused on nailing its promise of mercy.
Making the Pope’s challenge even more daunting was the High Holy Day of the fiftieth Super Bowl, in February. The NFL’s graphic designers brazenly used the Arabic 50 instead of the Roman Numeral L in its logo.
No word yet on the Arab states’ reaction, but many football-loving lesbians took the L-diss even more personally than they did Sue Grafton’s 1995 alphabet mystery series slight: L Is for Lawless.
Adding insult to head injury, Beyoncé’s codependent Super Bowl halftime rescue set with Coldplay caused a morning-after ruckus when revelers realized she was referring to the Black Panthers, not the Carolina Panthers.
Another unfortunate diversion.
As a friend of mine always says, “You make your plans and God laughs.”
Who could have predicted that McDonald’s would presage the Year of Mercy by reintroducing its beloved All Day Breakfast? The move is a desperate salvo in its vicious Fast Food Wars with Chic-Fil-A, Chipotle, et al.
McD’s ad campaign used a fried mozzarella prod to suggest an altruistic feed-the-hungry beatitudinis vibe. It reminded me of that creepy 1984 Reagan campaign ad, “It’s morning again in America.”
My friend would always add, “So everyone have yourselves a big breakfast.”
There were other factors in the disappointing start to the Year of Mercy: the destruction of Syria by its own President; the refugee crisis; ISIS and Christian militias; always the Mideast, Africa, Russia; the careening Chinese economy; the Monsanto virus; the GOP’s hoped-for U.S. constitutional crisis caused by the death of a strict constitutionalist; the Survivor-style American presidential election; the war on women; the vicious cowardly bilge of the anti-social media; the poisonous infrastructure; the poisoned environment, etc.
And yet the Pope just keeps on keeping on about love and forgiveness.
Even in his own church, this message seems heretical. Time will tell if there are follow-up actions. Meanwhile, I remain in a holy wait-and-see period.
One sign of the promise of mercy is the extraordinary physics experiment that confirmed Albert Einstein’s 100-year-old theory of energy. The oscillation emanated from the collision and merging of two black holes 5.9 trillion miles away.
The cosmic jiggle gave new meaning to epic, and reinforced our own puny speckness. Why not give the Pope a shot at redemption on the mercy thing?
And then, as if by some Divine Plan, something huge happened to seal the deal. Flying home from his trip to Mexico, the Pope, maybe after a mojito or two, suggested that the Donald was not Christian because he wants to build a wall at the Mexican border and not a bridge.
Talk about hell toupee.
Perhaps Pope Francis does not check Angie’s List and was unaware of Trump’s building credentials. Mercy, mercy.
I am all in on the mercy thing. ω