Welcome to my
Diary
-
Occasional thoughts, personal
Ruminations & happenings - as they arise
To go to an entry click on one of
the file names below -
arranged in date order - the first item being the most recent.
Email me if you wish to be added to
or removed from my
Family & Friends emailing list. My occasional emails always contain a Remove
Me link - but this can be done at any time!
I went
to bed Laughing -
9 October 2010
The reason?
I had just finished sending an email to my youngest son on
the subject of truth, pointing out that if one did not live by truth one's
foundation as a person is built on soggy ground, and, like a building, will
collapse.
I referred to the O'Shea family motto 'Vincit Veritas' - 'Truth
Conquers', blessing the unknown ancestor who had created the coat of arms
and selected the motto.
It is a
marvellous guideline, for it points to the man who said " I am the way,
the life and the truth", and if one always searches for truth and
lives by it one will end up in his company; an important life achievement if it
is true that Jesus is God incarnate.
Conor
remains to be convinced of the truth of this, having been infected by the virulent
atheism and pseudo science of Richard Dawkins and affected by the dreadful
behaviour of some Catholic priests and all bishops in Ireland (by hiding
defects they knew about).
I have no doubt about the identity of Jesus, having begun to know the man in
question over the past fifty years.
Jesus is either a madman or exactly what he claims to be, God
incarnate.
The more one mulls over reports of his life and death, written by his
contemporaries, the more one begins to know the strength and sanity of the man,
his love for all men, even those who lie, cheat and murder. This is the hell he
tells us about: the pain and shame of being caught in God's burning love throughout eternity,
unable
to return it because of a refusal to repent and learn to live and love in the
truth - a choice freely made.
The immediate cause of my meditation is the fact that a taxi
driver drove off with Conor's laptop computer, left in the back of the cab while
Conor was at a cash point getting money for the cab fare.
The taxi driver knew about the computer. He was an opportunist thief, a man with a dark
soul, with no regard or love for his neighbour, numbered among those who put their
own welfare first - among the thieves, liars and deceivers of the world, the perjurers,
those who have no regard for the truth. They are one step away from the obnoxious sexual perverts, rapists and murderers whose actions feature
daily in the news - along with megalomaniac dictators such as President
Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
Such
people have
no room for truth in their lives and their thinking.
I regret to mention these things, but the guy who stole the
laptop computer is one of the dark, deceived people; headed for a dreadful end
if he does not repent.
I have inadvertently gone all serious, much more than I did
in the email to my son. To him I had simply mentioned the name Jesus, and as I made
my way to bed I started to laugh, for the name evoked a memory of Spike Milligan
speaking to an audience during a television show entitled 'An Audience with
Spike Milligan'.
Crazy, lovely
man that he was he ended by asking the audience if anyone had a question.
A question came, "If you could have dinner with anyone
who would it be?"
"Jesus," Spike immediately replied.
"What would happen if he did not come?" the questioner persisted.
"He better!" snapped Spike, thrusting his jaw out belligerently.
The audience collapsed with laughter. Me too at home.
Lovely man Spike! A crazy sense of humour that survived years of mental
depression - severe bipolar disorder for most of his life, having at least ten
major mental breakdowns, several lasting over a year. But despite this he
maintained his sense of fun, up to and immediately before his death.
I smile at the inscription he ordered for his headstone: "
Duirt
me leat go raibh me breoite".
It seems
that Spike's family faced a two year wrangle with a humourless local council who
insisted Spike's words could not be inscribed in English. As a compromise they
allowed Gaelic, so that people's decorum would not be disturbed. Death was a
serious thing they maintained. It had to be recorded in a seemly, good mannered way.
Spike's message, " I told you I was ill "
was
judged to be irreverent.
What a lovely
man! Even as he prepared for death!
I have no doubt that he rejoices in heaven, in the company of
the man with whom he would most like to have dinner.
Full silver service at the resurrection?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sir Terence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan, KBE. A Citizen of the Irish Republic, unable by British law to legally accept a knighthood, but worth it, even though the British Empire is an irrelevance - gone the way all earthly empires do. Spike: Born 16 April 1918, died 27 February 2002. A lovely man, despite his obvious faults.