Brand new reality

Forty two years ago today, on June 30th 1968, Pope Paul IV would proclaim the “Credo of the people of God”. It contains a bunch of good stuff, like the re-affirmation of Mary’s virginity on the Christ child’s conception (and birth), but I found the following element of particular interest:

Christ cannot be thus present in this sacrament except by the change into His body of the reality itself of the bread and the change into His blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive. This mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church transubstantiation. Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of this mystery must, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine, as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.

I think this is saying that the bread consecrated by a priest for mass may:

   1) “Look like bread”
   2) “feel like bread”
   3) “ Smell like bread”
   4) “Taste like bread”
   5) Even “sound like bread” when broken

But that it is, in “reality", the body of Christ. This is interesting because it uses a definition for the term “realty” that I am not too familiar with. The statement goes further in that something is real just because someone says it is so. That the effect of the properties of this reality upon other entities are equally unobservable. There is an entire nature that interacts, presumably through understandable laws since they exist through an understanding of them, and co-exists with what is observable.

This is so cool on so many different levels.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away" –Philip K. Dick

Iron Man

As soon as the sun arrived in the samll town of Glenrowan in Victoria Australia, on June 28th 1880, it was obvious to Ned Kelly that things were not going well. The previous days plan included the derailing of train full of constables; the presence of the constables surrounding Ned, his gang, and their seventy-or-so hostages in the Glenrowan Inn was proof that the derailment did not go so well. The problem was a milk-sop of a schoolmaster named Tom Curnow who had successfully pleaded with Ned to let him go. Tom had run straight up to the railroad and flagged down the train before it could hit the section of track the Kelly gang had pulled up. Ned would never be so soft on a hostage again.

In 1970 Ned Kelly was played by none other than Mick Jagger in a movie titled “Ned Kelly”. Just a few years before his death, Heath Ledger (of Joker fame) played Kelly in another film about his life titled “Ned Kelly”. No more imagination as is shown in titling movies about his life is needed to script one. Once, after turning himself in for drunkenness, a constable named Lonigan decided to inflict discomfort on Ned by grabbing his testicles and twisting them (so called black balling). Ned is quoted as telling constable Lonigan, through gritted teeth: "If I ever shoot a man, Lonigan, it'll be you!". He eventually did shoot constable Lonigan. Peter Phelps would have grabbed Heath Ledger; Liam Reynolds would have had the distinction of grabbing Mick Jagger.

Ned’s gang had garnered fame by burning mortgage deeds while robbing banks. He was sometimes likened to Robin of Locksley for this mischief. His most awesome activity would be conducted shortly after dawn on June 28th 1880. It was on this day that he earned an unimpeachable spot in the international league of awesomeness.

Ned and his gang had commissioned suits of solid iron bullet-proof plate armor to be made for them. On this day, in 1880, they would get to try them out. It would actually have been better if they had tried them out sometime before they were being shot at, but schedules are always tight and testing is often not given the priority it should have. Although bullet-proof, Ned found out that he could not aim and fire his weapon. The suit also forced him to walk like a zombie. Undaunted Ned covered the suit (which was kind-of like a large sewer-pipe with arm-holes cut out of it) with a large coat (It was mid-winter in Australia, where this took place) and left the Inn to advance on the constables that surrounded it. The armor still displays two bullet dents which were delivered with deadly accuracy. Ned continued to advance and at least one constable ran away from the unkillable zombie in terror. Unlike zombies, Ned’s week spot was his legs (It’s the head for zombies) as they were not covered by armor. He fell over after being shot in the legs a couple of times; later he was tried and hung.

One of his gang members had armor that lacked coverage for his groin. This may have allowed him to move easier, but we will not know, as he was just standing at the Glenrowan Inn bar having a crack of dawn whiskey when a shot to the groin severed his femoral artery and he subsequently bled to death.

It seems to me there should be a moral in this story someplace…perhaps

“Don’t grab a crazy person’s testicles”

Or

“Always make sure your PPE has been credibly tested before relying on it”

Or

“Make sure your groin is properly covered if you are going to drink whiskey before 10AM”

Nauvoo to Carthage by horse

One hundred and sixty six years ago today, on June 27th 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob in Carthage IL. Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, known as The Mormons to many. The mob that killed him had blackened their faces and, although five were tried, no one was convicted of the killing.

The mob most likely contained William Law and Robert Foster who had been generals in the private militia (The Nauvoo legion) that Smith had created to enforce his theocratic law within Nauvoo. They complained that Smith had proposed marrying their wives and Smith had them excommunicated on April 18th 1844. On June 7th Smith used his Nauvoo legion to destroy the printing presses of the Nauvoo Expositor because it had published stories calling him a polygamist, a charge Smith denied often. Riots ensued and Smith declared martial law and enforced it with his Nauvoo legion. The governor of IL mobilized the national guard in nearby Carthage and threatened to send an even larger force if Smith and his brother refused to surrender themselves. Smith originally thought he was being held for inciting a riot, but when he discovered that running a shadow theocratic government and raising a private army against the United States of America earned him a charge of treason he panicked. He had a gun smuggled in to his jail cell and sent orders to the Nauvoo Legion to attack Carthage and free him by force. Fearing that Smith would be freed a mob of former Mormons attacked Carthage. Smith fired upon them and jumped out the window, pistol in hand, into a crowd waiting bellow; apparently in an ill-conceived attempt at escape. Joseph Smith was then shot to death. Hyrum Smith was shot dead with a bullet to the head. John Taylor and Willard Richards were also in the jail cell with the Smith brothers, both lived, Richards was uninjured.

The specifics of this event makes Joseph Smith an awkward Martyr at best. Although an unjust killing by any moral measure Smith enjoyed much more justice than most on the pre-civil war American frontier. Still, there are many who consider this one of the great martyrdoms in American History.