Does Good = Not Bad?

My husband and I actually escaped for a while today - just the two of us. We had to go and get my military ID card renewed before it expired next week and since the weather was not conducive to work today, it was a good day to go. I had to take my husband with me because he is my "sponsor". That always sort of makes me feel like a foreign exchange student or something, but there you have it.

Anyway, mission accomplished and on the way home, we stopped for brunch. We are restaurant newspaper readers. This makes my daughter nuts. She thinks it is rude. She wasn't there and we know we're not being rude to each other. I was reading the funnies and got to my very favorite:

One of the reasons I love this cartoon is because it is twisted and it makes me think. Lil man has been having behavior problems at school. His grades are excellent. His conduct is not. I was talking to him about this last night and asked him what the consequences were when he was bad. He said, "swats". His school gives swats, although how he has escaped thus far this year is beyond me. I asked what the consequences were when he was good and he did not know. So - this week, if he gets no bad marks at all, not even a warning, he and I and his Grampits are going to the movies to see the Alvin movie. If you knew my husband, you would know how surprised I was when, after he heard me make the deal with lil man (for just lil man and me), said that he would go also.

Today - no bad marks, not even a warning. Keep the lil man in your prayers, please, for success this week.

His school does give marks also for good behavior and his mother rewards him for those. I don't think he had ever put actions and consequences together in his mind as being something good also.

His behavior recently, combined with the cartoon strip this morning, makes me wonder: Is not being bad the same as being good?

I don't think so. I think that good is an action. I think that if you want to raise a good person, you cannot settle for a child who is just "not bad". I think that in order to be good, there are things you must do - that you cannot settle for just being not bad.

The Church that I belong to recognizes sin and guilt, repentance and forgiveness. It also recognizes both corporal (bodily) and spiritual works of mercy. I am not sure that the lil man is learning this at school. So, thanks to Non Sequitur for reminding me of my actions and consequences.

12 Days of Christmas

Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829 were prohibited by law to practice their faith either in public or private. It was illegal to be Catholic until Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England in 1829.

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the "catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the basics of their faith. In short, it was a coded-message, a memory aid. Since the song sounded like rhyming nonsense, young Catholics could sing the song without fear of imprisonment. The authorities would not know that it was a religious song."The 12 Days of Christmas" is in a sense an allegory.

Each of the items in the song represents something significant to the teachings of the Catholic faith.

The hidden meaning of each gift was designed to help Catholic children learn their faith. The better acquainted one is with the Bible, the more these interpretations have significance.

The song goes, "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…"

The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn’t refer to an earthly suitor, but it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. i.e. the Church.

1st Day:
The partridge in a pear tree is Christ Jesus upon the Cross. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge because she would feign injury to decoy a predator away from her nestlings. She was even willing to die for them. The tree is the symbol of the fall of the human race through the sin of Adam and Eve. It is also the symbol of its redemption by Jesus Christ on the tree of the Cross.

2nd Day:
The "two turtle doves" refers to the Old and New Testaments.

3rd Day:
The "three French hens" stand for faith, hope and love—the three gifts of the Spirit that abide (1 Corinthians 13).

4th Day:
The "four calling birds" refers to the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—which sing the song of salvation through Jesus Christ.

5th Day:
The "five golden rings" represents the first five books of the Bible, also called the Jewish Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

6th Day:
The "six geese a-laying" is the six days of creation.

7th Day:
The "seven swans a-swimming" refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.

8th Day:
The "eight maids a milking " reminded children of the eight beatitudes listed in the Sermon on the Mount.

9th Day:
The "nine ladies dancing" were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

10th Day:
The "ten lords a-leaping" represents the Ten Commandments.

11th Day:
The "eleven pipers piping" refers to the eleven faithful apostles.

12th Day:
The ‘twelve drummers drumming" were the twelve points of belief expressed in the Apostles’ Creed: belief in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, made man, crucified, died and arose on the third day, that he sits at the right hand of the father and will come again, the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

So the next time you hear "the Twelve Days of Christmas" consider how this otherwise non-religious sounding song had its origins in keeping alive the teaching of the Catholic faith.

information courtesy of www.appleseeds.org