Tending Baby Jesus

A few days ago nothing was reminded of the care required for an infant.  The Duchess Olivia of Baby Jesus visited nothing, carried by Mother Princess "Ruth" of Christ's Royal Navy Base.  

Nothing yapped for awhile about the latest woes, trials, and tribulations emanating from the temporal Catholic world, and nothing's inadequate amazement at the process.  Then suddenly the immediacy of opportune lesson focused on Duchess Olivia.  Her mother and nothing discussed what Baby Jesus' mother focused upon from the Annunciation through Birth of Jesus and beyond, into eternity, yesterday, today, and forever.

Baby Jesus.  Child Jesus.  Adolescent and Teen Jesus. Young Adult Jesus. Working Man Jesus.  Teacher Jesus.  Ridiculed Jesus.  Holy Man Jesus.  God Man Jesus.  Proclaimed Jesus.  Leader Jesus.  Healer Jesus.  Hunted Jesus.  Followed Jesus.  Heralded Jesus.  Servant Jesus.  Messiah Jesus.  Crucified Jesus.  Resurrected Jesus.  Ascended Jesus.  Beloved Jesus.  Son of God Jesus. Second Person of the Trinity Jesus.  Sacred Heart Jesus.  Christ the King Jesus.  Divine Mercy Jesus.  Eternal Jesus.  My Lord Jesus.

Last night while plugging along with Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth Part II, nothing had a thought.  What if this same book had been written by a man relatively unknown to the world, to theologians or intellects, or to Catholics?  Would the spiritual director have given it as required reading?  Would nothing be reading it at all at this point?

Probably not.  So the reading sped up a bit, taking in the previous-aware concepts and realities of Jesus' crucifixion (chapter being read), reconnoitering the Scriptures cited to substantiate the historical and theological facts and truths.  Nothing became aware that the writing, outstanding in style and brilliance of intellect, brought memories of a night nearly 16 years ago, of an experience.

It was the summer of nothing's private instruction in preparation for an August 22 Confirmation in the Catholic Church.  It was the summer of an uncle's diagnosis with lung cancer and first serious hospitalization.  His sisters, including nothing's mother, flew in and gathered around their brother's hospital bedside in the afternoon, returned to spend the night at nothing's home, with plans to return to their brother's hospital bedside in the morning.

Somehow, during the night, nothing was taken to the uncle's hospital room and stood by his bed, consoling him.  Also nothing saw that the uncle, a judge in a mid-size town for years, had been restrained in his bed due to trying to remove the ventilator and to get out of bed.  Then, amazingly upon being returned to bed (or however these other-worldly visitations occur), awoke with the words thrice spoken loudly from without to within and within to without:  Think with your heart!  Think with your HEART!  THINK WITH YOUR HEART!

Return to last night and reading the Pope's latest book on Jesus, Part II.  These past events and words replay in the mind--fresh, reinvigorated, all the more emphasized.  

Yes, that is it.  Nothing resonates with (or writings far more resonate with nothing) writings which stimulate the heart--that are written with or from the heart, that think with the heart of both writer and reader.  Nothing appreciates the thought with the head writings and has learned from these, but the soul vibrates and is vivified all the more now with writings written of and from loving passion about the Passion, or of those who are within the Passion.  Somehow--somehow words that bubble up from the heart blood, the heart brain, seem to be most helpful to nothing now.

It all has to do with Christ's blood, with listening to His blood, flowing with and in His blood, being pumped each moment of His present moments, becoming one with His present moments.  

Nothing will finish the assigned reading.  The book is outstanding, of course, and stimulates the mind.  But nothing has already begun listening to His blood in the writings by and about Elisabeth of Schonau and William of St. Thierry's Exposition of the Song of Songs.  The Pope has responsibility to didactically illuminate the historical and theological truths.  He is the Vicar of Christ!  Nothing appreciates this fact but also must understand all the more how to live listening to His blood and thinking with the heart.  It has to do with nothing now tending and loving Baby Jesus.