Feeling Dusty

I had hoped to make the 12pm Mass at a nearby parish today for Ash Wednesday. My first mistake was to check my e-mail and Facebook a little after 11am. By the time I logged off, I was already running late! My second mistake was to misjudge the attendance at said Mass. Usually there's only about 20 people. Today there was no place to park! So I missed that Mass and ash distribution (I'll go to my parish this evening).

Driving home I thought "How foolish! Here I think I am doing so well spiritually, yet I can't even leave the house on time! How many other things that I think I do well are really mediocre at best. I pray the rosary then forget which mystery I'm on or if I missed a prayer. I read and don't remember what I read. I think I might have a vocation and I am way to easily distracted during Mass!

"Remember Man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return." Was I ever feeling dusty! At least I realized I was in good company--everybody else! I don't think any of us gets it right all the time. It's a matter of rejoicing in God's grace when we do get it right and repenting and getting back up when we fall.

Darwin Sunday?

Charles Darwin's birthday is February 12th, aka International Darwin Day. I recently found out that the Sunday nearest Darwin's birthday is often an occasion for some Christian pastors to preach on Evolution. Not only that, but in the revised common lectionary it is Transfiguration Sunday. A day that should be spent preaching about Jesus' Transfiguration is, for some, a day to preach Darwin's Evolution. I think it is the lesser trumping the greater. Can't evolution be proclaimed some other day? Like Ash Wednesday? "Remember man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return."

Hmm, Evolution Sunday, or is it Darwin Sunday? I have no problem with evolution as a scientific theory. But if it is used (unscientifically) to explain God away, that's a problem. Science can explain matter and energy. These are quantifiable. It cannot explain the immaterial, the unquantifiable; that is the realm of theology and philosophy.

The trouble comes when science merges with philosophy. It moves out of its area of expertise. When scientific evolution tries to say that the universe was not created, but that it evolved and therefore there is no Creator, it is no longer being scientific, but philosophical. The same can be said for religion when it tries to deny basic scientific tenets. It has left religion behind for Creationism, not creation--just because there is a creator doesn't mean the world didn't evolve. Genesis is a book of faith, not science.