Got a call asking me to fill in tomorrow for a speaker who can't make a talk, so alas my planned personal reading (and probable heavy linking) will have to wait a day or two. But before I get to work on my presentation, I'll pass on a few tidbits from San José (yes, I know the way). The YFE was divided into tracks, so part of the fun was meeting up with friends during the breaks to exchange highlights.
- Got my own presentation out of the way early, so could relax the rest of the time.
- One night some people heard the conversion story of the former #3 member of the Cali (?) drug cartel. Don't quite understand how he is not in jail still, except that Colombia mustn't take murder all that seriously. . . .Very moving conversion tale, although one thing that struck me was the old "banality of evil" theme. This guy loved his wife and kids (loving them was the fulcrum God used to get him out eventually) and had a normal life externally speaking. To look at him, you would never have guessed that he was routinely hiring hits on people and raking in $21 million a month.
- From the Jeff Cavins "Bible timeline" track. I absolutely love what I call the "Emmaus" moments of scripture --where Christ is shown fulfilling OT prophesy. For example, the Fathers of the Church often point out that when Abraham asks, "Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" in Genesis, there is no answer. The question is left hanging for a few thousand years until John the Baptist, unbidden, suddenly and spontaneously proclaims, "Behold the lamb of God." I love that kind of thing. In his presentation on the book of Hosea, Cavins was able to link it to Christ's exchange with the Samaritan woman at the well. Hosea the prophet marries an unfaithful woman, and their relationship is a figure of God's relationship with Israel. Hosea's wife is a woman of Samaria, and his discussion of her ends with the idea that after she seeks her various lovers, her true husband will seek her out, draw her into the desert, and speak to her heart. Cavins says that when Jesus asks the Samaritan woman, "Where is your husband?" he is not simply provoking her confession (although he is doing that too, certainly), but he is coming as the bridegroom to claim Samaria, as the prophet foretold. Isn't that cool?
- There is something special about the new LC Director General, Fr. Alvaro Corcuera. Even my 8-yr-old turned to me halfway through one of his presentations and said quite knowingly, "Mom, it's obvious he is going to be a great Director General." Later I asked him what induced him to say that and he said, "I don't know, but something about him. You can just tell."
- On the lighter side, saw many old pals from the wars, took the kids across the Golden Gate Bridge, enjoyed the "dry heat" of California cliché, and chatted with ninme and some of her family, although not enough to be satisfying. (Ha-ha, I know her secret identity, but my lips are sealed.) Plus, on the trip home I read and thorougly enjoyed Reverse of the Marque (which being the next in the Aubrey/Maturin series, for all love). In sum, a good time was had if not by all then at least by me.
