Be Not Idle

Indonesian ornithologists identified an extremely rare bird. It’s Zosterops somadikartai, or Togian white-eye. Its range seems to be limited to the coasts of three small islands of the Togian Islands.

Dr. Pamela Rasmussen, a Michigan State University taxonomist, completed the formal classification.  She commented, “The world still holds avian surprises for us.”

 You may think, “This isn’t about faith! It’s about your weird obsession with birds!”  To the contrary - my obsession is the black phase Eastern gray squirrel.

Plus, the discovery of a new bird complements today’s homily. It was very short, since the presiding priest is one of our five “senior priests” (retired yet tireless Fathers On Extended Loan From God). They know that a few choice words are all it takes to  reach our hearts.

Father’s homily reminded us that we get so used to the Gospel that we forget that the Passion is the most important event in history. We need to re-read the accounts in order to see it with new eyes. In other words, we have to be like those ornithologists who spent years distinguishing the Togian white-eye from flocks of  similar birds.

To that end, Father gave us all what he called a “homework assignment”. We are to read Matthew’s account on Tuesday, Luke’s account on Wednesday, and then listen to John’s account on Good Friday.

The story is here:

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080314/sc_nm/bird_indonesia_d c