Good Morning Digital Neighbors and Happy Wednesday !! Hey there ADD Irregulars, Phamily, Friends, Refugees & Seekers! Happy Wednesday Early Birds, Dawn Patrol, Conversants and Lurkers! Wherever and whatever you find yourself on Locals, I 'm glad you are here. These O Antiphon post are a reprint from previous years with some editing, deleting and updating. Long reads, but I hope worth your time or interest, either way, enjoy your day!

More O Antiphon & Messianic goodness for an early morning. 😊 God bless those monks being creative as civilization was falling apart, they still celebrated their faith with hope. No black pilling among them. Apparently these antiphons may have been kicking around in Cath-O-Land since the sixth century and we know they were in place in Rome by the eighth century. Some parishes have been singing O Come, O Come. Emmanuel for as long and as their only known Advent hymn since then as well. A little humor for the Disciples. Anyway on to the day's title, Key of David!

Keys have such symbolic value in life. As today's O Antiphon indicate they possess the power to open and lock, to grant or deny access and entrance. Given the keys to whatever was a sign of trust and honor. The symbolism of a key was something of a status symbol. For the Olds among us, which are many, being given a key to your home and finally achieving the keys to car were significant moments in life. Keys indicated the maturity to handle the responsibility that would accompany them. If you can't handle the responsibilities, you don't get to keep the keys. Society will forbid you access to driving if you have violated the commonly understood rules of the road. It will go further and if you fail to be a cooperative neighbor, you may face a day in court and trip to prison. That all depends on equal application of the law - and that seems to be something of an anomaly these days. Areas of unequal application are becoming exodus zones (Commiefornia & Escape from NYC) for areas that still understand something of the nature of social contracts of citizens and local government.

Keys have given way to passwords, same power and privileges. The granting of access into whatever is a matter of trust. If you are waiting to grant trust to someone perfect, you will live and die a solitary life in the waiting. Even the most trustworthy of souls, will have small infractions against trust, the question remains what are major infractions, violations and actions that cannot be reconciled.

Take today's namesake - David, committed adultery and then murdered to cover it up are deal breakers for most of us in dealing with another person. They are reprehensible acts and violations against a person. Why in the sweet name of Buddha would David be seen as a good king of Israel? In the end, the Mysterium puts a lot more stock in honesty and not hiding behind excuses.

Coming clean with one's crap means a lot to the Divine.

The whole, "not me, the woman, not me, the snake" thing got us off on a bad start. Love him or hate, believe David gets a pass because he was the king, in the end David came clean when called into account. Something of a rarity these days in the world of leadership. Blaming others for your choices doesn't sit well with the Burning Bush, two strikes on the rock and Moses gets to see the Promised Land from afar and not enter the one place he labored to lead the Children of Abraham to in the Exodus. No bellyaching from Moses, he is a man entrusted with immense responsibility and handles it well.

A lot for for a Wednesday - I hope whatever keys you have been entrusted with in life you can handle with maturity, responsibility and honesty. Given that you won't handle such sacred gifts perfectly, be humble in your failures and avoid excuses and justifications, they never play as well as you think they will. Afford others the same thoughtfulness if you can. To those individuals you have entrusted with keys, I pray they are worthy of your trust. So many have been injured by violations of trust that it really is an endemic reality in human nature. There is such need for real healing among so many.

Real reconciliation happens when there is accountability, one needs to be able to articulate the wrong they have done if they really want to change, being sorry for everything is not being sorry for much of anything. One is really just apologizing for making someone feel bad, hurt or betrayed and not having a clue of the offense. Real contrition leads to changed behaviors and attitudes.

I'm sorry is only the beginning. Seek slow growth and patience with repeated stumbles (change is hard for so many if not all of us), discuss the major infractions that may occur as concrete as possible when seeking the right medicine. Mutual vulnerability is the goal, but injurious feelings, anger and disappointment complicate the process. It is often messy working through it, but it is worth it. It is one of the keys to more grateful living and finding more contentment and surprising brushes with happiness.

Many within the church and plenty outside of it fail to understand the grace of Reconciliation, the freedom of a good Confession and the healing nature of what we once called Penance. While Mass is the most amazing thing I do as a priest, celebrating Reconciliation/Confession is the most humbling thing I do. I have seen more miraculous moments of hope and healing happen before my eyes. I have seen people burdened by the shame of bad or selfish decisions that haunt them set free and take a step on the path to healing. It may be a long path, but it is the first step and that is the only way any of us begin to grow or change.

If seen solely in a legalistic sense, Confession is just another day in court, if seen as a homecoming, it is the embrace of the Father who desires the return of His wayward sons and daughters. Confession ought to be more return of the Prodigal and less sentencing of the convicted. No one wants to love a judge, but we all desire the love of a benevolent and attentive father. Even if many of us are skeptical such fathers exist since our own may have been profoundly flawed, there are good and caring fathers out there, and the Master spent His days on earth revealing the love of His Father. Happy Wednesday my Digital Neighbors and Kindred Souls at Locals!