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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Kylie (L), Fr. Mitch (C) and the Immortal Mark Hatmaker (R)
PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Kylie Hatmaker and her husband Mark (see pic on right). The brain tumor Kylie dealt with a few years back is growing again. Kylie is Mark’s primary co-conspirator, best friend, power animal, goddess, gourmet chef, pistol-packing bodyguard, and hoochie-coochie dancer in residence. A finer lady you’ll never meet. God give her strength, we pray thee, Amen.
Mettle maker #447: “Stingers”
Fighting is a nasty business that we should avoid at all costs. We never fight to prove a point, to settle a dispute, for entertainment, to give vent to negative emotions like hatred, spite, jealousy, vengeance, and so on. We are the inheritors of the rough ‘n’ tumblers’ legacy. Our charity is called “Heritage” for this reason — heritage and inheritance share the same root in the Latin heres from which the worlds heir, heiress, and heirloom are derived. But our task is not to imitate the worst habits and viewpoints of our forebears.
Our duty is to to carry forward the best of our inheritance, not the worst of it.
So when we read that the old rough ‘n’ tumblers fought one another because someone called them a nasty name, or “knocked a peach out of his hand,” or offered a sip of whiskey without first “wiping the mouth of the Bottle” we should be aghast. We should be repulsed.†
Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumblers should only fight as a last resort, and only if life is on the line.
But if innocent life is indeed on the line, we should not hesitate to use our most effective and withering skills from first contact. Everything we do to the enemy must cause pain from first touch. Yes, whenever and wherever our bodies come into contact with the evildoer, he should feel pain — as though he reached into a bag to pluck out a puppy and found instead a scorpion.
Practice your “stingers” at least once or twice a week. Set a round timer for 3 x 3:00/1:00 and practice adding maximum discomfort into your wrestling movements.
Crush with square chokes, levers, leg scissors, etc.
Gouge with knuckles and elbows.
Tie a rag to the heavy bag and practice pulling hair.
Squeeze and choke with your fingers.
Drive your fingertips into the mastoid process and the supraclavicular fossa.
Switch your shin rides to knee rides, placing them against the sternum, ninth rib, collar bone, or jaw.
Practice your “eye choke” by digging into the bag with the tip of your chin.
Grind your forehead into the bag with all your might.
Slip the “little mountain” behind his back and give him all your weight.
This is not an exercise in cruelty. Causing your attacker pain without permanent injury is a humane way to encourage him to break off the attack, which could save his life, your life, and the lives of loved ones and bystanders as well. As the great Dave Durch says, “Pain changes the game.”
Looking for a free mind-body-spirit martial arts program? Sign up for the Rough ‘n’ Tumble Distance Learning Program today!
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† See Elliott Gorn’s article, from which these quotes were taken, here.
Holy Eucharist is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy Eucharist, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time 3/2/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: Sir 27:4-7, Ps 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16, 1 Cor 15:54-58, Lk 6:39-45
Luke 6:39-45 World English Bible
He spoke a parable to them. “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye? 42 Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck of chaff that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam that is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye.
43 “For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit. 44 For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45 The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
Brothers and sisters, I always feel very guilty whenever I stub my toe, spill a drink all over the carpet, cut my finger, or experience some other mishap and a swear word bursts out. Why? Because, as Jesus says in today’s reading, “the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.” I wonder when I curse: “Is this what I’m filled with to bursting? Filth?”
Yesterday, my wife and I were getting ready for a friend’s birthday party. I had crafted him a gift, a somewhat delicate wooden sculpture, and placed it on my wife’s desk. I left it there while my wife worked on his birthday card, and I went to go shower and shave.
As I was shaving I heard a loud crash. My wife exclaimed, “Oh no! No, no, no!” Her voice was filled with anguish. Immediately I thought that she had knocked off the sculpture and smashed it. My first thought was concern for my wife. My heart sank with sadness, because I knew that wife would be crushed with guilt. I imagined the tears that must surely be streaming down her cheeks. I finished by shave, wiped the foam from my face and went to her. To my surprise, I found she wasn’t crying.
“What was all that commotion about?” I asked. I could see the sculpture was perfectly intact.
“Oh, clumsy me, I dropped a full glass of diet cola on my desk, all over the card I just made for Mike,” she said. “But it’s okay, I’m making him another one. No big deal.” And then I thanked God for filling my heart to bursting with compassion and concern for my wife, rather than with concern for a material thing or some dirty swear word. That’s what Jesus wants. Jesus wants us to fill up our storehouses, not with material goods which moth and rust may destroy, but with heavenly things – the treasures of love and righteousness (Matthew 6:19-21) – so that we can let those treasures flow out into the world. In our reading today from 1 Corinthians (1 Cor 15: 54-58) St. Paul, says,
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Death, where is your sting?
Hades, where is your victory?”
When Paul says, “the sting of death is sin” he is saying that the death has a metaphorical sting that, like a scorpion’s tail or a rattlesnake’s bite, injects the poison of sin into us. But Christ, having conquered death, cuts off the tail of that scorpion! Christ, in defeating death, defangs the snake!
We can, brothers and sisters, imitate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the here and now. We can let our old selves die – our old self-obsessed, material-loving, sinful selves – and be born again in Christ. Because, as Paul says, “because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor 15: 58b)