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Mettle Maker #383
What’s the weekly mettle maker? Training tips and educational information in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? According the American Heritage Dictionary, mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Heritage Self-Defense: Humility is a key martial attribute. Possession of elite fighting skills is a massive responsibility. We, as men and women seeking those skills, we have a duty to cultivate sufficient humility to balance our fighting skills. Why humility? To be humble is to be small in worth, modest and unpretentious — a humble home, a humble childhood, a humble apology. A humble man doesn’t fight because he has been insulted, because he doesn’t think he’s too great to be criticized. He’s not vulnerable to attacks against his character because he knows exactly who he is and doesn’t pretend to be something he is not. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, “The virtue of humility consists in keeping oneself within one's own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but submitting to one's superior." (Summa Contra Gent., bk. IV, ch. LV, par. 17). Therefore a humble man doesn’t mete out violence with the presumption of godhood, becuause he submits to his superior — his God, his Higher Power. Nor does he dare to think of himself as judge, jury, and executioner. Humility is the virtue of perspective.
Interested in American Rough and Tumble martial arts? Join the martial arts club in Richmond, VA or click here to sign up for the Heritage self-defense distance learning program.
Heritage Fitness: Humble reps? Never push to the last rep, all the way to failure. What are you trying to prove? Who are you trying to impress? It’s a great idea to use a training journal to keep track of your progress (or lack thereof). You need to make sure that your training program is producing results. But pushing to failure to set a new PR (personal record) is sketchy. 90% of your injuries, your long-term wear-and-tear, and your post-training recovery discomfort (and lost training time) are going to come directly from training to failure. Train to the rep just prior to failure. Stop when you think, “I could probably get one more rep, maybe two.” You’ll be glad you did. Need a free fitness coach to help you build a program that suits your specific needs and goals? We’re a 501c3 charity! Click here to sign up for our distance learning fitness program!
Heritage Wildwood: The experiment continues… I’ve been working on my “homegrown chai” recipe for about a year now, and I’m starting to make progress. My goal is to come up with a chai recipe using plants anybody can easily grow at home. As I write this I’m drinking a blend made up primarily of nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) and marigold flowers (see pic on right). Here’s the thing — there are plenty of people with an academic knowledge of what’s edible and inedible, who’ve memorized lists of things you can and cannot eat. But there are other types of knowledge which are equally important, and you can only get those by actually growing, foraging, harvesting, processing, eating, drinking, tasting, and savoring. I highly recommend that, as part of your outdoor skills education, you engage in all four ways of knowing: propositional, perspectival, participatory, and procedural. Looking for a comprehensive adult outdoor skills program? Click here to sign up for the Heritage Wildwood distance learning program!
Holy Communion 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 communion, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, Sunday 12/10/23 – Father Mitch
Readings: IS 40:1-5, 9-11, PS 85:9-10-11-12, 13-14, 2 PT 3:8-14, MK 1:1-8
Mark 1:1-8 World English Bible Catholic Edition
1 The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 As it is written in the prophets,
“Behold,† I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you:*
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord!
Make his paths straight!’ ”*
4 John came baptizing‡ in the wilderness and preaching the baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. 5 All the country of Judea and all those of Jerusalem went out to him. They were baptized by him in the Jordan river, confessing their sins. 6 John was clothed with camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and loosen. 8 I baptized you in§ water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”
The desert where John the Baptist lived and worked, and where Jesus was baptized, is the Judean desert outside Jerusalem (MT 3:1). It runs eastward, all the way down to the West Bank of the Dead Sea. This is the same desert where David hid from Saul and where the caves of Qumran hid the Dead Sea Scrolls. Few of us will ever get to visit this specific desert so rich in history.
But perhaps you’ve spent some time in another desert – the spiritual desert. I’ve been there. It’s not a good place. Maybe you are there right now. When you are in this state of spiritual desolation, you may feel abandoned by God, that you are estranged from him, or that he has withdrawn his Grace from you. Perhaps you have some form of depression triggered by negative life events or caused by a physical or mental condition. Perhaps you are being assaulted by the devil or his cohorts. Maybe God has placed this obstacle before you so that you can grow in faith and then go on to experience great joys and do great works.
Both saints and everyday people get turned around in the desert. Saint John of the Cross famously called this desolation "the Dark Night of the Soul." He said, "The fire of Divine love can so dry up the spirit and enkindle its desire for satisfying its thirst that it turns upon itself a thousand times and longs for God in a thousand ways, as the Psalmist did when he said: For Thee my soul hath thirsted; for Thee my flesh O how many ways." Mother Theresa spent most of her long life in a spiritual wilderness, pressing ever forward with great difficulty. Some get so completely lost in its barren dunes that they become completely separated from God, living lives of depravity, disorder, decadence, delinquency, and disaffection.
But, Mark says, “Hey, pay attention, I’ve got some good news for everyone out there in the desert. It’s the Gospel of the Messiah, the Savior who has come here to rescue you, and he is the Son of God.” This gospel is not like the message given by the emperors and generals of Jesus’s day. “Gospel” in Greek is evangélion, an evangelization. That’s what it was called when the emperor or his generals returned from a campaign – an evangélion. They entered the city, paraded the slaves, exotic animals, and treasure they got from their wars, proclaimed their gospel – their good news.
But not this Jesus. He’s not coming first to the happy and prosperous places and he’s not bringing the spoils of war. He’s not walking the wide and beautiful, tree-lined streets. No, no – his mission begins in the desert. He’s coming to help the lost people first. He’s coming to save the people who are thirsting to death – who are exhausted, dehydrated, delirious, dying for water.
“But listen up,” Mark says. “If you want to find our way out of this desert you need to make way.” As the Gospels say, we must “make ready the way of the Lord” and “make his paths straight.” You can get out of this desert. But you’re going to have to stop trying to find our own way through the wilderness and clear a path for him so he can get to you. When the emperor or his generals say “make way” he means “get out my way, I’m coming through with my horses and chariots, and if you don’t move, you’re going to get run over.” But Jesus says something completely different. He’s saying that you have to sweep away of the briars, obstacles, and debris of your preconceived notions, your personal desires, your self-pities, prides, and personal plans.
And if you do that, Jesus will bring into your desert the water of life, the living water. Yes, if you make a pathway for him to enter your life, he will be there. When he comes, ask him for a drink and he will satisfy your thirst forever. He will give you a drink of the water that will become in you “a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
Only make away and ask, and he will make for you an oasis amid the sand.
† 1:2 “Behold”, from “ἰδοὺ”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
* 1:2 Malachi 3:1
* 1:3 Isaiah 40:3
‡ 1:4 or, immersing
§ 1:8 The Greek word (en) translated here as “in” could also be translated as “with” in some contexts.