December 22, 2006 (S5) Asparagine

Asparagine - the Crucifixion (S5)

December 22, 2006 - (Rex Gentium) - Two days to the Vigil!

Today, the last Friday in Advent, we come to Calvary and the mystery of the dying God. As I mentioned earlier in reference to Dickens' "Christmas Carol" we must first understand that Jesus was born, and grew up - that He actually lived - and then grasp the mystery of today: He died - died in a horrible and shameful way, enacted by the conniving of the truth-preserving monotheists and the justice-proclaiming pagans... And the Roman centurion, so skilled in killing, verified the finality of the death with a sword-thrust to the heart; no coroner, no physician, would have quibbled; for the centurion's own life would be forfeit if he had been wrong. Strange echoes sounded then on that hill, that late afternoon in spring: "I too know the meaning of obedience..." Well for us that someone did.

The crib of Bethlehem and the cross on Calvary are not very distant at all: only a few miles (five, perhaps?) and about 33 years (maybe a little less, maybe a little more?)... same wood in each... as a sign to recall the First Sin which involved a tree as well. And it involved food, it involved will - or lack thereof. And so the solution to its puzzle had to involve all those things too, but adjusted, and completed, and restored.

And when the characters in the story have made a royal mess of things, it's up to the author to make the revisions which can bring the story to the conclusion which was originally intended...

The mystery of Calvary, then, is not an end. That guess at its explanation only lasted into the morning of the third day afterwards - at which point it was discovered that the book hadn't finished, because a new chapter - no, a new volume - had begun.

But as we prepare for our own new chapters, let us remember how this chapter came to its completion.

And so today, we come to the last of the amino acids, which, mysteriously, is not the twentieth.



Asparagine (abbreviated Asn or N)
RNA Codes:


A A U
A A C


Asparagine has only two codes, both of which begin with AA, followed by a pyrimidine (C or U), thus splitting the AA codes with Lysine.

Asparagine has a hydrophilic side chain, indicating the Public Life, though it is nonpolar. As Glutamine is derived from Glutamic Acid by substitution of an -NH₂ or amide group for the -OH, so Asparagine is derived from Aspartic Acid. That is, the side chain of Asparagine is the amide derived from acetic acid. The acetic acid hints at the vinegar given to our Lord on the cross; as before, the nitrogen indicates the Marian component, for St. John tells us how he was there beneath the cross with the Mother of Jesus, and heard those words to her: "Woman, behold your son" then to him "behold your mother" - and so the Family began to grow.

This is not simply history any more. This is our Family we're talking about and remembering... it's up to us to live now so as to join our relatives eventually. So much do they look forward to that reunion! Let us do the same.