This morning, in honour of the Assumption, I reposted my “Biblical Mary” article on Facebook (Matt Fradd wrote on the same topic today – great minds…).
As a follow-up, here’s a video of Scott Hahn speaking about the Assumption. As usual, he packs in a vast amount of material and information, so hang on to your hats…
And for something a little lighter…
Happy Easter! Yes, it’s still Easter! This week we celebrate the third Sunday of the Easter season as we continue on the road towards Pentecost.
For our Gospel Reading we hear another resurrection account, this week from St. Luke. In it, the Lord appears to His disciples and demonstrates to them that He has risen bodily from the dead. He then “opens their minds” to see how all that had come to pass was the will of the Father, His plan and His promise from the beginning.
In our Responsorial Psalm, David speaks of a God who comes to the rescue, bestowing light and peace to those in trouble. God’s rescuing love finds its fullest expression, of course, in the coming of Jesus Christ and in our First Reading we hear St. Peter proclaim this Good News to the crowd. Peter explains that through Christ’s saving sacrifice can be saved and in our Second Reading St. John reflects upon this and upon our call to respond in obedience to this great love of God.
I’m late, but I’m back! ”Theology On Tap” and “Daughters Of The King” craziness is mostly over now so proper blogging should resume shortly…
The Readings this Sunday are a source of encouragement to strengthen to us during this Lenten season.
In the First Reading we read the familiar story of the testing of Abraham. This patriarch was asked by God to offer what was most precious to him, his own beloved son. This Reading demonstrates the obedience of Abraham, but it also gives us a picture of the love of God the Father who “so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” – John 3:16.
The theme of Christ’s sacrifice is picked up by St. Paul in our Second Reading where he asks “[God] did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?”.
Finally, in this week’s Gospel we read the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus, together with His “inner circle” ascend a mountain where His glory is unveiled. While transfigured, Jesus is visited by the two greatest figures in Old Testament history, Moses and Elijah.
As this Lenten season continues, let us be inspired by Abraham’s love of God, comforted by the love of the Father which made Him give His Son and humbled by the love of the Son that He would come be our redeemer. Let us too become “transfigured”, transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ as we serve Him in the world.
As I mentioned before, I’m currently working my way through St. Matthew’s Gospel. I was reading a commentary the other day where it noted the parallels between the two main Josephs in the Bible:
The first Joseph is the Joseph of the Old Testament.
This Joseph was the one who had dreams and was sold into slavery by his own brothers (Genesis 37:28). When he resisted the advances of his master’s wife he was falsely accused and thrown into prison. Fortunately, because he could interpret the Pharaoh’s dreams (Genesis 41:1-36) he later ascended to the role of Prime Minister (Genesis 41:39-40).
Later, during a great famine, Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to buy grain. After testing their hearts (Genesis 44), Joseph responds with mercy and brings his whole family to live with him (Genesis 47:11-12)
The second Joseph is the Joseph of the New Testament.
This is St. Joseph, the man who was betrothed to Mary (Matthew 1:19). When he found out that Mary was pregnant, he considered divorcing her. However, after an angel appeared to him in a dream, he resolved to take her as his wife and become the foster father of Jesus (Matthew 1:20-25).
After Jesus’ birth, St. Joseph receives another dream warning him of Herod’s plan to kill Jesus so he takes his wife and son to Egypt. Eventually he brings his family back and settles them in Galilee (Matthew 2:20-23).
Most people assume that St. Joseph died prior to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry since he is not mentioned during that time.
Now, the parallels…
Today I’d like to share a few thoughts about one of the lesser-known stories about my Biblical namesake, King David.
In the eighth chapter of Second Samuel, we are told of David’s great military victories and the tribute brought to him by other kings. David had clearly “made it”: his Kingship was secure, Israel was safe and the Ark of the Covenant had been brought back to Jerusalem where it belonged. Personally, I would have expected that it would be time for David to put up his feet and enjoy some of the benefits that came from being king. However, what follows in 2 Samuel 9 is something rather different:
“David asked, ‘Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?’ …Is there no one still left…to whom I can show God’s kindness?” – 2 Samuel 9:1, 3
To understand the meaning behind David’s question, we must look a little further back in events recorded in the books of 1 & 2 Samuel. The “Jonathan” David referred to above, was son of the “Saul” he mentions, the same Saul who was the former king of Israel (1 Samuel 10:24). Because of Saul’s disobedience, God rejected him as king (1 Samuel 15:23), choosing the shepherd boy, David, to be his successor (1 Samuel 16:13). Despite Saul’s jealousy (1 Samuel 18), Jonathan and David were extremely close friends, even from their first meeting:
“Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself… And Jonathan made a covenant with David… Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt” – 1 Samuel 18:1-4
Below is a reworked version of a reflection I first presented at Cheltenham’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on 26th January 2008…
Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear [Jesus]. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” …
Jesus said: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Soon after, that son got together all he had, set off for a distant country where he squandered his wealth in wild living.
After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’
The other day I wrote about the trials of trying to be an “Ecumenical Apologist“, so today I would like to write a post about something rather controversial, or rather someone rather controversial – Jesus’ mother, Mary.
Mary is something of a source of contention between Catholics and non-Catholics. At best, Catholics are told that the attention they give to Mary draws glory away from God. At worst, Catholics are charged with unbiblical doctrine, necromancy and idolatry.
In this post I will not attempt to try and convince any non-Catholics of the veracity of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, her Assumption or any of the other particularly Catholic Marian doctrines. I would simply like to show you a scriptural perspective on Mary of which you may be unaware. My aim is that after reading this post you would be awed at the cohesiveness of God’s master plan and declare that Mary truly is “blessed” (Lk 1:48-49)
I thought I’d write a brief entry on today’s Gospel, the parable of The Good Samaritan. The interpretation I’m going to give may be one you’ve never heard before. It comes from St. Augustine, bishop of fifth century North Africa in his work “Questions on the Gospels”.
I had never heard of this interpretation of the parable until I started studying the Early Church Fathers where I found this explanation also offered by others such as Ireneus and Origen.
I’ll talk about the Early Church Fathers specifically in another post, but for now, let’s look at one of the ways St. Augustine explained this parable:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’“
