"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
No man can possibly be happy in a place where he is not in his element and where all around him is not congenial to his tastes, habits, and character.
When an eagle is happy in an iron cage, when a sheep is happy in the water, when an owl is happy in the blaze of noonday sun, when a fish is happy on the dry land – then, and not till then, will I admit that the unsanctified man could be happy in heaven
– JC Ryle, Holiness, 1879
On Catholic Memes, I just saw a video where Stephen Colbert challenged another celebrity to a Catholic throwdown. This time his opponent was Patricia Heaton, star of “Everybody loves Raymond” and “The Middle”:
Oh Stephen…you disappoint me.
I counted at least three major Catholic mistakes in this throwdown, three “maxima culpas”, if you will. So get out your sackcloth and ashes, and let me I teach you something about the Catholic Faith…
To mark Martin Luther King Day, here’s a James Taylor Classic, “Shed a little light”, performed by “Naturally 7” and Restless Pilgrim favourites, “The Maccabeats”:
Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us,
All men and women living on the Earth.
Ties of hope and love,
Sister and brotherhood,
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world
Become a place in which our children
Can grow free and strong.
We are bound together by the task
That stands before us
And the road that lies ahead.
We are bound and we are bound.
There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness
And the mist
And though the body sleeps
The heart will never rest
Shed a little light, oh Lord,
So that we can see,
Just a little light, oh Lord.
Want to stand it on up,
Stand it on up, oh Lord,
Want to walk it on down,
Shed a little light, oh Lord.
Can’t get no light from the dollar bill,
Don’t give me no light from a TV screen.
When I open my eyes I want to drink my fill
From the well on the hill,
Do you know what I mean?
Given that my last two posts (#1 | #2) have related to the Exodus, my friend Sean sent me a link to an article by Dave Armstrong about the relationship between the original Passover and the Seder meal celebrated by modern-day Children of Israel.
I had heard before from theologians that Jewish tradition spoke about how, when present-day Jews celebrate Passover, there is something of a mystical participation with the original Exodus under Moses. This understanding of participation in a past event has an application in the realm of Catholic apologetics. I have often spoken to Protestants who insist that when we speak of the Lord’s Supper as being a “memorial” (“anamnesis” in Greek), it simply means that we remember what Jesus did and nothing more. A look at Jewish tradition present some problems with this understanding.
For the rest of this post, I would just like to offer a few quotations from Dave’s article, but I thoroughly recommend that you read the whole thing.
In a book specifically about the Passover celebration, Martin Sicker writes:
The Haggadah then continues with a statement that is also found in the Mishnah that calls upon each participant in the Seder to share vicariously in the experience of the Exodus.
In every generation one is obliged to view oneself as though he [personally] had gone out from Egypt. As it is said: And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying: It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt (Ex. 13:8).
The Haggadah then amplifies this teaching, providing an appropriate biblical prooftext in support of its elaboration.
The Holy One, blessed is He, did not redeem only our ancestors, but also redeemed us along with them. As it is said: And He brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which He swore unto our fathers. (Deut. 6:23).
. . . The Mishnah calls upon each participant in the Seder to make an intellectual leap across the millennia and thereby to share directly in the experience of their ancestors.
Another Jewish source concurs:
By participating in the Seder, we are vicariously reliving the Exodus from Egypt. Around our festival table, the past and present merge and the future is promising.
Earlier this week, we had catechesis at my parish. We’ve been meeting for the last few months and we’re currently working our way through the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
During our discussion, Father Michael said that this week is “Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee” but it really should be “Sunday of Zacchaeus”. He explained that, because Easter is so early this year, the pre-Lent celebrations take precedence. To this I commented, “Poor Zacchaeus, missing out again, only this time it’s because time is too short…”. This was met with various sighs and groans from those in the class, all sure signs that everyone missed me while I was back in England for Christmas.
Anyway…as I said, this Sunday is “Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee”, a reference to Luke 18:9-14, where Jesus tells a story which contrasts the attitude of two different men as they come before God in prayer…
I was told by my former Spiritual Director that the Church purposefully places this Gospel passage in the run-up to the beginning of Lent in order to prepare us for the Great Fast. During Lent, we will are called to increased attentiveness to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. I was told that this passage is read to us to call us to humility, lest we too readily start patting ourselves on the back for all our good works. Ultimately, we all have to stand before God saying “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner”.
I find nothing knocks me off my high horse quicker than by praying the Litany of Humility. Here’s that prayer set to music by Danielle Rose:
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved…
From the desire of being extolled …
From the desire of being honored …
From the desire of being praised …
From the desire of being preferred to others…
From the desire of being consulted …
From the desire of being approved …
From the fear of being humiliated …
From the fear of being despised…
From the fear of suffering rebukes …
From the fear of being calumniated …
From the fear of being forgotten …
From the fear of being ridiculed …
From the fear of being wronged …
From the fear of being suspected …
That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I …
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease …
That others may be chosen and I set aside …
That others may be praised and I unnoticed …
That others may be preferred to me in everything…
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…
In yesterday’s post, I spoke about the New Exodus, giving a little bit of background as to the expectations of the Jewish people and a brief summary of how this was fulfilled in John the Baptist and Jesus. In today’s post I would just like to identify briefly some other people who tried to assume these roles…
1. The Dead Sea Scroll Community
The people behind “The Dead Sea Scrolls”, thought by most to be a community of Essenes, saw themselves as fulfilling prophesy. For example, consider the following extract from the rule of their community:
…[having] become a community…they are to be segregated from within the dwelling of the men of sin to walk in the desert in order to open there His path. As it is written: “In the desert, prepare the way of YHWH, straighten in the steppe a roadway for our God”
Here we see the Dead Sea Scroll community associate themselves with the same prophesy of Isaiah which is used in Matthew’s Gospel to identify John the Baptist.
2. Theudas
Yesterday we saw the significance of the Jordan in the New Exodus. In his writings, the Jewish historian Josephus tells about a man in the First Century who clearly understood this:
…a certain impostor named Theudas persuaded the majority of the masses to take up their possessions and follow him to the Jordan River. He stated that he was a prophet and that at his command the river would be parted and would provide them an easy passage. With this talk he deceived many.
Fadus [the procurator of Judaea], however, did not permit them to reap the fruit of their folly, but sent against them a squadron of cavalry. These fell upon them unexpectedly, slew many of them and took many prisoners. Theudas himself was captured, whereupon they cut off his head and brought it to Jerusalem.
– Josephus, Antiquities 20:97-99
Theudas wasn’t the only false herald to suffer an unfortunate fate…
3. The Egyptian
In the previous post we briefly recounted the conquest of the Holy Land by the Children of Israel. Josephus tells us of another First Century character, simply known as “The Egyptian”, who was expecting victory over the Romans from Israel in a similar manner:
At this time there came to Jerusalem from Egypt a man who declared that he was a prophet and advised the masses of the common people to go out with him to the mountain called the Mount of Olives, which lies opposite the city at a distance of five furlongs. For he asserted that he wished to demonstrate from there that at his command Jerusalem’s walls would fall down, through which he promised to provide them an entrance into the city.
When Felix heard of this he ordered his soldiers to take up their arms. Setting out from Jerusalem with a large force of cavalry and infantry, he fell upon the Egyptian and his followers, slaying four hundred of them and taking two hundred prisoners. The Egyptian himself escaped from the battle and disappeared.
– Josephus, Antiquities 20:169-72
Hopefully this background lends some more context to the drama we find in the Gospels, particularly when we are introduced to St. John the Baptist, why the people were so interested in the Baptist and also why he also attracted the attention of the authorities.