Entry Into Jerusalem
Here’s some commentary on yesterday’s Gospel Reading by Fr. Robert Barron:
Author: pilgrim
Just in case…
Just in case you didn’t you didn’t realize it, yesterday was April Fools’ Day.
About a month ago, Joe Heschmeyer sent out an email to a number of Catholic bloggers inviting us to do something a little different for April Fools’ Day this year. Rather than doing the typical “fake news story”, he suggested we do some kind of satirical analysis:
…[the] Catholic issues that maybe have crossed your mind, but you think, “This is much too stupid to write a blog post about.” It treads the fine line between the serious and the absurd.
I had shared with Joe my theories on He-Man, Christian Allegory and Transubstantiation when we got to hang out last November. It seemed to perfectly fit the criterion of “too stupid to write a blog post about” 🙂
Anyway, just in case you missed them, here are some of the other April Fools’ Day offerings out there:
Shameless Popery: How the Summa might address Zombie Uprising
The Thin Veil: “Pope To Blogosphere”
St. Joseph’s Vanguard: “The New Perspective on Peter”
Almost Not Catholic: I Relent!
Young, Evangelical and Catholic: Pope Excommunicates All Of Us!
He-Man, Christian Allegory & Transubstantiation
Christians have long made use of allegory to narrate the story of salvation. We have done this because, by utilizing fiction to retell the story of Jesus, we can present to an unbelieving world the archetypal themes of Christianity, as well as providing for ourselves a “novel” way 😉 to meditate upon our tale of grace…
A Common Example…
One popular example of Christian allegory would be “The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis. This is one of the first novels I can recall hearing as a child. However, it wasn’t until I was quite a bit older that I started to realize why the story felt so familiar…
C.S. Lewis’ goal in writing “The Chronicles Of Narnia” was to write a good story rather than simply a Christian story. Fortunately for us he does both! In “The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe” Lewis tells the story of the great lion Aslan who offers his life in place of the disobedient boy Edmund. Even with this brief outline, it is clear to see that this story is an allegory of Jesus’ Crucifixion and the offering of His life for sinners.
In my mid-twenties I did a lot of babysitting and, because of this, I got to read the book out loud for the children I was babysitting (complete with voices, of course). Reading the book as an adult, I was stunned to find Christ on every page.
Could be good…could be terrible…
Credo in unum deum…
Fr. Isaiah Vogt
This will be the cutest thing you see today, Brandon Vogt‘s son, Isaiah:
Thanks to Neal Obstat for the link.
Jesus, Friend Of Sinners
My favourite band, Casting Crowns, just released a video of a song from their new album “Come to the Well”. The song is called “Jesus, Friend Of Sinners”:
This is definitely one of my favourite songs from their most recent album Come To The Well. It has a few lyrics which I find devastating:
Jesus, friend of sinners, …we cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing…
A plank-eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided…
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers…
…and finally…
Nobody knows what we’re for, only what we’re against, when we judge the wounded…
It is this last line which I find the most powerful. Before hearing this song I had never really thought that when I judged someone, I was judging someone injured. We’re all wounded, of course, both by the Fall and our own personal histories.
Until I heard these words I had never really considered that when someone does something which disappoints or hurts me, it might be due to a wound which that person had previously sustained, so rather than judging and condemning that person, I should instead see him as someone in need of healing.
Over the past few months I have, on occasions, remembered this song and the resolution it inspired: Be More Gentle With People. When I have done this, and managed to set aside my indigence and anger, and tried to “look for the wound”, the results have been quite surprising. I have found my heart softened and the reservoirs of compassion and patience which I had long thought empty, refilled.
Now, if only I could remember this resolution a bit more often…
