"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
The other day I received an email from a reader who had spoken to a non-Catholic with a rather rare point-of-view, and who asked for helpful suggestions when speaking to him…
During a discussion about the Saints, the Protestant in question made the following statement:
“…no one is in Heaven except Jesus, Enoch, and Elijah.”
This sort of theological position is rarely held by those in mainstream Protestantism, but how might we respond to this?
Today I’m in Oregon for Oktoberfest and it reminded me that I never wrote about my trip here last month. After a week on retreat at Mount Angel, I spent the weekend in Portland:
I got to visit the famous Powells, a three-story bookstore covering an entire city block. I was so proud of myself, I managed to leave without buying anything – quite an achievement!
I spent most of Saturday morning visiting the extensive Saturday market down by the waterfront.
I also took an “Underground” walking tour of the city where I heard about some of the rather quirky history of Oregon’s most well-known city.
During our tour we went past one Portland’s iconic locations, Voodoo Donuts. The lines outside were crazy, with people waiting over an hour just to get a donut! During the tour we heard the story of how the business began. It turns out that a club owner created donuts which he said were hang-over cures. He could say this because the sugar frosting was replaced with crushed-up aspirins and the jam filling with pepto-bismol! The government discovered what he was doing and freaked out because he was putting drugs in the food he was selling. Rather than letting it sink his business, he then used the media storm as free advertising. He switched to making the kind of delicious sugar-filled treats they sell today and people flocked to buy them!
Finally, while in Portland I went to Mass at the Grotto on the outskirts to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. I returned the following day to spend some quiet time in the grotto grounds:
Things have been a bit non-stop this last week, so I’m afraid these notes are late, slightly shorter than usual and a little bit rushed, but as GK Chesterton said, “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly”…
After Jeremiah, Isaiah is my favourite prophet. This book is often called “The Fifth Gospel” and, with a passage like this, it’s easy to see why. Here, God gives a beautiful invitation to His people to come and be satisfied, to return to Him, to come and be filled free of charge! Why settle for anything less?
When we recognize our hunger and our dependence on God, He will fill us and give us life.
Thus says the LORD:
“All you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.
I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David”
Suggested Questions:
After the previously-planned interview fell through at the last minute, David sat down to record a solo episode to talk about his newborn son, Sidecar Day, blue flowers in Narnia, and also to make his tongue-in-cheek case as to why C.S. Lewis is better than J.R.R. Tolkien.
April 18, 2017: Jackie Francois-Angel @ St. Luke, El Cajon
Jackie is a full-time traveling speaker, singer/songwriter, and worship leader from Orange County, CA. In 2006, she became an artist with OCP/SpiritAndSong.com with whom she has released two albums.
She has been involved in youth ministry since she graduated high school, and she now travels the globe speaking to young people about God’s love and leading worship for various events and ministries. In 2013, she married the love of her life, Bobby Angel, and they now have two adorable little girls.
“Gifts Of The Holy Spirit” (Download)
This was our first time in quite a while recording Theology On Tap audio. The audio quality will improve over subsequent recordings.
Continuing my attempts to produce these Lectionary Notes in under four hours…
The Readings this week focus around life in Christ.
We begin with an account of St. Paul’s failed attempts in Jerusalem to commune with Christ’s Body, the Church. Strangely enough, it turns out that people tend to be a bit stand-offish if you’ve previously tried to kill them! In our Gospel Reading, Jesus teaches his disciples using the metaphor of the vine, showing us that union with Him is essential if we are to live. He gives us a warning too, that if we do not produce fruit, we will be cut off from Him and deprived of His Divine life. St. John restates this sentiment in the Second Reading, exhorting his readers to “love not in word…but in deed”.
Let us come to Mass this week thirsty for the grace of Christ which is communicated through His Church. Let us drink deeply, returning to the world refreshed, ready to share the life of Christ and to bear fruit which will last.
Through Him, and with Him, and in Him…
I hadn’t planned to write about last weekend’s Gospel reading, but it has kept coming up in conversation and I’ve spoken to some people who have been really troubled by Jesus’ words, perhaps rightly so:
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”
What did Jesus mean when he said we must “hate” our family and even “hate” our own lives? That sounds rather masochistic!
Is this just a bad translation? Actually, no, it’s not. The Greek word being used here is “miseo”, which, according to Strong’s Greek Lexicon means “to hate, pursue with hatred, detest”.