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Plucking out your eye

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Today’s post is another entry in response to a recent Facebook conversation. This post won’t be as long as yesterday’s post, but I would like to say a few words about Jesus’ unsettling teaching in Chapter 18 of Matthew’s Gospel:

“…if your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. – Matthew 18:7-9

This passage from Matthew’s Gospel is rather interesting in that, in my experience, it’s a verse which fundamentalists never take literally (along with John 6 and Acts 2:38). Now, you’ll find pockets of Christians who handle snakes (Mark 16:18), but I have yet to meet someone to apply the same literalistic hermeneutic to that passage. The funny thing about this passage is that the literal sense here is clear – it is better to lose everything in this life rather than to lose Heaven – even hands and eyes.

MrPotatoHead

The central message Jesus teaches here is that we can’t take sin lightly. You can’t treat sin as though it were something with which you can negotiate. You don’t negotiate with cancer! You don’t sit down with a tumour and ask it not to grow too large. No, you cut that stuff out! You eradicate it as quickly as possible because, if left unchecked, it’ll be your ruin. The same is true with sin.

What might be an application of this passage? Well, I would say that we can understand this passage in the context of what is known in Catholic circles as “the near occasions of sin”, which the times and places where we know we can easily fall from grace. In particular, I’d like to apply this passage to the issue of porn.

If you know you are tempted to watch porn when staying a hotel, the best thing to do is cut it off at the source, literally, by phoning ahead and asking the hotel to put a block the channels on the TV. I remember Matt Fradd referencing this passage when speaking about the temptation to watch porn on a smart phone:

“If your iPhone causes you to sin, disconnect it and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life with a dumb phone and poor connectivity, rather than to be thrown into the eternal fire with a touchscreen and wifi access”

Stuff I’ve Learned: I’m not who I was

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Something happened recently which gave me pause for thought.

A situation arose which was very similar to something which happened to me about ten years ago. It was a situation which previously brought out the worst parts of my character. However, this time around, I reacted completely differently. I didn’t fall into my previous patterns of behaviour.

All this made me realize that I’m not who I once was. I have changed. Wounds have healed. I have grown. Don’t worry though, there’s still room for a little more improvement… 😉

Later that day it got me thinking about how we sometimes view ourselves. I very often still think of myself as that awkward thirteen year old kid at school. Other times I think I’m still the same awkward twenty-something who doesn’t have a clue who he really is. But the truth is that I’m none of these people. I’m not who I was. It is those events of life and my journey with the Lord which have made me who I am.

Making a huddle

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Back in San Diego, I was part of a group which we called “The Men’s Huddle”. We were a small group of Catholic guys who got together every couple of weeks in order to share our lives, hold each other accountable and to encourage one another as we sought to become all that God calls us to be.

Huddle

In the last couple of years I’ve noticed more men’s groups have been springing up. This is really great to see and today I’d like to write a little bit about The Huddle, in the hope that it will inspire other men to do something similar. The Huddle was a great support to me during my time in San Diego and I would like more men to experience the sort of blessing which comes with membership of such a group.

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When is a Hebrew not a Jew?

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10-commandments-2

When you hear people speaking about the Bible, and especially the Old Testament, you will often hear the terms “Israelite”, “Hebrew” and “Jew” used interchangeably. However, strictly speaking, these terms are not identical.

An Israelite is simply anyone who is a descendant of the Patriarch Jacob. In Genesis 32:28, after wrestling a mysterious man, Jacob is given a new name, “Israel”, which literally means “He who strives with God”.

If you recall, Jacob/Israel had twelve sons. These would later form the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Well, eleven of these sons took great umbrage at their brother Joseph, so they sold him into slavery (those of you with siblings will understand this). Years later, Joseph rose to power in Egypt and, after being reconciled with his family, brought them all to Egypt.

The family of Israel flourished in Egypt for some time until a new Pharaoh rose to power who forced them all into slavery. It is at this time that Moses is called by God to rescue his people and lead them out of Egypt. It is during the period of the Exodus that the term Hebrew is used to refer to the population.

Once the people return to Israel, they enjoy a period of prosperity. However, eventually there is a split in the Kingdom between the northern and southern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom was known as “Judah” and the inhabitants of that area known as Jews. Both the northern and southern kingdoms are conquered and people exiled. After the exile, the term “Jew” is used to refer to any of the Israelites who were left.

I hope that this explanation of terms and recap of Salvation History is helpful!

Catholic Family Tree

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Last Thursday I celebrated the Feast of Theophany at Holy Angels Byzantine Catholic Parish with four of my Roman Rite friends. While we were there I attempted to explain how all the different rites of the Catholic Church relate to one another. I don’t think I did a very good job at explaining it, so I’m going to have another go now…

The Church began in Jerusalem (Acts 2) and, over time, major Christian centres developed in the cities of Rome, Antioch and Alexandria. It was from these cities that the major rites of the Church developed. This can be seen more clearly from the following diagram I found on a friend’s Facebook page:

Catholic Rites

The Second Vatican Council had this to say concerning the different rites of the Church:

“[In] faithful obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that Holy Mother Church holds all lawfully recognized rites to be of equal right and dignity, and that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way”

– Sacrosanctum Concilium

So, although the Catholic Church is one Church, it is also a communion of Churches.

Matrilineal Judaism?

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judaism

I recently read an article by Taylor Marshall, the author of the excellent book, The Crucified Rabbi. In this article, he shares with his readers that he has recently discovered that he has Jewish ancestry. Towards the end of his post, he addressed a concept which I’ve heard throughout my life, but to which I have never really given much thought. This is the idea that Judaism is matrilinial, that you’re considered a Jew if either you are a convert or your mother is Jewish.

This belief seems to be first officially found in the Mishnah, the Second Century codification of Jewish Oral Tradition. I did a little bit of research and found out that matrilinialism is still officially upheld by Orthodox Jews. In contrast, Karaite Judaism holds a patrilinial belief, saying that Judaism comes through the father, and Reformed Jewish groups favour a bilinial stance, saying that you’re Jewish if either parent is Jewish.

In his article, Dr. Marshall presents a number of very compelling Biblical examples to show that Judaism can’t be matrilinial:

1. The tribes of Ephraim and Manesseh
These were the sons of the patriarch Joseph and the heads of two tribes of Israel. Their mother was an Egyptian, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. If Judaism is matrilinial, that would exclude a sizable portion of the Twelve Tribes of Israel!

2. Moses
He married and had children with a Cushite (non-Israelite) woman.

3. David
We read in the genealogy of David of his grandfather Obed. He was the child of Boaz and Ruth who was a Moabite. If Judaism is matrilinial, Obed was not Jewish and, by extension, neither was King David!

I’ve seen some writers respond to these arguments by saying that the Jewish people (“a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”) only begin at Sinai with the giving of the Law. Other explanations say that the conversion of the foreign wife to Judaism is assumed even if the biblical text sees no need to explicitly narrate it.

However, as a Catholic, it doesn’t really matter whether Judaism is matrilinial or not, since every Catholic has a Jewish mother, Mary the Theotokos! As Pope Pius XII said in 1938 to a group of Belgian pilgrims, “Spiritually, we are Semites”.

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