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Sunday Lectionary: Gratuitous Grace

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As I mentioned earlier, I was on retreat this past weekend. This meant that I didn’t have the usual amount of time to spend on the Lectionary Notes this week, so sorry if they appear a bit rushed again…

 

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time: 18th September, 2011

The readings this week speak of God’s mercy and generosity. We so often scorn God’s goodness, but in today’s Readings we learn that God is gracious and generous to all who return to Him.

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you… You were with me, but I was not with you… You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more” – St. Augstine, The Confessions

 

Reading I: Isaiah 55:6-9

This Reading from Isaiah is part of Chapter 55’s invitation to “Come to the water, all you who are thirsty…”. Isaiah exhorts his listeners to not delay, but come and enjoy the Lord’s goodness.

Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near. Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked his thoughts; let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.

Possible Questions:

  • What does Isaiah exhort his listeners to do?
  • Isaiah contrasts men and God. In what way does he say they are different?
  • Practically speaking, in what way are God’s “thoughts above your thoughts”?
  • How does this Reading relate to the Gospel Reading?

Commentary:

“Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near”

This is an invitation to return to friendship with God. Do not delay! Seize the opportunity!

“Let the scoundrel forsake his way”

Returning to friendship with God means leaving behind your old way of life.

“…turn to the LORD”

This is essentially what repentance is – turning away from sin and towards God.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways”

We are not the same as the Lord. His ways are not are ways. Scripture often describes God in an anthropomorphic (“human-like”) language, but it must always be remembered that God is soooooooo much greater than we are.

In the Gospel Reading we will hear of a particular area where God’s ways are unlike our own.  God is infinitely more generous.

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Polycarp and the Presidency

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trump

I awoke this morning to discover two things.

The first thing was confirmation that Donald Trump is going to be the next President of the United States.

The second thing I found was my Facebook Newsfeed in a state of practical hysteria.

To lay my cards on the table, while I have not supported Hillary Clinton, I have also not been much of a fan of Donald Trump either. I was more than a little suspicious of his claim to being pro-life and, like many people, I was rather disturbed by some of the words which came out of his mouth on a range of subjects.

But what can I say? That’s democracy! Whether you like it or not, the American people have spoken and, despite the many celebrity endourcements of Hillary Clinton, the American people have chosen Donald Trump.

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Quick Apology: Sinai Bible vs KJV

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Last week I published an article outlining my response to an abortion meme posted on Facebook by a friend. Today I would like to do something similar. Below is a meme which I also saw on Facebook during Advent:

Sinai

Once again, I would like to share a modified version of the response I posted in reply as I know some readers find it helpful to see how different Christians respond to stuff like this.

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Head back to Sunday School, Colbert…

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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…

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Quick Apology: You can’t pray to dead people

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Continuing in my series of brief apologetic responses, today I would like to look at the subject of Saintly intercession. As I mentioned last time, these will not be thorough, nuanced rebuttals, but simply how I typically would reply when I only have a brief window of opportunity to respond to objections to my Faith.

Objection

I often see on internet forums the following common objection to Saintly intercession:

“You can’t pray to dead people”

Response

In response to this objection I point out that the Saints are not dead:

“…have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” – Matthew 22:32

If Jesus says that the Saints (“Abraham…Isaac….Jacob”) are alive and well, then I think it’s pretty safe to assume that they are indeed alive. Last week we had the Feast of the Transfiguration when Jesus speaks with Moses…a “dead” man (Matthew 17:1-4). Therefore, it is incorrect to call those Christians who have passed away “dead”. They are more alive in God than they have ever been!

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Baptism Matters: Part 1 (Scripture)

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Over the last six months, many of my non-Catholic Christian friends have given birth to their first child. This was brought about, presumably, through the combination of an extremely poor TV lineup last summer and an abundance of free time on their part.

With this wonderful addition to their family, several of these new parents are now facing a dilemma: should they baptize their newborn child? 

You see, in many cases, one spouse comes from a denomination where infant baptism isn’t performed (Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, non-denominationals) and the other has come from a denomination where it is standard practice (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist). The parents typically make the choice to either baptize their child or to have some kind of dedication ceremony.

This is an important issue to me. I was once a member of Protestant congregation where they did infant baptisms, but they also carried out child dedications, depending upon the wishes of the parents.  This inconsistency was an important catalyst in my study of the ancient Christian faith and my eventual reversion to the Catholic Church.

infant-baptism

So, in the next few posts I would like to present the basic case in favour of infant baptism…

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Quick Apology: Making present again?

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I’m going to take a break from my “Quick Apology” series concerning Mary and Saintly Intercession. Today’s “Quick Apology” will be a very brief and concern the Eucharistic liturgy…

Objection

The Catholic Church teaches that, in the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Calvary is made present again. In response to this, some Protestants object in this way:

“How can you say the sacrifice of calvary is made present again? The Epistle to the Hebrews says that His sacrifice was once for all. He’s no longer bleeding…”

Obviously, there is a lot that could be said in response to this, but how might we respond briefly?

Response

In reply to this objection, sometimes I challenge Evangelicals over the very language they use in talking about salvation. Don’t they often talk about “being washed in the blood”, upon accepting Christ as their personal Lord and saviour? However, given the objection they raised above, isn’t there a problem? Hasn’t Jesus stopped bleeding? Wasn’t His sacrifice 2,000 years ago?

When Evangelicals talk about “being washed in the blood”, they’re talking about the the grace of the cross being applied to their souls in time in a real, substantial way. Given this, is the idea of the Eucharist being a participation in Calvary really that alien?

The Passion

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