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Sunday Lectionary: Doers of the Word

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Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 25th, 2011

The readings this week focus on God’s mercy and exhort us to humility and obedience in following God’s way. There isn’t much technical stuff to deal with in these passages. Instead, these readings are an opportunity for the group to share with one another their struggles in this area and to encourage one another.

“There are two ways, one of life and one of death; but a great difference between the two ways”
– The Didache, c. 65 AD

Reading I: Ezekiel 18:25-28

This section of Ezekiel comes from a longer section entitled “The soul who sins will die” where Ezekiel affirms personal responsibility for one’s own soul and the Prophet outlines all the things that Israel must not do . This long section concludes with the passage below. God affirms that He is indeed just and that, in sinning, it is Israel that is disrupting the right order of things. However, God also affirms that He takes no pleasure in the destruction of sinners. He continually holds out His offer to those who will repent, that he will forgive their sin and spare their life.

Thus says the LORD:

You say, “The LORD’s way is not fair!” Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed, he does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Possible Questions:

  • What is the complaint of the Israelites?
  • What is the Lord’s response through Ezekiel?
  • How is God’s mercy demonstrated in this passage?
  • What is the main exhortation of this Reading?

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Sunday Lectionary: We were doing so well…

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: 28th August, 2011

In this week’s Gospel we pick up where we left off last Sunday. Last week Peter gave his confession of Faith, but in today’s reading he doesn’t fare so well….

However, I think the real jewel this week is the Second Reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. Every word of this passage is rich with meaning and worthy of meditation.

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Then End Is Nigh

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It’s now less than a week until Judgement Day. Well, it is if you believe a chap called Harold Camping. Camping is the president and founder Christian Family Radio and asserts that Judgement Day is going to be this Saturday, May 21st. You may have seen the billboards or commercials around:

I hadn’t come across this group until Ι first visited San Diego when one of their leaflets was given to me Downtown by a street evangelist. Later that day, over an ice tea, I read the leaflet from cover-to-cover (I always try to read the stuff that guys like that give me). It didn’t contain anything about the end of the world, but did give me an introduction to the group’s rather “unique” way of interpreting Scriptural prophecy.

I remember that, through interpretation of some of the writings of the prophets, the leaflet asserted that the “Church Age” had now ended and that true believers should now leave their local congregations, study the Bible on their own and, as you might expect, listen to their radio station.

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The God Debate Download

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Over the last week or so, quite a few people have asked me for my reaction to The God Debate which took place between Trent Horn and Dan Barker, entitled “God: Supreme Being or Imaginary Friend?”.

I think it’s a hard to review a debate objectively, but I can definitely say that I enjoyed the experience. It was certainly well-attended, with both the debating chamber and the overflow room being standing room only. Apart from one cheap shot from Dan towards the end, it was a calm and respectful dialogue.

There were a few things as to the debate format that I would have liked to have been different. I’ve listened to a lot of debates on various subjects and I always end up wishing that there could be more time for cross examination, since I think that’s where the real debate actually happens. However, I know a lot of people think the debate is more constructive when the debaters speak in rounds.

The section I would have particularly liked to have structured differently was the Q&A. I thought the time allotted for each section should have been halved, reducing the time to a sixty second answer and thirty second rebuttal. In my opinion, the questioners were given a little too much freedom and probably should have been moderated a little more heavily. There seemed to be a disproportionate number of questions to each debater and those who asked Trent questions were often wildly off topic, raising issues such as contraception and limbo! This was actually something which Dan did during the debate as well, straying from the topic at hand (the existence of God) and instead wandering into areas such as Biblical criticism, the efficacy of prayer etc. On the occasions when Dan spoke about the Bible I was a little horrified by some of his Biblical interpretations, particularly given that he used to be pastor. For example, he asserted that Jesus told people that they should castrate themselves. I really hope he didn’t preach that message when he led a congregation!

With regards to the debaters themselves, both presented themselves well. Dan had the far greater debating experience and I think this came across in his early delivery, whereas Trent took a little more time to warm up coming into his own later, although this might perhaps be due to the fact that arguments for theism first require the laying of a sound philosophical base.

Looking at my notes from the debate, I could say much more, but you don’t have to read my analysis when you could listen to the debate yourself! The MP3 of the debate is now available for $5 from Catholic Answers:

trent-debate-digital

That special something…

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Today I would like to return again to the subject of discernment. In my previous post I wrote about some of the things I’ve wrestled with during my current discernment process. I explained that I find the call to be holy and the call to Holy Orders rather difficult to distinguish from one another and I expressed my frustration that many people seem to assume that the former necessarily implies the latter….

 

Professional Counseling

Those who become monks and nuns take vows of (1) poverty, (2) chastity and (3) obedience. These three are known as the Evangelical Counsels. I’ve found that a lot of discernment material, when you really boil it down, focuses upon these three areas. The problem is that the Church teaches that all Christians are called to live out these counsels!

“Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple”
– Catechism of the Catholic Church, #915

I guess this does affirm something that I’ve thought for some time – that there are many common threads which run through all the vocations. There are also common graces which all people are reliant upon to live out their vocation, regardless of what that vocation might be.

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Word Of The Day: Paroikia

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I’m currently preparing the next document we’re going to be reading in the JP2 Group: “The Martyrdom of Polycarp”. Polycarp was a 2nd Century Bishop in Smyrna about whom I’ve written before. I’ve got a lot to do, so I need to get back to my books soon, but before that, I just wanted to share with you something rather cool I’ve just found…

Stranger On The Shore

The account of Polycarp’s martyrdom begins with a covering letter:

“From the Church of God which resides as a stranger at Smyrna, to the Church of God temporarily sojourning in Philomelium, and to all the congregations of the Holy and Catholic Church in every place: may mercy, peace, and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be yours in abundance”
– The Martyrdom of Polycarp (Greeting)

The author, a chap called Marcus/Marcion, describes Smyrna’s church as “resid[ing] as a stranger” and Philomelium’s church as “temporarily sojourning” in that city. This concept often comes up in the writings of the Early Church (Clement, Ignatius, …) and draws from an idea we also find expressed in Sacred Scripture:

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, …”
– 1 Peter 2:11

The early Christians were keenly aware that they did not permanently belong on this earth, but rather, were citizens of heaven, temporarily away from their homeland. As someone with a blog entitled “Restless Pilgrim”, who has traveled quite a bit and is currently living away from his native country, I find it quite easy to relate to this viewpoint.

Strangers temporarily staying in a foreign land

Paroikia

So, in the martyrdom’s introduction, the author is simply expressing a deeply ingrained, Early Church mindset – that we reside here temporarily. However, what makes this really cool is that I’ve now seen the Greek. The noun which is used here is  “παροικια”, or, in our alphabet,  “paroikia” (pa-roy-kee-a) and it literally means “a sojourning” or “a  dwelling in a strange land”.

“So what?” I hear you say.

“I’m glad you asked!” I reply.

“Paroikia” is the root of the word which was later used by Christians to describe the local assembly and its location:  “parish”… This etymology tells us a profound spiritual truth. Particularly if you haven’t moved around much, it’s easy to think of your parish as your “home” – we even refer to our “home parish”. To an extent, this is true, but really, our parish, our “paroikia” is only a temporary dwelling, an outpost of Heaven.  One day we will  have to leave and head to our true and everlasting home.

“Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by either country, speech, or customs; the fact is, they nowhere settle in cities of their own… They reside in their respective countries, but only as aliens. They take part in everything as citizens and put up with everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their home, and every home a foreign land… They spend their days on earth, but hold citizenship in heaven.”
– The Epistle To Diognetus, 2nd Century

Dealing with thorns

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In the Second Reading at Mass this weekend we had my favourite passage from Paul:

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

The question of suffering is one that everyone has to struggle with at some point. For a good treatment on the subject I would invite you to head over to Canterbury Tales to read Taylor’s article Why do we suffer? The theological answer of St. Paul:

Nearly every religion seeks to make sense of the problem of pain. If God is both omnibenificent {all-loving} and omnipotent {all-powerful}, why then does He allow us to suffer?

The Eastern traditions such as Buddhism dismiss pain and suffering as “unreal.” This solution is difficult to explain to a child with cancer.

Other religious traditions attempt to accrue “good karma” in order to ensure that good times will come with a future reincarnated life. For these traditions, the origin of suffering is past sins, even sins committed in previous lives.

Still other religions, such as Islam, seem to place the origin of suffering in the capricious “will of Allah.”

The Catholic Faith offers an entirely different account of suffering… Continue Reading

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