This is a time of prayer for creation. (See this post on the World Day of Prayer for Creation.) Perhaps not coincidentally, it is also the time of the Fall Ember Days. Ember Days were a thing in the Church before Vatican II. Not so much anymore. We observed them on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at various times during the year. Next week is Ember Week. September 18, 20, and 21 are the Ember Days. Note that it’s the terrestrial,... Read more
My catechism doesn’t say it, but being a Christian means that powers of the world will consider you a threat and possibly kill you. That’s the message in a series of lessons on rules Jesus enacts for his followers. It wasn’t strange religious beliefs that set Christians up for persecution but their revolutionary way of acting. Sixteenth in a series on “The Worldly Spirituality of Mark’s Gospel” with help from Ched Myers’ Binding the Strongman: A Political Reading of Mark’s... Read more
Mark has Jesus predict both his passion and his resurrection three times. The disciples don’t understand the first because they don’t want to. They don’t understand the second because they can’t. Fifteenth in a series on “The Worldly Spirituality of Mark’s Gospel” with help from Ched Myers’ Binding the Strongman: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus. The Introduction and a Table of Contents are HERE. I want to work my way into, if not through, a puzzle regarding... Read more
Anti-Judaism is represented (left photo)) in Medieval statues of two women Ecclesia (Christian) and Synagoga (Jewish). Ecclesia on the left is triumphant. Synagoga is defeated and dejected. The photo on the right is a modern vision of Ecclesia and Synagoga of equal stature and in harmony. The modern sculpture is by Joshua Koffman and exists at the University of St. Joseph, Philadelphia. Three brief stories about Jews and Christians: A few years ago a... Read more
In the Transfiguration scene does Mark give us a brief glimpse of Jesus’ triumph over the cross and glory in the Kingdom of Heaven? On the contrary, Ched Myers believes it’s the cross itself that comes into view here. I add my own thought about the Kingdom and its power. Fourteenth in a series on “The Worldly Spirituality of Mark’s Gospel” with help from Ched Myers’ Binding the Strongman: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus. The Introduction and... Read more
Jesus’ path gets increasingly dangerous as we move through Mark’s Gospel. At the same time he seems to be more and more isolated from his own disciples. Here we’ll see how Mark gives his readers a little hope. He provides some symbolic clues about a more hopeful direction for Jesus’ story. Thirteenth in a series on “The Worldly Spirituality of Mark’s Gospel” with help from Ched Myers’ Binding the Strongman: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus. The Introduction... Read more
Tomorrow is the day Christians pray for the earth. Pope Francis designated September 1 as a Day of Prayer for Creation in 2015. He was following the lead of other Christian denominations and groups. In my experience not enough Catholics know about this day. Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I of Constantinople in 1989 was first to proclaimed September 1 an annual day of prayer and action to protect the environment. Subsequently many different Christian traditions have set the month... Read more
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of equals. Jews and foreigners, rich and poor, women and men are all on equal footing. Jesus exhibits this reality. He raises the status of women and poor people. Disregarding his own status, he loses an argument with a woman foreigner. Twelfth in a series on “The Worldly Spirituality of Mark’s Gospel” with help from Ched Myers’ Binding the Strongman: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus. The Introduction and, looking ahead,... Read more
Why does Mark put two long stories of feeding the multitude into his short Gospel? There also are two long exorcism stories? Why? It may be that Jesus performed the same miracles more than once, but that doesn’t answer the question. Mark doesn’t include everything Jesus did in his story. He has a purpose beyond historical accuracy. Ched Myers argues that the point of these duplications is to illustrate the presence of Gentiles alongside Jews in the Kingdom of God. Eleventh... Read more
Bishops have a lot to think about these days. Maybe they should resign as a group like Chile’s bishops. Maybe they should open up voluntarily diocesan records concerning abusive clergy as Pennsylvania’s dioceses did. (The latter was under court order.) I hope they also read this article in First Things by a priest of the Diocese of Charleston, SC. Fr. Jay Scott Newman calls for “The End of the Imperial Episcopate.” I’ll include some of Fr. Newman’s suggestions at the... Read more
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