Last Sunday, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, I paid special attention to the reading of the Gospel from Luke. For churches, like mine, who use the common lectionary, the Gospel selection features Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry. In the synagogue at Nazareth he was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He read a passage, set the scroll down, and said, in essence, “This is a time when everyone who is in debt gets to start... Read more
I suppose I ought to say that the two contexts of Jesus’ ministry on earth were sin and grace. But from the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, which I’m following in these posts, what we see is poverty and power. Needless to say poverty and power were not evenly or fairly distributed in Jesus’ world (or any that I know of). What did that mean for Jesus and the evangelist Luke? Jesus’ concern was the Kingdom of God, but Christians have... Read more
It was 1980 or a year or two later, and I was making a decision that caused me some pain. I was teaching in a Catholic elementary school. My children went to Catholic elementary school. We were strong Catholics. And I was deciding not to encourage my son to become an altar server. With a new name, acolyte, that and lector were two roles that the Second Vatican Council a decade and a half earlier decided were lay ministries. It... Read more
In Luke’s Gospel three would-be followers of Jesus find that they have to pass a test to qualify for that position. Their stories in Luke 10:57-62 feature three of Jesus’ odder sayings. They range, seemingly, from just puzzling to unduly harsh to downright mean. It sounds like Jesus is giving these potential members of God’s army the brushoff. Why? This post follows Kenneth E. Bailey’s answer to that question. Third in a series in which I investigate social justice in... Read more
In Luke’s Gospel three would-be followers of Jesus find that they have to pass a test to qualify for that position. Their stories in Luke 10:57-62 feature three of Jesus’ odder sayings. They range, seemingly, from just puzzling to unduly harsh to downright mean. It sounds like Jesus is giving these potential members of God’s army the brushoff. Why? This post follows Kenneth E. Bailey’s answer to that question. Third in a series in which I investigate social justice in... Read more
“The Politics of Jesus” by John Howard Yoder first published in 1972 greatly influenced subsequent Christian ethical thinking, especially with regard to social justice. (Image credit: Eerdmans Publishing Company) In The Politics of Jesus John Howard Yoder aims to reorient the ethical teaching of the churches around the words and deeds of Jesus. That seems odd. Haven’t the churches always inculcated the moral teachings and example of Jesus? Not really. (See Postscript at the end of this post.)... Read more
“Jesus was not about social justice.” “The Gospel of Luke is a social justice Gospel, but the Gospel of Mark not so much.” But I have written 23 posts in a series on social justice in Mark’s Gospel! So much for “Jesus is not about social justice.” But now Luke beckons, and I have been wondering where to start. I guess, start where I am, and just now I’m with a New York Times article on cancel culture. Cancel culture... Read more
Luke’s Gospel gives us a translation puzzle that has been solved to my satisfaction and that of most Bible scholars. The traditional “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” is out. Newer translations replace it with “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (New American Bible) This is one of my favorite Bible passages. I add it to my praying of the Rosary... Read more
What Nicolai Copernicus said is right. Earth revolves around the Sun, along with all the other planets. After Copernicus, Galileo said the same thing and, more or less, proved it with his telescope. Earth is not the center of the universe. (See this post for a couple reasons why Galileo got in trouble with the church and Copernicus didn’t.) Copernicus needs no defense today, but in this post I want to make an unusual claim. The Bible, as the Catholic... Read more
A sculpture visualizing one of Pope Francis’ key ideas stands on the campus of The Catholic University of America. “Angels Unawares” responds in concrete form to a verse in the Letter to the Hebrews: Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2) Pope Francis commissioned Angels Unawares, by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz, as a celebration of migrant people. The original is at home in the Vatican’s St.... Read more
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