Royal Healing & Gospel Contradictions

Last updated on: March 24, 2020 at 4:55 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Royal son healed or centurion’s slave?—it is very important to recognize healing in the Bible for what it is and also the glaring differences between Gospel stories. Royal son healed… or was it a Centurion’s slave? Yesterday’s Gospel reading was John 4:43-54, including a healing of a Royal son in Galilee, the occasion of the Johannine Jesus’ second self-disclosure (4:46-54). “John” is a maverick Gospel, folks. When compared with other New Testament documents, it seems to be from outer space.... Read more

Blindness in John 9:1-41—Real, Metaphorical, or Both?

Last updated on: March 23, 2020 at 12:41 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Blindness in the man born blind in this Sunday’s Gospel speaks to a people who were not biomedical in their interpretation of illness. Blindness. Metaphorically speaking, it is on ready display today. We can speak of the blindness of foolish American collegians disregarding the recommendations of professional health officials pouring down to Florida beaches this week for Spring Break. Again we see blindness in another dangerously irresponsible form in the few pastors and bishops encouraging the faithful to disregard safety... Read more

Wellness and the Coronavirus

Last updated on: March 21, 2020 at 2:47 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Wellness is more than staying healthy and far more important at beating the Coronavirus pandemic. Wellness is something alarmingly remote to our society. I am not just meaning biomedical health in light of our current pandemic. Neither am I talking about health-crazed people working out and eating right every day—that’s great, but such people can still employ their beauty and strength to abuse their significant others and children and be a great pain in the ass to everyone else. Yes,... Read more

Joseph—You Probably Don’t Know Him

Last updated on: March 19, 2020 at 4:08 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Joseph, saint and servant, can be known better by 21st century Christians, but not without insights from the social sciences. Today is the Solemnity of Saint Joseph. Today we remember Joseph the worker. Joseph the saint. Joseph the father and husband. Hopefully we will one day recognize “Joseph the highly misunderstood.” Although unintended, two thousand years of theological and devotional freight can have a distorting affect. The New Testament says so little about Joseph. But learning about the cultural world of the... Read more

Deaths from COVID-19 Possibly 2.2 Million and St. Patrick

Last updated on: March 17, 2020 at 3:22 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Deaths at 2.2 Million (a possibility) is a Grim St. Patrick’s Day reminder for being safe and staying in. Deaths in the millions can happen to the United States populace through irresponsible behavior in this pandemic crisis. Throughout the past weekend, U.S. people were still flocking to gyms, clubs, Disney theme parks, restaurants, bars, and religious centers of worship. It was as if things were set to “business as usual” mode. Except that it is not business as usual. We... Read more

Pandemic: Deadly Serious Reasons to be Safe

Last updated on: March 16, 2020 at 4:39 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Pandemic of coronavirus can be slowed and its damage lessened by not going to Mass. Well family of fellow dying inmates… it looks like we better get comfortable with slowing down real quick, because we are going to be at home for some time. The coronavirus pandemic is deadly serious. It not only kills but causes organ damage in those who recover. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises that gatherings of 50 people or more be either canceled... Read more

Samaritan Woman at the Well: John 4:5-42

Last updated on: March 15, 2020 at 4:09 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Samaritan Woman at the Well is a character from a shocking story of jarring irregularities to those familiar with the Mediterranean cultural world of the Bible. Spurious familiarity with Gospel stories we have heard many times over often keeps us Western readers from understanding many important insights they have to offer. Such is the case with this Sunday’s selection (John 4:5-42). This is further muddled by unrealistic Western expectations stupidly and unfairly saddled onto ancient stories, such as demands that they only... Read more

COVID-19 & Liturgical Idolatry: Vatican II, Where Are You?

Last updated on: March 11, 2020 at 1:52 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

COVID-19 threatens U.S. parishes, but liturgically-obsessive personalities put lives at risk in favor of their idolatry. The human-to-human transmitted Wuhan COVID-19 is spreading throughout the United States. Comparable to the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, COVID-19 is serious. Not the most serious issue faced right now by the globe, definitely not deserving or needing hysteria, but serious enough to take precautions, such as avoiding unnecessary contact (for example, shaking hands at the Sign of Peace). Various diocese are issuing guidelines... Read more

Transfiguration—an Altered State of Consciousness Experience

Last updated on: March 9, 2020 at 11:37 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Transfiguration of Jesus is but one of five major Altered States of Consciousness experiences in his career. “Transfiguration”—the subject of last Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 17:1-9). But what really happened? Is this a real event from the historical Jesus’ life? Remember, the Gospels are not fact-precise biographies—while all true, they are not all factual. So was the “transfiguration” yet another theological fiction? The “transfiguration” is featured in all three Synoptic Gospels (Mark 9:2-10//Matthew 17:1-9//Luke 9:28-36), and the Matthean version is seasoned... Read more

Meaning and the Words of Scripture

Last updated on: March 7, 2020 at 12:29 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Meaning, whether Biblical or extra-biblical, doesn’t derive from lexica and dictionaries, but from social systems. Meaning found in the Bible, and meaning that God intended to communicate, seems to be the expertise of many an American homilist, preacher, catechist, teacher, and self-proclaimed apologist. But from where does each Scripture derive its meaning? To answer that, first ask—from where do the meanings realized in language originate? Human beings are essentially social beings. Therefore, language must derive its meaning from the social... Read more