Today’s gospel is one that always needs 1st century context as we read, “Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He [Jesus] approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.” (Mark 1:30-31)
Over the years, in more than one Bible Study, a participant has commented, “Really, healing the woman so that she can get up and serve a bunch of men.”
In Monday’s gospel, Jesus invites people to follow him – Simon, Andrew, James and John accept and follow. In Tuesday’s gospel, those with Jesus are described as “followers.” In today’s gospel, they “pursue” him. A more literal translation would be they “hunted him down.” Not exactly following.
Angels have always been of interest in the religious sphere, the entertainment business, books, and more. There is even a baseball team that the name. In the religious realm it is simply that angels are part of the testimony of Scripture as messengers of God. They represent an “avenue” in which we can be assured that God is there, interested in us, and watching. Angels have been portrayed as warriors and as neophytes attempting to “win their wings” as they counsel humans losing their way.
In today’s readings, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews focuses on a different role – as administrators of the world – but not so the world to come. The biblical evidence for the angelic government of the world is early: it goes back to the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:8 where the establishing of the nations is described: “He set up the boundaries of the peoples after the number of the divine beings” (NAB) or as more literally translated from the Septuagint: “he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God.”
In today’s readings, the author of the Letter to the Hebrew is speaking to a people who have grown weary with the demands of Christian life and a growing indifference to that calling as other longings and desires have begun to draw their attention away from the centrality of Christ in their lives. And so the power rhetoric of the letter begins:
In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways
to our ancestors through the prophets;
in these last days, he spoke to us through the Son,
whom he made heir of all things
and through whom he created the universe
Ben Smith of the New York Times, formerly a founder and principle at BuzzFeed, penned a fascinating article that followed the morphing of a BuzzFeed employee (at one time) to his participation in the insurrection at the Capital. Smith writes, “Still, it’s not clear what Mr. Gionet actually believes, if anything.” And yet the young man views himself as an internet influencer driven to monetize his channels (at the least the ones from which he is not yet banned).
You might have noticed that I seem to be focused on conscientia informata, or morally operating from an informed conscience – something beyond opinion or even conscience. It is a basic duty of every Christian, as outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I think it is a required skills and disposition for every Christian who operates in the public square or in private.
You have perhaps read in the news that the Twitter-alternative for the very-to-ultra-conservative voices, as well as Alt-Right, Parler, will go “dark” on Monday. Parler used Amazon’s AWS cloud to host it services. As well, the principle mobile app stores (Google and Apple) no longer have Parler’s app as a download. Parler needs to find an alternative large scale hosting service, port their data from AWS, rebuilt the core of the database, and find alternatives for downloading the app. They have the financial backing from like-minded deep pockets. And don’t assume that those “deep pockets” are aligned politically with the views on Parler. More on that later.
I can remember coming home from 3+ years of mission in Kenya, friends were driving me home, and as we wound through trees, I could see the porch light on at my home in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. Even from afar, it shone like a welcoming beacon. It was the sign I am home in a place I have always belonged. It was known, calm, and safe. It was far from the wildness and messiness of life of the slums of Kibera. It is the same moment we have seen on the evening news, in newspapers, on-line in the experience of our men and women serving overseas in foreign lands. Coming home writ large is the heavy bags dropped on the tarmac, the faces of unbridled joy, parents sweeping up children in their arms, a loved one embraced, and the moment they know: I am home.
There has always been ocean lore that proclaims rogue, monster waves rising 80, 90, or 100 feet high or more. Of course, these are not eye-witness accounts. Men in wooden ships don’t survive such an encounter. There was the story of the Alaskan Tlingit Indian woman who returned from berry picking to find her entire village disappeared. The debris field evidence on the shoreline indicated that the ocean had risen up and fell upon the village. The wave would have been more than 100 feet high to cause the damage. Experts of the day dismissed stories about such waves because they seemingly violated basic principles of ocean physics.
WARNING: this post is excessively long and potentially soporific.
Recently I received a private email from someone who follows my musings. They expressed concern that I was “becoming political.” Their motivation was a recent posting on Calumny. In their view it seemed as though I was choosing a “side” in the on-going “political dialogue” (which is hardly much of a dialogue). And I was choosing a side – hopefully the side of truth and the teaching of the Catholic Church on the sin of calumny. That the backdrop is the unending, crafted message about voter and election fraud, is just the case writ large that serves to help faithful people understand the moral question about what they choose to repeat or assert.
The gospel for today’s readings is a familiar encounter with a leper at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. The identification of the man who came to Jesus as “a leper” is not as precise as at first glance it may seem. Medical researchers who have examined the biblical data in Lev. 13–14 feel certain that the biblical term “leprosy” is a collective noun designating a wide variety of chronic skin diseases, not necessarily just Hansen’s disease. Regardless, anyone who was identified as a leper – from Hansen’s disease to a simple skin rash – was reduced to a lowest state of social existence, separated from family, friends, and society at large. It didn’t take much to be designated to the bottom of life.
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