Monthly Archives: July 2024

Privateering

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Did you know that you have a constitutional right to become a government-sanctioned pirate? I present for your consideration Article I, Section 8: Clause 11, War Powers – To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water. This means that, with Congress’s permission, private citizens can weaponize all manner of watercraft, put  out to sea, capture enemy vessels, and keep the booty. Rather than fly the Jolly Roger, you’d proudly fly the Star-and-Stripes. And even more, rather than taking on the name “pirate”  although that has a certain cache to it, you might go by the title “privateer.” But I must admit that “Pirate Jack” sounds a fair bit more daunting than “Privateer Jack.” Continue reading →

Honoring Faith

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This coming Sunday is the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Without faith in Jesus, the people did nothing. It may be that the people’s lack of faith revealed itself in the fact that they didn’t seek Jesus’ help. They didn’t bring their sick for healing. They didn’t bring their children for his blessing. They didn’t come to listen to his teaching. What differences should it make if parishioners believe Jesus is present at Mass or in ministry? Or in one’s own life? A secular criticism of many Christians is that they are “functional atheists” — they live and function as though there were no God. Could that lack of faith keep one from reaping as many benefits as God would give? Continue reading →

NYC, Traffic and Fees

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Like other major metropolitan cities, e.g., London, New York City considered implementing a fee to drive into Manhattan. The system was all set to implement – technology and all – when the mayor decided not to implement (perhaps delay?). Not sure of the reasons why. I was curious about the estimated annual revenue that was expected as the proceeds were to be directed into a subway improvement fund. Monday would have been the first day the tolls would have been in place. Continue reading →

Miracles and Unbelief

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This coming Sunday is the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time. As Mark’s readers would expect, Jesus responds to what people are thinking about him. The proverbial saying “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown” (v. 4) has been expanded with two clauses: “among their kin” and “in their own house.” The original proverb spoke about the “homeland” (patris). The qualifying clauses narrow the region down to the prophet’s household and relatives. If this retort is understood as an insult, then Jesus has responded to his critics in kind. Since the miracles in the previous chapter emphasize the importance of faith in those who approach Jesus for healing, the conclusion that Jesus is unable to work many miracles in Nazareth is hardly surprising. Continue reading →

Patriot

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From the good folks at Merriam-Webster: To be called a patriot is today considered an honor, but it wasn’t always this way. For much of the 17th century, to be deemed a “good patriot” was to be a lover of one’s country who agreed on political and/or religious matters with whoever was doing the deeming. British loyalists applied the word like a badge to supporters of the ruling monarchy, but then the word took on negative connotations as it was applied first to hypocritical patriots—those who espoused loyalty to the Crown but whose actions said otherwise, and then to outright anti-royalists. But in the 18th century, American writers, including Benjamin Franklin, embraced patriot to refer to colonists who took action against British control. After the American Revolutionary War, patriot settled back into more neutral use, but to this day writers of all and various political stripes grapple over who is deserving of the word.

The Carpenter

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This coming Sunday is the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time. While many of Mark’s readers are interested in this passage because of its reference to Jesus’ “brothers and sisters” (v. 3), Mark’s own interest lay elsewhere. Mark passes on the account of the hometown folks’ rejection of Jesus for a special reason: to provide an important transition and surprising contrasts at this point of his drama. Continue reading →

Perseverance and Freedom

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When the Fourth of July comes around each year it is quite common to hear quotes, passages, and speeches that invoke the name of Thomas Jefferson the American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and later served as the 3rd president of the United States. He wrote a plethora of letters, essays, and more over the course of his life. As you might expect he is a quotable person. Continue reading →

Status and Standing

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This coming Sunday is the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time. What do the hometown people know about Jesus that would lead them to reject him? While there is much that I disagree with in Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, by John Dominic Crossan, his social status of tekton  is enlightening:

Ramsay MacMullen has noted that one’s social pedigree would easily be known in the Greco-Roman world and that a description such as “carpenter” indicated lower class status [Roman Social Relations: 50 B.C. to A.D. 384]. At the back of his book he gives a “Lexicon of Snobbery” filled with terms used by literate and therefore upper-class Greco-Roman authors to indicate their prejudice against illiterate and therefore lower-class individuals. Among those terms is tekton, or “carpenter,” the same term used for Jesus in Mark 6:3 and for Joseph in Matthew 13:55. One should not, of course, ever presume that upper-class sneers dictated how the lower classes actually felt about themselves. But, in general, the great divide in the Greco-Roman world was between those who had to work with their hands and those who did not. [p. 24]

Continue reading →