About Friar Musings

Franciscan friar and Catholic priest at St. Francis of Assisi in Triangle, VA

A Still Small Voice

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Friar Musings

I have always liked a passage from 1 Kings 19. The prophet Elijah is on the run from the wrath of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel who mean to take his life. The prophet has taken refuge in a cave in Judean wilderness, feels as though he has failed in his mission, is isolated and alone, while all the forces array against him. He calls out to God.

It is a passage that we all can connect with in some measure. Some have been through the caldron of life; others are simply caught up in the whirlwind of everyday life. But in all times and places, we are a people whose mission is to find the voice of God in our lives. So, take a moment and consider this: when and where are you intentional about seeking the voice of God in your life? Continue reading →

Seven Things Paul VI Did Before Pope Francis Made it Cool

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Friar Musings

Original Post at USSCBlog by Don Clemmer

Only a pope who has railed against clericalism to the extent that Pope Francis has could get away with canonizing two popes at once and then beatifying a third within six months. But that’s exactly what will happen October 19, when Pope Francis moves another one of his predecessors, Paul VI (1963-1978), one step closer to official sainthood.

There’s been ample consideration of how Pope Francis completes a triumvirate with his two immediate predecessors, and it’s easy to compare Francis to the jovial, Council-calling, tradition-shirking John XXIII. But in numerous other ways, there’s a direct line of influence from Pope Paul to his latest successor, who was ordained a priest during Paul’s pontificate and largely formed by it:

“A poor Church for the poor.” In his first audience as pope, Francis explained his choice of name as inspired by Francis of Assisi — the man of poverty, the man of peace, the friend of creation. He has gone on to condemn on numerous occasions a “throwaway culture” linking everything from poverty to genocide to a willingness to cast people aside as disposable. Pope Paul’s 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio greatly laid the foundation for this thinking, as did his 1972 World Day of Peace message, “If you want peace, work for justice.” Continue reading →

Imagio Dei

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Friar Musings

An Underlying Thought. Jesus’ answer calls into question the basic presupposition behind their question, that there is an essential incompatibility between loyalty to the governing authority and loyalty to God. This was precisely Judas the Galilean’s position as explained by Josephus (War 2.118 and Ant. 18.23): to pay the tax was to tolerate a mortal sovereign in place of God. It was loyalty to God which was the basis for Zealot objections to Roman taxation, but Jesus, without reducing the demands of loyalty to God, indicates that political allegiance even to a pagan state is not incompatible with it. This is not a rigid division of life into the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’, but rather a recognition that the ‘secular’ finds its proper place within the overriding claim of the ‘sacred’. Continue reading →

Why are you testing me?

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Friar Musings

Matthew 22:15–22 ¹⁵Then the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap him in speech. ¹⁶They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. ¹⁷Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” ¹⁸Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. ²⁰He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” ²¹They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” ²²When they heard this they were amazed, and leaving him they went away. Continue reading →

Taxes and Faith

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Friar Musings

The question of authority continues to play out in this and the following controversy narratives. In this scene the Herodians have been added to the playing field as a counterpoint and yet similar view as the Pharisees. Boring (Matthew, The New Interpreters Bible) comments: Continue reading →

Caesar and God: context

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Friar Musings

Many are invited…

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Friar Musings

¹³Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ ¹⁴Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

The Elect of God. The judgment seems harsh, but Matthew is thinking not of an actual wedding party, but of the last judgment. The language “weeping and gnashing of teeth” corresponds to 8:12; 13:42, 50; 24:51; 25:30, an apocalyptic expression (cf. Luke 13:28) that became a favorite of Matthew’s to picture the terror of condemnation at the last judgment. Continue reading →

The Wedding Garment

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Friar Musings

¹¹But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. ¹²He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence.

What to Wear. Scholars are of mixed opinion about the urgency of the “feast is ready” in v.8 as it applied to those invited when the servants scour the main road. One line of thought offers that these royal wedding feasts were several days in the making and even more in the execution. Not all guests came at the beginning nor stayed until the end. There was a great deal of coming-and-going during it all. There is no reason to suppose that, once invited, these people have no time to go home, to change their clothes, and to borrow clothes from their neighbors, if necessary. Continue reading →

Community Called: Good and Bad Alike

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Friar Musings

⁷The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. ⁸Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. ⁹Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ ¹⁰The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. Continue reading →

Invited to Feast with the King

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Friar Musings

In the Various Traditions. Among the various sources of Christian tradition, this parable of the wedding banquet has been preserved in three distinct versions. The simplest, and some say most authentic, rendering of the parable can be found in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas. In Thomas’ version, the parable is composed of a series of refusals to a dinner. Each of the guests who begged off did so for reasons of business or commerce. Consequently the host sent servants into the streets to bring back whomever they could find. The tag line of the parable proclaims: “Buyers and merchants will not enter the places of my Father” (Thomas 64:12). Luke’s version of the parable (Luke 14:16-24), also preserves the reversal motif and bears evidence of the evangelist’s conviction, that the poor, outcasts, those otherwise marginalized from society will find a welcome in the kingdom. Continue reading →

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