Category Archives: Musings

Lifted Up

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The first reading today is from the Book of Numbers 21:4-9:

With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses, “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.” Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

The Book of Numbers is the title of the book in English, but the Hebrew title is, more commonly, bemiḏbar, “in the wilderness [of]”). “In the wilderness” describes the contents of the book much better than “numbers,” which is derived from the censuses described in later chapters. Our passage occurs after God has assigned them to wander in the desert for a generation because of their rebellion against the leadership of God. They seem to have to fight their way through the wilderness. 

In the midst of this larger narrative, the Israelites have just won a military victory but still clear of the Edomites as they navigate towards the promised land. Along the way, the exigencies of life in the desert once again caused them to complain – and not for the first time. Even in the face of victories the Israelites’ basic character has not changed. They complain against both God and Moses because of a lack of acceptable water and food. Once more these people show themselves to be out of touch with reality as they long for Egypt and talk as if they had a choice about dying in the wilderness (cf. 11:4–6; 14:2–4). In previous times complaints about food had brought a divine supply of their needs (11:4–35), but now the response of God is to send a scourge of fiery serpents that kills many people. Again as before, the Israelites repent (11:2; 12:11; 14:40) and ask Moses to intercede with Yahweh (11:2; 12:11–13). When he does, God instructs him to construct a copper image of one of the lethal snakes and to set it on a pole where it can be seen. No one is saved from being bitten, but if one is bitten and chooses to obey God by looking at the copper snake, one will be cured from the lethal effects of the bite.

There is much speculation about the snake (“fiery” likely because of the burning associated with its bite) and why mounting a copper image of it is the means of cure. There is no firm agreement, but here is at least one interesting speculation. The people were “threatening” to return to Egypt, turning away from God towards evil. The Egyptian god Apep (also Apophasis) was the evil god who lost in battle to the sun god Re. Apep was the god of death, darkness and an opponent of light – and interestingly, was also the god of medicine and healing. But there was one catch: worshippers were not to look upon the snake god. To raise their eyes and look on the snake was to receive the judgment of death from Apep and know eternal darkness. To keep one’s eyes cast down in worship was to know healing.

The command from Moses for those who had been bitten – and presumably guilty of turning away from God – was to look upon their snake god. They were facing certain death from the snake bit and knew that only the true God would save them. If they had faith in Yahweh and looked upon the image of the snake who was no god at all, they were healed: “anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” If they refused to admit their guilt and kept their eyes cast downward in false worship, then they died, ironically suffering the very opposite fate that their former worship promised.

During the Communion Rite of Mass over the years I have noticed that when the priest elevates the consecrated host and chalice then says, “Behold the Lamb of God…” In a good and true sign of reverence many Catholics bow their heads. But then the liturgical command is “Behold” meaning “see, gaze upon, observe.” It is a time in the Mass when we are to raise our eyes to the Lamb of God and see in the Holy Eucharist the One who, raised up on the cross, has rescued and redeemed us from the wilderness of our sins.

“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:14-16)

Image credit: Moses and the Brazen Serpent | Esteban March (1610-1668) | Banco Santander Collection, Madrid |  PD-US

Possibility of New Life

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The scene in today’ gospel (a woman caught in adultery) is a mixture of zealous righteousness that seeks to enact the law without pardon or quarter, the leadership who want to trap Jesus between mercy and the Law, and a woman caught in sin, fearing for her life.  True righteousness would have some measure of concern for her soul. True righteousness would be free from deceitfulness, not hiding behind loyalty to Moses for other intentions.

This situation is apparently just an attempt to entrap Jesus (v. 6). If he is lax toward the law, then he is condemned. But if he holds a strict line, then he has allowed them to prevail in their merciless treatment of this woman and has opened himself up to trouble from the Romans, for he will be held responsible if the stoning proceeds. The leaders of Israel are putting God to the test in the person of his Son, repeating the Israelites’ historical pattern on more than one occasion in the wilderness at Meribah and Massah (Ex 17:2; Num 20:13).

When Jesus heard what the teachers of the law said, Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. This action has been variously interpreted. When the Pharisees and scribes kept on questioning him, Jesus straightened up and said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ According to the law, witnesses to a capital offense had to cast the first stone when the accused was condemned to death (Deut. 17:7). Jesus regarded the teachers of the law as witnesses to the offense. Therefore, they should begin the execution if it were to go ahead. But Jesus’ words challenged the accusers, implying that none of them was without sin and therefore they were in no position to condemn this woman. What sin Jesus was implying they were guilty of is not clear. Perhaps they too were guilty of adultery. Perhaps they were malicious witnesses in terms of Deuteronomy 19:15–21, because they were not interested in seeing justice done, but only in trapping Jesus.

An optimistic reading of Jesus’ call for the one without sin to cast the first stone is “all the people” have been turned away from their murderous intentions onto the path of life as they withdraw to reflect on their own sinfulness before God. Those who came to condemn ended up condemning themselves by not casting a stone.

Jesus is left alone, sitting on the ground, bent over and writing, with the woman standing before him. As Augustine says, “The two were left alone, misera et misericordia” (“a wretched woman and Mercy”; In Augustine’s commentary John 33.5). He straightens up and asks for a report of what happened, as if he had been totally oblivious to what took place as he concentrated on his writing on the ground. He does not ask her about the charges but rather about that aspect of the situation most heartening to the woman: Where are they? Has no one condemned you? (v. 10).

But there is one left who could still execute the judgment–the only one present who was without sin and thus could throw the first stone. Is she hopeful at this point or still quite frightened? We can only speculate as to whether the woman was familiar with Jesus and his embodiment of the mercy of God. In any case, she becomes a memorable example of the fact that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (3:17). Jesus says to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more” (8:11). Jesus grants pardon, not acquittal. Here is mercy and righteousness. He condemned the sin and not the sinner.  But more than that, he called her to a new life. The gospel is not only the forgiveness of sins, but a new quality of life that overcomes the power of sin.

Without love, there is no forgiveness. With love, a whole new life is possible.

Image credit: Detail of “Christ and the Adulteress” Rembrandt, 1644 | National Gallery London | PD-US

This is the Way

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In today’s first reading we read from the Book of Wisdom which was written about fifty years before the coming of Christ, likely in Alexandria. That places the author in a deeply Hellenistic environment, where Jewish communities were immersed in Greek language, philosophy, and cultural pressures. It reflects a real tension between 

The author’s name is not known to us. The primary purpose of the author was to give moral support to fellow Jews in a time when they were experiencing suffering and oppression from secular society and especially from Jews who had left the faith because of the lure of Hellenistic thought and privileges that came from being part of the ruling class. It was their own version of “culture wars.”

It reflects a real tension between Jewish covenantal faith (rooted in Torah, righteousness, and fidelity to God) and a Hellenistic worldview, which could include philosophical skepticism about divine justice, materialism or hedonism (in some popular forms), and other tenets of that worldview. In addition, the ruling, wealthy and business class were of the Hellenistic world and so Jews might well feel pressure to culturally assimilate. It almost seems to be their version of “a culture war.”

The passage taken from Wisdom 2 presents the reasoning of “the ungodly,” who say things like: life is short and meaningless, enjoy pleasure now, oppress the righteous person, test whether God will save him. It has all the hallmarks of popularized versions of Epicureanism or maybe recast in our times, a caricature of moral relativism. It can feel like a “culture war” text, though with nuance. The “culture war” here is not just intellectual, it is moral and existential. The core question is will one remain faithful when righteousness is mocked as foolishness? One voice claims our world is sunsetting. Our faith tells us we are at the sunrise of an every new age.

In its time, it was a question for faithful Jews in a hostile cultural setting. In Christian reading it foreshadows the passion of Christ. Both these motifs are seen when the wicked plot against “the righteous one.” “Culture war” is a helpful modern analogy, but the book is doing something deeper. It is defending righteousness against nihilism, affirming divine justice against apparent injustice, and proclaiming immortality against despair. It proclaims faith in a just, purposeful cosmos vs. the temptation to believe that life is accidental and morally empty.

It is the challenge that Christian faithful have faced in every age. It is not a call to close oneself off from the world, to proclaim that you are one of the “faithful remnant.” It is a call to find your own voice to be a Book of Wisdom to a world that does not share our view of how we are called to live. 

Call it what you will, culture war or persecution, ridicule or derision, in every age we are still called to go to the ends of the earth with the Good News. This is the Way.

Image credit: Pexels

Patris Corde

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Today is the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Several years ago Pope Francis wrote the Apostolic Letter Patris Corde – With a Father’s Heart. It is a wonderful reflection of the attributes and characteristics of fatherhood – and also understands that St. Joseph serves as a model, not just for fathers, but for all who care for others. Click here to read the full text of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter.

The biblical record of St. Joseph is narrated by Matthew and Luke. Their accounts tell us very little, yet enough for us to appreciate what sort of father he was, and the mission entrusted to him by God’s providence. In so many of the scenes, Joseph is navigating his way through uncertainty, the unexpected, and events that seem to ask too much of him – and yet he is a just and righteous man seeking to do God’s will.

I think it notable that today’s celebration offers two gospel selections: (1) the account from Matthew wherein Joseph knows that Mary is already with child or (2) the child Jesus is lost in the Temple. In both accounts Joseph’s concern is for the other. In the first account, while he feels the need to end the betrothal to Mary he is concerned about Mary’s welfare, that she not be exposed to shame. In the second account, his is a natural concern for a missing child. I have often wondered what Joseph thought upon finding Jesus and the child says: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” The text tells us neither he or Mary understood. But I wonder if Jesus’ word cut Joseph “to the quick.” Did Joseph feel diminished or dismissed? Pope Francis comments on all this:

Often in life, things happen whose meaning we do not understand. Our first reaction is frequently one of disappointment and rebellion. Joseph set aside his own ideas in order to accept the course of events and, mysterious as they seemed, to embrace them, take responsibility for them and make them part of his own history. Unless we are reconciled with our own history, we will be unable to take a single step forward, for we will always remain hostage to our expectations and the disappointments that follow. The spiritual path that Joseph traces for us is not one that explains, but accepts. Only as a result of this acceptance, this reconciliation, can we begin to glimpse a broader history, a deeper meaning.”

In those moments in our life when disappointment arrives and we are asked to set aside our own ideas, with the help of St. Joseph, may we recognize the movement of the Spirit calling us into the mysterious unfolding of God’s plan.

Image credit: detail of St Joseph with the Infant Jesus | Guido Reni, 1620s | Hermitage Museum St Petersburg Russia | PD-US

More than Remembering

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The connection between the first reading and the Gospel becomes much deeper when we notice how the Servant imagery in Isaiah quietly anticipates the way Jesus speaks about Himself in John’s Gospel. I think the two connections are especially striking. Isaiah 49 belongs to the Second Servant Song (Isaiah 49:1–13). In this passage God appoints His Servant to restore Israel and bring salvation to the nations. God says: “I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people…to say to the prisoners: Come out! to those in darkness: Show yourselves!” This Servant is presented as the one through whom God’s saving work reaches the world. Now listen to the language Jesus uses in John 5: “Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wills… the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” I am struck by the parallels:

Isaiah 49
The Servant Who Restores Life		John 5
The Son Who Gives Life
God appoints a Servant to restore the peopleThe Father sends the Son
The Servant liberates prisonersThe Son calls the dead to life
The Servant brings people out of darknessThe Son’s voice awakens the spiritually dead

What Isaiah describes poetically as release from captivity, Jesus interprets at a deeper level as the gift of divine life. In other words, Jesus is presenting Himself as the fulfillment of the Servant’s mission.

When these connections are noticed, the readings create a unified message. Isaiah presents God’s promise that He has not forgotten His people and will send a Servant to restore them. John reveals the fulfillment that His Father is still at work and that the Son carries out that work by giving life and bringing judgment.

The tenderness of Isaiah—“Can a mother forget her child?”—finds its concrete expression in Christ’s mission. God does more than merely remember His people. He comes among us in the person of the Son to restore our life. What Isaiah promised in poetry, Jesus accomplishes in person.

Image credit: detail of Jesus Falls the Second Time by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, c. 1745-49 | Church of San Polo (Venice) | PD – Wikimedia Commons

On Living Waters

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Part of the baptismal ceremony for infants is the blessing of the waters of the sacrament. It is a wonderful blessing that tells the history of salvation through the story of the living waters. It is a panorama of events from Sacred Scripture: “At the very dawn of creation your Spirit breathed on the waters, making them the wellspring of all holiness. The waters of the great flood you made a sign of the waters of baptism, that make an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness. Through the waters of the Red Sea you led Israel out of slavery, to be an image of God’s holy people, set free from sin by baptism. In the waters of the Jordan your Son was baptized by John and anointed with the Spirit. Your Son willed that water and blood should flow from his side as he hung upon the cross.”

It is as Jesus tells Nicodemus, he must be born of water and Spirit – it is what we celebrate in the Sacrament of Baptism. One chapter later in John’s gospel Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and asks her if she wants “living water” (hydor zon), an expression that has two possible meanings. It can mean fresh, running water (spring water as opposed to water from a cistern), or it can mean living/life-giving water.

From the side of Jesus, water flowing as a means of living waters of baptism for the whole world.

It was an image foreshadowed in the first reading today from the Prophet Ezekiel: “I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east.” It is water that“ flows…and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh. Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.” (Eze 47:9,12)

As the New Testament mentions in several places, Jesus is the new Temple, the one Ezekiel was describing. And as St. Paul reminds us, in our Baptism, born from above by water and the Holy Spirit, we too are temples of God.

The challenge is to live out our baptismal promises and be like Ezekiel’s Temple vision: a source of living water in which our faith and witness makes fresh and new the lives of others.

Image credit: Photo by Pixabay – macro-photography-of-water-waves-355288 | CC0

On Remembering

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The Prophet Isaiah lived in times there were indeed troubled: foreign armies at the walls of the city, kings that had led the people astray from Covenant faithfulness, relying on alliances, warriors and gold to fend off the invaders from nations far larger than Israel. Yet for Isaiah, the vision of God’s majesty was so overwhelming that military and political power faded into insignificance. He constantly called the people back to a reliance on God’s promises and away from vain attempts to find security in human plans and intrigues. Isaiah insisted on the ethical behavior that was required of human beings who wished to live in the presence of such a holy God. Inevitably the people failed and Isaiah then delivered the message of judgment upon the people… but always with a parallel message of hope. It was never too late to turn to God.

It is a pattern present in the opening chapters of Isaiah and some 60-odd chapters later it continues to be the message. In today’s first reading, I find great comfort in one of Isaiah’s messages of hope:

“Thus says the LORD: Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create” (Is 65:17-18)

The things of the past: things we’d love to forget, but whose regret lingers – what we’ve done and what we’ve failed to do. Things we have confessed and been forgiven – and yet we remember. Even for we who, however imperfectly have turned to God, Isaiah’s message is that there will come a day when the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Then in a new and deeper way he can join the Psalm refrain: “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.” (Ps 30:2) Rescued me from myself.

On that day we will truly be at peace.

National Pi Day

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Today, March 14th, is the annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in the month/day format) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π. And it is not just because some mathematicians got together and said so, on March 12, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (111 H. Res. 224), recognizing March 14th as National Pi Day. So, its official… in a non-binding kind of way. Continue reading →

Commanding Love

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The scribe’s question in our gospel from St. Mark about the greatest commandment was not posed “to test” Jesus as is done in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels. The question is, in fact, a familiar one from Jewish tradition: “Is there a way of summarizing the commandments?” Jesus gave a traditional answer. The first part is from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (Shemaʿ ), but combined with another part from Leviticus 19:18.

What is interesting is that only Mark quotes v.4 from the traditional Shema: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God: the Lord is one.” The traditional response is the imperative command: “Hear.” It is a present tense imperative, which implies continuous or repeated action: “Keep on listening!” “Continue to hear!” This command to listen is heard frequently in Mark, e.g., in the parable of the sower (4:3) and at the Transfiguration: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him” (9:7). Perhaps the “first command of all” is: “Listen!”

What follows this initial command are the consequences of truly listening and hearing as indicated by the shift to a future tense: “You shall love…”; a thing that cannot be commanded and still remain true.

Brian Stoffergen offers an insight on love and its command. He writes: “Could you imagine a young couple on their first date? The woman thinks to herself, ‘I really like this guy. He’s so handsome. He’s so charming. I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life with him. What can I do to get him to love me?’ Then you hear the woman say in a stern voice: ‘I command you to love me. You will marry me. We will live happily ever after.’ Would a marriage like that work? Can such love be commanded?”

Of course, one question to ask is whether that is the kind of love Jesus is talking about?

The underlying word for the verb “to love” is agano. It implies action rather than emotion. No command can change one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength. Rules might make us act more lovingly towards other people but not “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” But then again there is one other time agano is used in Mark’s gospel.

In the story of the rich young man who comes to Jesus asking him what he must do to inherit the kingdom of God (10:17-22), we read: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Jesus’ love for the man was evident in the action recommended. Jesus’ response was not a Hallmark card moment, but a response for the good of the other. Jesus commands us to love our enemies (in Matthew 5:44). Our response might well be all action accompanied by feelings not commonly described as “love.” So, maybe there is a way that love can be commanded.

In any case, I think there is perhaps a prelude to the greatest commandments: Listen!  In the case of the Word of God – first listen, then do it. One day your heart, soul, mind and strength will catch up.

Image credit: If you want to be perfect (Christ and the rich young man), A.N. Mironov 2010, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Until

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The gospel for today comes from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. The verses following the Beatitudes and the longer portion of the Sermon in which Jesus will explain the deeper meaning of the Commandments of God. (“You have heard it said, but I say to you…). The between verses are subject to much debate as to the correct understanding:

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.’”

The problems are centered on the use of the word “until.” Long story short, there is one view that essentially says, “Well…. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law and the promises of the Prophets… hence the Law and Prophets – a way to say the entire Old Testament – all of it can be ignored now.”

Then again, “Until heaven and earth pass away” is the equivalent of our modern “until hell freezes over” – a none too subtle “never” (also used in Jeremiah, Job and the Psalms). The conclusion is all the OT laws still apply and so we should keep the Sabbath (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) and move away from Sundays.

The scholar RT France offers a great understanding: The law, down to its smallest details, is as permanent as heaven and earth, and will never lose its significance; on the contrary, all that it points forward to will in fact become a reality.  The new reality is present in Jesus, but not fully present as the kingdom of heaven. Still the law (smallest detail and all) have to be seen in a new light, but they still cannot be discarded.  Matthew will make that clear in the Sermon on the Mount.

Image credit: Cosimo Rosselli Sermone della Montagna, 1481, Sistine Chapel, Public Domain