Being witness

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Today is the Feast of St. Lawrence of Rome, one of the early martyrs of the Church who died during the persecution of the Emperor Valerian in 258 AD. Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome, directly serving the pope. Pope Sixtus II had been martyred just four days before. It is not clear what instigated the Valerian persecutions apart from the Roman Empire was beginning to fray at the seams with revolts in the East and the West. Perhaps the Christians were a convenient scapegoat. Continue reading →

Things trivial

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Always fascinated by the origin of words, today’s fare from the “Word of the Day” by Merriam Webster brought to my attention the word “trivial.” We moderns use the word to describe something barely worth mentioning. We adopted the word trivial from Latin trivialis in the 16th century. Then the meaning was just what its Latin ancestor meant: “found everywhere, commonplace.” But the source of trivialis is about something more specific: trivium, from tri- (three) and via (way), meaning “crossroads; place where three roads meet.” The link between the two presumably has to do with the commonplace sorts of things a person is likely to encounter at a busy crossroads. If we returned to the original meaning then Starbucks would become trivial – no less important to modern life – but “trivial” all the same.

Image credit: Dom J @ pexel.com

Baptism

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This coming Sunday is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time for Lectionary Cycle C. In yesterday’ post we discussed the biblical and Lucan use of the imagery of fire. Today we will consider the imagery of baptism. “There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!” (v.50) The word baptizō used here is the same as that used for water baptism elsewhere in the NT. However, clearly Jesus is not referring to a water baptism (Luke 3:21-22) as that has already occurred. Continue reading →

A call for decision

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This coming Sunday is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time for Lectionary Cycle C. In yesterday’s post we took a moment to place the “fire and brimstone” opening verse in a context of the Lucan narrative. But as Brian Stoffregen insightfully noted that “Our gospel text is not one you find on many refrigerator doors or on greeting cards.” The image of Jesus in these texts is upsetting to one who only seeks the meek and mild Jesus. Having begun with an exhortation to courage in the face of tribulation, continuing with a warning against avarice in the face of fear, Jesus now raises the issue of judgment. The people are called to conversion before it is too late. Continue reading →

A good life, a good ending

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The story of Abraham and Sarah is a story that should begin, “Against all odds….”  It is a pretty amazing story of perseverance, endurance, and life lived for a mission greater than one’s self. Abraham and Sarah persevered and endured the long journey from modern-day Iraq to Israel on to Egypt and back to Israel. Even as they reached their older years, they continued to hope for a child of their own. They believed in the Lord’s promises even when his timeline was a whole longer than their timelines. They bore the hopes and expectations of all the people they led. Certainly, they lived out St. Paul’s message from 1 Cor 13:7 “[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” Continue reading →

The Carina Nebula

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The Carina Nebula.Credit…NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

This is what a stellar nursery looks like. The “cliffs” in the image are 7 light years tall, just in case you wanted to know. You read more about this image at NASA.gov  Below is an embedded image from gettyimages. The cost for the image is $150-$750 (other than non-commercial embedded image).  Given that the original is Public Domain, I am wondering on what basis they are able to license it?   Did they enhance the image in a way that allows them to commercially benefit from the image? Copyright laws makes sense in most cases, but (to my mind), not so much here. This picture ran in lots of online news sources. Did they license the gettyimage? I know that several national publications also claimed copyright protection on the image – seemingly with themselves has the holder of the license.

Somewhat as a consolation, Getty does provide for the ability to embed images in non-commercial site such as this and does so without cost.

Embed from Getty Images

Unintended consequences

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Although often cited, but rarely defined, we are generally familiar with the “law of unintended consequences. Prohibition in the 1920s United States, originally enacted to suppress the alcohol trade, drove many small-time alcohol suppliers out of business and consolidated the hold of large-scale organized crime over the illegal alcohol industry. Since alcohol was still popular, criminal organizations producing alcohol were well-funded and hence also increased their other activities. Similarly, the War on Drugs, intended to suppress the illegal drug trade, instead increased the power and profitability of drug cartels who became the primary source of the products. Funding of the Afghan Mujahideen and the destabilization of Afghanistan contributing to the rise of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The introduction of exotic animals and plants for food, for decorative purposes, or to control unwanted species often leads to more harm than good done by the introduced species – think rabbits in Australia and kudzu in the Southern USA.

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A glimpse

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Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. It is a feast we celebrate every August 6thbut it is also a reading we hear every 2nd Sunday of Lent. In the gospel on those days, both Matthew and Mark starkly report: “And he was transfigured (metamorphōthē) before them.” The underlying Greek word means to “transform, change completely.” Luke uses the more mundane heteron (change) and limits the description to his face. All the accounts agree that the clothing became a brilliant white; Luke using the word that sometimes describes the white flash of lightning. Continue reading →