Archives for 2013

Review: Jesus of Nazareth – The Infancy Narratives

Tuesday, March 12, 2013 A.D. Leave a Comment

Pope Benedict’s latest and final book as pope has been out since Advent. Those of you with a better sense of timing than mine may have already read Jesus of Nazareth, The Infancy Narratives. Yet it is also fitting to reflect on the story, in light of Lent.

The period is one we know well, of course. Here it is looked at through the lens of the Gospel writers – the historicity, their audience, probable intentions and so on. Pope Benedict guides the reader gently, not too technically, but his deep theological knowledge shines through. This scholarly work remains quite accessible.

For me, it was like a guided tour through the Joyful Mysteries. It has increased my understanding of this period in salvation history and given me new insights on which to reflect. For example, this excerpt from The Annunciation to Mary:

Now, though, it is time to look more closely at the story of the annunciation to Mary of the birth of Jesus. First let us consider the angel’s message, then Mary’s answer.

A striking feature of the angel’s greeting is that he does not address Mary with the usual Hebrew salutation shalom — peace be with you — but with the Greek greeting formula chaĩre, which we might well translate with the word “Hail,” as in the Church’s Marian prayer, pieced together from the words of the annunciation narrative (cf. Lk 1:28, 42). Yet at this point it is only right to draw out the true meaning of the word chaĩre: rejoice! This exclamation from the angel — we could say — marks the true beginning of the New Testament.

The word reappears during the Holy Night on the lips of the angel who says to the shepherds: “I bring you good news of great joy” (Lk 2:10). It appears again — in John’s Gospel — at the encounter with the risen Lord: “The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (20:20). Jesus’ farewell discourses in Saint John’s Gospel present a theology of joy, which as it were illuminates the depth of this word. “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (16:22).

Joy appears in these texts as the particular gift of the Holy Spirit, the true gift of the Redeemer. So a chord is sounded with the angel’s salutation which then resounds throughout the life of the Church. Its content is also present in the fundamental word that serves to designate the entire Christian message: Gospel — good news.

The book is small, closer to a paperback in dimensions and only 132 pages in length. It is nominally broken into 4 chapters with sub-chapters for individual topics:

Abbreviations, Publisher’s Note and Forward
Chapter I – “Where are You From?”
Chapter II – The Annunciation of the Birth of John the Baptist and the Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus

On the particular literary character of the texts
The annunciation of the birth of John
the annunciation to Mary
The conception and birth of Jesus according to Matthew
The birth — myth or historical truth?

Chapter III – The Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem

The historical and theological framework of the nativity story in Luke’s Gospel
The birth of Jesus
The presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Chapter IV – The Wise Men from the East and the Flight into Egypt

The historical and geographical framework of the narrative
Who were the “Magi”?
The Star
Jerusalem — stopping point on the journey
The worship of the Wise Men before Jesus
Flight into Egypt and return to the Land of Israel

Epilogue – The Twelve-Year-Old Jesus in the Temple
Bibliography

I enjoyed this book and recommend it to everyone with at least a basic knowledge of the events of this period. It is a good book to dust-off and re-read from time to time, in Advent, Lent, or any other liturgical season.

Full Disclosure: This book was provided to me at no charge by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for review. They seek only my honest, real opinion and that is what I give!

Filed Under: review

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #92)

Friday, March 8, 2013 A.D. Leave a Comment

This week: The latest issue of New Evangelists Monthly is now out. Getting the Sistine Chapel ready. Hopes for the next pope. Struggling with forgiveness. Piers Morgan (professed Catholic) discusses the Church with atheist Penn Jillette. Battling winter (and losing). News from the Convert Journal tech desk.

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Issue #3, March 2013, of New Evangelists Monthly is now out! Over 60 faithful Catholic bloggers have contributed their very best pieces from February. Read about a lifetime’s lesson on lying and love, authenticity, baby spacing / longing, Benedict and Bilbo Baggins, Catholic otherness, coexist and temptation, conversion snippets, convicted again, cursing, embracing vocations, envy, families and sacrificial giving, fasting, haunting voices of the past, how to pray, is TARDIS Eucharistic?, it worked, John R. Cash, joyful motherhood, 20 Lenten penances, 40 Lenten activities for kids, libidinistic or religious, marching for marriage, my body isn’t broken, no Vatican III coming, not missed via sobriety, penance primer, “poor me” complex, remembering Papa, silence, singles myth #5, Sister Cecilia Maria, soul improvement, successful blogging, syllabus of errors, the small Church, tilapia and vocation of motherhood!

This monthly “meta-magazine” showcases Catholicism from theology to family life and “everything in between.” Enjoy it now at NewEvangelists.org.

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In the Sistine Chapel, much work is underway in preparation for the conclave. This is not a matter of just bringing in some chairs!

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Young adults offer their hopes for the next pope:

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I have noticed more questions lately about forgiveness. It is a very good topic for Lenten reflection since Our Lord and Savior died so that our sins may be forgiven. I wrote about this almost 3 years ago (wow, has it been that long?) in The burden of hate. Father John Bartunek addresses this question well in this interview with Dan Burke:

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CNN brings in a dedicated atheist to discuss the Church with a professed Catholic. The Catholic takes a beating at the hands of the atheist.

On the Catholic side is uber-liberal, Catholic dissident Piers Morgan, so you can probably guess the apparent strength of his (1) faith, (2) obedience and (3) catechesis. On the atheist side there is Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller). Morgan should know when to stop calling himself Catholic when a decidedly non-Catholic does a darn good job explaining the faith to him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsqzCDaS5uI

Spotted by Marcel

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How is your winter going? Here in the Atlanta area we have had our cold days, but nothing like that which some people face:

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From the Convert Journal tech desk: Nvidia has released a new graphics card that is essentially a small supercomputer. Specs: 2,688 single precision cores, 896 double precision cores, managed by 14 streaming multiprocessors, 224 texture units, 48 ROP units, all built out of 7.1 billion transistors. This thing delivers 4.5 teraflops (single precision; 1.3 double) all by itself.

While out of my league, it is considered cheap at $1,000 for what it delivers. When I started in the computer world working for Data General in the mid-70’s, our mini-computers had 4k (16-bit “words”) of core memory. You could SEE each memory bit.

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!

Filed Under: quick takes

New Evangelists Monthly – March 2013, Issue #3

Saturday, March 2, 2013 A.D. Leave a Comment

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Filed Under: New Evangelists Monthly

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #91)

Friday, March 1, 2013 A.D. Leave a Comment

This week: A tribute to Pope Benedict and his final moments at the Vatican. More on how the papal election, including how some non-Catholic / anti-Catholic folks see it. The security of the papal election. The fundamental option BS, addressed bluntly by Cardinal Arinze. An excellent homily at a funeral Mass. The Dome of Home reopens. We are all certain to perish as we fall off the fiscal cliff, right?

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The See of Peter is sede vacante. Life Teen produced this video tribute to Pope (now Emeritus) Benedict XVI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rQsIAlfBoU

As our Holy Father left the Vatican for the final time as Pope:

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Recently I featured aspect several videos on the papal election process (here and here). Father Z has come across 2 more. First (with some minor errors) is this one – more-or-less serious:

Second, this one reflecting on the media / anti-Catholic view (produced by Lutherans, no less – they actually “get it”):

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How secure is the papal election? CNN asked Bruce Schneier to review the process. Bruce is a security expert whom I have followed for years. His conclusion: very secure. He concludes “when an election process is left to develop over the course of a couple of thousand years, you end up with something surprisingly good.” When we learn of the new pope, we can be confident that at least 2/3 of the cardinals voted for him without any “irregularities” effecting the outcome.

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My BS antenna goes up whenever I hear the Universalist “everyone is saved” (or nearly everyone) line. I think that it is false and very harmful (see: Is Hell empty?).

Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, was asked to comment on the fundamental option view of mortal sin. In essence, it suggests that it is very difficult (almost impossible) to commit a mortal sin. This hogwash was condemned in 1975 in Persona Humana. Cardinal Arinze does not mince words when asked about it:

Spotted by Father Finigan

Update: Father Z also comments on this video here.

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Monsignor Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington gave this excellent homily at a funeral Mass a few years ago.

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Near Liverpool, England is the Shrine Church of Ss. Peter, Paul & Philomena (a/k/a The Dome of Home). It was closed in 2008 citing its large size and operating cost. Last March it was reopened in the care of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. This video shows this beautiful church built in 1935:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pc9o_TBwqs

Spotted by Fr. Z

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Question: if someone offered to pay $1 each and every second toward the national debt ($16,500,000,000,000), how long would it take until it is paid-off? Answer: 505 THOUSAND YEARS.

OK, that is a really long time and we must cut back our out-of-control spending. But the congress is driving us over a fiscal cliff by allowing the radical, deep cuts across the board. Necessary services will be crippled by reducing them to a shadow of their current sizes. This is an emergency of the largest proportions. Drastic action is called for. Right??? Right???

That is all you have heard from one party and their public relations apparatus (the media). Yes, you should be outraged but not because there are significant cuts but because there ARE NOT and what little is happening is making them go berserk. This does not give much hope for any actual spending control. The so-called cuts are in the rate of growth only and are small at that. George Mason University produced this graph showing the actual “impact” of the sequester (again, on spending growth):

Catholic Lane provides the explanation in Meet Mr. and Mrs. Sequester. Read it and learn the truth.

Filed Under: quick takes

Mary prejudice

Tuesday, February 26, 2013 A.D. 3 Comments

It has been 3.5 years now, but I remember a conversation that I had with my friend (a convert and eventual sponsor) Rigsby. It had became very clear to me that my Protestant denomination was straying further and further from the truth. For a short period I considered myself adrift and was therefore in full research mode.

The Catholic Church was not initially at the top of my list. Or in second place. Or third. There were just too many issues (I thought). One-by-one the Protestant communities that I was interested in were found to be wanting, having their own issues with the truth.

I believe now that the Holy Spirit basically boxed me in and forced me to fairly look at the Catholic Church. I was really surprised by what I found. Before I went further, I needed to address… “the Mary issue”.

I might have asked Rigsby about Marian doctrines, exactly what they were, why they were believed, their historical basis, their scriptural basis, or even their logical and rational basis – all of which would have shed light. I didn’t because I assumed they were wrong and that I could not believe them as Catholics do. This seemed like a big hurdle. My question was instead “do Catholics have to believe that stuff?” Oy vey!

My problem was good, old-fashioned prejudice against the Catholic understanding of Mary. My Protestant denomination was closer to Catholic beliefs than many, but a real gap in understanding and belief was still there. Before going any further, I list here the 4 Marian dogmas:

Mother of God: while Jesus’ divinity is eternal, His human incarnation was not and Mary was the mother of that; this title was settled at the Council of Ephesus in AD 431
Perpetual Virginity: ever virgin, before and after Jesus’ birth (and no, there is no properly understood scriptural evidence to the contrary – quite the opposite actually); explicitly recognized at the Council of the Lateran in AD 649
Immaculate Conception: refers to Mary’s birth, not Jesus’ – she was born without the taint of original sin; why would God provide any less for the mother of His Son?; would the King of kings be born of a sinful womb?
Assumption: like Enoch and Elijah, Mary was assumed into heaven at the end of her life on Earth; would Jesus do less for His mother than these prophets?; BTW – this is assumption, not ascension

Additionally and expanding on the above:

Mary’s impeccability (sinlessness): Mary was born and preserved sinless; this is related to the dogma of her immaculate conception
mediatrix: via her role in salvation history and closeness to Our Lord; this does not make her divine in any way; see also advocatrix, co-redemptrix, mediatrix and advocate of all graces
Queen of Heaven and Earth: not dogma (yet), but how else would Christ honor and elevate His mother?; she is the queen to His kingship
veneration: because of all the above!; rest assured that we do NOT worship her – she is the most worthy Saint, but not divine / not God in any way

My purpose here is not to provide apologetics to defend each of these items (many very thorough ones are available), but rather to list “issues” that may be separating you from the fullness of the Church Our Lord founded. My suggestion is this: put them aside for now. This is similar to taking a test and coming to a halt on a difficult question. Do not get hung-up, move on and come back later. You may find this hard to believe now, but someday you will find it difficult to understand why all Christians do not understand Mary as Catholics do. They are missing so much (note on that point: the Protestant “reformers” retained much of these beliefs, but over time their divergent creations have fallen further and further away.)

As you study with an open mind and heart other Catholic claims, you will find their truth. Expect to be surprised! Eventually your “master list” of issues will dwindle, but by then you will accept the Church is who she says she is and trust her. If unresolved issues such as this remain, you will see them at most as difficulties in understanding – not claims that you deny. At that point, you are ready to become Catholic. Actually, at that point you are already in communion with the Catholic Church, albeit informally. You accept most teaching and lean on the authority and infallibility of the Church (given by Christ) for any remaining difficult part. You will be not all that different than the Apostles as described in John:

Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

John 6:60-69

“Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Indeed! I will close with the following video for your consideration. It is far from the complete story, but makes many important (in hindsight obvious) connections for scriptural blockheads like me. It is one of my favorites and still touches me every time I watch it: