Eine Kleine Blog

Saturday, August 06, 2022

Most texts …

… aren't worth saving for any longer than it takes to read them. Once in a great while, however, …

Saturday, October 09, 2021

Wisdom, Hebrews, Needle’s eye

Notes on the readings for the 28^th Sunday of Ordinary Times (Cycle B)

Wis: 7:7-11

I was surprised to learn that the book of Wisdom dates only back to about 50 years before Christ. I usually assume that the OT reading is centuries older.

I’ve long known that Wisdom is personified as feminine. Sounds right to me! About 25 years(?) ago, She Who Is, by Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, drove that point home. Masculine or feminine, I don’t care. Calling God Wisdom doesn’t do anything for me.

Hebrews: 4:12-13

I was surprised to learn that the book of Hebrews dates only to about 30 or 40 years after Christ’s death, but, of course, I shouldn’t have been. It’s attributed to Paul, and I do have a decent idea of when Paul was writing. Turns out that Paul probably didn’t write it — though I had assumed that he had. I was also surprised to learn that it might not have originally been a letter; it may have been a sermon or some other kind of public address.

Mark 10:17-30

Well, now. That’s a scary one, isn’t it? I think it shocks us because we are rich. (It would have also shocked Jesus’s listeners if they assumed that riches were a sign of God’s favor.)

Us, rich? Yep. Even the poorest of us have comforts that Alexander and Augustus and Kubla Khan and the tsars of Russia would have envied. Running water. Indoor plumbing. Heating and air conditioning. Medical care. Television, for goodness sake! So, what do we do with this reading? We try to reason our way around it, naturally!

· Surely this is simply Middle Eastern hyperbole, like saying take the 4x4x8 out of you own eye before worrying about the dust mote in mine
· Maybe the “eye of the needle” is a reference to a narrow gate in the walled city of Jerusalem. impossible for a loaded-down camel to get through, but doable if you take the cargo off its back.
· Or maybe the eye of the needle is, you know, the eye of the needle, but that the “camel” is a thick rope of camel hair.
Our maybe it's just a counsel of perfection.

· Well, OK, I do buy the hyperbole idea, but not the others.

Recall last week’s gospel: Children, who depend on others for everything, get into heaven. The rich young man — who, we can assume, depends on his wealth and power and his own good works (“all these things I have done since my youth”) — is out of luck. I think the message is pretty clear. Regardless of our material prosperity or poverty, we are to rely on the tender mercies of God for our salvation.

Friday, October 08, 2021

World health

A few days ago, the World Health Organization approved the world's first malaria vaccine; it is projected to save tens of thousands of children from death each year. If only my old friend John K, who spent his career studying mosquitoes, had lived to see the day!

Tuesday, October 05, 2021

animals, divorce, children

Notes on the readings for the 27^th Sunday of Ordinary Times (Cycle B)

Old Testament: Gn :2:18-24

“… he brought [the animals] to the man to see what he would call them”

I love the way Anthony Hecht imagines the scene:

Naming the Animals

By Anthony Hecht

Having commanded Adam to bestow

Names upon all the creatures, God withdrew

To empyrean palaces of blue

That warm and windless morning long ago,

And seemed to take no notice of the vexed

Look on the young man's face as he took thought

Of all the miracles the Lord had wrought,

Now to be labelled, dubbed, yclept, indexed.

Before an addled mind and puddled brow,

The feathered nation and the finny prey

Passed by; there went biped and quadruped.

Adam looked forth with bottomless dismay

Into the tragic eyes of his first cow,

And shyly ventured, "Thou shalt be called 'Fred.' "

Epistle: Hebrews (Heb 2:9-11)

“it was fitting that he … should make [Jesus] perfect through suffering”

Why in the world was that fitting?

The whole idea of what’s “fitting” has, I suspect, led to all sorts of mischief throughout history. It’s “fitting” that Mary be a perpetual virgin, for example, because Augustine didn’t want to imagine her under the covers with Joseph or, later, screaming in pain during childbirth. The fact that our savior was born “a marginal jew” shows that what’s “fitting” is a bad guide to what’s true.

Gospe: (Mk 10:2-16)

Two unrelated pericopes. The first concerns marriage:

“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife”

The pharisees were “testing” Jesus, which I would typically interpret as meaning they’re trying to trick him into something. If so, he walks right into the trap. He says Moses’s law is wrong in allowing divorce. I’m surprised the pharisees didn’t arrest him right then.

Some modern (liberal) interpretations suggest that Jesus wasn’t really talking about divorce, but rather about abandoning someone poor and weak. Maybe. But I’m curious what criteria should be applied to decide which of Jesus’s injunctions are universal and which are conditioned by the time and place he lived.

I’m actually fine with the liberal interpretation. Catholics should be able to divorce, but I’d like to see us admit that, rather than futz around with this annulment sham.

“the two shall become one flesh”

When unmarried priests use this gospel to preach on marital love, it grates on my ears. At the very least, a priest needs to start with a humble disclaimer: “OK, so I haven’t been married, but I’ve observed a lot of marriages, so allow me to share this outsider’s view of the institution; take it for what it’s worth.”

The second pericope talks about kids:

“the kingdom of God belongs to such as these”

We frequently think of children as innocent, pure. Here, I prefer to see them as weak, aware of their total dependence, uninhibited, and asking for what they need — recognizing, as Bernanos’s country priest does, that “all is gift.”