By now you probably have read Bishop McGrath, the Bishop of San Jose's comments on The Passion of the Christ:
While the primary source material of the film is attributed to the four gospels, these sacred books are not historical accounts of the historical events that they narrate. They are theological reflections upon the events that form the core of Christian faith and belief.
Going down this route, the bishop, on a week that will see the release of the clerical abuse report has made one of the all time biggest blunders in recent history. While Evangelical Christians are handing out flyers to movie goers of the Passion, Bishop McGrath is pre-empting the viewing with a line that, oh well none of its based on history anyway--merely some reflections of a few pious souls.
This "theory" is the basis of everything that you've read over the past umpteen years about the "historical Jesus", the attempt to get beyond the "reflections" and find out who the real Jesus is...But in fairness to that crowd, the passion of Jesus is usually the one item they all agree is historical!
The ealiest sources, outside of the Scriptures, about the origins of the Gospels--all point to a very traditional understanding of their origins. Mark is the interpreter of Peter, who writes down the his gospel from the recollections of the Apostle. Matthew is a tax collector, Luke is a physician who accompanied St. Paul, John is the Apostle John. Although modern scholars love to go back to the original sources, they conveniently ignore the earliest sources when it comes to the gospels and use rather a tests of their own making--such as dropping anything miraculous or keeping anything that seems especially strange and out of character. In the end the "history" they come up with usually reflects whatever they believe or in the case of feminist theologians, the "herstory" they come up with reflects a struggle between Magdalene and Peter.
Bishop McGrath's statement has become the modern creed of mainline churches and to some segments of the Catholic Church. Once preachers buy into this theory they no longer preach with conviction, and what you usually here immediately after the Gospel proclaimed is something akin to "well we really don't know what happened." Talk about letting the air out of the balloon.
Listen, we all grew up with an understanding that the four Gospels told the story of Jesus from different viewpoints. Just in the way that modern people watch the details of the a news event on Fox or CNN and expect to hear a slightly different version of the account, slanted according to an ideology--but nonetheless something that is based on a factual event. Watching coverage of the horrors of 9/11, regardless of what the slant, we know by the hole one encounters in lower Manhattan now that the event happened. Plus the account of what happened that day as told by someone who was fleeing the falling buildings, or someone who lost a spouse in the fall, or someone living in the Midwest who watched it on television is all going to be vastly different, a reflection no doubt but historical also.
How far we go with the "reflection" vs. the "history" of the events told to us by the Gospel writers goes a long way in determining our own way of looking at what impact Christ makes in our lives. My sense is that there is a lot more history in the Gospels, that led to there being something to reflect upon---then there is reflection that would lead to anyone putting their lives on the line.
Reflection is the buzz word of a certain school of modern Christian thought. Sadly, the "reflection" is often of the person giving it, rather than of the Savior who suffered, died and was buried and on the third day rose again from the dead."
It is the "living Jesus" that the Gospel's proclaim and quite frankly this is the kind of history that we don't find in any history book--but more likely on the front page of the supermarket tabloids that proclaim that Elvis or JFK aren't really dead. Ultimately this is what throws scholars into such a tailspin when confronted with the history of the Gospels, they don't know how to handle the miraculous and ultimately the resurection and ascension of the lead character. This is why they also can't handle the difference such an intrusion into the history of man was made by the Son of God that even the year we live is marked by his coming and that time is divided into "before Christ" and in the "year of Our Lord"--they choose to render it "before the common era" or "after the common era." Call it what you will, but the truth is that there was nothing common about the era where someone rose from the dead. But as Jesus said in one of the Reflections, "they would not believe even if one were to rise from the dead." Many modern scholars are sadly in that lot, and I fear not a few clergy too.
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Saturday, February 21, 2004
A Free Catholic Study Guide to The Passion
Online at Catholic Citizens
OFIA UNIT ONE Christ Confronts Evil
OFIA UNIT TWO Mary Witness to Suffering
OFIA UNIT THREE Obedience to the Father
OFIA UNIT FOUR What is Truth?
OFIA UNIT FIVE Christ's Self-Giving Love
OFIA UNIT ONE Christ Confronts Evil
OFIA UNIT TWO Mary Witness to Suffering
OFIA UNIT THREE Obedience to the Father
OFIA UNIT FOUR What is Truth?
OFIA UNIT FIVE Christ's Self-Giving Love
Bin Laden Surrounded?
If so, this could dwarf any other breaking story for the next two weeks...
From Sunday Telegraph - Bin Laden 'surrounded' [February 22, 2004]:
"A BRITISH Sunday newspaper is claiming Osama bin Laden has been found and is surrounded by US special forces in an area of land bordering north-west Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Sunday Express, known for its sometimes colourful scoops, claims the al-Qaeda leader has been 'sighted' for the first time since 2001 and is being monitored by satellite.
The paper claims he is in a mountainous area to the north of the Pakistani city of Quetta. The region is said to be peopled with bin Laden supporters and the terrorist leader is estimated to also have 50 of his fanatical bodyguards with him.
The claim is attributed to 'a well-placed intelligence source' in Washington, who is quoted as saying: 'He (bin Laden) is boxed in.'
The paper says the hostile terrain makes an all-out conventional military assault impossible. The plan to capture him would depend on a 'grab-him-and-go' style operation. "
From Sunday Telegraph - Bin Laden 'surrounded' [February 22, 2004]:
"A BRITISH Sunday newspaper is claiming Osama bin Laden has been found and is surrounded by US special forces in an area of land bordering north-west Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Sunday Express, known for its sometimes colourful scoops, claims the al-Qaeda leader has been 'sighted' for the first time since 2001 and is being monitored by satellite.
The paper claims he is in a mountainous area to the north of the Pakistani city of Quetta. The region is said to be peopled with bin Laden supporters and the terrorist leader is estimated to also have 50 of his fanatical bodyguards with him.
The claim is attributed to 'a well-placed intelligence source' in Washington, who is quoted as saying: 'He (bin Laden) is boxed in.'
The paper says the hostile terrain makes an all-out conventional military assault impossible. The plan to capture him would depend on a 'grab-him-and-go' style operation. "
Friday, February 20, 2004
Blood and Destruction Because of One Man…
This line from the play Jesus Christ Superstar accurately captures the effect of Jesus Christ on the modern world, after all art imitates life. The furor over The Passion of the Christ is really rather remarkable, after all there have been any number of movies about Jesus and most of them hardly merit any mention at all by the mainstream press, but this one, this movie has everyone talking.
Personally, I think this is a good thing. If there is anything that the modern world needs it is to have the Passion of Christ placed before it. Modern Christians have by and large conveniently placed the Passion of Christ off to the side, as something not to focus on—and much to the detriment of the way Christians in the affluent west have subsequently reinvented what it means to be a follower of the Jesus who said, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” (Mark 8:34). Take away the cross from Christianity and you are left with something that patently is no longer Christian.
It used to be that Catholics were known by their focus on The Passion of Christ. Walking around on Ash Wednesday with their foreheads smudged with an ashen cross, eating fish on Fridays, making the stations of the cross on Friday evenings—and kneeling before what usually was a larger than life crucifix that dominated the sanctuary of their churches. But after Vatican II and the subsequent good fortune of American Catholics, one saw a shift where new Churches or even renovated Churches place a resurrected Christ in the sanctuary, graphic stations of the cross were usually replaced with little wooden cross markers and outside of Lent, Catholics could eat whatever they wanted to eat.
While the Catholics were taking Christ off of the cross, other Christians were preaching a gospel of affluence, not unlike the hypnotic message of infomercials that run endlessly on early morning television. The message varied but it essentially promised that if you make a down payment in faith, Christ would bless you beyond your wildest dreams. Ironically, many of the great preachers of this Gospel were publicly humiliated and suffered their own public crucifixions. Perhaps that is one reason why evangelicals seem so ready to embrace a very graphic meditation on the Passion of Our Lord.
The price Catholics have paid for taking Christ off of the cross, (not officially, I know but popularly this has been the case and often claimed by the “experts” to be the case), is being displayed daily in the newspapers. Clergy no longer embracing the cross of Christ fell into horrible sins. Laity no longer focused on the demands of the cross have become indistinguishable from the world around them. Ask the Catholic laity about any issue and they are likely to reflect the exact same beliefs of those who claim no religious belief. Which has left many to wonder what exactly does it mean to be a “Catholic” or better what exactly does it mean to be a Catholic follower of Christ?
The answer all comes back to the Passion. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen used to say that the west was characterized as having Christ without the Cross. We have the ability to hear the gospel preached freely, we can worship freely but without persecution we do not really hear the gospel in the same way that those who are suffering do.
The sad reality is that we are all suffering, but our ability to distract ourselves with meaningless entertainments keeps us out of touch with our suffering…until a 9/11 or the death sentence of a doctor telling us that we are terminally ill…then we see the cross and all its horror without Christ. Sadly if we have mocked Christ by being a follower without the cross we may miss the opportunity to be saved by the cross of Christ if we have spent our lives denying that it is the integral part of the Christian message.
It is interesting to see the reactions of those who worry about what a movie that graphically presents the Passion of Our Lord will do. Evangelicals are promoting it, encouraging their congregations to view the movie, invite friends and then bring them to Church so that their questions can be answered. Catholics, with the exception of the evangelical converts, for the most part are worried about the Passion renewing anti-Semitic feelings among the viewers. Jewish groups are also worried about this.
Jesus was a Jew and to me this is what I would proclaim to anyone who sees his Passion as an excuse to think poorly of the Jewish people. Such bigotry is from the devil, is evil, ignorant and is hatred ultimately of the Lord who died on the cross where the proclamation “King of the Jews” was nailed. I have written elsewhere on these pages about how Matthew’s Gospel in particular portrays Jesus as the new Moses who ratifies a new covenant and that the way to understand “his blood be upon us and our children” is only understood by going back to the ratification of the first covenant and Moses sprinkling blood upon the heads of the people as a sign of their new relationship with God. Any Christian need only open the Bible and sit with Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well and hear, “For salvation is from the Jews,” (John 4:22) or sit awhile with St. Paul in Romans 9-11.
What should we really worry about? That we have lost the true meaning of the gospel of Christ and its radical call to repent, repentance that leads to sacrificing:
“you lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor,” (Mark 10:21).
“every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery,” (Matthew 5:28)
“give to him who begs from you,” (Matthew 5:42)
“Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5: 44).
We should fear that in our comfort and ease we have lost the true Christ who told the disciples on the road to Emmaus that it “was necessary” that the Son of Man suffer all of these things, because if we fail to see the true meaning of the Passion we will fail to see God’s design for us in our own lives and we will flee the cross like a possessed man—because indeed fear of the cross is a clear sign that something other than Christ has possession of us.
So there is confusion, what do we do with this man, for if we leave him alone the entire populace will believe in him and then our economy will be shot, our livelihood destroyed, our (fill in the blank)… This is always the inner conversation between the self God created and self that we feel we need to be to please others…the cross of Christ is the line in the sand…what will save us?
As St. Paul said, “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)
Personally, I think this is a good thing. If there is anything that the modern world needs it is to have the Passion of Christ placed before it. Modern Christians have by and large conveniently placed the Passion of Christ off to the side, as something not to focus on—and much to the detriment of the way Christians in the affluent west have subsequently reinvented what it means to be a follower of the Jesus who said, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” (Mark 8:34). Take away the cross from Christianity and you are left with something that patently is no longer Christian.
It used to be that Catholics were known by their focus on The Passion of Christ. Walking around on Ash Wednesday with their foreheads smudged with an ashen cross, eating fish on Fridays, making the stations of the cross on Friday evenings—and kneeling before what usually was a larger than life crucifix that dominated the sanctuary of their churches. But after Vatican II and the subsequent good fortune of American Catholics, one saw a shift where new Churches or even renovated Churches place a resurrected Christ in the sanctuary, graphic stations of the cross were usually replaced with little wooden cross markers and outside of Lent, Catholics could eat whatever they wanted to eat.
While the Catholics were taking Christ off of the cross, other Christians were preaching a gospel of affluence, not unlike the hypnotic message of infomercials that run endlessly on early morning television. The message varied but it essentially promised that if you make a down payment in faith, Christ would bless you beyond your wildest dreams. Ironically, many of the great preachers of this Gospel were publicly humiliated and suffered their own public crucifixions. Perhaps that is one reason why evangelicals seem so ready to embrace a very graphic meditation on the Passion of Our Lord.
The price Catholics have paid for taking Christ off of the cross, (not officially, I know but popularly this has been the case and often claimed by the “experts” to be the case), is being displayed daily in the newspapers. Clergy no longer embracing the cross of Christ fell into horrible sins. Laity no longer focused on the demands of the cross have become indistinguishable from the world around them. Ask the Catholic laity about any issue and they are likely to reflect the exact same beliefs of those who claim no religious belief. Which has left many to wonder what exactly does it mean to be a “Catholic” or better what exactly does it mean to be a Catholic follower of Christ?
The answer all comes back to the Passion. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen used to say that the west was characterized as having Christ without the Cross. We have the ability to hear the gospel preached freely, we can worship freely but without persecution we do not really hear the gospel in the same way that those who are suffering do.
The sad reality is that we are all suffering, but our ability to distract ourselves with meaningless entertainments keeps us out of touch with our suffering…until a 9/11 or the death sentence of a doctor telling us that we are terminally ill…then we see the cross and all its horror without Christ. Sadly if we have mocked Christ by being a follower without the cross we may miss the opportunity to be saved by the cross of Christ if we have spent our lives denying that it is the integral part of the Christian message.
It is interesting to see the reactions of those who worry about what a movie that graphically presents the Passion of Our Lord will do. Evangelicals are promoting it, encouraging their congregations to view the movie, invite friends and then bring them to Church so that their questions can be answered. Catholics, with the exception of the evangelical converts, for the most part are worried about the Passion renewing anti-Semitic feelings among the viewers. Jewish groups are also worried about this.
Jesus was a Jew and to me this is what I would proclaim to anyone who sees his Passion as an excuse to think poorly of the Jewish people. Such bigotry is from the devil, is evil, ignorant and is hatred ultimately of the Lord who died on the cross where the proclamation “King of the Jews” was nailed. I have written elsewhere on these pages about how Matthew’s Gospel in particular portrays Jesus as the new Moses who ratifies a new covenant and that the way to understand “his blood be upon us and our children” is only understood by going back to the ratification of the first covenant and Moses sprinkling blood upon the heads of the people as a sign of their new relationship with God. Any Christian need only open the Bible and sit with Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well and hear, “For salvation is from the Jews,” (John 4:22) or sit awhile with St. Paul in Romans 9-11.
What should we really worry about? That we have lost the true meaning of the gospel of Christ and its radical call to repent, repentance that leads to sacrificing:
“you lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor,” (Mark 10:21).
“every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery,” (Matthew 5:28)
“give to him who begs from you,” (Matthew 5:42)
“Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5: 44).
We should fear that in our comfort and ease we have lost the true Christ who told the disciples on the road to Emmaus that it “was necessary” that the Son of Man suffer all of these things, because if we fail to see the true meaning of the Passion we will fail to see God’s design for us in our own lives and we will flee the cross like a possessed man—because indeed fear of the cross is a clear sign that something other than Christ has possession of us.
So there is confusion, what do we do with this man, for if we leave him alone the entire populace will believe in him and then our economy will be shot, our livelihood destroyed, our (fill in the blank)… This is always the inner conversation between the self God created and self that we feel we need to be to please others…the cross of Christ is the line in the sand…what will save us?
As St. Paul said, “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)
You Wonder Why These Guys Don't Just Resign
I'm think aloud here, but it really doesn't make any sense to me why guys who have this kind of stuff in their past continue to stay. I ask it, but I think I know the answer. There is a certian arogance that continues to dominate a certian sector of the clergy.
From MassLive.com: Search:
"The former Catholic bishop of Springfield introduced the two boys, one of whom was a 12-year-old refugee, to homosexual sex and gay pornography after taking one under his wing when he was a parish priest about 28 years ago, the men said last night.
The two men, one aged 40 and the other 39, issued a statement through their lawyer detailing the alleged abuse. One of the men, who is now gay, said he was moved to anger after the Roman Catholic Church and Dupre began a crusade against gay marriage in Massachusetts.
Dupre, 70, checked himself into an undisclosed medical center and retired within a day of being confronted with questions about the allegations by The Republican last week.
Roderick MacLeish Jr., a lawyer for the men, said the bishop is being treated at St. Luke's Institute in Silver Spring, Md., which is known for treating pedophile priests. This could not be confirmed last night. "
From MassLive.com: Search:
"The former Catholic bishop of Springfield introduced the two boys, one of whom was a 12-year-old refugee, to homosexual sex and gay pornography after taking one under his wing when he was a parish priest about 28 years ago, the men said last night.
The two men, one aged 40 and the other 39, issued a statement through their lawyer detailing the alleged abuse. One of the men, who is now gay, said he was moved to anger after the Roman Catholic Church and Dupre began a crusade against gay marriage in Massachusetts.
Dupre, 70, checked himself into an undisclosed medical center and retired within a day of being confronted with questions about the allegations by The Republican last week.
Roderick MacLeish Jr., a lawyer for the men, said the bishop is being treated at St. Luke's Institute in Silver Spring, Md., which is known for treating pedophile priests. This could not be confirmed last night. "
Thursday, February 19, 2004
The Passion of the Christ
and the perfect book to guide you on a Biblical meditation of Christ's steps from the garden of Gethsemane to the garden of the empty tomb!
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