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The Deadly Just War Religion
The family Maccabees refuses to obey a foreign War Lord, King Antiochus IV. Antiochus was outlawing Jewish religious traditions and forcing the family to obey Greek ones, for example, the deadly just war tradition. Thus the king “slaughtered” many; “in the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost.” But the Maccabees’ Jewish religious…
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The Point of Our View
When Jesus was passing through Jericho “he looked up” and saw Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus had “climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus.” Zacchaeus had to change his point of view in order to see Jesus, to encounter him. He could not do so from his original point of view, it rendered him short-sighted. His short-sighted…
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Is Love A Folly?
Jesus has encounters with people “who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.” In today’s Gospel he tells of a Pharisee who is praying nearby to a despised and humble tax collector who “stood off at a distance … and prayed” for “mercy.” The Pharisee’s prayer is, “O God, I thank…
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Creating a Faithful Climate
While addressing the importance of persisting in faith, Jesus tells the story of a widow. She has strong faith in her position against an “adversary” in a corrupt system harming her. The judge deciding her case is corrupt, reflecting the corrupt system. Even so, she is unrelenting in petitioning the judge for fairness, “Render…
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Contagious Diseases
Jesus is traveling through a region known as Samaria. The people living there are viewed as enemies. On the way, “ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus! Have compassion on us!” Jesus does have compassion and he heals them; “they were cleansed.” The ten…
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Criminals with Guns
The prophet Habakkuk is upset with “THE LORD” for his governance of the ancient nation of Israel. Habakkuk laments to THE LORD but really to his earthly governing Lords, “I cry out to you, “Violence!” “Wicked” people abound. But THE LORD/the Lords, “do not intervene…there is strife, and clamorous discord” because of the violent…
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Foundations
Jesus’ parable about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus, sets the foundation for wisdom about rich and poor, “There was a rich man who dressed in … fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus … who would gladly have eaten…
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The Con of Wile E. Characters
Jesus tells a parable this Sunday about a conniving steward caught “squandering the master’s property.” Though caught, he does not stop his conniving. He merely shifts it to “his master’s debtors one by one.” He does so for personal benefit, figuring, “when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their…
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The Case For Reparations
The Old Testament, “Lord,” Yahweh, wears a MAGA hat: Make Atonement Great Again. Atonement asserts reparations or payments be made from the common people to “the Lord.” But by way of the earthly ‘Lords’ who took money from common people they judged as “depraved” and deserving of “the Lord’s wrath.” For that atonement price,…
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Elder Esteem
In today’s Gospel Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me without hating father and mother…they cannot be my disciple.” Jesus is undoing the esteem given to worldly position. Unfortunately, Paul, in the second reading, reasserts such esteem. Paul thus reassert patriarchy and slavery. Patriarchy is fatherly possessiveness over a lesser, for example a child…