This is my homily for yesterday, the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A. Yesterday's readings are here.
Today is Sunday of the Word of God. John’s Gospel tells us that the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word of God is Jesus.
We see in today’s Gospel reading that Jesus’s words are potent. They have the power to change people’s hearts, and their lives. They pull Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John away from their old lives and draw them into something new and different. Something risky but wonderful.
If you think today’s episode along the shore isn’t remarkable, then I can only think you’ve never tried to persuade another person to change his or her life. Every parent, especially the parent of teenage or adult children, knows how difficult it can be to try to get our children to change. Parents can see their children make mistakes – significant, life-limiting mistakes. When that happens, we want them to change the course of their lives. We parents can spend years, maybe decades, trying to find the right words, the words that will penetrate our children’s walls and defenses, to somehow convince them to change the course of their lives.
But now, compare that experience with Jesus in today’s Gospel reading. It doesn’t take him years or decades. He speaks only one sentence. He says, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And yet somehow, that single sentence, that invitation, persuades Simon Peter and Andrew to walk away from their business, their livelihood, their entire former life, to follow him. Likewise, James and John literally leave their father Zebedee sitting in the boat to follow Jesus. It seems Jesus’s call can be powerful indeed.
I want to make a point about independence and autonomy. It’s a point often made about Jesus’s mother Mary, but it’s applicable to today’s story, too. If we think about the famous biblical story of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her that God had chosen her for a very special role, an important aspect of that scene is that Mary freely consented to God’s plan for her. God didn’t force Mary to bear His Son. Instead, he invited her to say “Yes”. God certainly is powerful enough to have forced or intimidated Mary into saying yes; yet he didn’t do that. That’s not his nature; it’s not who he is. God had endowed Mary with freedom, just as he has endowed us with freedom. And so, when he had his messenger Gabriel call her to her sacred vocation, he respected her freedom. He allowed her to choose: to say Yes – or even to say No.
The same dynamic is at play in today’s Gospel reading. We have to assume that Jesus really, really wanted these fishermen to be his followers, because they are the very first ones he called. Yet he didn’t threaten Simon and Andrew, James and John. He didn’t intimidate them, or coerce them, or bamboozle them, or cast a spell on them or hypnotize them. They were free to choose, and he respected that freedom. And in freedom, they answered Jesus’s call: they did drop their nets, and they did follow him.
All of us possess that same freedom. I promise you that God is calling each and every one of us to a particular way of life. What is that way of life? Well, there isn’t a single answer to that question, because not all of us are called to the same way of living. God’s plan for you may not be the same as for me.
And just like Mary and the fishermen in today’s Gospel story, all of us possess autonomy: all of us are free to answer Yes, or No, to God’s plan. We’re all free, autonomous creatures.
What if we say No to God? What if I sense that God is calling me to a particular way of life, and I’m not willing to say yes? I think that happens all the time. It may be because what I’m being called to frightens me; or it may be that what I’m being called to doesn’t fit the plans I’ve made for my own life.
And so it’s not unusual for a person to decline God’s call – for a time; and then to say yes later, when the call becomes more compelling, or when our life situation has changed. Fr. Darrio has shared his story of being called to the priesthood. It took him some time, a period of several years, to understand clearly that this is what God wanted for him.
I attended a large Catholic high school in the 1970s – I had about 400 classmates in the Class of 1979. Three of my classmates subsequently became priests. One of them went into the seminary right after high school. He’s a pastor today in the Rockford diocese. Another one didn’t enter the seminary until after he had graduated from college and worked for a few years. Why did he wait? I don’t know; I hope to be able to have that conversation with him some day. He’s also a pastor in the Rockford diocese today. The third classmate was one of the top-ranked students in our class. He also went off to college and then worked as an engineer for nearly 20 years. It took him until about the age of 40 to realize that being an engineer wasn’t what God was calling him to. He’s also a priest today, and even a high-ranking diocesan official, in the Springfield diocese. I spent some time with him at our 40th reunion a few years back. In many ways, he’s the same guy I took classes with in high school. Following God’s path didn’t change his personality, but it changed the trajectory of his life, and he’s very happy.
To be sure, not all of us are called to the priesthood or religious life, or the diaconate. God lays out many pathways for his people. But all of us have to discern: what is Jesus calling me to? Is he calling me to married life, or single life? How can I best serve him: as a parent, or through my work, or as a volunteer, or a life of prayer, or some other way?
The one thing we can count on is: Jesus isn’t staying silent. He is calling all of us to something. And it’s up to us to figure out what that calling is, and then respond, in freedom. We may not give the right answer right away. Or we may change our mind a few years down the road. Sometimes “changing our mind” means, “listening more carefully to God.” All of this is part of discernment. But let our prayer this evening be that we keep an open heart to hear God’s call; and have the wisdom and courage to consent to his call.
"Today is Sunday of the Word of God. "
ReplyDeleteThanks for mentioning this. We heard two Masses yesterday and no one mentioned the Sunday of the Word of God!
The first was our usual Mass at Saint Cecilia in Boston. Full house, the snow had not reached them yet. The events in Minnesota hung heavily over the pastor's homily. He got an ovation at the end. He apologized for provoking the applause; said it was easily to say things from the pulpit, much harder to do something about them in life.
The second was from the West Coast, the former Crystal Cathedral. We had not been there for a while; English Mass is at 1pm our time. Very young and intellectual priest but a bit too scholarly even for me.
We usually hear the National Shrine Mass at noon, but they cancelled it. The Cardinal had dispensed everyone from the Sunday obligation because of the snow. Having spent a year in D.C. I have experienced one of their major snowstorms. The snow began in the afternoon; I left work early and did not get home (normally a twenty- minute drive) until about six o'clock.
My boss waited for the official government dismissal about an hour later. One person decided to send the whole government home! She did not get to her home until midnight! Now one would have thought that more people would have left early like me. But I had an office in an old building on the Saint Elizabeth Campus with few other people. The few there did not expect me to be there all the time because I had two other locations where I worked. I pretty much came and went as I pleased; there were no time clocks to punch.
Of course we are snowed in here. But a 6-8inch snowstorm is not a big deal here, but I lot of people did not take chances. Our choir director specifically told choir members not to come if they had any concerns about their safety, that he, his wife and the accompanist would manage the Masses if necessary.
We got about 3" of snow yesterday, but in the Chicago Loop (the old-time downtown area of the city, close to Lake Michigan), they got 10"+.
DeleteEven though 3" of snow is hardly a reason to panic around here, our attendance this weekend was way down. The bulk of the snow came down on Sunday morning. We do offer a Sunday evening mass, too, and the snow had ceased hours earlier and the roads were pretty well-plowed by then, but that attendance was pretty low, too. Seems quite a few parishioners gave themselves permission to stay inside. I am sure some of them watched televised mass as you did. Cardinal Cupich does a televised mass, I believe it is at 9:30 am CT / 10:30 am ET (in case you're ever curious to check it out), and runs for 30 minutes. Pastors around here consider it their major competition :-). It's televised on our local ABC affiliate, WLS Channel 7.
It seems throughout your career you've had a great deal of autonomy, able to structure your own workday and even, to some extent, what work you performed. That's quite fortunate! I had a bit of autonomy until quite recently. My employer is tightening the screws now.
I think a thirty-minute televised Mass is unfair competition for parishes. Many dioceses provide them; they are usually pre-recorded.
DeleteWhile I have a website that encourages people to celebrate the Hours (about fifteen minutes long) anytime, anywhere with anyone, I have a very different attitude toward the Mass. Even though my website uses recorded offices as a virtual breviary, people can celebrate an actual liturgy with them, and they also celebrate symbolically with those who have recorded the videos and with those who use them at other times and places. You can celebrate the Hours by yourself or with other lay people, you do not need a physical church nor clergy to do so.
I do not believe that people can participate in an actual Mass that is prerecorded, but I do believe that they can participate in an actual Mass with a livestreamed Mass. Some authorities say that livestreamed Mass is only pixels not real participation, but we use audio-visual enhancement all the time at world youth days, Masses in Saint Peter's square and local overflow events in parish halls, etc. As long as we are doing it at the same time, distance really should not matter.
Places that do livestreaming well, actually address those in the livestreamed audience and provide them with means to communicate with each other and the parish. Saint Cecilia in Boston is an outstanding example. People from around the country journey to Boston to be at their Masses, or one of their weekend retreats. They have various zoom events, and people in some parts of the country, e.g. Michigan, regularly communicate with each-other and have local events. The pastor regularly gives twenty-minute homilies, and the Mass usually lasts for around ninety minutes. That is good healthy competition for local parishes. It also enables people who are confined to their homes, or alienated from the local churches, or the "Church" in general to participate in genuine communal life and relate in person to other people doing so.
My autonomy occurred largely because I was a senior management person who reported to a CEO who reported to a board (agency or funding) who had the authority to hire and fire him or her but not me directly. I had regular interactions with the Board myself. I served them and therefore the community beyond (and therefore helped the CEO do his or her job). (My CEOs knew that I did not want their job so there was no competition.)
DeleteWhile I supervised only a few people (e.g. clinical records staff, MIS staff) I related regularly to managers at all levels either in my own agency, or in agencies funded by the county mental health board. That gave me a lot of influence within agencies as well as in the community. Finally, I related well to consumers and family members who always felt I was on their side. They communicated that to my board regularly.
I had a great time since I had a set of skills (social science research, psychological and organization understanding) that few other people around me had, and I put them at the service of everyone whom I encountered. I was the "servant of all" not in the sense of being humble but quite literally in creatively figuring out how I could help them do their jobs better.
I get the impression that you are in a very large organization, you might look around at higher-level positions in smaller organizations where you might have more freedom to shape your role. When I worked in Toledo, a lot of the large corporations there were downsizing and/or being taken over. Their people often found jobs as senior management in mental health organizations. Your deacon experience might be looked upon favorably by nonprofit organizations or even for-profit organizations that are very community oriented.
Jack, thanks - it is a very large organization, a Fortune 100 company. I am at a point in my life where I'm rethinking what kind of work I want to do, and what I'd like my work/life balance to be. I'll turn 65 this year. For people in my generation, that's no longer considered retirement age, at least in the sense that 'full' Social Security benefits aren't available at age 65 - for my age group, that happens at age 67, although 65 is still the age for qualifying for Medicare. I could retire this year and accept a lesser monthly Social Security payout, or I could keep working. It's not clear how much longer my employer wants me to stay employed with them; we're a global workforce, and Americans are expensive compared to workers in Asia and some other geos. I'm still in pretty good health, and I still have some "fire in the belly" to continue working. I'm trying to sort through and discern all this. I appreciate your advice and suggestions.
DeleteAfter a got my doctorate, and then several years in postdoctoral research, I held several one-year teaching positions and finally decided the academic treadmill of trying to get a tenure track position let alone tenure was not very promising. Many young social psychologists were in the same position and migrated to profit as well as non-profit organizations. One person who was familiar with the process suggested that smaller corporations rather than larger ones might better use my talents. Many of my fellow social psychologists migrated to mental health organizations and became executive directors of non-profit organizations or government agencies. There is abundant creative and interesting life outside academia and fortunate 100 companies, even in mental health systems!
DeleteNot having to worry about health insurance should give you the freedom to choose creativity over money. When I left academia, I really found my creativity in applied research. It had been buried in the publish or perish world of academia. I was mainly doing my mentors research rather than doing things that would benefit local people.
One of the key factors in making the transition to a different environment such as profit or non-profit is some experience in the new area. My one-year residency at Saint Elizabeth Hospital in D.C. helped get me over being classified as an academic researcher. Yes, this guy understands our world. He is more than an ivory tower intellectual. You might need some help in getting over the classification of being a "Fortune 100" guy. Your service to the Church as a deacon may help that. Yes, this is more than a Fortune 100 guy.
Beyond another job there is creative retirement. Both Robert Greenleaf, author of Servant Leadership, and myself retired at age sixty after doing our own things (he regularly recreated his job at AT&T as I did in the mental health system). I had my plan in place before I ever read his book.
Although I retired from a very fulfilling job, I still celebrated my retirement with the MLK phrase "free at last, thank God almighty, free at last!" Being employed by someone else or having to be self-employed just seems to me to be another form "limited slavery." More about retirement and leisure in some future posts from my WEAL website.
" "free at last, thank God almighty, free at last!""
DeleteI laughed out loud when I read that - it really resonates with me :-). The idea of being able to step off the treadmill gets more appealing with each passing year / month / week.
I may have mentioned that my wife and I mentor some couples who are in the deacon formation program. One of the wives was a Catholic school teacher whose job came abruptly to an end when the school was merged with a neighboring parish's school and she became redundant (a common occurrence here and elsewhere, as you know). She said it really threw her for a loop for a couple of years, because she loved what she did and wasn't able to do it anymore. I speculate it's similar to a grieving process in some ways. (I'm actually in the early stages of that grief myself, as I recently learned that I won't be able to do the work I've done for the last 10 or so years. I enjoyed the work and had developed a good reputation for it; it is upsetting to have it wrenched away from me.)
This woman tells me that, in retrospect, it has been a freeing experience in that it is freed her up to focus on some non-work things, such as her grandchildren and her husband's pursuit of the diaconate; and she is also able to teach part-time, which she really enjoys. So for her, it has been a case of a door closing and then a window opening.
All that said: my wife, and to some extent our children, depend on me financially. My wife works, too, but I earn more than she does. We (she, I and one of our children) are on her corporate medical benefits because it's less expensive than my company's benefits. But she really dislikes her job; her dream would be that she could retire while I continue to work. So neither of us are particularly happy with our job situations at the moment, and the prospect of retirement is sort of singing a siren's song to us. We're going to meet with our financial adviser in the next few days to understand what different scenarios would mean (e.g. I retire, she continues to work; she retires, I continue to work; I leave the corporate job and get a paid ministry job of some sort; etc.).
Jim, I feel for you and relate to what you are saying. We went through some similar stuff. We were lucky that my job had good insurance because my husband had to take some jobs that didn't have insurance, after the corporation he worked for got seriously downsized in 2001. Good thing I liked my job, but I don't miss it.
DeleteI'm sure that you know that you need to sign up for Medicare at 65 even if it isn't your primary insurance at present.
It is weird that I still have strange dreams about trying to solve a problem at work.
I have been blessed not only with so much freedom in my work life but more importantly with the freedom to walk away from my jobs no matter how enjoyable there were or how much I was accomplishing.
DeleteI first experienced this in being a voluntary pastor staff member. I loved what I did, and I loved all the volunteers that were on staff, and I am sure they loved me deeply although I was so caught up in my work and loving them that I never thought about it until years later. The pastor called me dearest brother, and I am sure that I could have become his best friend although my love for my colleagues prevented me from developing a deeper relationship with him. But my work life called me to serve the mentally ill in a deeper way. I treasure those years on pastoral staff; they were my experience of the primitive church, I hoped then that someday a parish here would offer me that experience but was time to move on to serve the mentally ill more deeply.
And I did beyond my wildest plans, hopes and dreams. Yet I also knew that God had invited me to the freedom of retirement at age sixty, that serving the mentally ill was a privilege, not a right. And it seemed so right that when my father died a few months before my sixtieth birthday, I had the total freedom from work and family obligations to do whatever God wants.
I have a general idea now of what that is. I take the gift of Betty, someone who shares my love of spiritual and intellectual things especially the Divine Office as a sign that we are on the right path. Maybe God needs household churches more than parish churches.
And I take Commonweal Local Communities, both the physical one here and well as the virtual one here at NewGathering as also signs that I am on the right path. Maybe God needs CLCs more that parishes?
I am encouraged that we now have the second American Pope. Shortly after I retired, I recognized that the center of the Church had shifted from Europe not to Africa and Asia but to the Americas. We are the most Christian and Catholic part of the world. I thought we would only recognize that when we would have an America Pope which I then thought might be decades away. The Church almost elected Francis instead of Benedict. We now seem destined to another decade or two of an American Papacy. I am glad to be a model of what I think it is to be American, Catholic and Christian. I look to Francis and Leo as validation of what should be important.
Finally, I now have a bishop that I can support because his pastoral letter supports who I am. I fulfill the bishop's desire for 15 minutes of prayer a day, buy promoting the celebration of the Hours anywhere, any time with anyone. I fulfill his desire for promoting forming small groups by providing a vision for physical and virtual CLCs. He wants each of us to be able to tell our story and know our very specific mission in life. I am able to do both of those. If the bishop's pastoral is the scorecard for what God expects of us, I was earning a hundred percent long before he wrote it.
I particularly like the part of his letter that it is time to cease complaining about the absorption of the youth in the virtual word and begin to use its resources for evangelization. I have retired with Betty from interaction with most people, but I can still use blogger to be a witness (though not a protagonist) of my vision.
I very much appreciate the Medicare-related advice, as I will need to figure all that out in a matter of months! I think. Someone was advising to stay on my wife's corporate insurance plan as long as possible. Such fun to navigate this stuff!
DeleteKelly stayed on my insurance for six years after he took Medicare. How that works is that Medicare became his primary insurance and my company insurance was his secondary. I don't think you are actually required to sign up for Medicare at 65, but there may be a period where preexisting conditions apply if you decide to sign up later.
DeleteI'm glad you mentioned that it was the Word of God Sunday because I didn't know that. Good points about the freedom given by God in what he calls us to do.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't Kelly's turn to preach, we had our Nigerian priest. He preached about the cost of discipleship, that all the apostles but one, John, died as martyrs. That when Jesus asks us to follow him, it sometimes leads to the cross. He mentioned the fraught situation in northern Nigeria, where he came from, that religious persecution was a real thing. He didn't mention it, but I did think of it, that there is a type of persecution going on here. Not specifically religious, but having to do with it in some ways.
Kelly and I were talking about the call of the fishermen. What did Zebedee think of his two sons being called, and did that leave him in a bind with his fishing business? Of course the sons of thunder (I like that name Boanerges) were likely first cousins to Jesus, and maybe Zebedee saw it coming.
I disagree with author Richard Bauckham who thinks that John the son of Zebedee was not the "beloved disciple" and wasn't the author of the Gospel of John. My opinion (which is just a gut feeling) is that John was the younger relative of Jesus, who admired and looked up to him, and was there at the foot of the cross with him; the only apostle who was.
"I'm glad you mentioned that it was the Word of God Sunday because I didn't know that."
DeleteOne of our visiting priests, a newly ordained religious-order priest from Colombia, was surprised, too. He had never heard of it before. It's fairly new; Pope Francis started it in 2019. It's always the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Even the USCCB website with the daily readings didn't identify it this year as Sunday of the Word of God. I'm speculating that observance of it is starting to slip.
Or maybe it just never really got started. Sometimes it takes awhile for something new to catch on.
DeleteJim, be glad that you now have Medicare and that your wife’s job could currently be backup if needed for family covered under her policy like college kids? How much younger is your wife? my husband is 7 years older and when his small company’s insurance carrier forced him onto Medicare I was forced off his insurance (an exemption for small companies) and into COBRA which meant we paid the entire premium ourselves and it was a whole lot of $. So eventually when one of my former colleagues that I had worked with as a contractor offered me a job with the company I took it - because I was able to get health insurance through the company, and, in our 60s, finding a company salary with benefits job is very tough going. I was not able to buy my own (pre- Obama) because I had had a small skin cancer removed a few years earlier and I was not offered a plan by insurance companies because of it - a pre- existing condition even though there was no recurrence. They said it meant that I was at higher risk for cancer in general. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 74 I was under Medicare. If I had been diagnosed at 64 with no insurance coverage (many people are not going uninsured because of the premiums) it would have been extremely expensive for the cancer surgery and treatments.. COBRA extensions are very expensive and may mean $20k in premiums, deductibles and co- pays. And Obamacare isn’t affordable now for a whole lot of people. I will pray that you can keep your job so that you don’t learn about the realities of our sub- standard healthcare system the hard way., You have generally been pretty indifferent about the costs of health care in this country and the cost of health insurance to millions who work for small companies or for little money- the working poor who didn’t qualify for Medicaid and couldn’t even afford Obamacare - about 20 million. That number will probably double this year. They clog the emergency rooms for simple care like flu tests because they can’t be rejected from ERs but are often rejected by privately owned urgent care clinics, costing the hospitals a lot of money and many uninsured individuals ending up in bankruptcy court because they can’t pay the bills they incurred while uninsured. Less efficient and more costly for everyone involved, including taxpayers who help fund hospitals.
DeleteThe NYT recently has an article on this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/opinion/health-insurance-obamacare-subsidies-america.html?unlocked_article_code=1.G1A.LvVf.KLwBuBEufS7u&smid=nytcore-ios-share
I believe small employers would be better off under single payer or a national health system. Certainly would be one less headache. At the same time, large employers would have one less instrument to instill fear in their employees. I believe that having to deal with massive paperwork with a zoo of insurance providers is the cause of the collapse of the private medical practice. Better it evolved into something like Pocono Eye, a group of ophthalmologists who share facilities, equipment and support staff.
DeleteNot just small employers. I think that all employers would be better off with a national health system, and of course, so would patients. Medical expenditures as a % of GDP would fall by at least fifty percent, probably more because the health care system would no longer be founded on a profit making model and everyone would have access to affordable healthcare. . There are 38 countries in the OECD (the wealthiest countries) and 37 have universal health care that costs far less than in the US.The US is the 38th country - and the wealthiest - and the only one without universal health care. Why do we persist in the stupidity that is the American healthcare system? Because greed has become the country’s main character trait.
DeleteJust to clarify one point: I am not on Medicare yet; when I turn 65 later this year, it will be an option. My wife, myself and one of our children are all on her medical insurance now. My company offers roughly comparable medical insurance, but hers is less expensive. If my wife and I both retire, my son will have to go on his employer's insurance plan (which might be just fine for him - I don't know the details). At any rate, he "ages out" of being able to be on his parents' plan in < a year.
DeletePerhaps I have been indifferent to problems in US medical care. FWIW, I see good medical care as a human right, and want it to be available to all American citizens.
I have been critical of Obamacare over the years. I see it primarily as a Medicaid expansion program, with the insurance exchanges sort of riding along as a sidecar. If we're going to have a quasi-national health plan, is Medicaid the best we can do? Maybe it is, not sure.
My employer is making many changes, and not really accommodating someone at my age/stage of life. I think it's more likely than not at this point that they'll lay me off before the calendar year is out. But the future is hard to predict.
If/when that happens, I need to figure out what to do next. I'd be in a position to be pretty choosy. I've been carrying leadership-related responsibility and stress for a long time, and I'm kind of getting tired of it. I could be okay with a big pay cut if it means doing something I feel is contributing in the right way, and if it's something I can leave behind at the end of the workday. If I end up doing piano gigs as a fill-in for masses and funerals, so be it. If I could combine that with being a part-time adjunct at the local community college, even better. If there is some way I could be a pastoral associate, I'm up for that, too. Just dreaming out loud.
Jim, I hope your company would offer a severance package, maybe carry insurance for you if you weren't 65 yet. But it's tough waiting for the shoe to fall.
DeleteI know some people have had okay luck with Medicare Advantage plans. They are basically HMOs. But personally we preferred going with traditional Medicare. We have had very good luck with it; of course one would also need to carry a supplemental plan.
You are right that a problem could also be an opportunity. But stressful to try and figure out what comes next.
Jim, I once spent a fair amount of time researching the healthcare systems of several major countries. No two are the same. With the exception of England, which is purely govt run, all had some combination of govt- private partnership. Employers paid some, workers paid some, and the govt paid some. All were way cheaper than the US. The US is by far the most expensive but it is ranked around 27th in quality of care and outcomes, even though costing between 2-8 times as much as the systems in the other rich countries.. Of the 38 in the OECD only the US does not provide universal healthcare, with about 20 million uninsured. Lots of models to look at and adapt to the us.
DeleteWe have Medicare and a supplement, like Katherine. We have been very satisfied as the two plans together have covered every penny of his well over $ million in medical expenses including his new $50,000 power wheelchair. We are very grateful. Everything in our 11-months in California was covered - not just here. We didn’t sign up for an Advantage plan because we traveled so much both in the US and internationally. We didn’t want to be confined to a local network. Our supplement also covers international medical with a $300 deductible. It’s the most expensive of the supplement plans but not really much more than the cheapest and was the only plan with international coverage. Do you ever go to Canada? Are you covered when you do? Are there limitations like having to go to a hospital and not a doctor or private clinic to receive coverage outside the US? Do you think that you and your wife might want to do more international travel after retiring? Maybe even go on a mission in Latin America or somewhere? There are short- term travel insurance plans, but they are expensive and get more expensive the older you get. If you plan little or no travel in foreign countries they still might be the best option ( you might want to go to Canada, Caribbean islands etc)
I have a CSRS pension and Federal Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Today. Apparently, nothing is written in stone anymore and whatever I have could disappear. I accept that everything I previously counted on is now in jeopardy. I don’t fear this any more than I fear death. At least it doesn’t occupy my thoughts. I am too preoccupied with how what happens will affect my friends and their families. That is the source of whatever anxiety I have.
DeleteI hope both Jim and Katherine would be willing to expand and clarify.
ReplyDeleteKatherine -“ … there is a type of persecution going on here. Not specifically religious, but having to do with it in some ways.”
What is the persecution and how is it religious?
Jim - could you expand on your meaning in your uses of the phrases “God’s plan” and “Gods call”?
My husband’s brother and his late wife both told us - separately at different times- that my husband’s fall from the ladder was “God’s plan” for him. It really upset me. It really upset my husband. When my s-I- l said that while we were driving home from the ICU during the first week - when he was on 100% oxygen and very near death- I was angry. Her meaning was that it was God’s WILL that he fall and be paralyzed. Her husband said the same thing to my husband, his brother, a few months later. Both said that being upset showed a lack of faith in God’s plan for us My husband has refrained from asking his brother if he believed that it was God’s will that his wife die from a heart condition that need not have progressed to death when it did. Does God really will our deaths at a certain time?
I don’t think that God wills the bad things that happen to people . But God allows them to happen because God is not a puppet master who pulls 8 billion sets of strings continuously. God gave us freedom. My husband had been told by human beings that being on very tall ladders in his 80s was risky but he chose to do it anyway. His common sense deserted him. My late s-I- law was told for 20 years that she had a serious cholesterol problem and should take medication. They rejected mainstream medicine (even then). They were Christian fundamentalists and Libertarians. She died of heart disease because they had eaten a heavy animal fat diet and refused to change to a more moderate Mediterranean style diet as advised. All very MAHA before MAHA but they were anti-govt anything (except for 20: years as a Naval,officer). Eventually 90% of her heart arteries were blocked and multiple surgeries to implant 5 stents during the last six months of her life were too late to undo the damage. My brother in law recently had his 5th stent put in because he also has 90% of his arteries clogged. Maybe he woke up in time after her death prevent her fate for himself. These were decisions they made - not God. Painting the house trim on a two story ladder was a decision my 82 year old husband made.Their views of “God’s plan” deny free will. God gave us brains but it’s up to us to use our brains. We can choose “wrongly” as the bad guy in the Indiana Jones movie did when he chose the jewel bedecked gold chalice instead of the simple wooden cup.
Last August my brother in law got furious at his younger sister when she mentioned “mourning” the death of the older sister, saying that mourning means we don’t accept God’s plan.. No mourning. Hey we’re in a Florida visiting her family when her heart failed. Her sister arranged a small memorial,service at her church.My brother in law wore cargo shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.There were a dozen male relatives, including his sons, who could have lent him appropriate clothes. I think it was part of his “ no mourning” beliefs. I looked that concept up this week and found that apparently it’s not an uncommon belief in evangelical circles. He was very angry with his younger sister about the use of the word “mourn”. I found an article by Calvin College saying that “mourning” is not wrong - that Jesus himself wept when he learned of the death of Lazarus.
DeletePerhaps God does “call” us to certain things like vocations. I don’t know. But we should be careful in saying God has a plan for everyone to make sure that people understand that all have free will also, that God isn’t a puppet master dictating our every move. How many believe they are called to marriage with a particular person only to discover later it was the wrong choice. Did God’s plan for them really include divorce? Families torn apart? Tens of thousands of priests and nuns who had taken permanent vows after years of formal, supervised discernment in seminaries and convents renounced their religious vocations. Did God not call them? I read last week that the PTB are so concerned about the many young priests who have been leaving that they are undertaking a three year study at a cost of millions (at Catholic University in DC). Or are all of these things simply what happens to people, often unavoidable bad luck, bad decisions. Nobody chose to be on a beach in Thailand at the same time a massive tsumami arrived . There is often no choice.
I have to run.I hope this comment isn’t too messed up!
Jim,I would really appreciate it if you could explain what you mean by God’s plan for us - other than God’s plan that all should come to know God.
https://calvinseminary.edu/article/are-christians-allowed-to-grieve-the-death-of-a-loved-one/
To clarify - my sister in law died in Florida, not my husband’s sister. I was a bit shocked when my brother in law showed up at the church for his wife’s memorial service wearing his beach clothes and flip flops. I did not know then that he felt that mourning the death of a loved one is a rejection of “ God’s plan”. Didn’t learn that until his sister died in New York last summer.
DeleteAnne, what I meant as "a type of persecution" are the kinds of things that ICE is doing in Minneapolis and other places; brutality by our own government. Where it intersects with religion is that it goes against teachings of Christianity, as well as other religions. When people try to follow the teachings of Christ and intervene on behalf of those being harmed, the weight of the brutality falls on them too.
DeleteAbout what people told you about it being "God's plan" when things like your husband's accident happen, I just cringe when I hear stuff like that. You are right that God is not a puppet master. When people say those things it just adds to the burden of those who are suffering. I do think that God inspires others, such as doctors and nurses, to choose those professions in order to help those who are suffering. And I believe that God is with us even when we are going through bad things. But to say he causes the bad things denies free will and the laws of nature.
Hi Anne and all - by the phrases "God's plan" and "God's call" I have in mind the idea of a vocation - the particular way we are to serve the Lord. Or we might talk about vocations and ways (plural), because we all can serve God in multiple ways. In my case, my vocations include husband, father, deacon, and possibly whatever it is I do for a living.
DeleteI wouldn't say that your husband's terrible accident is his vocation, nor that that was God's plan for him. I agree with you: that kind of suffering is not what God wills for us. Having said all that: it's possible that, in your husband's current, physically limited way of life, God may still have a vocation for him. I don't know what it would be, but it might be as simple as being kind and loving to his caregivers.
Our vocations should help make God's presence among us clear, and should help build the kingdom. Many ways, many walks of life for doing that.
In our secular society, "Who does God want me to be?" (a vocation-centered question) has been reduced down to, "What should I do for a living?" I'm among those conservatives who think our higher education system, and perhaps even our primary schooling, would be better if resources were more directed to the first question and less directed to the second question; or perhaps if the second question was subordinated to the first.
The problem with having the first question be the primary consideration in the mission statements of public educational institutions at all levels is that it violates separation of church and state. I agree that it is more important than the second question and I wish there would be a return to liberal arts requirements during the first year or two of college. It’s a common complain these days but I agree with it—Higher education should be about more than job training. I have read that some colleges and universities are moving in that direction. Baby steps.
DeletePerhaps the first question could be changed to a non- religious statement that incorporates religious teachings such as “What can I do with my life to help others and make at least my small corner of the world a better place for those around me?”
Weather update. There is a forecast of more bad weather coming from the Atlantic, moving up the east coast to New England, including mid- Atlantic areas like DC and Pennsylvania (Stanley). We had about 7” of snow - not really a huge amount.But the top 2-3” was ice from a full day of sleet in lower than freezing temperatures. It’s been single digits at night, low 20s in the day time for a longer period than usual so there is no melting. The sub- freezing temperatures will last at least several more days and the new storm might add more snow and ice to the current pile. Normally melting sets in as soon as storms pass and the sun comes out, but it’s been too cold this time.
Anne, I’ll be happy when I no longer have to remember to drip the kitchen faucet. Whenever it’s single digit, due to a bad design by the builder, the lines to my kitchen sink freeze. Our genius president, of course, uses this cold snap and recent storm as evidence climate change is a hoax. As usual, his simplifying mind does violence to the actual complexity and beauty of the physical universe.
DeleteAnne says: Perhaps the first question could be changed to a non- religious statement that incorporates religious teachings such as “What can I do with my life to help others and make at least my small corner of the world a better place for those around me?”
DeleteThe difficulty is how to motivate more than self-interest without reference to the Divine.
Obviously, that reference should not be to the City or State as an organizational political entity. We need to be able to distance ourselves and be critical of those entities.
Obviously, that reference should not be to our corporations and business organizations. We need to be able to distance ourselves and be critical of those entities.
Less obviously, that reference should not be to our families. Jesus was very critical of family loyalty, probably because the family was usually the place of work, and therefore much more powerful than Cities in the ancient world or the modern State. We need to be critical of our families.
Finally, even less obviously that external social reality should not be the Church and its organizations. We need to be critical of those, too. Both history and present reality demonstrate how easily those are corrupted.
Merton would say that we need to be motivated by our real self and our real self-interest which can only be found when we discover God as God really is and not as one of the idol presented by nations, cities, corporations, other people, and even church leaders.
The equivalent of Merton description is not easily expressed in secular language. Greenleaf called it being the servant of others, when that service seeks their highest goods, e.g. health, wisdom and also being the servant others. He added that a mark is being the servant of the least and most marginal of peoples.
Good attempt, but I think more religious language helps get across the notion that we can be mistaken when we think we know what is best for others, not matter how much of a servant leader we think we are.
Jack, I have known people whose lives reflected “ love your neighbor” who weren’t religious. I have read of many more. I think there are probably millions of people, especially those who are born and live out their lives in non- religious countries who are motivated to improve the world in some small way, act beyond self- interest, without reference to the divine or religion. Serving others does not necessarily imply that people think they know best for others.
DeleteThis appears in our Sunday bulletin for this weekend:
ReplyDeleteOpportunity for Advocacy – Faith without works is dead.
In response to the US Bishop’s Special Message on
Immigration (U.S. Bishops Issue a “Special Message” on
Immigration from Plenary Assembly in Baltimore |
USCCB), St. Gabriel’s will join other parishes in our area
and have letters to our elected officials available for you to
sign after all the Masses next weekend, February 7/8, 2026.
Please read through the Special Message from the Bishops
and prayerfully consider signing 3 letters – 2 Senators, 1
Representative – on February 7/8. These small acts of
advocacy & solidarity reflect Jesus’ call to Beatitudinal
living, to love those most in need.
Our offering of letters to advocate for meaningful
immigration reform that will take place next weekend after
all Masses is an opportunity for registered voters to sign
three letters individually – one to Senator Moreno, one to
Senator Husted, and one to Representative Jamie Callender
(District 57) and Daniel Troy (District 23). These letters
will be gathered in bulk, combined with the letters from all
the other participating parishes, and delivered, in person, to
the local office of each elected official. This is a collective
effort of the community of St. Gabriel, other parishes in
our diocese, and the Social Action Office of the Diocese of
Cleveland in a collaborative effort to realize the Joy of the
Gospel and the dignity of life endowed upon every human
being, created in the image and likeness of Christ
Good for your parish and diocese, Jack.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think about dropping Facebook altogether. I have a pretty limited friend list, but I see "friends of friends" on there sometimes. If I dropped out I would miss the sort of funny, a lot scary, insights into the way human minds work. Like when my sister's daughter's ex-husband's aunt goes full on MAGA and defends an alternate reality that doesn't exist. Some people are just plain crazy, is the only way to explain it. That's the sort of funny part, even the ex says she's crazy. The "a lot scary" part; there are a lot of people like that.
ReplyDeleteI use FB to follow a few special interest groups and read Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Snyder on FB. I don’t have many “friends” and most of them don’t post much. I use FB primarily to communicate with my MAGA relatives, posting comments and news stories about trumps awfulness in general and his racist policies in particular. I know they neither see stories on TV nor hear about these things because they live in white MAGA bubbles, including most of their friends and other extended family. They don’t hear the other side. I also know that they read my FB stuff even though they seldom comment. It is not possible for us to actually discuss any of this and my communications ( mostly texts and emails, mostly related to family deaths and serious health issues) with them are very strained, walking on eggshells. The sister who died was not MAGA and she and I could talk, but not my eldest sister, her husband ( now late husband), my adult nieces and nephews, my brother and his wife in Arizona and all those families’ nieces and nephews - all adults. A couple of them have blocked me on FB. I didn’t even know that until I checked after my son told me he had been blocked. Since his wife and kids are African American he really points out the ongoing, worsening racism of the trump administration. But he also emphasizes the Epstein stuff ( our Pedo President) and the increasing public usage of symbols, music and actions used in Nazi Germany by several agencies (notably DHS, but also the Dept of Labor) and.now even the WH website. Few white people follow the racist actions as closely as we do because they aren’t personally affected. They remain blissfully ignorant of how much racist stuff has been done and continues.
DeleteI can’t go out to protest, so this is how I get my activism done - limited to my family and a few MAGA friends on FB.. I have tight privacy controls so few people read my comments. Plus I need to adopt Jeans practice of writing our state’s people in Congress even though only one ( in the House) is a Republican.
I do enjoy some of the. Creative, funny memes that pass through and have managed through tight controls to not get much of the nasty stuff.
I'm off of FB for now with no intention of returning. I've also pulled my Alexa units out. I also intend to get rid of my Ring floodlight/camera and Ring doorbell. "1984" is late but it's beyond anything Orwell imagined.
DeleteI don’t have Alexa, nor a doorbell camera, nor do I use ChatPT. I will keep FB for now. The groups I belong to provide a lot of useful information, especially for paraplegics and other wheelchair users. I found the teenagers who cleared our driveway and walkway to the house in our neighborhood FB group. The medical establishment isn’t very helpful in regards to navigating everyday life in a wheelchair, equipment choices to make life easier, travel to truly accessible hotels ( few are really accessible), navigating airplane travel without your expensive wheelchair being damaged etc. Others in the same situation share their experiences and knowledge. You can ask questions and get a couple of dozen very useful replies. Very helpful!
DeleteI’m increasingly fed up with the WaPo’s cringing rightwing tilt in news and opinion and might let it go even though it’s the local paper. We don’t watch tv news so the internet is our main source of local as well as national and international news. I don’t listen to news or podcasts because of my hearing loss. I read.
I dropped WaPo a while back. Most of the columnists I liked to read have bailed out anyway. It seems like the quality of that publication has deteriorated.
DeleteKatherine, the better opinion columnists left after Bezos bought the paper. He instituted censorship, telling them that they could only write about approved topics. The news stories began to tilt right( even more obviously and frequently that NYTnews tilts left). The editorials are weak, and mostly are pro trump. They fired the only African American news writer remaining on the staff after she quoted Charlie Kirk’s own racist words on Instagram or some other social media. I have read that more than 1500 people lost their jobs for criticizing Kirk - privately, but their comments were reported to their employers. One woman had only 80 FB friends and tight privacy. Apparently one of her “friends” took a screenshot and sent it to her employer. These people didn’t say anything that I haven’t said also about Kirk, but I’m not employed in a red state.The Post keeps getting worse. My subscription goes to August but I might cancel before then. Now they have announced that they are cutting international news coverage - a loss for me - and even sports coverage - a loss for my husband. The slow death of a once decent newspaper. I don’t know what Bezos wants from trump, but he paid $40 million for rights to the “ documentary” on Melania. I guess they figure all the MAGAs will go see it 90 minutes of Melania”’s activities during 3 weeks before the inauguration, her fittings for her clothes and other deep, meaningful stuff.
DeleteThe Post did have a story on Trumps latest vanity project - an Arc de Triomphe that will be the biggest in the world ( of course.The first designer is resigning because of the scale trump wants, just as the first architect of the new ballroom did because of it ruining the symmetry of the White House. Trump is destroying the beauty of this city. He now wants to dig up the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. The WaPo does report these stories .
https://www.sasaki.com/projects/lincoln-memorial-landscape-and-reflecting-pool/
Anne, about what Bezos wants from Trump, I think it's more what Trump is holding over him.
DeleteI read this quote about the Melania movie, "Even if they showed this on a plane, people would still walk out." I don't think even MAGA people people are finding it enjoyable. They just see it for Brownie points.
I have never understood about the Charlie Kirk thing. Until basically the day before yesterday he was just another right wing influencer. Now he's Trump's holy anointed, even though he's dead.
I don't know if you have heard the new Bruce Springsteen song, "The Streets of Minneapolis". Reminds me of the old time protest songs. I'm not a particular fan of his, but he's not afraid to poke the dragon.
I'm sorry to hear about all the damage Trump has inflicted on DC. I was reading that he wants an Indy style car race down the main drag to celebrate the 250 year anniversary.
Yes. He wants a race at 190 mph down Pennsylvania Ave. He’s going to have fights (WWF?) at the White House for 4th of July. The race is also 4th of July. He’s using the 250 th anniversary of America’s founding as his excuse for all of this. I’m guessing the Reflecting Pool will be ripped out by the 4th of July. He hasn’t said what he wants to put there instead. He says the Arch construction will be started soon. It’s way bigger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which has a massive 10 lane traffic circle around it. It’s often called the Étoile (star) because of how it appears from above. The Champs Élysées where it meets the Étoile is a very wide blvd - 8 lanes, 4 on each side. This arch will be at the end of Memorial Bridge, which connects Arlington Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial on the DC side of the bridge. It is 6 lanes total. There is a big difference in a multiple lane traffic circle at the end of a bridge and having one like the arch in Paris at the end of an 8 lane boulevard, with a 10 lane circle that branches into 12 other roads. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris is much smaller than trump’s proposed monument. After all, his arch has to be the biggest in the world. There are already people pointing out that there simply isn’t enough room for this monstrous project.
DeleteFriends who go downtown have told me that his National Guard deployment has almost totally killed the restaurant lunchtime business downtown. Restaurants have been closing, reducing menu offerings and only opening for dinner because the immigrants who are the backbone of the hospitality business are afraid to go to work. They describe downtown as “ dead”. Trump claims no murders for months. DC begs to differ, reporting a few dozen homicides during the same period.
The new song by Springsteen has gone viral on FB.
DeleteGood grief, fights and high speed car racing to celebrate our 250th. Just another thing to make the Founding Fathers roll over in their graves. Not to mention Pierre L'Enfant.
DeleteLatest on the Pretti shooting. The two shooters have Hispanic names and have been with Border Patrol for 8 and 12 years. Hey, MAGA xenophobes, this is hispanics killing white men. Isn’t this what they were supposed to prevent? And these weren’t newbies. You can’t reform this. You must annihilate this.
DeleteIt’s a mess, Stanley. Were the Hispanic officers trying to prove something? Some kind of perverse MAGA loyalty? Can’t blame it on lousy training an d inexperience.
DeleteKatherine, now he’s closing the Kennedy Center for two years for “ renovations” because according to him, it’s a “disaster.”. We haven’t been there for a long time - 10 or more years. So I don’t know from personal experience. I hadn’t heard that this was the case. Apparently it isn’t. The normally scheduled maintenance has gone on, but apparently there was a plan to update 50 year old systems like plumbing and HVAC that wouldn’t require closing the center. There was a $250 million refurbishment and new event space with the latest and greatest completed in 2019.
But ticket sales are the lowest in history, donations too are in the basement, and the expected income has fallen way short because so many people are furious at him for adding his name to the building ( illegally of course. Only a congress can change the name) - above Kennedy - and the performers and musicians just keep canceling. Only MAGA fans are buying tickets and outside of the administration folk who now live in DC unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of them in the DC metro area to keep the Kennedy Center afloat. Heaven help us if he decides to blanket the distinguished arts center in more Gilt!
They hired a new program director a few weeks ago and he quit after two weeks.
I dunno, Anne. Reminds me of the Kapos in the Nazi death camps. They got better treatment by supervising the prisoners, their fellow Jews. The two officers have been working an intrinsically brutal job for around a decade on their own ethnicity. Why wouldn’t they kill a gringo in the excitement? I don’t think thought went into it. They may have already killed immigrants in the wilderness rather than bring them in. Or robbed and killed them where no one would know. Sorry, my pessimistic imagination can’t help it. A man taking video of an ICE man in the car was told by him, “You raise your voice, I’ll erase your voice”. The ICE man was hispanic.
DeleteAnne said: Plus I need to adopt Jeans practice of writing our state’s people in Congress even though only one ( in the House) is a Republican.
ReplyDeleteBetty tells me that the parish letter writing strategy has been very effective in her experience. The receiving politicians cannot deny to themselves and others that there are a substantial number of Catholics out there who want them to do something. They don't have to read and sort through a substantial number of letters and cannot pretend that they did not come in, or they did not have the time to read them.
I liked Katherine's list of a dozen impeachable offenses. I thought I would use at an appropriate time to write to my senator's and representative, telling them as a Democrat that I have been disappointed very much in both parties and that I am now looking for individual politicians that are ready to rise above partisanship and do what is best for the country. We need to have a change in political leadership in this country and that should begin now with Trump.
I think the parish letter writing campaign will be the occasion. I will endorse its concern about immigration, telling them that I was unable to come to church to sign the letter, but I am very glad that our parishes and others are beginning to get beyond partisanship and organize around getting things done.
Especially for Stanley.Looks like the snow will miss you and us. Here’s an article for you at Politico - no paywall.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.politico.com/interactives/2025/chris-wright-doe-climate-change-report/
Jim Pauwels said: "God had endowed Mary with freedom, just as he has endowed us with freedom. And so, when he had his messenger Gabriel call her to her sacred vocation, he respected her freedom. He allowed her to choose: to say Yes – or even to say No."
ReplyDeleteAccording to Catholic doctrine—in fact, infallibly pronounced dogma—Mary was immaculately conceived, that is, conceived without Original Sin. What would this have meant for her behavior? What is a person like who has never committed a sin? (Of course, Adam and Eve were created without Original Sin, and they committed sins at the earliest possibility.)
As I read Luke, Gabriel doesn't ask Mary whether she wants the life he foretells for her. He announces what that life will be. Does it make sense to say she could have refused? Remember, she was immaculately conceived in anticipation of her being the mother of Jesus. One might assume it was foreordained that she would accept the role Gabriel predicted for her.
On the other hand, it is argued that God knows everything that will ever happen, and this in no way interferes with human freedom. God knows every decision you will ever make, but you will make all of those decisions freely. This is difficult to comprehend.
Mary did say "Be it done unto me according to thy word." I suppose she could have said "Nothing doing!"
DeleteI have been thinking that one would be much happier to have been conceived without original sin. Seems like that would mean that one would not be inclined to judge others, or tell lies, or do even petty dishonest things. Or to wish harm to those we seeing doing harm. But the downside of that would be that you have to live around people who are wholeheartedly devoted to their sins.
I recall that our late friend Tom Blackburn once said that "God gets who he wants".
David, I have asked that same question repeatedly since I was a teenager. If God knows what we will say or do from the beginning of time ( time that had no beginning?) , then how can we say or do something different? I haven’t studied the Presbyterian beliefs on pre- destination but I can see how the concept could make sense. As you say, if Mary had said No, then why was she conceived without sin? Now for me that’s just an interesting intellectual challenge to Catholicism because I don’t believe in original sin. But since the church teaches it, it had to create a theology for Mary to be born without it - no sin for the God- bearer.
Delete"As I read Luke, Gabriel doesn't ask Mary whether she wants the life he foretells for her. He announces what that life will be. Does it make sense to say she could have refused? Remember, she was immaculately conceived in anticipation of her being the mother of Jesus. One might assume it was foreordained that she would accept the role Gabriel predicted for her."
DeleteJust want to comment that earlier in chapter 1, Luke tells the parallel story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and her conceiving John in her old age. In that case, the angel didn't exactly make Zechariah an offer ("God would like to send you a son. Do you accept, yes or no?") Rather, the angel positions it as God answering Zechariah's prayer. Zechariah had, at least implicitly, already told God he would accept a son if God could somehow grant it.
But then Zechariah is said to have doubted that God could pull this off (something I struggle with; Zechariah's words to the angel aren't much different than Mary's to the angel in the next chapter), and consequently is punished by being struck mute. That's not really the same thing as Zechariah exercising his free will; rather, he's being punished for doubting God.
Is the same dynamic at play in the angel's annunciation to Jesus: was God not so much making an offer to Mary, as graciously granting a prayer that Mary already had made (i.e. perhaps, in her thoughts, hopes and dreams about her upcoming marriage, she had prayed that she might bear Joseph a son)? That would keep the parallel with the Zechariah/Elizabeth story.
But I dunno - your question just made me think of this now.
Oops, sorry, the Annunciation wasn't to Jesus, it was to Mary (*of* Jesus). And that's not in the next chapter, it's in the same chapter.
DeleteThe scriptures can be pretty confusing. Besides thinking about free will for many years and Mary conceived without sin by two people never mentioned by name in the scriptures I’ve also thought a lot about the NT being written in hindsight, decades after Jesus’s death, frequently alluding to the prophecies of the OT, especially Isiah. I’ve assumed that the gospel writers ( who were thoroughly educated in the Hebrew Scriptures) may have written their texts that way in an attempt to “ prove” to the communities they were addressing that Jesus was the promised messiah and - look - see how this event fulfilled the prophecies!
DeleteAbout Zechariah temporarily losing his ability to speak, I have thought that the shock of seeing an angel could have caused a stroke or a TIA.
DeletePunishing him for doubting seems harsh After all, having an angel tell him they would have a son in their “ old” age (I wonder how old was old - 40?.) would be a bit of a shock and raise reasonable doubt. Why would a loving God punish that?
DeleteI have always thought that Elizabeth was probably in her 40s, not an elderly:85 or something (having a kid at that age would kill you!). Both of them were apparently young enough to be sexually active.
Delete"(I wonder how old was old - 40?)"
DeleteGood question. The account in Luke doesn't say. I'm sure I've seen fine artwork that shows the couple considerably older than 40, not that that's evidence, except perhaps as an illustration of how the Western religious tradition has collectively imagined them over the centuries.
Interestingly, some of the paintings I was just glancing at on the Google machine show a pretty big age disparity between Zechariah and Elizabeth - him considerably older than her As indeed many people have imagined to be the case for Joseph and Mary.
In those days many women died young, often due to pregnancy complications. There were many second marriages for men who felt obligated to father children to be respected, and to have help from them in old age. He might have been widowed and decided to try again with a younger wife, but she didn’t conceive. So being childless really was seen as a tragedy, maybe even punishment from God. Mary was a very young teenager so a 40 year old cousin might seem old. I have known women who were unable to conceive and then had a surprise pregnancy at 40 or early 40s. Apparently that might happen due to changing hormone levels in women of that age. One friend assumed for 4 months that she was experiencing an early menopause. Surprise!
DeleteThe famous artists supported by wealthy patrons generally depicted people who looked like themselves and their patrons (white Europeans) and probably knew people who were in better health and lived longer than first century Jews, who were often poor, oppressed citizens of the Roman Empire. Many of the wealthy patrons of artists were elderly themselves. So perhaps some artists painted the couple to look a bit like their patrons.
Anne, thanks for the link. For some reason, it failed earlier but worked on this last try. Yes, the DOE report has the usual subjects, Curry, Spencer, Soon. They are skilled liars for the fossil fuel industry and now the corrupted DOE. Unfortunately, the only thing that may reduce the US’ carbon footprint may turn out to be the collapse of the petrodollar and a subsequent depression. Science-based planning is out of the loop. I don’t think we can avoid the coming catastrophes: shut down of the Gulf Stream, forest fires, melting of glaciers (India’s water storage system), ocean acidification, biodiversity collapse, weather extremes, release of methane from the tundra, sea level rise. I’m starting to wonder if the human race will survive. We’ve nearly become extinct before. Maybe some pocket of lucky circumstance somewhere on the globe will be a haven for some. The only survivors may be primitive tribes with the appropriate skills. There may be a solution out there but not without drastic changes in our lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteHappy Candlemas Day!
ReplyDeleteI like the feast, it's a little bit of celebration and light in a dreary part of winter.
I sometimes leave the Christmas decorations up until then.
Sometimes I make crepes or pancakes since they are a traditional dessert for the day. But I haven't done it today, too lazy. Besides I don't need the calories.
Happy Groundhog day too. But, as usual, it’s 6 more weeks of winter.
DeleteI always liked Candlemas Day. I’m not sure why. Tomorrow is my mothers birthday - 116 if she were still alive.
There is something very real about a young couple with infant encountering a couple of old people with a spiritual message in church. I can easily believe that something like that really happened.
DeleteA story for Jean.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.aol.com/articles/state-most-beautiful-beaches-country-114500207.html
After reading some escape novels set in Michigan, I have wanted to visit because the author was exceptionally good at making the reader “ feel” the setting.. It’s not likely to happen, unfortunately.
Our last month's book club selection was Tom Lake, by Anne Patchett. It was fiction, but she was really good at describing the cherry orchards and lakes of northern Michigan. A good novel if you want something that doesn't have a sad ending.
DeleteThanks Katherine. I’ll look for it. Especially if it doesn’t have a sad ending! I accidentally subscribed to a 3 month free trial subscription of Kindle Unlimited ( I was trying to order a gift subscription for our 11 year old grandson who is a fanatic reader) Now I Have to remember to cancel before the automatic renewal. I download books from the library a lot.
Delete