Ubi Petrus

Tonight I’ve been going over the readings for tomorrow, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), and, since I’m the contrarian sort, was trying to think of something other than the expected theme.  Sometimes you run into readings and you can virtually guarantee what the homily will be because the theme is so singular and clear; I do not suggest this as a bad thing at all, but it does make the RCIA “breaking open the word” segment difficult.  The last thing I want to do is drag people out from Mass only to tell them all over again what the priest just said in his homily.

So … what do I expect to hear from these readings?  I expect we’ll hear something about how we’re all called by Christ and possibly even to notice that the disciples’ response was total and immediate.  That pretty much covers the Gospel.  So I went digging around and lo and behold this story, while appearing in all four Gospels, is told slightly differently.  In Matthew and Mark Jesus calls to Andrew and Peter from the shore and they respond; in John (from which this Sunday’s reading is taken) Andrew comes to find Simon and Jesus upon seeing him gives him the name Peter; in Luke, Jesus sets out in Simon’s boat and after a miraculous catch of fish Peter proclaims both that Jesus is Lord and that he, Simon, is a sinner.  I don’t think this is just an artifact of different writers and different audiences.  What is this telling us?

While I’m no Biblical scholar, here’s what I’m seeing:  God does, yes, call us – but He can call us in three different ways.  First, He can call us directly, as in Matthew and Mark – in our day, a pretty rare occurrence.  Second, He can call us through events, sometimes even miraculous events, in our lives, as in Luke – something much more common today I’d think.  Third, He can use someone else to call us to Him,  as in John – something probably about as common as the second form.  Then, of course, there are hybrids such as in the first reading from Samuel where God calls Samuel directly but it requires the (God-inspired) intervention of another person for that call to be recognized.

So what am I taking out of all of this?  Pay attention.  God may not call to me in the way I’m looking for or the way I’d prefer.  He may well be using someone else to pull me by the hand even while I’m standing there waiting for Him to come in glowing radiance.  Perhaps it is some event or series of events in my life through which He is nudging me in the right direction while I am waiting for someone to just say something.  God does His own thing in His own way, and we ought not to constrict Him to doing it our way in our time.

Finally, yes, we must respond and we must do it the way these disciples did – quickly and decisively.  We are told Peter left either his father and servants behind or, as in Luke, that he left everything behind.  Follow God; the rest will sort itself out later.

Oh, and one more thing.  Your call may be to call someone else.  Following the John’s telling, if Andrew had not called Peter things would have been incalculably different.  We have not just a right but a duty to let others know about Christ and His Church; if we love them we can do no less.

One of the things I enjoy doing, particularly but not exclusively, with Scripture is to look at frequently referenced quotes in broader context.  So very often we learn much more about what the author or speaker meant and sometimes we even learn that what they meant was not how it is commonly understood.  As a part of my project to read through the Bible and the Catechism, and drag y’all along with me, I’d like to make this a regular feature of this blog.  With that intro, let’s begin with this nugget: Continue Reading »

I know it’s been really quiet here and I can’t say as I’m all that happy about that fact.  Despite plenty of excuses know that I am doing my best to get back to a regular blogging routine.  Honest.

That said, I plan on dragging you all along with me as I work to tackle three projects over the course of a good chunk of this year.  First, I’ve committed to getting my Latin studies going for real.  I’ll be going through John F. Collins’ Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin and using its associated Answer Key targeting roughly one unit per week.  There are 35 units in the book, so that means it’ll take me the better part of the year, but I’m going to let myself get ahead if I can.

Second and third, I’m going to read the entire Bible this year as well as the entirety of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  I’ll be following the schedule set up by the good folks at the Coming Home Network.  I started this once before and hit a roadblock a couple of months in.  Hopefully this time will go more smoothly, although I am already a few days behind in starting.

I intend to share any reflections I may have or quotes that strike my fancy or even just the occasional “wow, Latin is a weird language – did you know …”.  That won’t be all I’ll be blogging about, but at least it will give me some structure going forward.

If you’re a Mac user and looking for a powerful Bible (and beyond) search and research tool, Logos is finally taking pre-orders for its software.  While the titles they have available are largely dominated by Protestant writers there is also a very large library of Catholic titles.  I often use the tool to prep for our RCIA classes and if I could invent more time in the day I’d be able to use it for many other purposes.  Some even use it to help them learn some of the ancient Biblical languages.

Maybe it’s just because I really needed a laugh today, or maybe it’s just because I’m more than just a little geeky. Either way, Kevin’s Quirky Bibles post gave me more than a couple good chuckles. A couple of examples:

Another Robert Barker edition, of the King James Bible in 1631, is the most notorious. At Exodus 20.14, it reads “Thou shalt commit adultery.”

and

The Wife-Hater Bible of 1810 was named for its text of Luke 14.26: “If any . . . hate not . . . his own wife also.”

And just to prove that typesetters aren’t always your best friend:

In 1950, volume 1 of the Old Testament published by the Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine included “skunk” in Leviticus 11.30. The typesetter “corrected” the intended skink, a kind of lizard.

Kevin at biblicalia announced a new mailing list a while ago:

The moderators would like to announce the release of their new biblical studies email list, The Biblicalist

The Biblicalist is a biblical studies list of academic emphasis open to all who wish to approach the Bible in its wider context, past and present. All viewpoints and perspectives which draw on the work of scholars in
biblical studies and cognate disciplines are welcome.

Topics of discussion include the interpretation of particular texts of the Bible and related literature, the background of ancient Near Eastern and Classical cultures, theological and philosophical reflections on
relevant issues, and the Bible in art and literature, including the reception of the Bible from ancient times to the present. Other topics in a similar vein are not only welcome, but encouraged.

Yeah, it was quite a while ago, but I’m still digging out from under my piles of accumulated “I need to get to that”. I probably will be for a while too.

I’m not quite sure where to go with this…

The biblical Israelites may have been high on a hallucinogenic plant when Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai, according to a new study by an Israeli psychology professor.

Writing in the British journal Time and Mind, Benny Shanon of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough fun, the good professor just has to explain how he knows what these effects are:

Shanon wrote that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having “partaken of the … brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts.”

So now we’re asserting that taking hallucinogenic drugs makes someone a subject matter expert. I wonder if he can get SME fees in court for this kind of knowledge.

Of course, leave it to a good Rabbi to have the best last word:

Some biblical scholars were unimpressed. Orthodox rabbi Yuval Sherlow told Israel Radio: “The Bible is trying to convey a very profound event. We have to fear not for the fate of the biblical Moses, but for the fate of science.”

This whole thing just begs for a fisk, but there just isn’t enough meat on the bones to even make it worth boiling them. One does wonder from where the funding for this study came – someone may be looking for a refund. What some people won’t do in an attempt to disprove the Bible…

As I stood there last night listening to Father Paul proclaim the Gospel at the Vigil Mass a thought struck me. We have all (or at least most of us have) heard these Beatitudes a thousand times and most every time processed them through the same filter. Many of us can probably even repeat them by heart. And each one of us probably has one that we like the most because it appeals to either where we are or where we’d like to be. They’re usually sliced and diced up as nine separate, stand-alone concepts wholly intact and unaffected by, although related to, the others.

Have you ever tried to think of them, however, as a coherent whole? Not as a bulleted list of those blessed, not a check-list to see if you get into Heaven, but as a single, unified commandment. Take the list not as a series of “or”s, but as concatenated by “and”s. You don’t get to Heaven just by being merciful, nor does being a peacemaker give you the all-access pass, not without living a life consuming all of those categories.

You might think, “well, Mother Teresa is surely in Heaven and she was never insulted or persecuted”. For that, I give you only Christopher Hitchens’ series of slanders against her as sufficient evidence to the contrary. Truly I tell you this is a single teaching, whole and entire. In breaking it up to get a favorite list we only short-change ourselves the opportunity to be challenged to an even more holy life. Go ahead, read it again as a whole and tell me if your perspective isn’t refreshed.

I’ve just been buried between work, RCIA and the new Bible Study I’ve tripped across (they’re using the Ignatius Study Bibles – yes!). Convenient that, since I’m working to put together a presentation on the Bible for RCIA this Sunday. Given that our Deacon was originally going to make this presentation, I’m of course feeling no pressure to measure up. Of course. All I can say is, thank God for the Catechism. I’m also ruminating on a conversion story post, since I suppose it’s about time I get that out there. Sleep? Who needs sleep?

I confess I’ve been quite lax these past several days in blogging. Much of it has been work-related, but the past two days I’ve had an additional reason – I’ve been trying to learn what I can of my newly-acquired Logos Bible Study Software for Catholics from Bible and Theology Discount Software. Given the scope of the product and my complete lack of experience using software to do my Bible searching it’s been a daunting task although not because the product is difficult to use.

I can’t given absolutely unqualified support for the product only because I haven’t used it enough yet. I will say, however, that from what I can see it is very well designed – new books or collections of books just plug right in to your existing library and you can search any or all of them from one interface. I just started playing with the “Biblical People” plugin and was immediately impressed with how well it integrated and how easily I could move from person to person including verses where they are mentioned right in front of me which I can then immediately cross-reference in all of the other included books.

I know the set is quite pricey – very pricey, indeed. But if you’re expecting to do a lot of reference work this certainly seems a great way to do it – it might even make a great gift for a seminarian you know. For my part, I have high hopes that this will help me be a greater help to our RCIA members in the upcoming session. They certainly are worthy of anything that can be done for them.