April 24, 2022 is officially the Second Sunday ofEaster. Note the “of,” not “after.” That’s because Easter is “not just one day, but an entire season.” It’s a season of 50 days – called Eastertide – that runs from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. (See Frohliche Ostern.) It’salso known as Low Sunday, mostly because church attendance falls off so drastically on that first Sunday “after.” (Compared with the high attendance of Easter Day. On that note see “CEOs;” i.e., Christians who only go to church on Christmas and Easter. “Christmas and Easter Only.”)
But aside from being “low,” it’s also the”Sunday of Many Names!” That includes Doubting Thomas Sunday – the Gospel for the day always tells the story of “Doubting Thomas” – and the Octave of Easter. (Because chronologically it comes eight days after Easter.)
And finally it’s known as “Quasimodo Sunday.” But that’s not because of Quasimodo – the guy shown in the lead image – and better known as the “Hunchback of Notre Dame:”
Instead, the name comes from a Latin translation of the beginning of First Peter 2:2 , a traditional “introit” used in churches on this day. First Peter 2:2 begins – in English and depending on the translation – “As newborn babes, desire the rational milk without guile…” [Or, “pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”] In Latin the verse reads: “Quasi modo geniti infantes…” Literally, “quasi modo means ‘as if in [this] manner.’”
Since “geniti” translates as “newborn” and the translation of “infantes” seems self-evident, the “quasi modo” in question roughly translates, “As if in the manner” (of newborn babes)…
And incidentally, that character in Hunchback of Notre-Dame was namedafter the opening words of First Peter 2:2. In the New International Version it reads, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” Also incidentally, the passage right before it reads, “Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.” Which is definitely a needed reminder these days. (“Facebook commenters!”)
The 2019 post Easter … and a Metaphor talked about these two Sundays and also a metaphor about Jesus inviting Peter to literally “walk on water.” It’s true that Peter “fell flat on his face” – at least metaphorically – but at least he took the chance of accepting Jesus’ invitation. As a result of taking that chance – and not following the safe path and staying in the boat – Peter’s faith grew in ways that the other disciples could never experience. (He “explored his full potential;” so much so that he became Primus inter pares. “First among equals.”)
The third of the three noted Doubting Thomas’ “passage to India,” on the tradition that Thomas sailed to India in 52 AD, to spread the Christian faith. And that he was martyred in 72 AD.
Some Patristic literature state[s] that St. Thomas died a martyr, in east of Persia or in North India by the wounds of the four spears pierced into his body by the local soldiers.
One result? India, and especially the Malabar coast, still boasts a large native population calling themselves “Christians of St. Thomas.” Not bad for a guy who started out doubting…
Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us, in these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us; and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people…
Re: “Doubting Thomas Sunday.” The readings for this Second Sunday of Easter always include John 20:19-31, which tells the story of Thomas overcoming his doubt by personally seeing Jesus after His resurrection. (Overcoming his saying earlier, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”)
Re: An “Introit,” like First Peter 2:2. Merriam-Webster defines it as either “the first part of the traditional proper of the Mass consisting of an antiphon, verse from a psalm, and the Gloria Patri,” or a “piece of music sung or played at the beginning of a worship service.” The Gloria Patri generally goes like this: “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, and now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”
The lower image is courtesy of Doubting Thomas In The Bible – Image Results. It goes with a page, Is it Fair to Call Today’s Saint “Doubting Thomas?”The article included the thought that “faith and doubt are not antitheses – they’re twins.” And that “St. Thomas became the Apostle of India, traveling perhaps farther than any other apostle to preach the Gospel, baptizing thousands of people on the Subcontinent, creating a Christian community that has lasted to this day.”
April 15, 2022 – It’s Holy Week, which means Easter is coming. But Holy Week includes Good Friday, today, which “commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus and his subsequent death.” And which can include”self-guided time of reflection.” Which led to some reflection on Thomas Merton. You can type “Merton” in the search engine above right, but today I’d like to focus on two past posts, 2014’s On Thomas Merton, and 2021’s “Zen in the Art of College Football.”
Merton was a Roman Catholic monk. But in later life he found similarities between hisorthodox Catholicism and the exotic Eastern religions that were all the rage back in the 1970s. One biographer said Merton was helped in his spiritual quest by both Christian mysticism and his “wide knowledge of Oriental religions.” Merton became fascinated with Zen Buddhism and writer D. T. Suzuki. He studied Taoism, “regular” Buddhism and Hinduism.
But dallying in these exotic Eastern disciplines didn’t weaken his Catholicism, his Christian faith. If anything, they strengthened that faith. As the biographer wrote:
[B]y approaching the spiritual quest at unexpected angles, they opened up new ways of thought and new ways of experiencing that invigorated and released him. . .
Which led to my theory, that studying the Bible was meant to liberate the human spirit, not shackle it. Which goes along with the idea expressed in Luke 24:45, where Jesus opened His disciples’ minds so they could understand the Scriptures. Which brings up “a moment of zen.”
As one Zen Master said, “You are like this cup; you are full of ideas. You come and ask for teaching, but your cup is full; I can’t put anything in. Before I can teach you, you’ll have to empty your cup.” And if you think that sounds non-Biblical, see Philippians 2:7, where Paul said Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
But why? What example was Jesus trying to set? What point was He trying to make?
This is harder than you might realize. By the time we reach adulthood we are so full of information that we don’t even notice it’s there. We might consider ourselves to be open-minded, but in fact, everything we learn is filtered through many assumptions and then classified to fit into the knowledge we already possess.
That’s all from Empty Your Cup, an Old Zen Saying. Then there’s another old Zen saying, that a child looks at a mountain and sees a mountain, an adult looks at a mountain and sees many things, but that a Zen master looks at a mountain and sees – a mountain. Which seems to mirror what Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
So maybe becoming like a child again means – among other things – looking at a mountain and seeing … a mountain. And that in turn seems to involve dropping layers of life-long preconceptions, loosening up spiritual “hardened arteries,” and opening up to the majesty of God’s creation and His gift of Jesus. In other words, be open minded, open up to God’s majesty.
Not to mention the majesty of God coming to earth in the form of Jesus, and His living among us for 33 years – just to help us out – then making the ultimate “ultimate sacrifice.”
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Getting back to Good Friday, in 2016 I posted An Annunciation-Good Friday anomaly. The “anomaly” was that in 2016 the Annunciation fell on the same day as Good Friday, “in which the liturgical color is black.” The wearing of black liturgical color begins at the end of the Maundy Thursday evening service. (In Western churches.) That’s when the altar is stripped and “clergy no longer wear the purple or red that is customary throughout Great Lent.” Instead they don black vestments until Easter Sunday, when – as we know – there is a happy ending.
I may not be able to post anything on Easter Sunday until well into next week. In the meantime you could check other past posts, like Happy Easter – April 2020! I posted that a month after the current COVID pandemic started, and that continues “even to this day.” That post noted that I got two books from the local library, including The Plague, by Albert Camus. (The other was What Jesus Meant, by Garry Wills.) Anyway, for a more cheerful note on the reason for the season, see See On Easter Season – AND BEYOND, and Frohliche Ostern – “Happy Easter!”
Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us, in these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us; and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people…
Re: Prior posts on Thomas Merton. Some of them are missing the images that I put in, which means in the upcoming week after Easter that I’ll have to go back and update them.
Re “Dropping layers of life-long preconceptions.” Another metaphor: Cleaning your “assumption filters” on a regular basis. (See Dirty Air Filter – Image Results.)
But first a note about the lead picture above. The caption – from Wikipedia – reads, “Snake handling at Pentecostal Church of God, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky September 15, 1946.”
I’ve argued before that such snake handlers interpret Mark 16:17-18way too literally. (The passage talks about the signs that will accompany those who believe, including “they will pick up snakes with their hands,” and drink deadly poison without effect.) Which means that such a too-literal Christian could end up dead, or at least with a nickname like “Stumpy.”
And speaking of Biblical inerrancy, back in September 2020, I posted On an old friend – and his “Bible literalism.” Since then I’ve learned even more about the topic, but also realized I didn’t “define my terms, Chump!” (Borrowing a phrase variously attributed to Socrates, Aristotle or Voltaire. “If you wish to debate with me, define your terms.”) So taking a look at Biblical inerrancy – Wikipedia, we can see first the distinction between “inerrancy” and “infallibility.” Thus some such believers “equate inerrancy with biblical infallibility; others do not.”
To me the issue is whether literalist Christians are saying there are no clerical or scrivener’s errors, whatsoever, in any copy, version or translation of the Bible. Or whether – for example – the “Biblical” computation of time is completely accurate. (The earth is six thousand years old, as opposed to the estimate of over four billion years old.) Then there’s this, from Wikipedia:
Some literalist or conservative Christians teach that the Bible lacks error in every way in all matters: chronology, history, biology, sociology, psychology … and so on. Other Christians believe that the scriptures are always right (do not err) only in fulfilling their primary purpose: revealing God, God’s vision, God’s purposes, and God’s good news to humanity.
To cut to the chase, I’d say the Bible is inerrant “in all that it affirms.” Which is pretty much what Billy Graham said some time ago, as will be seen. But first some background…
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The post Old friend … “Bible literalism started off noting we don’t have any original manuscripts of the 27 books of the New Testament. “What we do have are “copies of copies of copies.” (According to Great Courses Plus; Professor Bart Ehrman‘s lectures on The New Testament.) I also noted that to me, the Bible “proves itself” to you as a person, with what you do with it as an individual believer, how you interact with and experience God in your own life.*
I also noted some problems reading the Bible, like that Old Testament Hebrew had no vowels or punctuation. Words and sentences were simply strung together. Then there was Jesus’ way of teaching, parables. Which were both hard to interpret literally, and which could mean different things to different people. (That “clunk” was a Southern Baptist having apoplexy.)
We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God,* without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. (Emphasis added.)
Which brings up another problem, that a claim of “absolute inerrancy” makes it easy for a would-be convert to avoid converting. All “they” need do – to avoid coming to God, through Jesus – is find one minor error or contradiction. By making such a claim, Literalists create one of those “stumbling blocks to the weak” that Paul noted in 1st Corinthians 8:9.
On the other hand, I’d say that if some Bibles contain some minor errors, it’s only because of the human element in its transmission. As in the phrase, “garbled in transmission.” And to all of which I can say to such Literalists, “I respect your right to have that opinion, but I disagree.”
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But wait, there’s more! Which is being interpreted: Since 2020 I’ve run across even more interesting data. Like a series of lectures on the Dead Sea Scrolls, by Professor Gary A. Rendsberg. And especially his Lecture 11, on the “Biblical Manuscripts at Qumran.”
For one thing, Rendsberg mentioned some differences between the original Hebrew Old Testament and a later Hebrew-to-Greek early translation, the Septuagint. (The “earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible.”) For example, the original Hebrew of Exodus 1:5 reads that 70 Israelites (Jacob and his family) went down to Egypt during a time of famine. The Septuagint said there were 75. So which is it?
I’d say it doesn’t really matter. The point is not something the Bible really “affirms.” Which brings up the the better view set out by John R. W. Stott. ((1921-2011.) I’ve mentioned Stott before, in numerous posts,* but he was the Anglican cleric who Time magazine ranked among the 100 most influential people in the world. He wrote Understanding the Bible, and on pages 140-143, he made three key points.
Again, there’s more boring detail in those prior posts, but Stott’s key point is that the words of the Bible are true “only in context.” (Using the Book of Job as an example of some passages that can be taken out of context, like Mark 16:17-18. And that in turn, Scripture is without error “in all that it affirms.” (A factor not always apparent “in the so-called ‘inerrancy debate.”) And keeping in mind that the Bible often describes God in human terms, not to be taken as literally true.
For more on the “inerrancy debate,” see Fundamentalism – Wikipedia. That article noted the “Five Fundamentals” set out at the Niagara Bible Conference 1910, including the doctrine that the Bible “is without error or fault in all its teaching.” Which sounds similar to the idea that the Bible is without error “in all that it affirms.”
And finally, I’d say this business of “requiring every word of the Bible to be inerrant” – without any error of any kind – brings to mind what Jesus said in Matthew 23:4. He chastised the Scribes and Pharisees, saying in pertinent part that such they “make strict rules that are hard for people to obey. They try to force others to obey all their rules. But they themselves will not try to follow any of those rules.” (In the “Easy-to-Read” translation.)
To me, requiring every copy and every version of the Bible to be correct in every “jot and tittle” – to say that no Bible has even the most minor clerical or scrivener’s error – is one of those “stumbling blocks” that keep potential converts away from Christianity.
More than that, it makes some people who call themselves Christian miss the whole point of Jesus’ teaching. They focus more on the letter of the law than its spirit, and as Paul noted in 2d Corinthians 3:6, “the letter kills but the spirit gives life.” So if you are such a Literalist, feel free to believe what you believe. “But as for me and my house,” I’ll follow John 4:24, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
This passage can be understood two ways. One way is to assume that Jesus followers are expected to handle deadly snakes… Another way to understand this passage is to be reassured that when Christians accidentally come in contact with poisonous snakes, God will miraculously protect them… Such an experience happened to the apostle Paul. After being shipwrecked and escaping to the island of Malta, Paul was bitten by a deadly snake. [Acts:28:1-6]. Additionally, the Bible tells us that we should not tempt God by deliberately placing ourselves in potential danger [Matthew 4:5-7]. (E.A.)
Re: Fifth week in Lent. Starting with the fifth Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2022.
Re: “Lent 2022.” See Lent 2022 – Calendar Date, which said this Lenten period starts on Wednesday, March 2nd and ends on Thursday, April 14 with evening mass on Holy Thursday. (Most people think it ends with Easter Sunday.) Other notes: It is “44 days from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday and another two days with Good Friday and Holy Saturday added to give a total of 46 days for Lent. But Sundays are excluded from fasting during Lent and with 6 Sundays removed from the count we get lent being a 40 day liturgical period.”
Also, vis-a-vis missing NT manuscripts: The night before posting I learned – through another Great Courses Bible lecture – that many “puns” in original OT Hebrew were lost in translation. See for example Bible Secrets Revealed, Episode 1: “Lost in Translation,” and Five Mistakes in Your Bible Translation | HuffPost. From the former, “different copies of the same Biblical books from the Dead Sea Scrolls don’t often match, [so] at the time of Jesus, the Hebrew Biblical texts existed in different versions and traditions that were still being sorted out. What this means is that it is very difficult to argue that the Bible is the verbatim ‘Word of God,’ especially when all of the ancient manuscripts contain different words.” From the latter, “In the original Hebrew, the 10th Commandment prohibits taking, not coveting. The biblical Jubilee year is named for an animal’s horn and has nothing to do with jubilation. The pregnant woman in Isaiah 7:14 is never called a virgin.” Also, “Metaphors are particularly difficult to translate, because words have different metaphoric meanings in different cultures. Shepherds in the Bible were symbols of might, ferocity and royalty, whereas now they generally represent peaceful guidance and oversight.”I may use these points in a future post.
Re: More on Deuteronomy 32:8. In the original Hebrew, Deuteronomy 32:8 said God set the boundaries “of the peoples” – the boundaries of the world – “according to the number of the children of Israel.” The same passage in the Septuagint reads, “according to the number of angels of God.” In turn, most translations in the “Bible Hub” website had 70 Israelites going down Egypt, including the King James Version that “all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls.” But “Hub” also cited Genesis 46:26, which put the number at 66, and Acts 7:14, which said “Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all.”
Re: “My old friend Fred.” It wasn’t just me he “flabbergasted.” A mutual friend said he also cut off all communications with his family, and other old friends, who didn’t share his “conservative” views.
Re: “How you interact with and experience God in your own life.” That “simplistic” statement could be misinterpreted, but keep in mind that I have to “dumb things down,” just like Moses, Paul and Jesus all had to do.Also re: Interacting with God in my own life. See for example On my “mission from God,” and “As a spiritual exercise…”
Re: “Only written word of God.” But see John 10:16, “I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.”It seems to me that God – being God – is perfectly able to reach out to other people, using other languages in other countries and cultural settings. “He” – anthropomorphism – could have other servants writing in other languages, keeping in mind that “all roads lead to Jesus.” If nothing else, this claim seems to limit God’s power…
More re: Deuteronomy 32:8. Just for some deep background: Chapter 32 comes near the end of the book, just before Chapter 33, “Moses blesses the tribes of Israel,” and also Chapter 34 on the death of Moses. “The Lord’s Last Instructions to Moses begin at 31:14, and the “Song of Moses” begins at 31. Anyway, back to Deuteronomy 32:8. Many Bible Hub translations of Deuteronomy 32:8 read that God “assigned land to the nations” or “gave the nations their inheritance.” But some translations of the passage at issue vary, from “according to the number of the sons of Israel,” to the sons of God, to “the number in his heavenly court,” and – in the Brenton Septuagint Translation – according to “the number of the angels of God.”
Re: “Stott … in numerous posts.” Type “John Stott” in the search engine in the blog’s upper right.
Also, the post On an old friend – and his “Bible literalism,” includes references to a book,“Christian Testament.” The full reference isEducation for Ministry Year Two (Hebrew Scriptures, Christian Testament) 2nd Edition by William Griffin, Charles Winters, Christopher Bryan and Ross MacKenzie (1991). Page 321 of my copyhas some notes on Nimshalim, as methods of interpreting parables. See also Mashal + Nimshal = Meaning/Teaching | Discipleship Curriculum: “The teaching method was simply brilliant. A fictional story (the mashal) was created by the Rabbi. This was almost always in response to something going on in their immediate world or an important principle they wanted to teach. The story would be crafted in such a way as to disguise it’s intent but also in such a way as to intrigue.” See also Mashal (allegory) – Wikipedia, about a “short parable with a moral lesson or religious allegory, called a nimshal.” (Nimshalim is the plural.)
Re: “Jot and tittle.” The link is to “Gotquestions.org,” which noted that a jot – related to our word “iota” – is the “tenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet and the smallest.” A tittle “is even smaller than a jot … a letter extension, a pen stroke that can differentiate one Hebrew letter from another.”
Re: “Me and my house.” The reference is to Joshua 24:15. In the ESV, “choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Friday, March 25, is the Feast of the Annunciation. (The full title is “The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary.”) In past posts I’ve said this feast was an example of “back dating;” in other words a kind of metaphor for how the early Church “figured it backwards.”
It all started with the birth of Jesus. First, the early Church Fathers decided that the celebration of His birth would be on December 25. (For reasons explained in the notes.) Then they figured backwards nine months. Since they said Jesus was born on December 25, He had to have been “conceived” on the previous March 25. And that’s where the Annunciation comes in. It celebrates “the announcement by the angelGabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God, marking his Incarnation.”
By the way, I gleaned the bulk of this post from 2015’s The Annunciation “gets the ball rolling,” and 2016’s An Annunciation-Good Friday anomaly. Then too, in 2019 – before the COVID hit – I posted “On to Jerusalem!” That talked about my three-week pilgrimage to Israel, based in Jerusalem, with side trips to Nazareth, the Dead Sea, Jacob’s Well and other highlights.
Now back to “Ball rolling” and the Annunciation. As it turns out, Christmas is centered around the winter solstice, and the Annunciation is centered around the vernal (spring) equinox:
An equinox occurs twice a year, around 20 March and 22 September. The word itself has several related definitions. The oldest meaning is the day when daytime and night are of approximately equal duration. The word equinox comes from this definition, derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night)
So the Annunciation is celebrated about the time of the vernal equinox. (Vernal is from the Latin word for “spring,” and BTW: The summer solstice is the longest day of the year.)
All of which brings up the matter of the Incarnation. As Wikipedia put it, the Incarnation is the belief that Jesus became flesh by being conceived in the womb of Mary. (Which either preceded or coincided with the Annunciation itself; “it’s a mystery.”) The idea is that the “Son of God took on a human body and nature and became both man and God.”
On that note see John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” And while Christ’s Incarnation is mainly commemorated and celebrated each year at Christmas, it also refers back to the Annunciation itself. In other words, Christmas and the Annunciation celebrate “different aspects of the mystery of the Incarnation.” (See also Liturgical year – Wikipedia. )
All of which is part of this-worldly’s “Christian pilgrimage.” (Exemplified by my May 2019 trip to Jerusalem.) Which brings up the liturgical year – the church’s calendar year – which begins in Advent (December 1 or so), and goes through next November. (When it starts all over again.)
But it could be argued that the liturgical year properly starts with the Annunciation. That’s the first moment when it became obvious that God would intervene on our behalf, by and through the birth, life and death of Jesus. More to the point, the church year “sets out to attune the life of the Christian to the life of Jesus.” (It’s not an “arbitrary arrangement of ancient holy days”):
It is an excursion into life from the Christian perspective [and] proposes to help us to year after year immerse ourselves into the sense and substance of the Christian life… It is an adventure in human growth; it is an exercise in spiritual ripening.
Note the focus on “exercise” and “adventure.” That’s a reminder that as a good and proper Christian, “It is to vigor, not comfort that you are called.”
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Which brings up how Mary probably reacted to the “good news” here. Consider what Garry Wills said about it: “For me, the most convincing pictures or sculptures of the Annunciation to Mary show her in a state of panic … shrinking off from the angel, looking cornered by him.” He noted especially some 14th century paintings, “where Mary is made so faint by the angel’s words that she sways back and must grab a pillar to keep herself upright.”
See also Luke 1:29. Most translations indicate that Mary was “deeply troubled” by the angel’s announcement. Other translations have her “confused and disturbed,” or agitated, perplexed or alarmed. Which led Wills to ask – about Mary’s hearing that she had “found favor” with God – “Did she know already how dangerous is such a favor? God’s chosen people are commonly chosen to suffer.” (Which is certainly a sobering thought for good and proper Christians.)
And as indicated when Mary presented the newborn Jesus to the Temple.* That’s when she heard Simeon say, “you, Mary, will suffer as though you had been stabbed by a dagger.” (Luke 2:35.*) Or that “a sword will run through this woman’s heart.” Thus in some views, Mary’s “look almost of horror at what she has just been told.” Which brings up Dante Gabriel Rossetti‘s interpretation of the event, shown below. You might meditate on that during this Lent 2022, if you feel alarmed, agitated or perplexed at the world events going on around us.
Just know that you are in good company…
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The upper image is courtesy of Annunciation – Wikipedia. The caption: “The Annunciation – Johann Christian Schröder.”
“Book of Common Prayer.” The passage is at page 339, Holy Eucharist Rite I post-communion prayer.
Re: Feast days. The link is to Wikipedia’s Calendar of saints. “The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word ‘feast’ in this context does not mean ‘a large meal, typically a celebratory one,’ but instead ‘an annual religious celebration, a day dedicated to a particular saint.'”
Re: How and why the early Church Fathers picked December 25 as the date of Jesus’ birth. See the full story at 2015’s The Annunciation “gets the ball rolling,” but basically, people back in the olden days didn’t know the winter solstice came – and went – every year. So around every December 22 they’d worry that the days would keep getting shorter and shorter, “until there was nothing but eternal night.” But then the days started getting a bit longer, and the Church basically adopted the Roman festival of Saturnalia, a “time of raucous celebration.” (Again, see the full story at “ball rolling.”)
Re: Vernal equinox. For us that would be the one in the northern hemisphere.
Re: “To vigor, not comfort.” An allusion to this full quote on the life of a new Christian:
Hearing now and again the mysterious piping of the Shepherd, you realize your own perpetual forward movement. . . Do not suppose from this that your new career is to be perpetually supported by agreeable spiritual contacts, or occupy itself in the mild contemplation of the great world through which you move. True, it is said of the Shepherd that he carries the lambs in his bosom; but the sheep are expected to walk, and to put up with the bunts and blunders of the flock. It is to vigour rather than comfort that you are called.
From Evelyn Underhill’s Practical Mysticism, Ariel Press, 1914, at page 177.
Re: “What Garry Wills said.” See What Jesus Meant: Wills, the 2007 book, an “illuminating analysis for believers and nonbelievers alike … a brilliant addition to our national conversation on religion.” (Said Goodreads.) The quote is from page 1 of my Penguin Books edition, “The Hidden Years.”
Re: “When Mary presented the newborn Jesus…” See the most recent post, On the Presentation of Jesus – 2/2/22. We celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple on February 2. The custom of presenting Jesus – “as a baby, 40 days after Christmas – followed a 1,000-year-old custom that began with Moses. In Exodus 13:2, God said, ‘Consecrate to me every firstborn male:’”
Counting forward from December 25 as Day One [for Jesus], we find that Day Forty is February 2. A Jewish woman is in semi-seclusion for 40 days after giving birth to a son, and accordingly it is on February 2 that we celebrate the coming of Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem.
Re: Luke 2:35. The “sword will run through this woman’s heart” quote came from the translation Wills used. Most other “Bible Hub” translations say the sword will pierce Mary’s “own soul;” that includes the King James Bible. (The one God uses.)As to feeling alarmed, agitated or perplexed at world events, see 1st Corinthians 10:13, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” (Well, almost “no different from what others experience.” Mary was after all in a class by herself.)
Take a while and look at Mary’s expression. How do you read Rossetti’s depiction of this young woman? Look at her facial expression. This is not one of acquiescence or pleasure. This is a look almost of horror at what she has just been told. This terrified look adds a great deal of power to Rossetti’s painting. Mary herself in Rossetti’s painting looks much younger than we are used to seeing in similar scenes. She exudes a youthful beauty but only seems to be a mere adolescent with her long un-brushed auburn hair contrasting sharply with her white dress. She is painfully thin and her hesitance and sad look tinged with fear endears her to us.
Saint Joseph, “with the Infant Jesus.” His feast day is coming up on March 19…
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This Saturday, March 19, we celebrate the Feast of St Joseph, “earthly” father-figure of the infant Jesus. Two days before that, on Thursday, March 17, we celebrate another saint, St. Patrick, and it seems that a whole lot more people know and celebrate his day, complete with Green Beer.
Christian tradition places Joseph as Jesus‘ foster father… Joseph is not mentioned [at] the Wedding at Cana at the beginning of Jesus’ mission, nor at the Passion at the end. If he had been present at the Crucifixion, he would under Jewish custom have been expected to take charge of Jesus’ body, but this role is instead performed by Joseph of Arimathea…
In the meantime, the 2016 post St. Joseph and the “Passover Plot” had a review of the 1965 book by Hugh Schonfield. It’s thesis was that the Crucifixion was part of a “conscious attempt by Jesus to fulfill the Messianic expectations [but] that the plan went unexpectedly wrong.”
In this version, Jesus planned for His crucifixion by taking a drug that would simulate death. After His unconscious body was placed in the tomb, a religious sect known as the Zealots would secretly steal Christ’s body from the tomb, then spread the rumor that He had risen, thus fulfilling Biblical prophecy.
Needless to say, the book was controversial, not least of all because in 1976 it was made into a movie. For more see The Passover Plot – Wikipedia, or you can search “passover plot book controversy.” But we’re ranging far afield here, so I’ll just say that for part of my Lenten discipline, I’ll do another post on the book, reviewing it again from a perspective “five years later.”
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Now about St. Patrick. No one can say when he was born, but he is said to have died on March 17, now celebrated as his Feast Day. In Irish his name would be Padraig, and that’s often shortened to “Paddy.” In turn, it’s seen as a derogatory term for Irish men. See Saint Patrick – Wikipedia, and also The Free Dictionary. That in turn gave rise to the “Paddy wagon:”
The name came from the New York Draft riots of 1863. The Irish at the time were the poorest people in the city. When the draft was implemented it had a provision for wealthier people to buy a waiver. The Irish rioted, and the term Paddy wagon was coined.
See Urban Dictionary: paddy wagon, about the “police vehicle used to transport prisoners.” But back to St. Patrick. According to legend, he was born in Britain but at 16 captured by Irish pirates. Taken as a slave back to Ireland, he lived there for six years before escaping. He got back to his family, then studied became a cleric, and in the fullness of time returned to Ireland. Legend further says Patrick used the native shamrock to illustrate the Holy Trinity to the Irish.
The [St. Patrick’s day] holiday also spread by becoming a means for all Americans to become Irish for the day. The shared sense of being Irish, of wearing green and in some way marking March 17, has resulted in St. Patrick’s Day being observed in a similar fashion to July Fourth or Halloween. It’s the closest thing in America to National Immigrant Day, a tribute not only to the Irish, but to the idea that Americans are all part “other.” (E.A.)
Which is a pretty radical idea these days. But anyway, Here’s to You, St. Joseph, patron saint of workers and of the dying. And Here’s to You, St. Patrick, who – among other things – helped save Western Civilization from the barbarians. (See How the Irish Saved Civilization – Wikipedia.) All of which is a good excuse to go drink a tall, frosty mug of Green Beer!
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The upper image is courtesy of Saint Joseph – Wikipedia, which also noted that the “Pauline epistles make no reference to Jesus’ father; nor does the Gospel of Mark.” The caption for the painting: “Saint Joseph with the Infant Jesus, Guido Reni (c. 1635).”
Re: Jesus as first on the list of feast days. The link is to “Christ the King,” at an apparent Catholic website. See also Feast of Christ the King – Wikipedia, about the “feast in the liturgical year which emphasises the true kingship of Christ. The feast is a relatively recent addition to the liturgical calendar, instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI for the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.”Other churches also observe the feast, though at different times, For example, “In the Church of England, the Feast of Christ the King falls on ‘the Sunday next before Advent,’ when ‘[t]he year that begins with the hope of the coming Messiah ends with the proclamation of his universal sovereignty.'” In the American Episcopal Church, Christ the King Sunday “is unofficially celebrated in some Episcopal parishes, but it is not mentioned in the Episcopal calendar of the church year.”
Re: St. Patrick. There’s also the legend he “drove all the snakes out of Ireland.” Some scholars doubt the legend, for reasons including – they say – there were no snakes in Ireland in the first place.
It is thought that actual green beer got it’s start in the early 1900’s in New York. A newspaper article from 1914 describes a New York social club serving green beer at a celebratory St. Patrick’s Day dinner. In the article, the drink is attributed to Dr. Curtin, a coroner’s physician who achieved the green beer effect by putting a drop of “wash blue” dye in his beer.
A couple side notes: One, “they used to call beer that wasn’t fermented long enough, ‘Green Beer’ because it caused stomach issues or as they called it in 1904 ‘biliousness.'” Two, that wash blue was, “in fact, poison, an iron powder solution used to whiten clothes.” (I think I’ll pass this year.)
Note that two weeks after that 2020 Ash Wednesday, the COVID pandemic hit:
…to me, “the pandemic hit full swing – the ‘stuff really hit the fan’ – back on Thursday, March 12,” when the ACC basketball tournament got cancelled, along with other major sports. “So my definition of the ‘First Full Week of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ has it starting on Sunday, March 15 and ending on Saturday the 21st.”
But of course, Ash Wednesday comes right after “Fat Tuesday,” also called Mardi Gras, or “Pancake Day,” or Shrove Tuesday. (From the word shrive,* meaning “to administer the sacrament of confession to; to absolve.”) Which is a pretty good metaphor for the kind of absolutionsome people may feel we need – because of all the calamities that have befallen us since that long-ago Ash Wednesday, 2020. (That long-ago time of innocence, before “the stuff hit the fan.”)
On the other hand there’s Job 5:7, a reminder that “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” (And that before the COVID we had a pretty good run of “not so bad.”)
As Wikipedia said, “Popular practices on Mardi Gras include wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, sports competitions, parades, debauchery, etc.” But that debauchery is always – in the church calendar – followed by Lent. Lent in turn is a season devoted to “prayer, penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement and self-denial.
And by the way, you do get days off in Lent. There are actually 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Sundays don’t count in the calculation. They’re essentially “days off,” when you can still enjoy whatever it is you’ve “given up.” But back on topic…
As noted in My Lenten meditation – from 2016 – most people have traditional Lenten Disciplines that involve giving up something. (Preferably something they really enjoy.) On the other hand, some choose to add a discipline, a discipline that will “add to my spiritual life.”
For example, I spent the 2016 Lenten period “contemplating on how and when Moses wrote those first five books;” that is, the first five books of the Bible, the Torah. But this Lent I’ll be going back and revising an eBook I published in 2018, “There’s No Such Thing as a Conservative Christian.” As you can tell by the title, it was way too militant. (As in having a “combative character; aggressive, especially in the service of a cause.)
I’ll be writing more about such Lenten practices in the near future. But for this Lenten 2022 discipline “adding to my spiritual life,” I’ll be revising and rewriting that 2018 book. It to be less militant, less confrontational, and “more Christian.” So wish me luck, but in the meantime:
Have a Happy Ash Wednesday!
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“Book of Common Prayer.” The passage is at page 339, Holy Eucharist Rite I post-communion prayer.
The upper image is courtesy of Mardi Gras – Wikipedia. Captioned: “Mardi Gras Day, New Orleans: Krewe of Kosmic Debris revelers on Frenchmen Street.”
Was Saint Matthias – who took the place of Judas – reallyZacchaeus, who fell from a sycamore tree?
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We are still in theSeason of Epiphany, running from January 6 – the day of Epiphany – to Ash Wednesday. This year Ash Wednesday comes on March 2, and it marks the beginning of Lent. But as far as Feast Days go, the next relatively major one comes on Thursday, February 24. That’s the Feast of St. Matthias, the Apostle who took the place of Judas:
…according to the Acts of the Apostles, [he] was the apostle chosen by the remaining eleven apostles to replace Judas Iscariot following Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and suicide. His calling as an apostle is unique in that his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, who had already ascended to heaven, [and] before the descent of the Holy Spirit…
“Father Roberts” (1853-1949) was a missionary to Native American tribes including the Shoshone. But this John Roberts was different. Many Christian missionaries tried to change the culture and lifestyle of Native peoples. But Father Roberts believed it was important to preserve the language, customs, and culture of the people. Thus he tried to “honor and respect the ancient ways of the Native peoples while at the same time proclaiming the Gospel among them.” And that may be why he got his own feast day – in the Daily Office – on February 25.
There’s more on this fascinating missionary in the February 2015 post, but let’s get back to St. Matthias. His story is also fascinating. Like the fact he was also known as “Unremarkable Matthias” or the “Overlooked Apostle.” See The Overlooked Holy Apostle, Matthias. Also, Isaac Asimov gave a pithy description of how Matthias became an Apostle:
Peter arranged to have a new individual selected to take the place of Judas Iscariot in order to bring the number of the inner circle back to the mystical twelve that matched the twelve tribes of Israel. Two were nominated, Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias. To choose between the two, lots were used: Acts 1:26 … and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. Neither Joseph Barsabbas nor Matthias are mentioned anywhere else in the New Testament.
So while we can be sure he was “numbered with the eleven,” some confusion remains about who he really was. For example, The Overlooked Holy Apostle said that “Matthias was originally Zacchaeus.” He was the tax collector Zacchaeus, who climbed a sycamore tree* because he couldn’t see Jesus, both as he was short and because of the crowd of people.
See the full story of Zacchaeus at Luke 19:1-10, and the Wikipedia article. The latter said Zacchaeus was an example “of Jesus‘s personal, earthly mission to bring salvation to the lost.” In this case, the “lost” included tax collectors, who were despised as traitors – “working for the Roman Empire, not for their Jewish community” – and for being corrupt. But Zacchaeus – after seeing Jesus – “repented of his former life after meeting the Lord.”
Getting back to St. Matthias: The article Overlooked Holy Apostle goes into great detail about his sufferings – and ultimate death. It said Matthias preached in Macedonia and Ethiopia, where “the heathen dragged him over the ground, beat him, hung him from a pillar and tore his stomach with an iron blade and burned him with fire.” Another town he preached in was a “city of the man-eaters,” cannibalism. When Matthias entered the town, “the men of that city took hold of him and thrust out his eyes and made him drink poison and sent him to the prison where he sat for thirty days waiting to be eaten and die.”
But the Lord appeared to him and got his eyesight back for him, as well as other prisoners who’d suffered the same fate. The site also said Matthias was rescued by the Apostle Andrew; “as Andrew approached the gates of the prison, the doors opened of their own accord.”
But wait, there’s more!
Eventually Matthias returned to Galilee, where he was stoned to death. “The Jews, filled with malice and anger, seized Matthias and presented him to the High Priest, Annas.” The High Priest, who “hated all Christians and was responsible for the death of James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, ordered that Matthias be stoned.” One point of note: Overlooked Holy Apostle said that when Matthias was taken to be stoned, he cried out, “You hypocrites, rightly did the Prophet David speak to those like you: ‘they shall hunt down the soul of the righteous man, and the innocent blood shall they condemn,'” citing “Psalm 93:21.”
The problem is, Psalm 93 has six verses. The actual citation is apparently to Psalm 94:21. In the NIV, “The wicked band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.”
It pays to double-check!
After Matthias spoke these words, two witnesses who claimed he’d blasphemed picked up stones to be the first to stone him. But first, Matthias asked that these stones be buried with him as a testimony of his suffering for the Lord. So they stoned him to death, and as an added insult, also beheaded him to express that he was an enemy of Rome. So whether St. Matthias died by being first stoned and then beheaded, or had his eyes gouged out, then “sat for thirty days waiting to be eaten and die,” the lesson is: Being an apostle was no piece of cake!
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“Book of Common Prayer.” The passage is at page 339, Holy Eucharist Rite I post-communion prayer.
The upper image is courtesy of the Wikipedia article on Zacchaeus. The caption: “‘Zacchaeus’ by Niels Larsen Stevns. Jesus calls Zacchaeus down from his height in the tree.”
Re: Isaac Asimov. The quote is from Asimov’s Guide to the Bible (Two Volumes in One), Avenel Books (1981), page 998. Asimov (1920-1992) was “an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards.” His list of books included those on “astronomy, mathematics, the Bible, William Shakespeare’s writing, and chemistry.” He was a long-time member of Mensa, “albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as ‘brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs.’” See Isaac Asimov – Wikipedia.
The first “Presentation of Jesus” (as a baby) – His second one came on Good Friday…
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Wednesday, February 2, 2022 was the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Presenting Jesus – as a baby, 40 days after Christmas – followed a 1,000-year-old custom that began with Moses. In Exodus 13:2, God said, “Consecrate to me every firstborn male:”
Counting forward from December 25 as Day One [for Jesus], we find that Day Forty is February 2. A Jewish woman is in semi-seclusion for 40 days after giving birth to a son, and accordingly it is on February 2 that we celebrate the coming of Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem.
That’s from my post back on February 3, 2017, On the FIRST “Presentation of the Lord.” One point of that long-ago post was that from the time Jesus was “first presented” – at just over a month old – His life became “one long journey to the Second Presentation.” That second “Presentation” happened on Good Friday, when Jesus was about to be crucified.
This year it takes 72 days to cover the journey Jesus took 33 years* to get through. That includes most of Epiphanytide; it started on January 6 and ends on Ash Wednesday. After the night-before Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) comes Ash Wednesday. So March 2 this year starts the Season of Lent. And that ends with Easter Sunday, this year on April 17. (Thus the 72 days.)
That 2017 post also discussed the “once-prevalent custom” in America of churching new mothers, possibly as late as 1979. That too came 40 days after a child was born, and was also called “the churching of Women.” It started – as far as we can tell – back in the Middle Ages, and was still offered by the Catholic Church until the 1960s, then discontinued.
The Anglican Church – back in England – still offers the service, but it seems rarely used.
In America, the old 1928 Book of Common Prayer included the service, but the 1979 Revision of the Book of Common Prayer left it out. Page 305 of the 1928 BCP is titled “The Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth, (‘Commonly called the Churching of Women’).” The directions call for the new mother to “come into the Church decently apparelled,” and to kneel “in some convenient place.” The Minister would then begin:
Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, of his goodness, to give you safe deliverance, and to preserve you in the great danger of Child-birth [sic]; you shall therefore give hearty thanks unto God, and say…
The new mother would then recite “Dilexi, quoniam, Psalm cxvi,” which we now know as Psalm 116. Which all brings up two thoughts. One, about just how dangerous it was for women to have babies “back in the good old days,” and two, about just how old I am. I still have the 1928 Prayer Book that my grandmother gave me, for Confirmation, on December 22, 1963.
But enough obscure history. I also wrote about this Feast Day three years ago in “The LORD is a God of knowledge” – The Presentation, 2019. That post talked about Jesus being presented – at the Temple in Jerusalem – “to officially induct him into Judaism.” And that as celebrated by many Christian churches today, it’s also known as Candlemas. Then came these thoughts:
There’s more later, but first a word about one of the Daily Office Readings for this February 2 Feast. [Like] 1st Samuel 2:3, “For the LORD is a God of knowledge.” Which – taken together with Isaiah 27:11 – means that “therefore mercy is to be denied to him who has no knowledge.” And that’s a bit of Bible law that may well affect the many today who label anything they disagree with – or that contradicts some cherished beliefs – as “Fake News.”
In hindsight, it seems that I – like many other Christians – was a lot more confrontational back in 2019. But since then I’ve tried to amend my ways. (Can you say “He’s Still Working on Me?”)
Then I posted The “Presentation of our Lord” – 2020. And a note, that post came some 42 days “B.C.” As updated, that would be “42 days Before COVID.” As explained in the notes, I calculate the first full week of the COVID as beginning on Sunday, March 15, 2020. (A time of innocence and crowd-gathering that now seems so “long ago and far away…”)
But we digress…
Back to The Presentation … 2020. It talked a bit about Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, which comes this year on March 1. (The day before Ash Wednesday.) One point? That way too many see Mardi Gras as just another excuse to party, with no connection to religion or spirituality.
The bad news – to some – is that Mardi Gras is followed immediately by Lent, a “solemn religious observance,” 40 days of atonement, prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial. And incidentally, that’s not 40 days straight of “self-denial.” You get Sundays off to enjoy whatever it is you’ll be giving up for Lent.
As to that last assertion, see OMG! Is it time for Lent again? That is, there are actually 46 days of Lent: 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, not 40. That’s because Sundays in Lent are essentially “days off,” when you can still enjoy whatever it is you’ve “given up.”
Which leads to a final note of interest: That generally the February 2d “Presentation” comes roughly halfway into the Season of Epiphany. Which this year ends with Ash Wednesday, on March 2. Which leads – as noted – to both Lent and Easter. And that also leads to what could be called the “Second Presentation of Jesus.” That is, Ash Wednesday leads to Good Friday, with Jesus about to be crucified – for us and our shortcomings – as illustrated below…
Which is all part of the Christian pilgrimage, with cycles of both fasting and feasting. “In further words, by reading and studying the Bible on a regular basis, the good Christian can both relish the good things that come along in life, and get through the challenging parts as well.”
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The second “Presentation,” Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus” on Good Friday...
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The upper image is courtesy of Presentation of Jesus in the Temple – Image Results. It accompanies an articlefrom the Česká katolická misie v Kalifornii, translated as the “Czech Catholic Mission in California.” The article discussed “Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus, is a Christian holiday commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple.” It did not identify the painting.
Re: Jesus and 33 years. See A Jesus year birthday at 33 | Guideposts, but also How old was Jesus when He died? | GotQuestions.org: “The Bible does not say how old Jesus was when He died. Further, the Bible does not give the date of Jesus’ birth or the date His death.” But the article concluded that Jesus was likely born “between 6 and 4 BC. The same comparison leads us to believe that Jesus was likely crucified in AD 30, although it is also possible that Jesus was crucified in AD 33.” Thus the estimate that Jesus was in His 30s – “somewhere between 33 and 39 years old” – when He died.See also La symbolique du nombre 33 – Metaphi News, supporting the assertion that 33 is “l’age du Christ.”
Another note: I ended the “72 days” at Good Friday, not Easter Sunday.
The standard 1928 Book Of Common Prayer, including my 1963 copy, measures a pocket-sized 4-by-6 inches. Despite the inherent small type, it’s still easy to read. (If you like Shakespearean English.)
Re: First full week of COVID. See On St. Philip and St. James – May, 2020. There I explained that, to me, “the pandemic hit full swing – the ‘stuff really hit the fan’ – back on Thursday, March 12,” when the ACC basketball tournament got cancelled, along with other major sports. “So my definition of the ‘First Full Week of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ has it starting on Sunday, March 15,” 2020.
We are now in theSeason of Epiphany. That church season runs from January 6 – the day of Epiphany (holiday) – to Ash Wednesday. This year Ash Wednesday comes on March 2, and marks the beginning of Lent. (And just as an aside, the season of Epiphanytide can last anywhere from four to nine weeks; it all depends on when Easter falls in any given year.)
The one certainty is that Epiphanytideruns from January 6 to the Tuesday just before Ash Wednesday. (And that “Tuesday before” is called Mardi Gras, discussed below.) So with Ash Wednesday – illustrated at right – coming on March 2, that means Easter Sunday comes this year on April 17. Note also that Easter is not just one day; it’s also another season, the Season of Easter. That liturgical season lasts 50 days, this year from April 17 to June 5, 2022. (Easter Season ends on Pentecost Sunday, which comes from the Latin word for “50.”)
And speaking of Mardi Gras, that holiday – just before the start of Lent – is a prime example of the church calendar’s cycle of “feasting and fasting.” (See On Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent – 2020, “In other words, the Christian pilgrimage consists of both fasting and feasting.”) In further words, by reading and studying the Bible on a regular basis, the good Christian can both relish the good things that come along in life, and get through the challenging parts as well.
Then too, “Mardi Gras” – the day – is also known as Fat Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday. (The term “Mardi Gras” comes from the French words for Fat Tuesday.*) And the terms “Mardi Gras,” Fat Tuesday and Shrove Tuesday all refer to the “practice of the last night of eating rich, fatty foods before the ritual Lenten sacrifices andfasting of the Lenten season.”
Or as it has come to mean in some circles today, Mardi Gras translates to a chance to engage in certain debauchery – like “showing skin for beads” – or in other words, “Let’s Party!!”
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The Season of Epiphany – also known as Epiphanytide – is a kind of interlude between the end of the 12 DAYS of Christmas and the beginning of Lent. Epiphany Season begins with a celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, and ends with the Feast of the Transfiguration. (When “Jesus’ identity as the Son of God is dramatically revealed…”)
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And speaking of dramatic revelations, that could include some challenging parts of life today…
Lately I’ve been looking at “this time last year,” mostly because those “last years” have involved a lot of political turmoil, not to mention various stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. (You know, the one that started back in 2020? “The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 and a pandemic on 11 March 2020.”)
Which pretty much squares which my calculations, that we are now past the 96th full week of the pandemic, or 24 full months.* But that’s not the only thing we have to worry about, as noted in last year’s post on Epiphany.
I noted that last January 6 (2021), we again celebrated the feast of The Epiphany. But we also went through what was supposed to be a routine political event: The day Congress (was supposed to) Count Electoral Votes. (As that count affected the November 2020 presidential election, “a whole ‘nother story entirely.”) So last year’s Epiphany was yet another “like no other” holiday in American history. (Continuing a concept in line with 2020 – A Christmas like no other?)
The observance [Epiphany] was a general celebration of the manifestation of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. It included the commemoration of his birth; the visit of the Magi[and] all of Jesus’ childhood events, up to and including his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist; and even the miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. [E.A.]
I put some links in the notes; deep background on the various feast days. Like January 1 being known by various names including National Hangover Day and the day we celebrate the Circumcision of Christ. (But since we today are more squeamish, “modern calendars often list it as the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.”) Or more information on January 6 being known as “Three Kings Day,” when the three “Magi” came to visit the infant Jesus. (And a note that in its original sense, Magi referred to “followers of Zoroaster,” and comes from the root word for “magic.”)
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Meanwhile – and speaking of Will I REALLY live to 120 – I just published a book with that title back in 2021. It’s about a bet that I made with myself, about maybe living to 120, like Moses, with “eye undimmed and vigor unabated.” (Deuteronomy 34:7.) Some chapters deal with a really old ancestor of mine, William Bradford, who lived to the equivalent of 140.* He came over on the Mayflower and served as governor of Plymouth Colony for some 30 years. He also studied Hebrew in his old age, because he wanted to read the Old Testament in it original language.
On that note – and following in Bradford‘s footsteps – I myself just started studying Hebrew. (At the age of 70.) Part of the studies include a 36-chapter set of “Wondrium” videos, Learn Biblical Hebrew. Another part is my recent purchase of the Learning Biblical Hebrew Workbook, shown below. And in the very beginning of that workbook there is this caveat: “Allow yourself space to fail … regardless of the number of errors you made in the process. If you are like our students, you may complete entire exercises without getting one problem fully correct.”
[T]he would-be meditator might want to give himself permission to make mistakes. “You will make them anyway and will be much more comfortable – and get along better with this exercise – if you give yourself permission in advance.” [T]he meditator [or Bible student] should treat himself as a “much-loved child … trying to keep walking on a narrow side-walk.”
Which is a far cry from the “get it right or go straight to hell” method of Bible study that some so-called Christians seem to promote. That’s also a far cry from how Jesus wanted us to read the Bible: With an open mind. (Luke 24:45: “Then He [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”) The result of such an approach? A good Christian reading the Bible with an open mind can both “transcend the painful, negative aspects of life,” and live with a serene inner peace. In other words, a life of joy and love, along with a “zest, a fervor and gusto in life.” All of which is a pretty tall order, so it’s time to get back to work.
The French term for Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras, and Mardi Gras is now a generic term for “Let’s Party!!” Or as Wikipedia put it, “Popular practices on Mardi Gras include wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, sports competitions, parades, debauchery, etc.” That “debauchery, etc.” has come to include “showing skin for beads” as part of an “alcohol-fueled, nudity-filled bacchanal.”
Re: Full weeks of COVID. See On St. Philip and St. James – May, 2020. There I explained that to me, the pandemic hit full swing – the “stuff really hit the fan” – on Thursday, March 12. “That’s when the ACC basketball tournament got cancelled, and March Madness and college baseball were called off… So my definition of the ‘First Full Week of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ has it starting on Sunday, March 15 and ending on Saturday the 21st,” 2020.
Re: William Bradford living to the equivalent of 140. He died at 67, when the average life expectancy was almost half that, or 36 years. That works out to a 1.86 factor, so multiplying today’s average life expectancy – say 75 years – leads to 140 years being the equivalent of Bradford’s living to 67.
Technically, “Christmas” isn’t over until January 6, Epiphany, when Three Wise Men came…
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I’ll talk about the 12 Days of Christmas in a bit, but first a note about 1st Kings 17:21. There’s a story there about the prophet Elijah bringing back to life a boy who had died. The interestingpart is where he prays, “O LORD my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.”
That was the Old Testament reading for Thursday, December 30,* and when I read that it raised some questions. Like, “Where did the boy’s soul go? Where did it come back from? And does that passage have an effect on any of the pressing hot-button political issues of today?” Note too that many translations say “let this child’s life come back to him.” However, the King James Version – the one God uses – has the term “soul,” and that’s good enough for me.*
Another good passage I just ran across – in the readings for Christmas Day – was 1st John 4:8. The translation I like best is the Contemporary English Version, “God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him.” Which can be a good response to those Facebook users who seem to revel in spreading hate. (“Are you acting out of love? Like Billy Graham?”)
But enough of that. Back to the 12 days of Christmas.
For starters, let’s go back before the Covid to The 12 days of Christmas, 2018-2019. That post noted that those 12 days of Christmas don’t end until “next year,” on January 6:
The Twelve Days of Christmas is the festive Christian season [including “Twelfth Night”] beginning on Christmas Day … that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, as the Son of God. This period is also known as Christmastide… The Feast of the Epiphany is on 6 January [and] celebrates the visit of the Wise Men (Magi) and their bringing of gifts to the child Jesus. In some traditions, the feast of Epiphany and Twelfth Day overlap.
The latter feast day was immortalized by artists including Jan Steen, whose painting “The King drinks” is shown below. In fact, the custom of eating and especially drinking too much became such a problem it was banned in some places: “Twelfth Night in the Netherlands became so secularised, rowdy and boisterous that public celebrations were banned from the church.”
Then there’s the tradition that the Three Wise Men got to the manger-scene just after Jesus was born, but the truth seems harder to pin down. Some say they arrived the same winter Jesus was born, while others say they came two winters after his birth. That would explain Herod’s order – see Matthew 2:16–18 – that his soldiers kill “all the male children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under.” (Known to history as the “Massacre of the Innocents,” noted every December 28.)
Finally – recalling events from this past year – there’s “Gleaning” on the Epiphany – 2021. For the calendar-challenged, that was 11 months ago, when Epiphany coincided with the day Congress (was supposed to) Count Electoral Votes. (The link is to an article dated January 5, 2021.) Which made 2021’s Epiphany “yet another ‘like no other’ in American history.”
In that post – from last year near this time – I picked “three earlier posts to glean from,” along with a reflection on how “gleaning” came to have multiple meanings. Along with a reflection on a mid-winter trip I took the year before, three months before the Covid pandemic “hit the fan.” Referring back to a post from January 17, 2020, My recent Utah trip noted this:
[T]he end of an old year and beginning of a New Year is also a time to recall the events of that past year gone by, and 2019 was definitely a year of pilgrimage for me. Like my trip last May to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. (See “On to Jerusalem, On my first full day in Jerusalem, or type in “Jerusalem” in the search box above right.)
Which is another way of saying that 2019 was a “pilgrimage-filled year,” ending with a 15-day solo road trip “out to and back from my brother’s house in Utah.*” All of which brought back fond memories – of “before Covid” – with recalling that “This too shall pass.”
I ended that “Gleaning” … 2021 post with this thought: “Here’s hoping for a much better 2021.” So now I’ll close this post by saying, “Here’s hoping for a much better 2022.” And I’m going to keep saying it, updating it every year, until that much-better year finally happens…
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“Twelfth Night,” on the evening before the Epiphany, a time to revel and celebrate…
In fact, Graham eventually grew in grace so much that he came to say that God loves allpeople – even Liberals. Which led some Fundamentalists to criticize him “for his ecumenism, even calling him ‘Antichrist.’”
I recently started re-reading portions of the book, which convinced me that I should try to be more like Billy, in the purity and inclusiveness of his faith. (Instead of referring to Right-wing Wackos as – well, “Right-wing Wackos.”) On a related note, in 2018 I published an eBook, “There’s No Such Thing as a Conservative Christian”: and Other Such Musings on the Faith of the Bible. In light of my determination to be “more like Billy,”I’ll be revamping that book for a new version tentatively titled, “There ARE still some open-minded, tolerant and caring Christians… (‘You know, the REAL ones?’)” Or something less confrontational like that. And toning it down a bit.
A note: 2019 included, in September, a 160-mile hike on the Portuguese Way (of the Camino de Santiago), from Porto to Santiago. The mid-winter road trip to Utah included “getting snowed in at a Motel 6 in Grand Island, Nebraska, with a view of a near-frozen North Platte River,” but which also included “a great burger and two draft beers at the Thunder Road Grill at the truck stop next door.”
