Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
(I Kings 21:17-29; Matthew 5:43-48)
Biblical theologian John Meier finds Jesus’ command, “Love your enemy,” as unique. He examines all Jewish and pagan literature before and during Jesus’ lifetime without locating any equivalent saying. For Meier this indicates that the words come directly from Jesus. That is, he is convinced that the command could not have been borrowed from another source and attributed to Jesus as “the kind of thing he would say.” The phrase may be jarring to many who hear it for the first time but perhaps not as much so as the last command in today’s passage is to many contemporary Christians.
Jesus tells his disciples to “’be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.’” Now wise men have opined that perfection is the enemy of the good. And mothers warn their children that only God is perfect and that humans have to accept themselves as given to error. But Jesus remains unsparing in his command. His disciples are to become like God in their relations with others; that is they must be kind to everyone.
Before putting aside Jesus’ command as impossible, impractical, or self-detrimental, we need to consider what Jesus is offering with these dictates. He sends us the Holy Spirit which does not merely help us but transforms us. We are no longer crippled by sin but walk as God’s children capable of emulating His goodness much like Bach’s children wrote music approaching the glory of their father’s work.
Showing posts with label John Meier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Meier. Show all posts
Friday, December 18, 2009
December 18, 2009
(Jeremiah 23:5-8; Matthew 1:18-25)
In the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston hangs an illustrative painting of the holy family in Egypt. Mary holds Jesus in her arms with a sphinx as protection from the wind while Joseph reclines at a distance keeping guard over his precious charges. This picture may be contrasted with a popular, contemporary sculpture of the holy family with Mary holding Jesus snuggled in the arms of Joseph. The museum painting intimates the perpetual virginity of Mary while the contemporary statue suggests sexual intimacy.
Today’s gospel saying, “He (Joseph) had no relations with her (Mary) until she bore a son...” seems to imply that after Jesus’ birth Joseph and Mary had normal marital relations. However, John Meier, one of today’s foremost gospel scholars, comments that the word for until in Hebrew and Greek “need not mean that there was a change in the situation after Jesus’ birth.”
The issue is important although, perhaps, not critical. We find it in the First Letter to the Corinthians where Paul writes, “It is a good for a man not to touch a woman” so that he or she (certainly the same holds for a woman) might dedicate himself or herself completely to the Lord. We certainly think of Mary as so dedicated. Of course, the elevation of virginity does not disparage marriage. Indeed, some married people live far holier lives than virgins who think of little else than having sexual relations or, for that matter, the unmarried who prefer to remain single out of self-serving independence.
(Jeremiah 23:5-8; Matthew 1:18-25)
In the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston hangs an illustrative painting of the holy family in Egypt. Mary holds Jesus in her arms with a sphinx as protection from the wind while Joseph reclines at a distance keeping guard over his precious charges. This picture may be contrasted with a popular, contemporary sculpture of the holy family with Mary holding Jesus snuggled in the arms of Joseph. The museum painting intimates the perpetual virginity of Mary while the contemporary statue suggests sexual intimacy.
Today’s gospel saying, “He (Joseph) had no relations with her (Mary) until she bore a son...” seems to imply that after Jesus’ birth Joseph and Mary had normal marital relations. However, John Meier, one of today’s foremost gospel scholars, comments that the word for until in Hebrew and Greek “need not mean that there was a change in the situation after Jesus’ birth.”
The issue is important although, perhaps, not critical. We find it in the First Letter to the Corinthians where Paul writes, “It is a good for a man not to touch a woman” so that he or she (certainly the same holds for a woman) might dedicate himself or herself completely to the Lord. We certainly think of Mary as so dedicated. Of course, the elevation of virginity does not disparage marriage. Indeed, some married people live far holier lives than virgins who think of little else than having sexual relations or, for that matter, the unmarried who prefer to remain single out of self-serving independence.
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