So, the feeding of the five thousand wasn't a miracle. Instead the "real miracle" was that everyone shared their lunch. Everything had to be questioned and "re-interpreted" in such a way that it could be accepted and understood by modern people. So when we call Jesus Christ "God Incarnate" what we really mean was that he was so fully human that as he reached his potential as a man, he showed us what divinity looks like. When we speak of the Blessed Virgin we mean she was "a very good and holy Jewish young woman." When we speak of the "Real Presence" we mean that we see the "Christ that is within each one of us."Me too.
I hate this crap.
Here's my two cents worth on one of the miracle debunking lines that annoys me most.
Jesus fed the 5,000. No one pulled out their lunches.
For something that I just learned to pay attention to from listening to the St. Irenaeus Ministries podcast which is working its way through the Gospel According to John right now, go read chapter 6 and pay close attention to these lines.
12 When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted."My emphasis added, obviously. Where did those fragments come from? Not from people's lunches. From the five barley loaves. John wasn't leaving that point to chance.
13 So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets 8 with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
Now that I've expressed myself on that point, let us return to the well written article that prompted it.
Read the whole thing by Father Dwight Longenecker at Patheos.
It was a good article...
ReplyDeleteThere are many good things about my home parish. But, apostolic zeal and catechesis is not one of them.
I'm embarrassed to say it but a visiting Franciscan priest gave a heck of a homily on defense of life and the Faithfuls role there in, and my wife thought his position would not be appreciated by those in the pews. She was worried about offending people and some of them not coming back. (This is a bit of an on going back and forth between us).
In the MSM, there is an overt attempt to deny Jesus Divinity. I simply cannot watch PBS or The History Channel any longer. Too much for the old ticker... :(
It's not only in the MSM that try to deny Jesus' divinity. Much of the Christology developed in the 20th century, catholic and non-catholic, is littered with it.
ReplyDeleteI just finished a long (22 hr) lecture CD by Dr. Brant Pitre (a Scripture scholar) on Biblical Christology. Excellent!!! I highly recommend it. He stays very close to the Catechism and the Church Fathers, all of which gives one an insight into what Pope Benedict says and writes.
In fact, for the first couples hours, Dr. Pitre basically diagnosis the problems with modern Christology and points out things like this to be on the look out for. Then comes the "good" stuff. As Dr. Pitre points out, good Christology is suppose to draw you closer to Jesus, increase ones faith and knowledge. 20th century rationalism drove people away.
Dr. Pitre's lectures can be found at Catholic Productions or his excellent website, Sacred Scripture He also has a bunch of excellent one-hour CD's/mp3's available too. The depth of his knowledge he shares of both the Old and New Testament has completely changed how I read/pray Scripture.
Thanks for the heads up on that Mark. I am listening to a great history of the Catholic Church but may have to make that my next "listen" for Catholic stuff. I'm reading Pitre's book about the Eucharist's Jewish roots right now and it is great.
ReplyDeleteFr. Pacwa also notes that the sharing interpretation is an insult to people in the Middle East. The idea of people not sharing and and showing hospitality certainly did not fit the people of the time. They would have needed no pressure to share food and so the "Miracle of sharing" is only an insult.
ReplyDeleteEven dumber is that the Miracle of Sharing denies any connection to the great Eucharistic discourse in John 6 that occurs after the Miracle of the Loaves.