Gospel of Matthew: Who do you say that I am?

Matthew 16:13-18

I feel as if there has been a resurgence in people focusing on this question in homilies and writing lately. I seem to see it everywhere and it is a good question to ask oneself about Jesus. Peter's answer leads Christ to high praise and revelation about his church.

Reading Bishop Barron's commentary gave me my own sort of revelation.

Jesus responded to this confession of Peter with some of the most extraordinary language in the New Testament: "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." Neither the crowds nor the aristocratic circle around Jesus knew who he was—only Peter knew. And this knowledge did not come from Peter's intelligence or from an extraordinary education (he didn't have one) or from his skill at assessing popular opinion. It came as a gift from God, a special charism of the Holy Spirit. Because of this gift, given only to the head of the Twelve, Jesus called Simon by a new name: in Aramic Cephas (rock or rocky), rendered in Greek as Petros and in English as Peter.

Reading this my mind's eye was seized with the idea that this is one of those moments when Jesus' perfect humanity and perfect divinity intersect. He knows that Peter will lead the church because Peter was given this revelation by the Father. We are seeing Christ himself take guidance from the Father's working in the moment through Peter. Kind of a give-and-take of these two members of the Trinity in the workings of time. At least — that's how it felt to me.

I also like this further point which Bishop Barron goes on to make. We are not to hunker down because we're safe from the gates of Hell. We're to take the battle to the gates of Hell themselves. Now those are marching orders!

On the foundation of this rock, Jesus declared that he would build his ekklesia, his Church. ... And Jesus insists that this society, grounded in Peter's confession, would constitute an army so powerful that not even the fortified capital of the dark kingdom itself could withstand it. It is fascinating to me how often we construe this saying of Jesus in precisely the opposite direction, as though the Church is guaranteed safety against the onslaughts of hell. In point of fact, Jesus is suggesting a much more aggressive image: his Church will lay successful siege upon the kingdom of evil, knocking down its gate and breaching its walls.

Quote is from The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning

I am used to the image (probably from movies) of a WWII soldier pulling out a book to read in a spare moment, any time, anywhere. However, I didn't realize the huge effort that went into helping our soldiers' morale stay high by providing those very books. The program was begun as book drives by librarians who were outraged by German book burnings and wanted to provide ammo in the war of ideas. It was later taken over by a council who coordinated between the War Department and publishers to began printing special lightweight editions.

A wide variety of books — everything from Tarzan to Plato — were supplied throughout the war, with millions being printed and distributed regularly. These provided comfort, distraction, and much needed entertainment while inadvertently teaching an entire generation of military the pleasures of reading in an age where many would not have picked up a book except in school. They were considered so important to morale that over a million copies were stockpiled before D-Day so that each soldier would have one when boarding the transports. I was surprised to find that paperbacks were normalized for society by this process and that the standard paperback sizes of old (6x4 and 5x3) were the sizes that would fit in uniform pockets.

All of this took me through WWII with an entirely new focus and gave me a feeling of what the soldiers went through in a way I've not felt before. My favorite bits were the letters from soldiers to authors or publishers describing just how a favorite book changed their life. I especially liked the one about the officer who began reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (a favorite among the troops) right when a battle was beginning and kept thinking about the plot all during the intense fighting and maneuvering that followed all night long. However, here is one of the most powerful stories of a soldier, expressed to author Betty Smith:

"Ever since the first time I struggled through knee deep mud ... carrying a stretcher from which my buddie's life dripped away in precious blood and I was powerless to help him, I have felt hard and cynical against this world and have felt sure that I was no longer capable of loving anything or anybody," he wrote. He went through the war with a "dead heart ... and dulled mind," believing he had lost the ability to feel.

It was only as he read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn that something inside him began to stir. "I can't explain the emotional reaction that took place, I only know that it happened and that this heart of mine turned over and became alive again. A surge of confidence has swept through me and I feel that maybe a fellow has a fighting chance in this world after all. I'll never be able to explain to you the gratitude and love that fill my heart in appreciation of what your book means to me." It brought laughter and joy, and also tears. Although it "was unusual for a supposedly battle-hardened marine to do such an effeminate thing as weep over a piece of fiction, ... I'm not ashamed," he said. His tears proved he was human.

Highly recommended.

More positive reviews for Thus Sayeth the Lord

I'm delighted to see these good reviews and wanted to share a bit with you:

She starts each chapter with passages to read from the Bible, kind of a "highlights reel," which is especially handy for those prophets who don't get their own named books (like Samuel or Miriam). Davis also points out that the best place to hear the messages of the prophets is the Catholic liturgy, where the readings are often paired up with their fulfillment in the Gospels. Best of all, she connects the prophets' messages and life examples to contemporary problems. Everyone has dealt with issues like when to speak up or how to be patient in adverse circumstances. She's honest and heartfelt, even using examples from her own life.

Joseph

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his would make an excellent Bible study for adults or teens. There is much to be gleaned by longtime disciples, but Julie's down-to-earth, friendly, welcoming, and understanding point of view make this book suitable for those who are just learning about the Catholic faith for the first time, or who have serious reservations about certain aspects of the faith.

Jon

======

I was happy to find that this book is very accessible, with an incredibly conversational, colloquial style (Galaxy Quest and MCU references, anyone?) that makes these ancient stories feel timeless and relatable. At the same time, it's extremely informative and provides copious citations and annotations for further reference, and I learned a lot about the minor prophets and gained deeper understanding of the major prophets.

Oftentimes I find that I don't get as much out of the "further reflections" or "how does this relate to us" sections of modern prayer or scriptural study books as I am meant to. In this book, however, Julie Davis's discreet personal reflections (no over-sharing here), insightful analysis, and gentle questions really made me stop and think - and develop a greater reverence for the wisdom and example of the prophets. Definitely recommended!

Kimberly

If you haven't tried Thus Sayeth the Lord, it is available in both Kindle and print.

If you've found the book helpful and haven't left a review, please consider doing so. They really do help people find the book.

Quiet Pleasures

Quiet Pleasures (1898). Gustav Max Stevens
via Books and Art

Adam sleeps and Christ dies ...

Adam sleeps so that Eve may be made; Christ dies so that the Church may be made. While Adam is asleep Eve is made from his side; when Christ is dead his side is pierced with a lance, so that the sacraments, from which the Church is to be forme, might pour out.

St. Augustine, Homily 9 on John 2:1-11

A Movie You Might Have Missed #18 — Reign Over Me

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

18. Reign Over Me

Don Cheadle is dissatisfied with his life. His marriage could be better, as could his dental practice in which he is being stalked by a patient. Trudging along through his routine he is surprised to see his college roommate (Adam Sandler) who he lost touch with long ago. Cheadle had heard that his roommate lost his family in the September 11 attacks and it is soon clear that Sandler welcomes his old roommate's friendship precisely because Cheadle never knew his family.

Although this movie has the potential to be a real downer as it examines grief from several angles, it does not fall into that trap. Thanks to the strength of friendships and comedy the movie wound up being uplifting.

Aiming at the Target

Aiming at the Target by Soyama Sachihiko, 1890
via J.R.'s Art Place

Having just finished The Odyssey in preparation for an upcoming podcast, this couldn't help but speak to me.

A man might eat bread forever and ever

Jerry took a large slice of wheaten bread, spread with golden butter, and bit into it with her small white teeth. It was a natural gesture—she was very hungry indeed—but to Sam there was something symbolic about it. Jerry was like bread, he thought. She was like good wholesome wheaten bread spread thickly with honest farm butter; and the thought crossed his mind that a man might eat bread forever and ever and not tire of it, and that it would never clog his palate like sweet cakes of pastries or chocolate éclairs.

D.E. Stevenson, Miss Buncle Marries

The stars at night are big and bright. Deep in the heart of Texas.

Via Traces of Texas

Identity — When you're mixed race but your name and looks mean you're "yet another white guy."

There is a frustrating aspect to the fact that in the US these days, discussions of background are so frequently tied up with discussions of discrimination and oppression. It means that someone like me, who doesn't look Hispanic enough to have someone making negative assumptions about me, and who doesn't have a Hispanic last name, ends up seeming like he'd be somehow faking to talk about coming from a Hispanic background.

As racial problems go, being dismissed as "yet another white guy" by politically active online warriors is the most first world of problems, so I'm not exactly here to complain. But it is a rather cut-off feeling at times. I'm proud of the stories of my ancestors who walked across the US/Mexican boarder around 1900. I'm proud of my grandfather who excelled at his studies despite having to go to the schools for Mexican kids rather than the ones for white kids in the little mining town in New Mexico where he grew up. And I'm proud of the American identity that he built for himself and his children, through a career in the Navy starting in 1945 when he has seventeen. I wish that the way that the US talked about race didn't mean that if you weren't oppressed because of your background, you can't claim it without seeming like a poser.

This is a good piece by Darwin over at Darwin Catholic.

I don't have this problem but was bemused once by a friend lamenting the fact that our parish was so white. I told her that over half the people I knew during the Mass time we both attended were Hispanic but didn't stand out particularly in any way. They looked like middle class Americans, that's all.

And then it occurred to me. "Hey, wait. You're part Hispanic. And so is your husband."

True enough. Their family name is Irish and if I hadn't heard many stories of their families I'd have thought they both came from Anglo-Irish backgrounds simply going on looks. She looked embarrassed and said, "Oh! I guess I was judging by class instead of ethnicity." It was an interesting moment for me. And, I think, possibly for my friend too.

Gospel of Matthew: Rowing into a Headwind in the Darkness

Matthew 14:22-23

I have heard many homilies about Matthew 14:22-33, when Jesus comes walking on the water in the night across the sea to the disciples in the boat where they have been battling the storm. Go read it for yourself. There are many details that I never considered about the timing which George Martin brings to our attention. Very, very interesting when we consider our own discipleship.

Also, when I look at this painting I realize that I'd forgotten just how dark it would have been. No wonder the disciples were creeped out!

Christ walking on the sea, Amédée Varint

... The wind-and-wave-battered boat bearing the disciples has long been taken as a symbol of the church (see also 8:213-27). Those in the boat have been sent forth by Jesus but face opposition and danger. Jesus is not bodily present; he is at prayer, at the right hand of his Father (26:64; Rom. 8:34). The church might seem to be making little headway despite hard rowing, but it has been so for disciples of Jesus from the very first. ...

We must presume that Jesus, atop the hill by the lake, is aware of the strong wind and of the struggle his disciples re enduring. Yet he does not cut short his prayer to come to his disciples; it is only during the fourth watch of the night that he came toward them, walking on the sea. The Roman way of reckoning divided the period from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. into four watches; the fourth watch of the night ran from 3:00 to 6:00 a.m. The disciples have been battling strong headwinds from evening until almost dawn. Jesus sent his disciples off to row into a headwind and let them contend with it through the night.

[...]

Jesus does not calm the wind and waves; he tells his disciples to have courage and not be afraid, despite the wind and waves, because it is I. In its simplest meaning, it is I identifies the one walking on the water as Jesus: it is I, Jesus, who have come to you and tell you to have courage and not be afraid. Even if you are battered by wind and waves far from shore in darkness, you have nothing to fear, because it is I. I will take care of you.

Quote is from Bringing the Gospel of Matthew to Life. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

The best thing that can happen to anyone who is doing wrong is to be found out.

"If one of them is guilty—are you a religious woman, Miss Treherne?"

Rachel said, "Yes."

Miss Silver nodded approvingly.

"Then you will agree with me that the best thing that can happen to anyone who is doing wrong is to be found out. If he is not found out he will do more wrong and earn a heavier punishment."

Patricia Wentworth, The Lonesome Road

Madrid - near the Palace Gardens

Madrid - Near the Palace Gardens, Elizabeth Scalia

A Movie You Might Have Missed #17 — Pan's Labyrinth

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.




This definitely is a fairytale for adults. Do not let the kids watch this one.

During the Spanish civil war in 1944, a young girl and her mother move to their new home with the mother's new husband, cruel Captain Vidal. In the midst of a risky pregnancy, the mother can't do much more than rest in bed while the girl, Ofelia, wanders the grounds and countryside. She soon discovers an entire underground world and is guided by the persuasive Faun in his labyrinth. He offers to help her if she'll complete three treacherous tasks. As Ofelia begins her tasks the viewer is left with the question of whether this alternate reality really exists or is imaginary. Del Toro leaves that up to the viewer. I know what I think ... but I've seen the movie!

(Warning: the Captain is a extremely violent and cruel character. If you think that he is going to do something terrible, just figure that he will. I didn't watch when violence threatened and didn't miss any important dialogue in the subtitles.)

Scott and I discussed this at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast, episode 70.

Piano Poster

Piano poster for Club. Mads Berg.
via Books and Art

Chesterton and American Idealism

There is one thing, at any rate, that must strike all Englishmen who have the good fortune to have American friends; that is, that while there is no materialism so crude or material as American materialism, there is also no idealism so crude or so ideal as American idealism.

G.K. Chesterton, Charles Dickens

He hit that nail squarely on the head!

Tea in the Studio

Tea in the Studio by Bertha Wegmann, c. late 1800s
via J.R.'s Art Place

Lagniappe - Delicate Enjoyment

Another novelty is the tea-party, an extraordinary meal in that, being offered to persons that have already dined well, it supposes neither appetite nor thirst, and has no object but distraction, no basis but delicate enjoyment.

Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste

If the fact of O’Connor’s racism, and Dickens’s, has any importance, it is because they were both capable of transcending it in astonishingly beautiful and lasting ways.

It is futile to deny that both O’Connor and Dickens “lacked comprehension” in many ways. You won’t find one person anywhere, at any time, about whom that’s not true. If the fact of O’Connor’s racism, and Dickens’s, has any importance, it is because they were both capable of transcending it in astonishingly beautiful and lasting ways. What’s remarkable about O’Connor’s racism, and Dickens’s, is how inconsistent it is with their fiction. By now, the sins of both of them have been burned away. Their art is a far more fitting monument to their largeness and ability to defend the inherent worth of human persons.

Scott Eric Alt,
Racism and transcendence in Charles Dickens & Flannery O’Connor

On the heels of yesterday's letter defending Flannery O'Connor, warts and all, comes this very good piece about Flannery O'Connor and Charles Dickens. I'd long known about charges of anti-Semitism against Dickens and how he corrected himself once he understood what he'd been doing. However, I guess the fault has been resurrected as something new. Anyway, I liked the examples and comparison in this piece — do go read it all.

Gospel of Matthew: The Cockle of False Doctrine

Matthew 13:9-11, 15-22

I love the fact that the cockle and the wheat looked so much alike and that this would have been a common form of revenge so everyone knew what Jesus was talking about. Context that is much needed for our lives which are far from that sort of agriculture or even from agriculture at all.

And, of course, it is applicable to our times no matter the context.

The enemy sowing weeds, Heinrich Füllmaurer

In the Gospel of today's Mass or Lord teaches us the parable of the wheat and the cockle. The world is like a field where God is continually sowing the seed of his grace; this divine seed takes root in the soul an produces fruits of holiness ... But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.

The weed in question -- cockle-seed -- is a plant that is often found growing in cereal crops in the Middle East. It resembles wheat so closely that even to the farmer's practised eye it is impossible to tell the two plants apart until the stalks begin to mature, at which stage the cockle can be recognized by its slender ear and emaciated grain; it is quite toxic to humans, and if mixed with flour will ruin bread. Sowing cockle among the wheat was a form of revenge not unheard of in those countries. Periodic plagues of cockle were very much feared by the peasants, because they could cause them to lose their entire harvest.

The Fathers of the Church have understood the cockle to be a metaphor for false doctrine, which is not easy to distinguish from the truth, above all at the beginning, because it is proper to the devil to mix falsehood with truth; (St. John Chrysostom) and if error is allowed to flourish it always has catastrophic effects on the people of God.

This parable has lost none of its relevance nowadays; we can see that many Christians have fallen asleep and have allowed the enemy to sow bad seed with total impunity. There is practically no truth of the Catholic Faith which hasn't been called into question. We have to be very careful indeed, both with ourselves and with anybody we are responsible for, in the whole area of magazines, television, books, and newspapers, all of which can be a real source of false doctrine and which required us to make a special effort to look after our on-going formation in the doctrinal area.

If we are to be faithful to all the requirements of the Christian vocation we have to be constantly watchful and not let ourselves be taken off guard, because once false doctrine manages to take root in the soul it quickly gives rise to sterility and to estrangement from God. We need to be watchful too in the area of our affections, and not fool ourselves with excuses about how at our time of life "things don't affect us"; and we should be careful also about the effect of such false ideas on those whom God has entrusted to our care.

Francis Fernandez
In Conversation with God: Daily Meditations, Vol. 4

From my friend Patsy come these wonderful insights into the painting.

The picture, labeled "Math. 13," shows the fence of the field broken, and the awful demon with chicken feet sowing cockles, very scary and terrible. The poor woman in the shabby house is faithfully kneading her bread, unaware of how threatened the bread could become as the wheat grows.

The worst part of the picture is the very rich house where the guardians of the field are asleep. The pope is lying down, fully asleep (his responsibility abdicated?), with a cleric in the background who should be watching over him (inadequate protection for his holiness?). The King is sleeping, more or less sitting up (thinking he is still in charge?). On the floor there seems to be a misused chalice almost covered with a black cloth (lack of providing the True Bread). Then there are the priest and the two bishops, who seem to have fallen asleep over what they should be preaching from that podium (from boredom, disinterest, giving up?).

Up in the sky we can barely make out the Lord God coming on the clouds of heaven, with all his angels, but a long way off. It is the time for getting ready for the final separation of the weeds from the wheat. The chimney of the woman's house is sending up smoke which seems to merge with the clouds around the Lord God. Maybe her life of faith and duty are calling for his mercy. There is a very large bee hive beside her house, whose honey is a symbol of wisdom and preaching the Word of God.

This series first ran in 2008. Quote source info is here. I'm refreshing it as I go.