Good morning! I'm glad to be heading back home to Florida - Illinois is getting COLD! Today is the feast of John Paul II, and what could I say about him in this small space? Suffice it to say that I see him as a truly holy man, but also a truly great man, in the sense of being an important player in world events. To me, though, I always think of him as the guy who said, there are no coincidences. And I'm sure a lot of people have said that, but for some reason when I read it from him, it stuck - like I truly believed it for the first time in my life. I mean, we all believe things like that in principle, but not so much in practice. But once I committed to that idea, to live like I believe it, I really started seeing it. I've mentioned here before, I think, that very often the way God speaks to me is when I read. Not only Scripture, but other things, too, and for me, I often have the experience where I "just happen" to be reading two apparently unrelated things at about the same time, and something in one of them combines with something in the other to sound to me very much like the voice of God speaking to me at that very point in my life.
We were talking about this in my class yesterday, and one of these convergences happened for one of my students that same day! There are no coincidences!
Speaking of class yesterday, thanks for indulging me on doing The Journey from the classroom. I'm actually going to be teaching a course in January based on my book, Reading Scripture Like the Early Church, and I'm going to teach them how to do what I do in The Journey. It was fun yesterday, and it was interesting, I noticed that as I was talking about the meaning the Church fathers found in these passages, I found myself slipping into preaching mode. And I've long known that for me, the line between teaching and preaching can be a bit blurry. But why wouldn't it, since at least half of the primary sources where the Church fathers comment on Scripture comes from their sermons. So in a lot of cases, the reason we know how they interpreted the passages is that they were preaching them.
Incidentally, I made a comment at the end of the hour yesterday that I would "see" you next week in The Journey, but I forgot that next week, the 28th, is the one Saturday I have to miss, because my grandson is getting baptized. So I will see you next on The Journey on November 4th, but don't forget we have The Piazza next Sunday evening, Oct. 29th.
Pope St. John Paul, pray for us!
Here's a short (about a minute) video I took going around the Holy Column in the church of Santa Prassede. This is the column that Jesus was tied to when he was scourged by Pontius Pilate. They don't always have the barrier down, so you usually don't get to see it from all the way around. I wanted to get video of the whole thing all the way around because I ran across a note in an ancient document that said that those who made a pilgrimage (at that time to the Holy Land, since it was still in Jerusalem) could visit the Holy Column, and could see marks left from the hands of Jesus where he gripped it as he was being whipped. I assume that this is pious legend, but I figured since the column has that dark & light marble, maybe there's a place where the dark parts look like hands. I did not see it, but if you do, let me know!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
Here is our next set of texts - as we get into John chapter 6, we first encounter Jesus feeding the multitudes - in this case 5,000 families!
Now, as you know, there is also an account o Jesus feeding 4,000, and so you may also know that some scholars might speculate that these are just different versions of the same story that circulated and were handed down orally, until they were written down. Even the fact that both stories occur in the same gospel would not stop that kind of speculation. So I thought the first question I would have to ask was whether the Church fathers thought this was one event or two - BUT (and you see where this is going) I forgot that Jesus himself makes reference to two separate events (in Matthew 16 and in Mark 8) so there is no question for the Church fathers - these are two separate events. So it seems that Jesus performed this sign (miracle) of the feeding of the multitudes on two occasions. It's not just one event told two different ways, and it's also ...
My voice was still recovering from a bad cold, so not sounding my best, but this was a great conversation about pilgrimage, for the Jubilee year - more of this coming in other interviews! (FYI, I think I was the third of three guests that day, so you will have to fast forward to find me)
It seems that one way or another we need to talk about different kinds, or different levels of heresy. What I have been calling heresy vs. heterodoxy, others call heresy on fundamental doctrines vs. heresy on less fundamental doctrines. In other words, Heresy with a capital H (over fundamental doctrines like the Trinity and christology) are the kinds of heresies that move one outside the boundaries of what Christianity is, and that's because the very definition of Christianity is defined according to these fundamental doctrines. To refuse to sign the Creed at the Council of Nicaea in 325, or the Council of Constantinople in 381 - and indeed to reject any of the contents of the Creed today - means that a person is NOT a Christian.
So are the non-chalcedonians, such as the miaphysites (including St. Gregory of Narek, and today's Coptic Christians) - are they heretics? Well, like it is with a lot of things, that depends on your definition of heresy. If you include in your definition of ...
