Hidden Grains in Matthew 12:1-8

Thanks to a confirmation talk I'm working on, I picked up the Bible last night before going to bed.  One of the Scripture passages I looked up for this talk was Matthew 12:1-8.  Why not read it, I thought, and just reflect on it; maybe that would benefit me more than simply taking notes on the passage.  You'd think the Holy Spirit knows what He's doing or something... the Holy Spirit pointed something out in the reflections that I wanted to share.    

One of the things that stood out was the boldness of Jesus--and it made me curious about the reactions of the Pharisees.  Yes, they voice their displeasure upon seeing Jesus' disciples pick grain on the sabbath, but Matthew doesn't let them get a word in when Jesus compares Himself to David (v. 3-4).  King David!!!  One of the most revered figures in Jewish history!  Even further, Jesus says for the first of three times in the surrounding chapters, "something greater than the Temple is here." (v. 6)  The temple, the most sacred place on earth and the dwelling place of God among His chosen people.  What's greater than that?  As if those weren't audacious enough, Jesus finishes off by saying, "the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath." (v. 8)  The sabbath, instituted by God?  The sabbath, observed by Jews for millennia?  

Matthew grants the Pharisees an aside in v. 14, saying that "the Pharisees went out and took counsel against Him, how to destroy Him."

That shock that the Pharisees must've felt isn't just a historical commentary or a hermeneutical device, or other large words that make me sound smart.  They knew exactly what Jesus was saying.  One of the more concise treatments of this belongs to C.S. Lewis: Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.  A liar could make all the claims that Jesus did, and was killed for stupidly sticking to his lies.  A lunatic would be granted some leeway; if this were true, then we should pity a poor, delusional man who preached his way to torture and death.  The Pharisees of the time fell into a variation of one of these camps.  

Or, He Is the Lord; Who He said He Is.  Jesus spells out Who He Is in this short passage: 

King: Jesus makes a direct parallel between Himself and David, the latter being the epitome of kingship for the Jews at the time.  

Priest: that is, one who offers sacrifice to God.  By bringing up the Temple, Jesus alludes to the very place where sacrifices were offered.  

Prophet: The scripture that Jesus quotes to the Pharisees comes the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."  (6:6)

With these three references, Jesus is proclaiming that He Is the Messiah: priest, prophet, and king.  This is from Hosea 6:6, and the preceding verses are strikingly messianic:  

"Come, let us return to the LORD, for He has torn, that He may heal us; He has stricken, and He will bind us up.  After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him.  Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD, His going forth is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." (v. 1-4)

 In quoting Hosea, Jesus joins His mission to the prophet from of old: to bring the hearts of His wayward people back to the Lord.  

Jesus' final line in this passage provides a whisp of a hint that the Messiah's mission includes the sabbath, although He doesn't go into detail.  With the benefit of hindsight, we can draw a clearer picture: Jesus, the great high priest (Heb 4:14) and victim; the Lamb who offered Himself for our sins (Gen 22:8, John 1:29); whose flesh, like the paschal lamb (Ex 12:8), is true food and drink (John 6:55); which serves as a new foundation for the sabbath of the New Covenant (Matt 26:26-28).

7 Quick Takes: Favorites edition, 11/6/15

Unbelievably, November is here!  Fall weather, foggy mornings, more rain, and football.  Ah, football.  At least one of my two teams is doing well.  For this 7QT, lucky you, they're all based on my favorite things!  My wife & son being first, and the rest being in no particular order.

1) My wife Erin is a beautiful, beautiful woman and I'm very blessed to be married to her.  Easy #1 choice for my favorites!  There's also my little son, Leo.  He's 9 months old now, and we only have a few minutes together in the morning and about an hour in the evening.  Work gets in the way, alas...  For Halloween, we dressed him up in a pumpkin costume.  Cutest and most wiggly pumpkin ever!  We couldn't get a single picture of him smiling and staying still.  

Just soak in the cuteness.  Imagine him crawling with
what looks like a little beer belly--even more adorable

Whoever on Pinterest that showed how to make an Ewok costume for a toddler, I will be thanking you next year.  

2) I love to read, especially books on the Catholic faith.  My interests also include history, although those books tend to require a little more discipline to read.  I just finished this book on Fatima, and I'd recommend it to anyone.  Tomorrow (11/7) is the first Saturday of the month.  Make this the first of your 5 First Saturdays, just like Our Lady asked!  

Come to our aid, Immaculate Queen!

3) Movies are another good source of entertainment, usually.  We've had hits--The Book Thief was excellent (though not a happy movie)--and misses (nearly any secular comedy we've watched in the last couple years).  We have tested out some religious movies, as well.  I've learned a few things... 

*Very few are made outside of Italy, which makes for a problem with... 

*...dubbed-over voices.  I'd much rather hear the actors speak in Italian than have a voice-over actor attempt to fill in the voices.  Can't stand it!

*Some religious movies, however well-intentioned, are bad.  BAD.  (there, I said it)  And it's okay that I feel that way.  It's a funny feeling, the guilt!  If some sort of secular movie had subpar acting, dialogue that doesn't translate well to the screen, I wouldn't feel the least bit guilty about lampooning it.  

*As long as a biblical movie doesn't wind up in the we-couldn't-make-it-through-20-minutes category, they're a good exercise in imaginative prayer.  We recently watched Mary of Nazareth, which was good.  There were so many scenes in the movie that I inwardly thought, 'I pictured it happening a different way' and... there you are, reflecting on a story from the Bible.  

*P.S. only two movies have made it into our we-couldn't-make-it-through-20-minutes category: one religious movie that out of guilt I will not name, and second, the horrendous secular movie Friends With Kids.  Its worst sin?  It wasn't funny.  It had an all-star cast of hilarious comedians and the movie was boring!  

4) Star Wars!  I grew up on it as a kid and I'm really excited to see Episode VII.  The new international trailer was just released... I don't buy the theories that say Luke Skywalker is Kylo Ren, but the tide of speculation is trending toward Luke turning to the dark side.  Kudos to JJ Abrams for this nice gesture, by the way.  

5) For football, Notre Dame is having a good season so far, and I think they'll end up a top 10 team.  Not so sure they'll make the playoff, but at least they're not having as bad of a season as the 49ers.  Seriously, seriously painful.  The owner and GM have driven the team into the ground.  

6) I came upon an old mix CD that I put together, entitled Relax Mix.  I hadn't listened to it in a while, so all the tracks were a surprise.  I'm still amazed at the effect that a great song can have--enticing your imagination to go off to a different place, using melodies, instruments, solos, and sometimes raw emotion.  This was one of the songs from that mix, enjoy!

7) Finally, I do like to write--though you'd never know it for often I write on this blog.  I was lucky to write another post at the Cora Evans blog, this time on 5 Catholic scientists making an impact on society.  My wife had the best idea of everyone on the list, Dr. Hilgers: the founder of the Paul VI Institute and one man responsible for probably thousands of babies being born.  Including Leo.  :)

More quick takes at www.thisaintthelyceum.org!

Fatima for Today, right now!

I recently finished Fr. Andrew Apostoli's book on the great phenomenon of Fatima, called Fatima for Today.  First things first: go buy this book and read it.

Fatima gets lost in the shuffle as yet another avenue of Marian devotion, one among many.  Our Lady is well-traveled and in her great love for her children, she's visited many places.  Some people take a liking to different titles of Our Lady, whether they be Lourdes (my favorite!), Guadalupe, Peace, Grace, Walsingham, and so on, and so on.

Before I read this book, I figured Our Lady of Fatima was another one on that list.  After I read this book, I think that every Catholic needs to know about it.  Here are my reasons:

1) It's one of the most decisive events in the history of the 20th century.
Three poor, shepherd children, two of whom died very young?  Yes!  The messages they were given aimed to correct the errors of the 20th century: first, hell does, in fact, exist.  This had long been frequently denied or ignored, a century ago just as it is today.  Look at the no consequences philosophies permeating our culture!  Second, penance is key to the spiritual life.  Materialist cultures like ours don't see a value in penance, don't understand it, and reject it as archaic.  Third, without serious correction and reparation, the world was headed for terrible suffering.  The death toll from two world wars; the atrocities committed by Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pot; war after war after war.  Our Lady was given the grace to know where our world was heading, and these messages were meant to warn us.

The apparitions at Fatima were decisive because of one of the largest controversies in the Church: the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  See below for my thoughts on the controversy, but Fr. Apostoli had a good take.  Look at how the Soviet Union "thawed" with Gorbachev... the manner in which the Berlin wall came down... how the U.S.S.R. dissolved without a shot being fired.

Imagine the alternative to each of those.

2) It's very important to learn the truth about the conspiracy theories, as not to get caught up in them.
A while ago, I googled the Fatima apparitions to learn more about them.  What a mistake!  I was surprised at all the garbage out there!  Various conspiracy theories claimed that the Third Secret finally revealed by Pope John Paul II wasn't the real Third Secret--Bl. Lucia wrote it on one page, and the photocopy had four pages!  The Sr. Lucia shown in photo X is not actually Sr. Lucia!  The Vatican kidnapped her and replaced her with an impostor!  There's still a fourth secret out there that the Vatican has suppressed!

Fr. Apostoli answers many of the common objections relating to Fatima... perhaps with the exception of Sr. Lucia being replaced with an impostor (which is silly).  

Sr. Lucia said herself that heaven accepted Pope John Paul II's consecration of the world as fulfilling what Our Lady asked at Fatima, to consecrate Russia.  It's really that simple.  No tales of intrigue, no rogue Curial bishops, no redactions from the Third Secret.  

Pick any hot-button moral issue today, and there's so much confusion.  What is the source of all the confusion about Fatima?  It's Satan!  He's attacked the message of Fatima to discredit it and sow discord within the Church... just as he did with abortion, contraception, euthanasia, gender confusion, and the like.  And sadly, he's done a damn good job.

3) The storms in our world are coming to a high point.  Our Lady of Fatima shows us the way through it--and her Immaculate Heart wins in the end.
These messages weren't just for the people of Portugal, Russia, or Europe.  The call to penance and conversion is a constant theme throughout the New Testament; there's nothing new there.  The difference at Fatima was first the insistence, and second, a reminder that our spiritual practices & life of penance (or lack thereof) has consequences.  She told the three visionaries that prayer & penance could've averted World War II, and the length of it was shortened.  So it is with our times!  Prayer/the rosary, penance, and frequent reception of the sacraments are the best defenses and weapons that we have against the evils of our time.

And lest we lose heart, she wins.  Evil loses.  There is hope!

There is so much to write about Fatima, and this will have to suffice for now.  Read about the Five First Saturdays here and start it this week!

Our Lady of Peace, pray for us.
Blessed Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, pray for us.