This is a good place to begin a less impressionistic and
more concrete spirituality based on the readings. History serves to ground the spiritual life concretely in time and
place. God is active in history, but
just how is a mystery. That mystery serves as a check on concrete legalistic self-righteousness.
Lincoln
said that he was not so much worried about God being on his side as he was
about being on the side of God. Rather than a self-righteous concrete approach
to history, why not an
impressionistic approach, but an approach? With good reason, Western
Civilization has lost its nerve about its place in history. Why not try to renegotiate the relationship between God
and Western Civilization? My definition of history
is the explanation of change through time.
Words to note are forever,
eternal, will, shall, and history. Each of these words references
change or lack thereof through time. Each of these words grounds hope in
concrete terms. The basic cause for hope resides in the Divine Covenant.
That there are nine versions of the Divine Covenant appears
relatively frequently in these Notes. The research for the nine is in Charles H. Talbert,
“Paul, Judaism, and the Revisionists,”
the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol.
63, No. 1 (January 2001) 1-22. In these notes, this article is cited ten times:
021124, 021208, 030316, 030330, 030406, 030608, 030622, 030824, 031026, and
031102. Anyone wanting a copy of all or part of the Notes using “Paul, Judaism, and the Revisionists,” please request
them from me. My reason for citing the article in the body of these Notes
is that these Notes rely so much on the article, that the article itself
will not be further cited in the documentation.
The question in these readings is how does Paul relate to nonmessianic Judaism? As overly
legalistic? Mistakenly as legalistic? Mistaken in Palestine but not in the broader Hellenistic
world? As a people divided among those who believed (1) that all had to follow
the law in a legalistic sense; (2) that grace resulted in following the law,
and (3) that grace was all that was required? According to Talbert, Paul viewed the Jews in the latter sense, as a people
divided. Where Paul argues against
legalism, he argues against non-Jewish misperceptions of Judaism. Paul argues as an apostle to the Gentiles.
In these readings, one issue for Pauline
theology is the place of the Covenant. Does one gain entrance into the Age to
Come simply by living a good life or does so gaining entrance require a
relationship to the Covenant? How does Paul
relate his polemic against legalism to his love of the law and the Covenant?
The answer rests in love as a motivator; love emanating as grace from God
through Jesus Christ animating Christians to good
works.
When one considers Poor Clare nuns contemplating God, one
considers contemplation as a good work. Technically, contemplation is the
highest of the good works. Contemplation is not Faith, but a result of Faith.
Finding God in creation, such as the monastic garden, and using that finding to
raise the heart and soul to the Creator can happen in both a meditative and
contemplative mode. The difference is that one contemplating is relaxed and
comfortable in the presence of God without much help, whereas one meditating
must make more of an effort to find and locate God, with much help, such as the
help of a garden.
Is contemplation a good work like the baptism of John, external to the spiritual life? Since both
contemplation and the baptism of John
can be separated from both love and the Cross, both are external to the
spiritual life. The gifts of mysticism are similarly external. Legalism extend
from the dietary laws of the Jews to dietary laws of Christians and beyond,
even to contemplation. Advent helps counteract self-righteousness based on
legalism.
Talbert quotes Kasemann:
Religion
always provides man with his most thoroughgoing possibility of confusing an
illusion with God. Paul sees this
possibility realized in the devout Jew: inasmuch as the announcement of God’s
will in the law is here misunderstood as a summons to human achievement and
therefore as a means to a righteousness of one’s own. But that is for him the
root of sin … man, in despairing presumption, erects his own work into the
criterion of the universal judgment and God becomes an approving spectator of
our doings.
In this Reformation Protestant view of Jewish legalism, one
cannot fulfill the law and so trying is an act of idolatry. There stands Paul. More recent, less legalistic views of Middle
Judaism and Paul cite lack of
acceptance either of Christ or of Gentiles. There
stands Paul again in a new theological
orthodoxy.
How valid is a parallel between pre- with post-Vatican II
Church Magisterium and Middle Judaism with Pauline Christianity? Middle Judaism
was optimistic; Paul pessimistic. Was
the pre-Vatican II Church Magisterium optimistic; post-Vatican II, pessimistic?
The following readings from Baruch are
fundamentally optimistic.
Baruch 5:1-9
verse 1b put
on the splendor of glory from God forever:
verse 2 wrapped in the cloak of justice from
God,
bear on your head the
mitre
that
displays the glory of the eternal name.
With specific references to verses 2 and 9 Talbert points
out that “being clothed with some aspect of another’s selfhood empowers [sic] one who is so clothed.”
verse 4 you
will be named by God forever
Baruch wrote as a
scribe for Jeremiah. He also wrote his
own book, sometime after the 587 B.C. deportation to Babylon. At the time of the final composition
of Baruch, in the middle of the first century B.C., some
Jews had returned from their Babylonian exile, but not to the extent that the
exile was generally considered over, at least for some. Commoners regarded the
exile as still in progress and in need of a messiah, but the educated elite did
not. Saint Paul
arose from and preached within a context of the educated elite.
Saint Paul,
then, had a problem. Were the exile over, then why would there be a messiah?
Were the exile not over, then how would the history of what had happened be explained? Baruch,
by writing in the future tense, implies that the exile is not yet over. Paul also has a view to the future.
verse 3 For
God will
show all the earth your splendor:
Verse 5 is the most telling.
verse 5 Up, Jerusalem! Stand upon the
heights;
look
to the east and see your children
gathered
from the east and the west
at
the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing
that they are remembered by God.
Your children are
the chosen people, whether chosen by grace, by race, or by following the law.
Unscrambling which is which is part of gaining insight into these readings.
Protestantism with its emphasis on Faith alone looks to grace; Catholicism with
its emphasis on Faith and works looks to grace and the law, both. Because of
past errors regarding race, speculating on racial choice is beyond the pale of
contemporary competency.
verse 6b but
God will bring them [the exiles] back to you
Jerusalem is
analogous to the souls of the Faithful. Christians interpret Baruch as prophesying the Christmas Messiah. The
exile is not over, because the non-analogous concrete exile from Jerusalem into Babylon
is replaced by the analogous impressionistic exile of the Faithful from God. Jesus, the Messiah, leads the Faithful back to
himself, to his temple in Jerusalem.
Love is the means for getting back.
verse 9 for
God is leading Israel
in joy
by
the light of his glory,
with
his mercy and justice for company.
Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
(3)
The Lectionary uses this Psalm in the following
places:
Readings Page in Verses used
Lectionary
6C
30 1-2, 2-3, 4-5,
6 (3) The readings for today.
36C 229 1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6 (3)
149B 921 1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6 (3)
Funerals also uses this Psalm:
Page Section Verses used
290 Antiphons and
Psalms 16
Antiphons and Psalms 1-2, 2-3,
4-5, 6 (3)
Hans-Joachim
Kraus offers sometime after 538
B.C. as the historical origin of
this psalm. Kraus writes,
If
the psalm as a whole is to be understood correctly, we must begin with the historical situation. …The God of
Israel works in history as he
bestows salvation in progressive activity. The change to the new state of all
things (***) takes place in history
in the constantly new retrospects, petitions, and hopeful stride of the chosen
people.
verse (3) The
Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
This responsorial verse is an historical recollection. The relationship not is simply between God
and the individual soul but also between God and bodies of people, in
particular the Jews. This Psalm was probably written after Baruch died, but within the time of his living memory.
The Psalm does look to the future and does not assume that the exile is over.
verse 4 Restore
our fortunes, O LORD,
like
the torrents in the southern desert.
Kraus joins Psalms 74 and 80 with 126 to remember past history
in a plea for a restoration of good fortune.
verse 5 Those
who sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
verse 6 they shall
come back rejoicing
Verses 5 and 6 influence Matthew 5:4 when Matthew writes “Blessed are those who mourn, for they
shall be comforted.”
Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
verse 6 I am
confident of this,
that
the one who began a good work in you
will
continue to complete it
until
the day of Christ
Jesus.
Talbert writes, “Citing texts like Phil 1:6; 2:12-13, and Gal 2:20, [Timo]
Laato contends that in Paul,
Christians act because it is God who acts in them.”
verse 9 And
this is my prayer:
that
your love may increase ever more and
more
in
knowledge and every kind of perception
verse 10 to
discern what is of value,
so
that you may be pure and blameless
for the day of Christ,
verse 11 filled
with the fruit of righteousness
that
comes through Jesus
Christ
for
the glory and praise of God.
In verse 11, righteousness
refers to the chosen people, the elect, those who will get into the Age to Come.
This is a place to list the covenants and the relationship
of Paul to them. Talbert writes as
follows. The numbering brackets are my insertions.
Paul makes no mention of the covenants with [1] Noah
(Gen 9:8-17), [2] Phinehas (Num
25:10-13), [3] Joshua
(Joshua 24), [4] (2 Kings 23), and [5] Ezra (Ezra 9—10). The [6] covenant with David is not central
to Paul’s thought, although it is echoes in the oral tradition taken up in Rom
1:3-4 (“descended from David according to the flesh’) and in the quotation from
Isa 11:10 in Rom 15:12 (“The root of Jesse will
come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope”). If so, Paul
would see the promise to David
fulfilled in the reign of Jesus after
the resurrection (1 Cor 15:20-28).
Three covenants of the Scriptures of Israel receive significant attention in Paul’s letters: [7]
the covenant with Abraham, [8] the Mosaic covenant, and [9] the new covenant of Jeremiah 31.
The covenant with Abraham extends to all the Gentiles
through Faith, the Mosaic Law is a temporary expedient, until Christ, as
prophesied in Jeremiah 31, where “God himself enables his people’s faithfulness
to the relationship.”
Luke 3:4, 6
verse 3:4 Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight
his paths
Luke 3:1-6
verse 1a In the
fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
Caesar…
verse 2b the
word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John was just
several months older than Jesus was. Verse
26 states that “When he began, Jesus was about thirty years old …” The first
year of the reign of Tiberius was 14 A.D., so that the fifteenth year of the
reign of Tiberias would be 29 A.D., close enough for about thirty. The other well-known problems dating the birth of Jesus, translate about
thirty, to between thirty-two and thirty-eight years of age when Jesus began his public ministry. The public ministry
of John may have lasted some time before the public ministry of Jesus,
beginning with the baptism of Jesus.
Since a Mark
D. Smith
surmises that Jesus was born in 6 B.C.,
Jesus would have been thirty-four when
he began his public ministry. Margaret
Barker writes that Herod the Great died in 4 B.C.
John the Baptizer
is
verse 3b proclaiming
a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
This verse is similar to Mark 1:4 used for this Second
Sunday of Advent in Cycle B. The current Cycle is C.
The baptism of John
did not forgive sins, but was a petition for their forgiveness. When the
Faithful bless themselves at the holy water fountain or a presider sprinkles
them, a similar petition for the forgiveness of sins takes place. Sprinkling
with holy water is a rite associated with bringing Holy Communion to the sick.
Neither did righteousness forgive sins. Paul teaches that participation in the life of Christ both enables righteousness and forgives sins. Sins
are forgiven through Christ, not through
righteousness. Paul rails against
self-righteousness of any stripe.
For Paul, grace and
obedience have a dependence of nature rather than time. In other words, grace
and obedience are not sequential (in another form of legalism), but, rather,
hang together like links in a chain, contemporaneously dependent upon one
another in a priority of nature, the lower link of good works dependent upon
the higher link of grace.
The external rite of baptism by John
appears like a “good work,” something external to the spiritual life. Prophecy
itself is a good work. Luke continues,
verse 4 As it
is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
”Prepare
the way of the Lord,
make
straight his paths.
verse 5 Every valley shall be filled
and
every mountain and hill shall be
made low.
The winding
roads shall be made straight,
And
the rough ways made smooth,
verse 6 and all flesh shall
see the salvation of God.”
Advent is a time full of hope for the future that the life
of grace in Christ by the Faithful will bring.
In these readings, with a view toward the future, Baruch encourages the Faithful to put on the eternal-forever mantle of God. “You will
be named by God forever.” The
psalm presents God as an historical
God, guiding the Faithful into a Covenantal relationship with Himself.
Philippians struggles with the relationship between internal and external
behavior. With a pessimistic view of human power, Paul looks forward to what will happen as time goes on and the
activity of God through grace in souls becomes manifest. With Tiberius Caesar,
Luke grounds Jesus
in time and place. Luke portrays the
prophecy of Isaiah as fulfilled in Jesus,
a stopping off place in history for
Covenantal relationships.
Where does the Magisterium fit? Humbly, righteous, without
either legalism or self-righteousness both on the part of the Faithful
recipients of the Magisterium as well as on the part of the Magisterium itself.
For more on sources, besides the footnotes, see the Appendix
file.