Scholars and theologians also exult in joy

The psalmist exhorts us to ascribe to the Lord the glory and strength that is His and to bring an offering to Him as we tremble in His Holy Splendour. This disposition is a key starting point for the unpacking of the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary. Friar Jude Winkler reveals the knowledge that some scholars and theologians have added to the discussion around these letters and narratives. The text is powerful and inspirational without the exegesis. The study we do of the authors, theology, history and anthropology is using our God given gifts as scholars and searchers to increase our wonder and awe at the nuances of our interplay over time with seeking to understand our relationship to the Divine. Friar Jude suggests that the Augustinian philosophy of “love God and do what you will” was found to have the practical problems we can imagine when it is applied to communities of faith. The letters of John provide concrete “commandments” which frame the actions of those seeking to walk with Christ. This tension between the Law and the Spirit is the place of real life. Christians are on a mission to model Jesus in faith based on trust that the will of God makes itself known through the Spirit acting in the lives even of the lawmakers. Friar Jude opens our consideration of the treatment of those inside our community and those outside who are considered, in the extreme, as heretics. Love and heresy are real aspects of the walk as Christians which tug at believers. The nature of the purification rites which are the basis of the narrative from the Gospel of Luke are interpreted with some errors, according to our understanding of Jewish tradition, by the Gentile Luke. The ancient understanding of Israel as the light to the Gentiles is presented in this passage. The Gentiles, of course, do not fully comprehend Jewish ritual and conflict about the need to be “Jewish” is very much a concern in the early Church. Jesus is not required to be purified, but as Friar Jude explains He is redeemed from God as a first born of Passover who God keeps as one saved from death at the hands the Pharaoh. The hymn of Simeon, likely an early Christian funeral piece, is placed there by Luke as appropriate for the event. The sword which, in some translations pierces Mary’s heart, is the source of Catholic attention to the sorrows of Mary. The “heart” in the writing of the Bible is the place of reason rather than emotion as we now consider it. Friar Jude concludes our unpacking of tradition, inspiration and text by pointing to the discernment which Luke gives Mary to come to know the Son of David as the Son of God. This continues to be the key point of our discernment.