The Secret Truth About Easter!

A student recently asked me a question about Easter.  She had encountered a friend who said Easter was of pagan origins.  Most of it was drawn from this website.

The site presents a lot of … ummm … “facts”.  It says the word “Easter” comes from the Mesopotamian goddess "Ishtar".  And the Catholic Church – those dastardly fiends - tricked everyone into worshiping the ancient pagan fertility goddess by popularizing Easter.  Zounds!!

Well, much can be said about crank webpages with no footnotes or citations.  But a couple thoughts come to mind.

The Communion of Saints and the Tapestry of Christian Faith

Back in the 400’s there was a heresy known as Nestorianism.  It proposed that Jesus was not really God incarnate, but was rather a normal man whom God had kinda-sorta possessed.  The Council of Ephesus condemned this idea.  The people of Ephesus – who had always been offended by the heresy - held a torchlit parade to celebrate the council’s decision. 

This is sometimes held out as an example of the “Sensus Fidelium” – or the “Sense of the Faithful”.  It refers to a particular way in which the Holy Spirit guides the Church.  Namely, the people of God are drawn like homing pigeons to the true expression of the faith.  Christians will, in a way, sense the tapestry of the faith and know when something is out of place.

Today I want to point out something which I regard as an instance of Sensus Fidelium.  Namely, the intuitive, magnetic draw which Christians have to the Communion of Saints.  While this is often regarded as a peculiarly Catholic idea, I think it is actually the natural conclusion of Christian thought. 

Did Jesus Start a "Religion" ?

A few years ago there was a fella who made a video in which he rapped (or something) about how much he loves Jesus and hates “religion”.   Recently a student approached me saying a friend recommended the guy’s book to her.  The chapters have titles like:

• Religion Points to a Dim Future / Jesus Points to a Bright Future
• Religion Makes Enemies / Jesus Makes Friends
• Religion Says “God will love you if…” / Jesus says, “God so loved…”
• Fundies, Fakes, and Other So-Called Christians...

The first thing that strikes me is that if you want to make friends and not enemies... perhaps it best not to call people "fakes" and use derogatory terms like "fundies".  Either way, my student wanted to know how we might respond to the fella’s assertions.  That’s what I wanted to look at today. 

What is a “religion” … and did Jesus start one?

Adam, Eve, and Crazed Grasshoppers

Recently one of my fellow parishioners sent me to a website about evolution.  It makes a point of refuting Christian doctrine by showing evidence for polygenism.

Polygenism is a scientific theory regarding the origin of mankind.  It proposes that the human species arose out of a sort of co-evolving group of hominids.  That group eventually split up and developed separately into the different ethnicities we have today.  As it says on the website:

“All the data clearly show that all modern humans, African and non-African alike, descend from one ‘homogeneous ancestral population in the last 100,000 years, with subsequent minor admixture out of Africa from Neanderthals.’ This goes against earlier theories that there is a much older divide separating West African from non-African populations.”

[Note: I hate it when people use the word “data” as a plural word and not a group singular.]

Thus, the author claims to disprove the Biblical description of a distinct two-person origin of humanity presented in the first three chapters of Genesis.  He goes on to note with some delight how “disproved” Biblical doctrines must to retreat into the realm of metaphor.

Today I wanted to take a look at two questions:

• First, what are Christians bound to believe in regard to Adam and Eve?
• Second, how would we reconcile this with modern science?

How Does a Catholic Read: Ephesians 2 and Matthew 25 together?

Recently I had the idea to canvas some of my non-Catholic Christian friends and ask, "What verses of the New Testament do you think Catholics simply don't get? You look at it and think, 'Are Catholics unaware of this verse? What do they do with this?'"

One suggestion was to look at the combination of verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 compared to Matthew 25:34-46.  These passages present apparently opposing messages regarding how much our moral efforts have to do with our salvation.

So today we're going to examine the passage, apply it to the controversy... and answer the question:

"What the heck does a Catholic do with Ephesians 2 and Matthew 25?"