Homily Notes: Jan 05 2020

Readings:

• Isaiah says there will be wealth streaming into the restored Israel.
• Paul says the inclusion of the Gentiles is the revelation of a great mystery. 
• The Magi visit Jesus and depart. 

Homily:  675 words
Estimated Time: 5 minutes

Homily Notes: Dec 29 2019

Readings:

• Sirach says to take care of your father in his old age
• Paul gives some moral commandments to the Colossians
• The holy family escapes to Egypt

Homily: 1087 Words
Estimated Time: Seven Minutes

Homily Notes: Dec 22 2019

Readings:

The prophecy of the "young woman" giving birth.
The opening to Paul's letter to the Romans
Matthew's account of the Nativity

Homily: 806 Words
Estimated Time:  4.75 minutes

How Does a Catholic Read: 1 Timothy 2:11-15

Christians believe that the Old and New Testaments are the “inspired word of God”.  This means (in the words of the Catholic Church) everything asserted by the author is asserted by the Holy Spirit and is therefore infallibly true.  However, with some passages that’s a hard pill to swallow.

Today I want to look at what I regard to be the most embarrassing passage in the New Testament: 1Timothy 2:11-15

Homily Notes: Dec 15 2019

Readings:

• Isaiah prophecies good tidings for Israel, including the curing of the blind and deaf.
• James insists that people practice patience and not complain.
• John the Baptists inquires if Jesus really is the Messiah.  

Homily: 505 Words
Estimated Time: Three Minutes

Lay Homily: Dec 8 2019

Readings:  

• The prophecy of David’s heir coming and all the tribes of the earth being blessed.

• Paul saying Christ became a minister to the circumcised so the Gentiles would glorify God.

• John the Baptist lambasting the Pharisees for thinking their status as descendants of Abraham afforded them favor with God, “for God can raise of children for Abraham from these stones.”

Homily: 551 words.  
Estimated time:  Three minutes.

Presentation: "The Eight Last Things"

Last evening I gave a talk on the "Four Last Things" to the teenagers at our youth group.  But it was really the "Eight Last Things"... because there's more to being dead than the traditional meditation would leave you to believe.

Adult Education Class - An Aside on Purgatory

My most recent class on the communion of Saints featured an aside on the doctrine of Purgatory.  I decided to split it out into a separate video. Here's the link:

Adult Education Class - The Saints in Light

Now for the fourth adult education class.  This one was on the Catholic doctrine of the Communion of Saints.  Here's the link below:

Adult Education Class - The Source and Summit

A couple weeks ago I did the third adult education class.  This one was on the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist.  Here's the link below:

The "Food Sacrificed to Idols" Controversy, a Contradiction?

Dear Apologist, I was told the New Testament contradicts itself on whether Christians could eat meat which was sacrificed to idols.  Does it?

Adult Education Class - Sola Scriptura and the Church

Recently I gave a class to a gather adults about the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura.  You can find the presentation file [here].  The Youtube video is below:

Adult Education Class - The Divine Messiah

Recently I gave a class to a gather adults about the various ways Jesus claims to be God.  You can find the presentation file [here].  The Youtube video is below:

Quick Question: What's Going on with Jephtha's Sacrifice?

Dear Apologist, I thought God does not want human sacrifice, but then I learned one of the Old Testament heroes sacrificed his daughter to God.  Why was that allowed?

Did Jesus Mean to Bring Division?

Dear Apologist, Why does Jesus say He came to bring division?  Wouldn’t Jesus have wanted peace, especially in families? 

What's the Difference? Disunity in Catholicville and Protestantland

A while ago I made a post about the “Chaos Problem” wrought by Sola Scriptura.  That is, Sola Scriptura say the only infallible rule of faith are the Scriptures and it rules out the possibility of an infallible Church which interprets the Scriptures on behalf of the public.

As a side effect, however, each individual must shoulder the burden of testing everything against Scripture and deciding for himself the true content of the Christian religion.  This leads to a situation of inevitable, unresolvable disunity which Martin Luther himself remarked upon in his letter to Antwerp, saying:

“There are nowadays almost as many sects and creeds as there are heads.”

One common retort to this Catholic critique goes like this:

“Ya’ll point to the disunity in the Protestant world as proof that Sola Scriptura failed and the Protestant experiment is a bust.  But you ignore the disorder in your own house.  

In the Catholic world here are progressive parishes and conservative ones.  What good is the Pope and Bishops if you never know what you’re going to get when walking into a parish.  If they’re supposed to be the answer to Protestant disunity, then it would seem the Catholic way isn’t working either.”

How do we respond to this?

How Does a Catholic Read: Romans 9:1-24

In previous posts I have highlighted the importance of free-will being a real element in the Christian doctrine of salvation.  If there is no room for human freedom, then we’re left to conclude that there are some folks whom God doesn’t want to save.  And yet, it would seem that scripture teaches the opposite.

However, our Calvinist friends will point out that Scripture does indeed teach this intolerable conclusion.  Namely, in the first half of the 9th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Today I wanted to look at this most troubling set of passages.

TLDR: Male and Female He Created Them

Recently the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education released a document spelling out some important principles for Catholic educators in the modern world.  It is called "Male and Female He Created Them".  It discusses the ideology known as "gender theory" and how it needs to be opposed with a robust understanding of Christian anthropology.

However, we're all very busy people with limited attention spans.  So I've gone ahead and given it the TL;DR treatment - reducing the text to 1/5 its original size.  Here we go:

Adam, Eve, and Anthropology

The Christian faith is sometimes called a "historical religion".  This means it isn't just a philosophy of life.  It makes claims about world history, claims which need to be true for its teachings to have any merit.  Among these are the creation of the universe, the resurrection of Jesus, and a real Adam and Eve.

The first one seems to have checked out pretty well, the second has received robust defenses, but the third one... not as much.  My feeling is it’s something many Christians would rather not look at for fear of being wrong.

So this year I thought I'd read a couple books on the subject and see whether the Catholic understanding of Adam and Eve had bit the dust.

An Anti-Semitic Shooter, Bad Theology, and Romans 11

On April 27th (2019) there was as a shooting at the Chabad of Poway Synagogue in California.  It left one dead and several others injured.  Prior to the shooter the shooter released a document online revealing his motivations.

Today I want to take a brief look at a couple things he said and compare them to an important passage from the New Testament.

Three Techniques for the Typical Pro-Life Discussion

In Pro-Life circles January is known as “sanctity of life” month.  This is due to anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.  So with that on my mind, today I want to share (what I think) are the three most important techniques in discussing abortion.

Let’s get to it.

Who is Isaiah's Suffering Servant?

In the eighth chapter of Acts we read the account of Philip’s interaction with the Ethiopian eunuch.  The eunuch was reading Isaiah 52 and needed help understanding what the passages were talking about.  The deacon Philip came alongside him and told him about Jesus Christ.

Since the earliest times, Christians have understood the “suffering servant” of Isaiah to be a direct reference to Jesus.  You can see this again in 1Peter 2:24, where the Apostle says:

“He himself ‘bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’"

However, the most common counterargument to the Christian claim – particularly from a Jewish perspective – is that we’re misunderstanding the image of the Suffering Servant.  The Servant was not a particular historical man, but rather a symbol of Israel.  He is the nation literarily personified.

Today we’re going to look at the relevant portions of Isaiah to see if that’s true.

Who is at Jesus' Left and Right?

Dear Apologist, why does Jesus say, “to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father."  Who are those positions for?  

Should the story of the Woman Caught in Adultery be in the Bible?

Dear Apologist, I have heard that the story of the woman caught in adultery wasn’t originally in John’s Gospel.  How do we know it is inspired scripture?

Free Will and Omniscience, A Problem?

Dear Apologist, if God knows everything I'm going to do before I do it, am I really free? 

Is Free-Will in the New Testament?

In a previous post we examined how free-will (and its denial) affects our view of God and salvation.  That is, if you say humans have no ability to resist grace, you’re driven to conclude that Jesus didn’t die for everyone.  And yet, the New Testament makes it perfectly clear that Jesus did die for everyone.  Therefore, free will must be real.

 Today we’re going to highlight some passages of the New Testament which make that explicit.

Calvin's Trail - Why Free Will Matters

A couple weeks ago at Bible Study we were discussing the hard problem of human freedom and God's grace.  We began by asking:

What happens if you completely deny any role of human freedom in salvation?  What happens if you say God rescues a person like a puppet on strings - with no ability to assent or resist?

Today we'll be walking down that trail of logic.  

Response to Dr. Gunter on Late Term Abortions

A couple weeks ago a friend sent me an article by one Dr. Jen Gunter.  She is an OBGYN who used to perform late term abortions, and with all the attention recently given to the abortion laws being passed in New York and Virginia, she wanted to speak up in defense of her trade.

Today I wanted to formulate a layman's response.  What can be said against the testimony of an expert?

Was Jesus Disrespectful to His Mom at Cana?

Dear Apologist, why does Jesus refer to Mary as “woman” at the wedding feast of Cana?  Isn’t that degrading?

The exchange between Jesus and Mary in John 2:3-5 is among the most mysterious in the New Testament.  Indeed, some anti-Catholics seize upon this passage to prove Jesus actually held His mother in contempt (contrary to the claims of those Mary-obsessed Papists!).

However, this assertion would mean accusing the second person of the Trinity of sinning against the Fourth Commandment.  So let’s first dispense with the idea that Jesus meant anything harsh or disrespectful with the word “woman”.

Yes, the New York Law Allows Late-Term Abortion For Almost Any Reason

A quick post today.

I keep hearing people saying:

"You Pro-Lifer's are lying about the recent New York Law.  The Reproductive Health Act is designed to allow women to abort non-viable babies, or have an abortion if it endangers her life.  Not for any reason at all!  How about you read something other than your Pro-Life propaganda!"

And to back it up, you get "Fact Checking" websites like Snopes telling you stuff like this:

How Did the Roe vs Wade Decision Work?

Last December I posted an analysis of the Obergefell decision which changed the definition of “marriage” in the United States.  Today I thought I’d give the same treatment to another landmark decision:

Roe vs Wade

What was in that decision?  How was it decided?  Did it make any sense?

Let’s find out.

(The full text can be found [here] and all page number references will be to that PDF)

Lay Homily: Jan 13

Last week I began a little project to write example homilies for the readings each week.  Today I'll continue that series:

(649 words) (5 minutes)

Lay Homily: Jan 6th

Folks who know me have probably heard me gripe about the content of homilies.  Today I wanted to begin a series which I've been considering for a while.  What would I do if I was given the ambo for a day?  What that sound like?

(Total words:  599.  Total time: 3min 30sec)