Sunday 17th September 2023 (’05) : 24thSUNinORDINARY : A
1. SIRACH27:30 — 28:7!
Why are Christians actually so ravenous for ‘vengeance’ rather than ‘forgiveness’?
2. PS102:1-4, 9-12!
For me-as-AdultDisciple, who is TheGreatExemplar-of-Forgiveness?
3. ROM14:7-9! (But, what’s this enigmatic squeak all about? &No context?)
What’s preventing me becoming a TrueDisciple, amenable to life, or death? Lack-of-Conviction? Fear? Indifference? GreaterLove-for-Dionysus/Aphrodite/Cuchulainn?
4. MT18:21-35!
Spite of this, aren’t IrishChristians very reluctant to ‘forgive’, even themselves?
‘There’s one of the gospel parables & its appended ‘teaching’, as it were, I’m moved to take issue with…’ As ever, the tone&manner of ThePractisingSceptic was even, tentative, &only fleetingly ironic! ‘Stay right there, if you don’t mind…’ TheOfficial Believer was not impressed or appeased! ‘The parables are the inspired creations of TheWord-of-Truth, as are the blessed elucidations that flow from these dense mysterious oeuvres!’ ‘Nothing mysterious, nor forgiving, may I add, about the master, to whom TheHeavenlyFather is implicitly compared, who out of anger condemned his servant to be tortured until he rtestored the debt…’ ‘Not at all…’ ‘…nor is it edifying, to put it mildly, to suggest that DivineLove could ever act like that…’ ‘Don’t ever forget, He’s also just… &Hell is still infallibly taught in our neck of the woods…’ ‘So much the more are your tree-dwellers to be pitied! Proposing to yourself&others such an impossible divine master…!’ ‘Blasphemer…’ ‘So be it, I can live with that empty shibboleth! But can all you dryads face the possibility, that using these texts uncritically to speak of TheIneffableLove, is merely foisting a blatant caricature on the gullible multitude! Who will proceed to use that as an excuse for their own similar unforgiving pathetic life-style…’ ‘Ggggrrrhhh…!!!’
Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie