Sunday 19th December 2021 (’00): 4thSunday of Advent C MIC 5:1-4
1. Read 4:1-5:15 Yahweh in gentle&ironic&aggressive moods!
- How important in my world is geneology&lineage&tribal systems?
- What are the 25ConstitutiveAspects of my life? & Who ‘rules over’ each of them?
- How impressed are ‘christian adults’ now, to hear Yahweh’s Threats&Promises?
- What are the ten factors that potentially threaten or subvert my ‘security?
- On the threshold of ‘Christmas,’ which divinities am I most-beholden-to?
2. THE PSALM : 79: 2-3, 15-16, 18-19
- Read 79(80): 1-19 Yahweh’s ever-ambivalent relations with ‘ThisVine!’
- How-understand the cry-for-help of a ‘weakPeople’ to a weak divinity?
- ‘Cherubim Throne!’ : Why they’d imagine Yahweh ‘throned on cherubim?’ (1K6ff)
- But will TheShepherd come down from His ‘CherubinThrone’ among TheSheep?
- And Will TheVintner come out of Hiddenness to protect TheVineyard?
- And will TheWarrior burst through TheVeil to enthuse-with-power TheAnointed?
3. HEB 10: 5-10
- Read PS 39(40) 1-17 One of Patricius Filius Calpornin’s favourite psalms! Why?
- Is there a hint here the ‘ Yahweh’ manifests in ‘HisGoodTime,’ but not in ours?
- How could a Jew determine that ‘obedience’ was more excellent than ‘sacrifice?’
- What about ‘JesusChrist’sBody’ made its ‘offering’ so efficacious?
4. LK 1:39-44
- What are the great MeetingOfMothers’ stories in biblical and other mythology?
- Why as it seems, did only Elizabeth’s fetus leap? {More developed?)
- What interpretations, doctrinal&devotional, have I been given for this story?
- Why did Mary take this initiative alone without Joseph?
- Is there a hint here that Mary too, as well as Elizabeth, had been ‘barren?’ (Especially the repeated reference to ‘womb,’ & TheLord’sPromise…’) How would the storyteller know this very intimate story?
5. The presence&action of the BlessedOne, is it like this?
‘It seems to me a very secure opinion, amounting to a truth of faith, that TheBaptist by the preemptive graciousness of TheCreator-of-All, was definitively sanctified in his mother’s womb by the salvific approach…’‘Woah there, Peter Lombard! Have-pity & speak English! But more importantly, speak-truth!’ThePractisingSceptic addressed TheOfficialBeliever with more spark than usual! ‘How can you continue to fob us off with these pious fatasies? Do you ever question the relevance of this mythical raimeis?’
‘How dare you articulate such scurrilities in my presence?’
‘…Considering the intractable problems that beset not only your church, but our planet!’
‘That is of no consequence, I can assure your naive nihilism! Nothing is more important than to defend the truths of tradition by all means! Veritas praevaleat, ruat coelum!
‘Your sacrifizio dell intelletto amazes&saddens me!’
‘Nothing could be further…’
‘I could almost pray in moments like this, that someone like TheBaptist, sanctified in the womb or not, would appear & shout the truth!’
‘Not al all! No praying, it’s against your Modernist creed! Anyway, we don’t need him! The Word-of-Truth speaks in TheChurch&HerMinisters! That’s the long & the short of it! e basta cosi!
6. RIDDLE Is our current understanding-of & relation-to the biblical divinities rich complex poor patchy intermittent non-existent or deep?
Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie