Linear
What might a woman make of all this? Sunday Readings 20thB (Y-not question the Sunday Readings)
by CathyT 
, Adelaide, South Australia, Saturday, August 18, 2012, 00:37 (277 days ago)
![[image]](http://www.catholica.com.au/sunday/images/Y-not180812_an_640x166.gif)
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
19th August 2012
First Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Ps.34:2-3,4-5,6-7
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel: John 6:51-58
[/color]
Jesus said to the crowds,
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven,
Whoever eats of this bread will live forever:
and the bread that I will give
for the life of the world is my flesh.
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
So Jesus said to them,
“Very truly, I tell you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood,
you have no life in you.
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
have eternal life,
and I will raise them up on the last day;
for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
abide in me, and I in them.
Just as the living Father sent me,
and I live because of the Father,
so whoever eats me will live because of me
This is the bread that came down from heaven,
not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died
But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. (New Revised Standard Version)
NOTE: The last verse is not actually part of the Gospel for today, but I left it in to "set the scene".
I have been so inspired by the dramatic format in which Tony has written his last two reflections that, now that it’s my turn to do the lead reflection, I’ve decided to follow suit. In my case though, I’ll be writing from the perspective of a woman in the crowd. Interestingly, you will notice that Tony himself is not writing as Jair this week: according to at least some scholars, this week’s Gospel, John 51-58, may not have been part of the original Gospel of John and in fact sits awkwardly with the rest of the passage. Be that as it may, I have decided to go ahead and write a dramatisation. Part of the reason for this is because, in fact, my reflection is not just limited to this weekend’s text, but also takes in the earlier part of John 6, which I felt was necessary to establish the context. In any case , I am not attempting to recreate history or to suggest what was in the mind of the author of John’s gospel: this is really my usual, very personal, reflection in a different format. And sometimes, I think, we can more clearly and truthfully bring out the meaning of something through a story, a dramatisation or some other form of symbolic writing, more so than through straightforward prose.
This undertaking is something that’s very close to my heart. I think it’s true to say that all our reflection on the meaning of life (I mean “our” as in humans generally), our reflections on our relationships to each other and to a Supreme Being – all our philosophy, theology, Scripture study, ethics, even science – all this ultimately has to have its basis in human experience. Yet throughout history, that part of human experience that is unique to women has had little input into this reflective process, and most often none at all (at least, not from the viewpoint of those who actually experience it!). Surely our collective understanding of the meaning of life, and how we should live life, is seriously compromised when we are leaving out such a significant portion of human experience. So, in the following reflection, more than anything else I am offering an understanding of this passage that feels “right” to me when I reflect on it as a woman. And I think it’s true to say that in John’s gospel, women more so than men seem to “get” what Jesus is on about, and it’s to women that he most fully reveals himself: the Samaritan woman at the well, Mary and Martha of Bethany, Mary Magdalene….
So, here goes:
My name is Rachel, and I am the wife of Baruch, a wine-seller here in Capernaum. We have been blessed with two little daughters, and I am now pregnant again. Deborah, an older woman in our neighbourhood who knows about such things, says she can already tell that this time it will be a boy. My husband will no doubt be pleased about that, although as it is he absolutely dotes on our two beautiful little girls!
I’ve lived in Capernaum all my life, and it’s not a bad place to live. But in recent times life here has become even more interesting. We have received several visits from that teacher known as Jesus of Nazareth, the one who caused such a stir in Jerusalem last Passover, and who’s also been attracting so much attention here in Galilee. Of course we’ve seen plenty of travelling preachers and healers before, but this man is somehow… different. And it’s not only the menfolk whose interest has been aroused, either: he has certainly become a favourite topic of conversation for us women too, particularly when we meet up at the well. No matter how busy we are, we all make sure we have time for a bit of a chat then! Of particular interest to us, not surprisingly, is the reputation he has gained for freely mixing with women, and the respect he shows them. Well of course there are some men, my wonderful Baruch among them, who treat their womenfolk not only with kindness and consideration, but as fellow human beings who have ideas and opinions of their own. But they say this Jesus sometimes even speaks with women in public, and he doesn’t just stop to pass the time of day either. He talks about important things, even spiritual things. Not all the women I know approve of this, including some of the younger ones. But for a lot of us, this makes us feel even more strongly drawn to this remarkable man who has come our way…
Yesterday, a buzz ran through our town: Jesus was back! Deborah, the wise woman, has been particularly impressed by Jesus right from the start, and she was one of a number of our townsfolk who had gone off around the lake in the hope of meeting up with him. She was back too now of course, and we all gathered together at the well as usual to hear what she had to tell. And what an amazing tale it was. A whole great throng of them had been searching for Jesus, and they finally found him on a grassy mountain slope in the middle of nowhere. The day was wearing on; many of the people had not eaten all day and not all of them had thought to bring food. Not everyone had money with them either, even if there had been enough food available in the local area for such a crowd. But somehow, Jesus himself had managed to turn on a meal for that huge gathering, and there was even enough for his disciples to pick up a lot of leftovers afterwards. “It really was a miracle, ladies”, Deborah told us, smiling. “It was a man who produced the food, and, even more miraculously, it was men who cleaned up afterwards!” As our laughter died down, she said again, in a totally different tone of voice and with a totally different expression on her face: “It really was a miracle…, it was – well, I’ve no idea whatsoever what actually happened, but the only way I can describe it, it was as though we’d suddenly found ourselves back in one of our sacred stories. You know, the story about how God fed our ancestors with manna from heaven when they were starving in the desert…it seemed just like that.”
As we all dispersed, we could see Jesus with a group of men standing near the synagogue, engaging in what was obviously a vigorous argument. What is it about Jewish men, they seem to enjoy nothing better than getting together and arguing the point about some Biblical text or other, or some other aspect of our faith! Though it has to be said, it’s probably quite an effective way to get to the truth of our Scriptures. This time, though, the discussion seemed to be getting quite heated. But next day was the Sabbath, so we women had far too much to do to hang around and listen. Not that the menfolk would have welcomed us anyway, or at least most of them wouldn’t have.
That was yesterday. Today, when we were all gathered in the synagogue, and after the prayer and the Scripture readings, Jesus stood up in front of us all. There was nothing strange about that of course, but this time there seemed to be an atmosphere of unusual tension, as though the disagreements from yesterday were still hanging in the air. And when Jesus began to speak, his words were certainly strange:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh..
Not surprisingly, most people seemed just astounded by this, and some of the men decided they weren’t having a bar of it. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” But Jesus didn’t back down in the least. He continued:
Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life…
We women are not permitted to speak in the synagogue, of course, which I’ve always found not only unfair and frustrating, but plain silly. We women have brains too: why shouldn’t we sometimes have valuable insights worth sharing? But today, as we sat there in silence, I had a strange feeling that for once it was an advantage. Perhaps this was one teaching that you couldn’t get to the heart of through dialogue and debate. Perhaps, this man Jesus was himself the teaching! There was something about him: a charisma, certainly, but he was not one of those charismatic travelling preachers who make you feel that they are above you, almost on a different plane of existence to everyone else. There was an air about Jesus, an aura, something that seemed not only to radiate love and healing, but to draw us into itself, as though he was saying, “whatever greatness, whatever holiness, you see in me, you can fully share in…” In fact, at that very moment he was saying something like that:
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me…
And then, unexpectedly, he looked directly at us in the women’s section, with an intense look on his face that I found hard to read. It seemed a mixture of love, of acceptance of us as part of the congregation, perhaps even a touch of ironic humour, and – was it even a sort of plea? Was he saying to us, “You get it, don’t you?”
But then my musings rather slipped to the back of my mind, as I was momentarily overcome by a wave of morning sickness. As I said, I’m in the early stages of pregnancy.
And then, I did get it. Well, a thought occurred to me, at any rate, and somehow it seemed to fit in perfectly with what Jesus of Nazareth was saying. Was this whole idea so very strange after all, I thought, this idea of feeding those you love by means of your own body? Didn’t I at this very moment have a little one inside of me, who would be fed and nurtured by my own body till he was ready to live by himself? And then, I would put him to my breast – as until very recently I had done with my little Tabitha, and before that, with Yemima. He, like his sisters before him, would literally take his nourishment from my body…
By now I’d lost the thread of what Jesus was saying, but it didn’t really matter. This remarkable man who stood before us, arousing anger, confusion, admiration, love…anything but indifference… he was truly the one who had come down from heaven. He was inviting us to become one with him, to draw our nourishment from him, and, even more than a mother giving life to her child, he would give us life that would have no end.
Cathy Taggart
I splash in my poetry puddle
and try to keep God amused. - James Broughton
lockedWhat might a woman make of all this? Sunday Readings 20thB
Cathy,
Your story from a women's perspective and voice is excellent. What warmth, that invites the reader to be surround by the ambience of the moment.
Tying the reading into realistic human experience, that of a pregnant woman and new life growing within, taking nourishment from her body to become more.
Jesus is our spiritual food, in word, and in the blessed bread and wine, that nourishes us to become more in our lives for the benefit of others.
Joe
lockedWhat might a woman make of all this? Sunday Readings 20thB
Cathy, thank you for an inspiring and different look at a wonderful passage from scripture. Firstly it is a crime that the wisdom of women is not more freely promolgated by the official church. The men at the top and all the way down seem to want to venerate Mary and rightly so but want to deny her sisters. I do not recall Jesus placing restrictions on who should or should not receive the body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion. His words are definitely all inclusive. If I am correct the restrictions were placed by Paul and seems to have been carried on from there much to the detriment of mankind (sorry I am rather politically incorrect). Thank you again for your wisdom.
lockedA Necessary Explanation
by Ynot , Saturday, August 18, 2012, 10:01 (277 days ago) @ CathyT
edited by Ynot, Saturday, August 18, 2012, 10:11
Cathy, this is a very engaging account of your meeting with Jesus of Nazareth. Imaginative and penetrating. It's true: this is an insight you have that men can only 'know about'. So thank you. We need this. It is an excellent illustration of how much we need the contribution of "both sides".
In contrast my own comment this week is quite analytic. 
*****
A Necessary Explanation. The selection for this Sunday's liturgy, the seven verses, 51 to 58, are not part of the original Chapter 6 of John's gospel. Commentators are convinced they have been inserted by a later editor. Unfortunately the editing is clumsy and the fit is far from seamless. Without warning the focus moves off the problem of Jesus claiming to be the bread of life come down from heaven - this Jesus of Nazareth - and moves to a problem that could only be experienced in a community well accustomed to celebrating eucharist: how can this be real, this communion in the body and blood of the Lord by eating the blessed bread and drinking of the cup?
The protagonists of the "argument we had to have" cannot participate in this latter debate for they would have no idea of its context or its meaning. We will therefore shunt them into a siding for this week, and move our scenario two or three generations into the future, to an assembly of christians, perhaps in Ephesus, celebrating their memorial meal on the first day of the week, the day after Shabbat. Among them some are heard quarreling among themselves: How could Jesus have said we must eat his flesh? It is a preposterous idea.
+++
There are two statements in response to this challenging question. The first is a crude statement. Its language is severely lacking in that necessary nuance which theology and catechesis have always demanded:
...unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
It is strange and puzzling that these unqualified expressions should have been allowed to remain in the text of John 6, since they do not express accurately or adequately the belief of any christian community. Christians do not eat human flesh or drink human blood. Every explanation of the eucharist will insist that the body of Christ is "eaten" sacramentally, and we "drink" the blood of Christ sacramentally, that is, in a sign, "sub specie sacramenti", and "per modum sacramenti" as the scholastics would say: under the appearance of sacramental bread and wine after the manner of an effective symbol; "really" - as in a symbol that really, authentically and actually makes present what it symbolises.
Yet as long as these words remain in the text we will continue to be scandalised by them, imagining that the crucial issue is to be found in the "mechanics" of the memorial meal, and this even at the ontological level touched on by the philosophic theory of "transsubstantiation" As John Marsh observes, "In the setting provided in the fourth gospel, [this] represents another human escape from the personal demands of Christ." (Saint John, Penguin, 1968. p. 305)
+++
The second statement goes to the heart of the mystery and might have been enough on its own:
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and [as] I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
Within the metaphorical framework of the whole chapter we focus without hesitation on the mystery of life drawn from the living god and communicated to those who open their hearts to the one he has sent.
+++
Curiosity leads me to speculate on the intentions of the gospel editor. Was it to bring some trouble makers in his community under the challenge of vs 60: This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it? To be confronted with the question puts you under obligation to make up your mind. Will you go away? Is community sharing the issue that will make you turn back? The upshot, however, of this adaptation of the text is that over centuries the focus has been on the "how" - by what miracle - is the bread transformed into flesh, when all the while the focus should have been on accepting Jesus of Nazareth as the one in whom we may share in life given by the Father.
Another possibility comes to mind: I wonder could it be an attempt to draw a parallel with the pagan rituals in which animals were killed to be eaten, participants drinking the blood in sacred rites portraying fellowship with the god. The christian eucharist was such a simple homely celebration that it may have been necessary to insist that it is both equivalent to and superior to those pagan rituals which were common in the Greco-Roman world. Communion in the life of the god is the goal of all such celebrations, but this communion in the body of Christ is the most real of all, even when it is celebrated as a simple family meal. This is real food for the spirit, nourishing eternal life.***
Tony Lawless
*** P.S. Last week "Jerome" contributed a comment on John 6. It was posted a bit late on the Sunday evening, and may have been missed by some, but I think it is well worth going back to. LINK
We are in communion, in relationship as a faith community, with the risen Christ, fed spiritually by the Eucharist.
It is the spiritual food that nourishes and defines our whole lives, our integrity, our attitudes, our every thought, word and action.
I believe that when we are tuned in to that message of Christ and act accordingly we are taken out of ourselves into community and somehow become part of eternal life.
A closing statement reads: Our every thought, word and action is about being an integral part of the body of Christ, of life eternal. "integral part of eternal life" -- Why, of course, eternal life is the life we live now insofar as we live in Christ, in the spirit, in the dimension we are meant to live in as sketched by Jerome. We do not "look forward" to eternal life, we flourish with life now and for ever.
'TonyL
"A post is a free gift, and it will go where it pleases."'
lockedA Necessary Explanation
by louisquinze1 , Saturday, August 18, 2012, 18:15 (276 days ago) @ Ynot
Hello Y-not
The suggestion has been made by ? Harpur/Spong/ or Martos that the sacrificial idea of the Eucharist came to be as a result of claims of atheism about early Christians as they did not sacrifice as other groups did. Perhpas you are familiar with these writings.
I wonder if the whole idea of life in/as christ is not simply about being truly human - and the 'eating my flesh, drinking my blood' statement is about putting on Christ, becoming Christ in the world and making up what is lacking in the suffering of G-D ... an ancient Jewish idea apparently. This of course implies going beyond ego
- see Gethsemane - and stepping outside cultural mores and questionable norms and being justice as Jesus was. It will cost, but we are promised the same fate as Jesus if we follow him. Don't forget of course, this includes resurrection.
In fact i think the power of the crucifixion and reurrection is that they are the human condition, we constantly experience disappointment and resolution. And we are asked to do this not just for ourselves but for others, particularly those not able to fend for themselves, in the Spirit of G-D - that which takes us beyond ourself.
I further suspect that carrying our cross daily is learning to live with oneself - being who you are where you are and with whomever you interact.
I'm inclined to think that the whole idea is essentially very simple, made convoluted and confusing, clear only to the highly trained, as a means of social and political control by those with an eye to self-aggrandisement.
lockedWhat might a woman make of all this? Sunday Readings 20thB
thanks for sharing your thoughts in this manner, Cathy. Much to ponder.
locked
What might a woman make of all this? Sunday Readings 20thB
by Francis , Kingsgrove, NSW, Saturday, August 18, 2012, 12:21 (277 days ago) @ CathyT
Thanks, Cathy. As I read your story/reflection, my mind went back to the time when as a young man, I was put in charge of a large area in PNG containing many villages, each having 100 to 200 people each.
Many preachers and evangelists address people as if God had spoken directly to them. I've hear them speak for example like, "God has told me that..." or "God wants you to do this...". I wondered how to address these people who have just recently come out of a Stone Age culture and with spirituality I did not yet know. I knew God had never spoken to me and I knew God (in whatever name that seemed appropriate) intuitively and rather confusedly from theological teaching.
The Way of Jesus was to help people see God in his own physically presence, flesh and blood. I was not smart enough to convince my listeners of God as I was taught but I could tell them of Jesus. Jesus too was, for them, a story personality. I felt that all I could do was live and serve as I knew Jesus would have done. I had to be Jesus to them. I'm not meaning to say that I planned thing as I am describing. I simply was the Jesus I had grown to be from having lived the Franciscan life for 10 years starting at 16 years of age. I dealt with whatever needs I discovered were the most pressing ... and most of those were physical. Schooling for their children and training of teachers, improved relations with other tribes, better communication and travel (roads, air strip, radio), attending to first aid and health repair, introducing alternate means of supplying protein in their diet ... these were the means I used (not intentionally, but letting my being Christ to them be seen in mundane ways) to let them see Jesus.
In a way, I was letting the people eat and drink of what I had become by being a follower of St Francis of Assisi, whose aim in life was to be Christlike in every way, even in the mundane.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and [as] I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
Within the metaphorical framework of the whole chapter we focus without hesitation on the mystery of life drawn from the living god and communicated to those who open their hearts to the one he has sent.
Thanks for that, Cathy.
This remarkable man who stood before us, arousing anger, confusion, admiration, love…anything but indifference… he was truly the one who had come down from heaven. He was inviting us to become one with him, to draw our nourishment from him, and, even more than a mother giving life to her child, he would give us life that would have no end.
Thanks Tony.
I guess I’m saying here is, briefly, with St Francis, “Preach always, sometimes in words”.
Francis
My purpose is to remember the love that created me in God one with my brothers and sisters and with all life. My function is to extend that love and unity each moment to all.
lockedWhat might a woman make of all this? Sunday Readings 20thB
by Jerome , Saturday, August 18, 2012, 18:47 (276 days ago) @ CathyT
Cathy, Tony, Francis thank you all for these powerful reflections.
As I began to formulate my own thoughts about the Eucharist I remembered how my father used to tell us about a Eucharistic procession that he took part in when living in the Netherlands. So I searched the internet for information and found it and lots more! That ‘sinful’ city Amsterdam did seem to have its religious miracle moments. In fact some 8,000 people took part in the Procession this year.
LINK
In this ‘eucharistic’ search on the internet I also came across a site by Australian priest Frank O’Dea.
He has written an online book entitled: Eucharist: The Basic Spirituality LINK
He wrote:
“I found the Council of Vatican II in the 1960s a very exciting time and eagerly followed the news of this extraordinary event as it unfolded. A phenomenon that occurred after the council was that many brothers from religious orders felt the call to priesthood. I was one of them.
My understanding and love for the Eucharist has evolved over these many years, and I am very pleased to have the opportunity to share my experience with you, the reader.”
I found, at first browse, some engaging ideas and thoughts and will take time out to read it properly.
The concept of the bread of life is pretty hard to understand as indicated in the gospel reading. , some in the community miss what Jesus is getting at and end up quarreling about the literal Words are very limiting sometimes and we can argue our heads of about the way we use them or abuse them.
The meaning behind those words can be overlooked.
Wasn’t Jesus talking about a new way of looking things?
I feel that he was talking about feeding us with a new spirit, a new attitude, a way of self-giving that could be the beginning of a new world right here.
That new way of living brings eternal life right inside of us when we live as active Christians, as the ‘Body of Christ’.
Somehow it brings me back to that underlying message that the community, society, has in its grasp the power to deal with much of the suffering and discord with which we are faced.
It requires us to feed intently, and together, on the nourishment of Christ’s message.
lockedSlow food at Wisdom's Table? Sunday Readings 20thB
Cathy
Thanks for your refreshing femine perspective on this.
I am not very good at connecting the various readings but your commentary prompted to do so. The first reading from Proverbs is about Wisdom as hostess.Wisdom is always feminine.
There is some suggestion that John's community saw Eucharist as Wisdom's banquet.( Certainly birhing imagery is used elsewhere in John's gospel - I wonder how many women were in that community ?)
Separately some medieval mystics weren't averse to using motherhood imagery to explore this passage.
Julian of Norwich spoke of “God-all wisdom” as “our natural mother” and wrote on how “a mother can give her child milk to suck, but our precious mother, Jesus, can feed us with himself. He does so most courteously and most tenderly, with the Blessed Sacrament, which is the precious food of true life.”( Revelations of Divine Love)
However the other aspect of this Gospel is the word "eat".I don't have any knowledge of Greek but the word for eat used in this passage is apparently much stronger than used elsewhere - it has connotaions of chew / masticate.
Much in modern society is FAST including our food.it is often prepared (too) quickly and also eaten too quickly( which probably isn't all that healthy).
However if you are going to chew on something it takes
a bit of time;you have got to work at it.And hey you might even learn to TASTE the food and all its sublety of flavour ( cf the Psalm 34 :8)
The eucharist is SLOW food free from the instant gratification characteristic of modern consumer society
Are women better slow cooks ? In my humble experience perhaps so
Maitland
lockedSlow food at Wisdom's Table? Sunday Readings 20thB
by CathyT , Adelaide, South Australia, Monday, August 20, 2012, 00:56 (275 days ago) @ Maitland
Thanks for this, Maitland. You obviously ARE good at connecting the readings: I love the idea of the Eucharist as "slow food at Wisdom's table", which can be especially nourishing in our society where we often feel a need to do everything too fast, including cooking and eating!
I was also very interested in your reference to Julian of Norwich. I had never before come across the idea of linking the nourishment a mother gives her baby with the "food" which Jesus provides for us from himself (I love the way Jesus is described as "our precious mother"!) This connection came to me purely as the result of my reflection on this passage in light of my own experience. So I'm pleased to see that this image was also used by a woman who had much clearer insight and a deeper mystical gift than I could ever lay claim to!
Maybe someone with an understanding of Greek will comment on the idea of the word for "eat" in this passage having implications of "chewing". I certainly like the idea of it!
Cathy Taggart
I splash in my poetry puddle
and try to keep God amused. - James Broughton
lockedSlow food at Wisdom's Table? Sunday Readings 20thB
Cathy
Here's one explanation (from lectionary.org)
"He who eats (trogon) my flesh and drinks my blood" (v. 56a). Earlier in this discourse (vv. 50-51), Jesus used the polite Greek word for "eat" –– phage. Now he shifts to a coarser word, trogan –– used for the munching of feed by animals. His use of the word here is shocking –– attention-getting.
Maitland
lockedSome questions for Rachel. Sunday Readings 20thB
Dear Rachel,
Are you not concerned that this man might not just be another cult leader with a few magician's tricks up his sleeve? And that Baruch might want to sell the wine shop and go off with him, and want you to come too, or leave you and the children to look after yourselves?
And that Jesus... he's just a young man and from what you say, an attractive one at that. Why haven't his parents arranged a marriage with nice Jewish girl, and handed over the family business to him? What are the woman of your village saying? Hope your young sister Esther is not trailing after him. But from what I hear, he'll only have men as disciples. What do you make of that?
Your cousin,
Susannah
locked...and some answers.
by CathyT , Adelaide, South Australia, Monday, August 20, 2012, 00:39 (275 days ago) @ Sue
Dear Susannah,
Lovely to hear from you. If I am not mistaken, Jesus of Nazareth has not personally visited your part of the country yet, although obviously all the talk and the rumours have reached you! If you could but meet him, and be in his presence for even a short time, I am sure that in itself would answer all your questions. There is no way that he is just using magician's tricks! I saw him heal some people the other day; I've seen miracle healings before, but the thing that made it so extraordinary this time was that there didn't seem to be anything extraordinary about it at all! It all seemed so natural: it is as though he inspires people to have such faith in God, and such belief in themselves, that they heal themselves. Some people seem to be threatened by this though. Often it's the people who are used to being the big fish themselves, so they resent him, but some people, including some of the women I know, are angered by the way he unsettles them, even though they or someone close to them could do with his healing power. I think maybe they've just got too used to being miserable.
As for Baruch leaving to follow him: I don't think he's likely to do that. He admires Jesus and is willing to see him as a modern prophet, but he does not seem to feel any strong compulsion to join his followers. Right now we are both happily awaiting the birth of what will possibly be our first son. To tell you the truth, I will be just as pleased if it is another daughter, and - don't tell anyone this, as most people will think it rather strange - but I think Baruch will be too!
Getting back to Jesus: if I were a widow with grown children, like our local wise woman, Deborah, I think I myself might like to join him on his travels, at least some of the time when he is not too far from here, as Deborah does. Yes, he does have women disciples, even among those who are with him all the time. I am aware that there is a rumour that he only allows men to be his disciples, and obviously you've heard that rumour, Susannah. I think it was probably put about by stern husbands and fathers who want to discourage their wives and daughters from thinking that they can wander the countryside with Jesus and his followers - or maybe these men want to stop their womenfolk from thinking at all! As for why Jesus himself is not married: according to visitors who have come here from Nazareth, his kinsfolk and neighbours there aren't sure what to make of him! He's always seemed to them to be just an ordinary Jewish lad, learning both his faith and his father's trade as he grew up, but ever since he reached manhood he's always had this strange idea that God has special plans for him and he refused to settle down to a normal life. When you hear him teaching, or see him ministering to the sick or other people who seek him out,you can see that he is so on fire with love of God, with love for all God's creatuures, and with his passion to renew the world in God's image - then you can understand why he does not feel the need to settle down with just one woman and have a family of his own.
And yes, you are right about Esther. She has always been a rebel, and she is refusing to agree to the marriage which our parents are trying to arrange for her. And she is as much taken with Jesus as I am. She may be in luck. Yesterday, my mother told me that they've received another offer for her, from a childless widower who is somewhat older than she is. Normally she'd never agree to that, but he is one of the local people who likes to travel with Jesus as much as he can, AND he's the sort of man who would not object to taking her with him. We shall see.
So you see this man Jesus is really making an enormous impact on us - I mean on us in our family, as well as on all of us in our land. I don't know how it will all end, but one thing I do know, this man really is from God!
Your cousin,
Rachel.
Cathy Taggart
I splash in my poetry puddle
and try to keep God amused. - James Broughton
lockedWhat might a woman make of all this? Sunday Readings 20thB
by Helen , The other side of Australia, Sunday, August 19, 2012, 14:21 (275 days ago) @ CathyT
Thanks Cathy for this insight.
I was reading the Gospel for today and I was struck by horrible it looks in English! I hadn't thought much about the 'eat my flesh and drink my blood' until today(don't ask me why!!). I realized that there must be another meaning than these grizzly cannibal references.
But then Jesus did use a lot of metaphors and hyperbole and I wonder if this was not one of those occasions which would have meant a lot to those who heard him in real time?
I think it was Tony who suggested it was in reference to the pagan god sacrifices - and that does make some sort of sence.
Let us light a candle and say to the dark, we beg to differ
lockedMen can understand Jesus too!
by CathyT , Adelaide, South Australia, Monday, August 20, 2012, 01:23 (275 days ago) @ CathyT
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread and who has thus helped to make this such a wonderful and enlightening conversation. It is great to get so many responses and such a wide range of ideas and insights.
I might add that, while I loved writing from such an obviously female perspective and one so deeply rooted in my own experience, I didn't want men to feel excluded or that I thought they were less able to understand Jesus' message or anything like that. I was rather surprised and taken aback when I read, in Brian's introductory remarks on the Home Page of Catholica, his suggestion that I HAD said that women understand Jesus better than men. In fact, what I'd said in my introduction was that, in John's gospel women seemed better able to "get" what Jesus was on about, and Jesus revealed himself more fully to women than to men, so I thought it was appropriate for me to write my reflection from a woman's perspective. Or maybe Brian was just trying to be provocative? Anyway, the responses in this thread show that at least some men DO very definitely "get" what Jesus was on about!
And of course, further posts on this thread are still welcome, even after it gets "unpinned" and slips over the horizon!
Cathy Taggart
I splash in my poetry puddle
and try to keep God amused. - James Broughton
locked
