HerbEly

Happy New (liturgical) Year

    The New Year starts with the scripture readings for the First Sunday of Advent. On Sunday we start a new three year cycle of readings. On January 9th, after Christmas and Epiphany we will return to what is called Ordinary Time. The weekly gospel readings will be from Matthew. 

    In the second reading today (Romans 13:11-14) St. Paul urges the Romans to put aside the works of darkness. Most of us have little difficulty putting aside the first set of works on his list (orgies, drunkenness, and promiscuity.) Lest we start feeling virtuous and self-righteous, consider that the next set (dissension and jealously) are still with us. I would add their cousin, resentment, to the list and urge us to set it aside as well. It is the season of Advent. This reading is chosen to remind us that "The night is nearly over, the day is almost here."

 

A Modest Defense of the Sadducees

    The first reading for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time tells us how the seven brothers accepted torture and death, refusing to worship idols and declaring their faith in the resurrection. This reading is taken from 2 Maccabees, one of the Deuterocanonical books. This was one of the books written late in Jewish history. The Sadducees did not accept it, holding to the five books of Moses alone. They challenged Jesus with a seemingly far-fetched argument with Jesus in Luke 20:27-38. (Having just lived through a political campaign, we should be used to far-fetched arguments.) Jesus didn't tell them that he disagreed with the law, he just reframed the question, affirming the resurrection.

    We should not be too hard on the Sadducees. They were holding fast to old truths that they knew to be true and were resisting change. This is a healthy instinct, common among Catholics and most Christians. In 1845  John Henry Newman (recently canonized) devised the term Development of Doctrine to describe how teaching can become more detailed and explicit over time while remaining consistent with earlier statements. 

    The gospel does not tell us how the Sadducees responded. As part of the establishment, they were motivated to resist change. We can assume that some of them were open to Jesus as he reframed the question. Like the Sadducees, we should learn how to hold on to tradition and yet be open to movements of the Spirit .