The Neverending Story (The Christian Chronicles)

Associated Press ^ | 3/24/01

[malakhi]

The Neverending Story
An ongoing debate on Scripture, Tradition, History and Interpretation.

Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. - John Adams

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[al_c]

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Friday, April 18, 2003
Good Friday

First Reading: Responsorial Psalm: Second Reading: Gospel:

Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25 Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 John 18:1 - 19:42 Ecce lignum Crucis in quo salus mundi pepéndit. (Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Saviour of the world.)   -- The Adoration of the Cross

The following is, as usual, from The Word Among Us:

Good Friday

Today we commemorate the greatest act of love in history: the cross of Jesus Christ. Take some extra time today to meditate before a crucifix. Look upon Jesus in all his lowliness--beaten, bruised, and bloodied. See him suffering, rejected and alone. Hear his last cry: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" See his love for you, even as he hangs dying in your place: "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." Gaze upon him who was pierced for our offenses and crushed for our sins. Bow in reverence as you contemplate the full meaning of this holy day, when the Son of God became incredibly poor so that we could become unspeakably rich. Bless the One who now beckons you to "draw near to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

What great love the cross reveals! This is covenant love, a love that springs from Jesus' eternal promise to love and protect us. Covenant love is ever faithful. It is ready to die so that others may live. It's an eternal love, written in the very blood of Christ. Today, as you meditate before the Lamb who was slain, consider the "bigness" of the cross. Has any other act of love ever brought forth such a flood of mercy and grace? Has any other sacrifice completely washed away every sin ever committed and every sin to come? Has any other act of love overcome the devil's work of hatred and evil in the world?

How can you make the cross real in your life today? By showing your loved ones the same covenant love that Jesus has shown you. What joy Jesus will have as he sees the fruit of his cross in the way you spread his love and faithfulness today! Just think: Every time you love as Jesus loves, you are bringing the very presence of Christ into the world!

"Jesus, on this Good Friday I join with the saints in heaven not to mourn what my sin did to you, but to rejoice in what your love did for me. May this litany be in my heart today: Cross of Jesus, purify me. Blood of Jesus, cleanse me. Wounds of Jesus, heal me. Love of Jesus, free me. Mercy of Jesus, forgive me."

----------

God bless you all. Have a blessed Easter weekend and keep in mind the sacrifice He made for us ... may it bring joy to your hearts.

AC

[al_c]

Hey, Steven ... luck may end up being on the Mavs' side after all. I took a look at the playoff brackets. If all goes in their favor, they may not even have to face the Lakers or Kings ... the two teams they just can't seem to beat.

[Invincibly Ignorant]

Hey, Steven ... luck may end up being on the Mavs' side after all. I took a look at the playoff brackets. If all goes in their favor, they may not even have to face the Lakers or Kings ... the two teams they just can't seem to beat.

Cool. Although you're gonna have to play one of those 2 eventually. Remember, you said championship. :-)

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

The pontiff did say there were some special circumstances in which other Christians could take communion from a Roman Catholic priest to meet the need for "eternal salvation."

I pulled this statement from the article "The Pope Cracks down on Lax Practices"

Could you all interprete for me?

Becky

[al_c]

Cool. Although you're gonna have to play one of those 2 eventually. Remember, you said championship. :-)

Not necessarily. The Lakers(5) play the TWolves(4) then if they win that, they'll play the winner of Spurs(1) v. Suns(8). The Kings(2) have to get by the Jazz(7). It very well could be that the Mavs(3) may not face either team. But that still doesn't mean they'll win it all. They have to get by the convicts TBlazers(6) first.

Here's my take on this bracket ... Spurs will easily beat the Suns. Lakers will win a close one against the TWolves. Dallas will squeak by against the TBlazers and will have to play the Kings in the next round. Kings will beat Dallas, as usual, and will then play the Spurs for the Western final. And I don't know squat about the East.:o)

[al_c]

Could you all interprete for me?

Nope. Not my area of expertise.

[OLD REGGIE]

God can choose any method He wishes. The question is which method He did choose. I am not quite sure where you stand as to method, by the way, since your approach is so negative. That is: To state (what you think) is Catholic doctrine and then deny it.

Once again I have no idea what you are talking about.

Do you think it possible for you to give a hint, some small clue, a reference perhaps?

[OLD REGGIE]

". . . I wonder if Teddy was publicly admonished by his bishop if it would make any difference at the polls."

No! Fat Teddy brings the "PORK" to Massachusetts in more ways than one.

Remember, he brought the Big Dig to Massachusetts. Original estimate $2.5 Billion. The final cost will be much greater than $15 Billion.

The Massachusetts voters feel as long as we have crooked politicians, we might as well have the biggest one.

[katnip]

The Massachusetts voters feel as long as we have crooked politicians, we might as well have the biggest one.

Teddy's "big", that's no doubt.

I don't know if he can claim to be the most crooked though. We have the beast here in NY.

One hundred years from now there will probably still be a Kennedy in government. So you probably do have the "stickiest" political family to contend with.

[OLD REGGIE]

Take some extra time today to meditate before a crucifix

OK if I simply close my eyes and meditate in my usual way? ;-)

[OLD REGGIE]

One hundred years from now there will probably still be a Kennedy in government. So you probably do have the "stickiest" political family to contend with.

Maybe. Maybe not. The Kennedy "mystique" appears to be over. The "Kennedy" name, with the exception of Fat Teddy, has lost in all recent elections.

[al_c]

Whatever works for you, OR. ;o)

I think the point the author was trying to make was just to call to mind the suffering that Christ endured for us ... how He took our place on that cross. How blessed we are that He did that for us!

[CindyDawg]

Yall know where Mary is? I mean physically, where she was buried/tombed?

[al_c]

Sacred tradition holds that she was assumed into heaven.

[CindyDawg]

So this means you don't know, ? :'). Just asking caz I'm on another thread about experts now believing the James found, real. If we could find Joseph and/or Mary then DNA testing could be done and settle if she was an eternal virgin or if they had kids together. Interesting huh? If their remains could be located do you think your church would mind testing?

[al_c]

Again, sacred tradition of the RCC says that she was assumed into heaven, body and soul.

[AlguyA]

"Yall know where Mary is? I mean physically, where she was buried/tombed?"

Interestingly, there is a tomb (I can't recall where, right off the top of my head) which ancient tradition holds to be the tomb of Mary. It's empty.

Virtually all the earliest writings we have state Mary was assumed into heaven, body and soul. Of course, if this is true, then Mary becomes a much more important biblical personage than Protestant theology would credit. Further, both the Immaculate Conception and her Perpetual Virginity serve as underpinnings, theologically, for the dogma of the Assumption.

But it is strange, isn't it? The Mother of Our Lord, and no one seems to know where her remains are.

[Invincibly Ignorant]

But it is strange, isn't it? The Mother of Our Lord, and no one seems to know where her remains are.

What's so strange about that? There are alot of NT figures we don't know where the bones are.

[RobbyS]

Slight clue? Let us start with your treatment of Msary'srole in the Incarnation. The basic Catholic doctrine is that Jesus was true man, and Mary was truly his mother. If we start from the premise that Jesus was true man as well as true God,then Mary had to have had some physical relationship with Jesus, but since the event is improbable there is no point in discussing biology. We are left with the question of the dignity of Mary.

So many NCs are driven wild by the assigning of such titles as Queen of Heaven or Queen of Angels to Mary. The title Mother of God is seen as no less than blasphemy. So they go to the other extreme and beyond and reduce Mary to a cipher.

Luke, of course, presents Mary as the model Christian, the humble slave of God, whose sovereign grace is unlimited. Therefore, it seems to some that any attempt to make her more than this, more than a simple wife and mother is somehow to diminish Jesus or to deny that in this instance God's sovereign power was at work. But unless one accepts Luther's virtual denial of free will, his particular notion of Christian liberty, one can acknowledge that Mary played a vital role in God's entry into history in the form of a man.
That role was heroic and in the scale of roles in sacred history greater than that of Noah, Abraham and Moses. The paradox of Christianity that the last shall be first, so that a humble Jewess maid is greater in the eyes of God than
the divine Augustus--not only her but expecially her. She, not he, is truly worthy of divine honors.

But the reason she is worthy of such honors has everything to do with who her son was and nothing to do with any natural virtues. What was exceptionable about her was that she was a daughter of Zion and "full of grace." (Father Knox says " Graced one," which is not less accurate than favored one unless one insists on assigning a Lutheran meaning to the word "grace." Rightly or wrongly I read incredible arrogance in the notion that all the saints MUST be put on a par with Mary, even the self-proclaimed "Saved." It is not Catholics who have given Mary her place but God. It is He who has called her to come to the head of the table.

Now as to the question of whether Catholics "worship" her. More later.

[CindyDawg]

Ask him if he already learned it all, then why is he still on this earth. ;o)

You would not believe how far back I had to go to find this post. grrrr. You know my husband lurks here, right? Well he wasn't amused by # 3. I need to make a correction (with a but...). He did not say he had learned it all. He said he had heard it all.