At Epiphany Herod speaks to us, today

“Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.” Gospel reading for the Epiphany.

A major problem we have today is that we read the nativity story as an idyll,  a romantic/nostalgic story of the past  with no bearing for today. We forget how Our Blessed Virgin was a mother who conceived her first child out of wedlock, and found herself homeless, looking for a place to give birth to her first born.

Herod sums things up in our Gospel account for Epiphany, but not for the wise men. He does it for us. A pun works in the Aramaic of our story. “Bethlehem,” means, “House of Bread.” “Beth/House,” “Lehem/Bread.” “Judah” comes from the root, “Yad/Hand,” and means, “Thanksgiving.” Genesis 29:35 gives the definition. A month ago, we celebrated our Thanksgiving as Americans. Each Sunday we celebrate Thanksgiving for what Jesus did for us. We go to the house of bread each Sunday, in the land of thanksgiving, Mass, and we find Jesus in a feeding trough, the ciborium the Eucharistic/Thanksgiving minister holds as he distributes the host/victim.

“Go and search diligently for the child.” This has a four-fold meaning. We come early to Mass and we meditate upon what we see around us, the mural in front of us; the Stations of the Cross; the statues and the paintings we see around us. Secondly, we go and search diligently for Jesus in the tabernacle, and look to see Jesus in the bread and wine, now body and blood of Jesus. Finally, we go and search diligently for Jesus in the Liturgy of the Word, in the Sacred tradition, the writings of the Church Fathers, and more importantly, in the Sacred Scriptures.

As we go and search diligently, we find our passage defines leadership. The wise men bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and Myrrh. Using the Aramaic, we find gold, Lebanon, and Myrrh. These are the gifts of kingly power, Lebanon, or liturgy, and the gift of Myrrh. We are all prophets. Indeed, the Aramaic for King is the same word as Angel, or messenger. Our Psalm for today is Psalm 72:

To Solomon/Peace

Give your judgment to the king; your justice to the king’s son; to govern your people with justice/charity, your oppressed with right judgment/from the lips. This is so that the mountains will yield their bounty for the people, and the hills great abundance, to defend the oppressed among the people, save the children of the poor and crush the oppressor… May all kings bow before him, all nations serve him. He rescues the poor when they cry out, the oppressed who have no one to help. He shows pity to the needy and the poor and saves the lives of the poor. From extortion and violence, he redeems them. Precious is their blood in his sight. The end of the psalms of David.

This Psalm is only about Jesus? Using an old form of argument called “Typology,” this passage refers to Jesus. The primary reference is, “To Solomon,” and the passage ends with “The end of the psalms of David.” This is one earthly king talking to his replacement and is about leadership, in private enterprise, in government, and in civic groups. The role of king includes, but is not limited to, being a rudder (a governor is a type of rudder) for the people. Leaders are to bring justice to the oppressed. Leaders in private enterprise, in government, and in civic groups are to defend the oppressed among the people, save the children of the poor, and crush their oppressors. They are to rescue the poor when they cry out, and the oppressed with none to help. They are to show pity on the needy and save the lives of the poor.

Some point to the king’s sword. The Shema, Jesus’ Great Commandment is, “Here Israel, the NAME is Almighty, the NAME is One. Love God with all our hearts, all our animate being, and with all of our measure.” How do we love God? How do we love someone who already literally already has everything? We guard and keep what is his, in particular what is made in his image. That is each other, friend and foe. Any attack on any living person, no matter how deserving, and no matter how defended, is an attack upon the image of God in that person.

It is only then that God will look at our fancy liturgies, in Greek and Latin, with our fine songs. It is only then that we can focus on the final cause of all creation, and that God will look upon the sacrifices of our lives. It is only then, God will see our Lebanon and our myrrh.

John 6, and the Magnificat

Please notice to the left of our altar as parishioners look at it. What does this have in common with the reading for today? When we think about it, the answer should become clear. In the original Greek, our Gospel for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary time reads, “The spirit is the life maker.” The general translation is, “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” This implies the Spirit continuously creates life. The Spirit creates life in each person. Our Blessed Virgin speaks of this in the Magnificat, the great poem on the making of life. Indeed, as the Mother of God our Blessed Virgin is the creator of life.

“My anima proclaims the greatness of the NAME; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

He has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; from now on will all ages call me blessed.

The Mighty One has done great things for me, and dedicated is his NAME.

His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.

He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.

The hungry he has filled with nobility. The rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped Israel (Those who struggle with God) his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Deuteronomy 30 also speaks of the life creator in the Spirit:

This command I give you today is not too wondrous or remote for you. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who will go up to the heavens to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?” Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?” No, it is something very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it…I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life…!

If the Spirit is in us, it produces life. It asks how to produce life in every instant of our lives. When we see the lowly, the hungry, those who struggle to understand God in their lives The Spirit produces life. It asks, “How I can create the most life for the person standing before me.” Our Blessed Virgin answers this question by first pointing to God as the person to whom she proclaims the greatness. Her Spirit rejoices in God her savior. The Hebrew/Aramaic word she would have used for Savior is “Jesus.” The Spirit rules nothing out. If someone says they love God with all their hearts, animate being and strength, and then says, “Except with,” the Spirit is not in them. If they say the government has no role in feeding the hungry, or the church, or private enterprise, or whatever, the truth is not in them. There is no “Except” in the Spirit.

She looks upon her lowliness. This means always comparing ourselves with God, not with others, the flesh of this world. When we do the latter, there is the great fall of thinking we are better. When we do the former, we realize our humility, from humus, dirt. From dust we were made, and from dust we will return.

In Hebrew and Aramaic, the word for fear, and for looking to, is the same. The Spirit filled life is about looking to God. Jesus asks, “If I ascend…” Our eyes always need to be ascending. The Hebrew and Aramaic word for wicked is “Russia,” and means those who put themselves first. This is the rulers, of all political parties. It takes one who thinks himself first to run for the position. God throws these people down at the second coming. He then raises the humble, those who view themselves as humus/dirt. It is the humble God raises to nobility. If we want to be noble, we must be humble, and we must always look to the humble and always be asking, “How can we make each person coming before us receive the most possible life. The Gospel for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time is all about this.

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time and Election 2016

What does the reading for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time have to do with the upcoming elections? As we move toward the election season, we see only one thing on the part of all political parties, a combination of self-righteousness and the need to put the other party down. We already see the comments comparing our current president with monkeys, people of the Islamic faith, another favorite whipping boy of the right, and other foreign nationals. If you identify as a liberal you must support abortion, and if you support conservatives, you must believe every nut must own a gun. There is Trump with his wig and the outrageous other statements constantly coming out of the far right.

The first reading and St. Paul in the second reading point out what is missing in all of this, a meaningful discussion of any issues that might make this nation a better nation. Proverbs tells us:

Who is thoughtless, turn now’; the defective of heart, she says: Come, eat my bread and drink my wine. (The Hebrew word is ‘wine,) which I have mixed. Forsake the living death of foolishness, and live. Walk in the way of building up (other people.) If you correct a scorner, you bring to yourself shame. If you reprove those who think themselves first, it comes to him a blot. Do not correct a scorner; he will grind his teeth against you. Reprove a wise man and he will love you.

 

Look at the phrase, “Defective of heart.” This is the literal Hebrew for the passage. The wise man has a soft heart. In Psalm 95, which religious Catholics pray every morning in the Liturgy of the Hours, it tells us not to harden our hearts. When Jesus tells the parable of the sower, what is the difference between the good soil and the bad soil? The bad soil is the path; otherwise, it is identical to the good soil. The path is stepped upon and in the process of being stepped upon becomes hard. The good soil is aerated/fancy Latin for spiritual. As a result, it is soft.

To those of defective heart, Wisdom tells us to come to communion, receive the spirit, and become soft again. We are to walk in the way of building up of other people. The Hebrew word for understanding is related to the word for a house, the verb form of which means to build. When we understand others, we build them up. Do not compare those who disagree with us with fools, foreigners we might not like, or animals. When we see others doing this, it is a sign we are dealing with people who do not yet have the spirit, liberal and conservative alike.

Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are rotten. Do not continue in ignorance, but try to build up what is the will of the NAME. Do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the NAME in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Kyrie Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Making the most of every opportunity means trying to find points in common with those we disagree with, not calling them names. Focus upon what is God’s will. Read Deuteronomy 5:1-7 and other places: we are to see God in every person we see and we are to see in every person we see the great E Pluribus Unum, From the Many One, fellow travelers, (The Greek word is parochial/parish) people rescued from over there, (wherever of there is) to over here. We find room when greeting others, positive things to sings psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We find room to sing and play to the NAME in our hearts, giving thanks, not just in liturgy, but in life. There is no room in this for name-calling. Does this mean we must agree in everything? No! Following Jesus’ example in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, it means we acknowledge our differences while working for common ground. It means following St’ Peter’s example when he first meets Jesus in Luke and says, “Get away from me, for I am a deviant.” We do not compare ourselves with those we deem to be inferior to ourselves, but to God.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Ninteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time and the atomic bomb

What does our second reading have to do with American and world history for today?

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. So reads today’s second reading.

Today also commemorates the bombing of Nagasaki and the three-day anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. In Japanese Hiroshima means “broad island,” from Japanese hiro “broad” + shima “island.” So called in reference to its situation on the delta of the Ota River. It is interesting to note that “Hiro,” is the Greek word from which we get Hierarchy or hierarkhia “rule of a high priest,” from hierarkhes “high priest, leader of sacred rites.” Shema” is the most sacred prayer in the Jewish tradition, “Hear’ Israel, God is Almighty; God is One.” Using Greek and Hebrew, false cognates admittedly, Hiroshima means, “Listening to the Holy Priest. Nagasaki means naga “long” + saki “headland, promontory.”

In Nagasaki the bomb was dropped a Catholic cathedral. “The epicenter of the blast was the heart and soul of Catholicism in Japan since the sixteenth century.” “Devotion to Mary among the Urakami Catholics was based on a great and proper respect for the Mother’s suffering for them, as her children. This was manifest by the statue outside the entrance of the Urakami Cathedral—Mary standing beside her Crucified Son. Devotion to Mary as Mother of God and their Mother was manifest by widespread, daily devotion to the Rosary.” “Of the 12,000 Catholics in the Urakami district, 8,500 were killed.”

Several military leaders weighed in on the importance of the bombing. Admiral William D. Leahy, the President’s Chief of Staff–and the top official who presided over meetings of both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined U.S.-U.K. Chiefs of Staff, “The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan.” “Admiral Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, ‘The Japanese had already sued for peace before the atomic age was announced to the world with the destruction of Hiroshima and before the Russian entry into the war.” “Admiral William (Bull) Halsey, Jr., Commander U.S. Third Fleet, stated publicly in 1946: ‘The first atomic bomb was an unnecessary experiment. . . . a mistake. . . . The scientists had this toy and they wanted to try it out, so they dropped it. . . . It killed a lot of Japs, who had put out a lot of peace feelers through Russia long before.”

As a Navy Veteran this writer served aboard the USS Forrestal, the first of America’s post WWII super carriers, now a coral reef somewhere. “In the week before the 5/17 meeting with Truman, Forrestal had questioned the wisdom of having Russia participate in an invasion of Japan. The Dept. of War believed that Russian entry would help save American lives. Forrestal, on the other hand, feared control of additional occupied territory by Russia. He also hoped that postwar Japan might become a counterweight to Russia in the Far East. The Navy favored their blockade as the primary means of defeating Japan.

Strategic importance in winning the war did not provoke the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It may have included being the first blast of the cold war; trying to convince the Soviets, we had the bomb. The Japanese emperor listed as the causes of surrender, both firebombing of his cities, but of more importance, “The domestic situation.” He was well aware that his citizens and his military were on the verge of revolution.

Our readings today give us the real reason for the bombing. “Unconditional Surrender.” Whether part of long-term strategic thinking, or as part of a propaganda campaign, ““Unconditional Surrender” was based upon bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling, as St Paul complains about. It was wall about getting even with the Japanese. It was about Pearl Harbor and what the Japanese did in China.

“Unconditional Surrender” put the Japanese leadership in a bind. They knew about the war crimes trials starting in Europe. They knew what had already happened to most of their allies’ leadership. “Unconditional Surrender” gave the Japanese leadership a choice between dying at the hands of the Americans, in the hands of their own people, or with the shame of war crimes trials. It is never smart to give people a choice of only how they are going to die, and not expect people to go out fighting. Our reading gives us the important dilemma, aught this nation have forgiven the very extreme war crimes of the Japanese leadership, which were as bad as the Germans in that war, or aught the Americans have killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese, many of whom were Catholics in the name of ending that war?

In our eagerness to support “Unconditional Surrender”, we chose bitterness and hatred, and we chose to kill fellow Catholics, when alternatives were available. As we move forward, let us learn our lessons; may it never be “My way or the Highway.” Give the other person an honorable out being mindful of ills others of completed. We learn this lesson in the name of international politics, but also in the name of living with those who live next to us. For convicted criminals, this means capital punishment, putting criminals in the same position as the Japanese leadership when it comes time for their arrest. It also means how we live our daily lives. The important lesson is that we must live with each other. When we hold grudges, the person we hurt the most is not those who hurt us, but often ourselves, and the innocents nearby.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Grieving the Holy Spirit or living in Christ. Our mural and the Eucharist

What does our reading have to do with the mural behind the altar? Our second reading speaks of grieving the Holy Spirit, but how do we do that. The left of our mural depicts Abraham as he prepares to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. To the right of our mural, and balancing Abraham is St. Paul, also with a knife. Above these, sit King David and Melchizadek representing music and harmony, along with the precious body and blood. Charles Borromeo with Sanctus Pascal Baylon the patron of the Children’s Eucharist counterbalance order and harmony with education of child and priest.

Two themes highlight our readings today, and two themes highlight what we see in our mural. The first is what grieves the Holy Spirit. This is the rule of hatred and violence, the rule of bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling and malice. St. Paul counterbalances this with harmony, the music of King David, being kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. This applies to Catholics who hate Muslims or atheists. This includes conservatives who hate liberals, and liberals who hate conservatives. It includes churchgoers who hate non-church goers and the like. Melchizadek is Hebrew for Charitable King, or charitable messenger. We become the charitable messenger when we speak in terms of harmony, melody, rhythm, compassion, forgiving one another and the like.

How do we accomplish this task? The second major theme in our readings and in our mural is the Eucharist. It is by partaking in the Eucharist that we receive Christ. We die with him to all anger and bitterness. We rise with him into harmony, melody, rhythm, compassion, seeing the other person’s point of view, even if we choose to disagree with that view. It is through partaking of Christ in the Eucharist that we receive the Holy Spirit, and with her the only tool we need to each heal and transform the world, Takuun Olam, harmony and treating all people as we would Christ.

Planning for the next Reno Diocesan Synod/ which is hopefully very soon

All steps are subject to guidance and approval of the Bishop and his staff. All steps except step 4 are subject to guidance and approval of the Parish rector and his staff.

Parish Synod is open to all parishioners. All are parishioners and all are free to participate and vote on all issues before the Synod. Synod meets twice each month, on a Saturday, one meeting for those who work on day shift, and one who work on swing shift. Each Saturday constitutes one meeting, regardless of the number of actual meetings.Each Sunday, Parish Synod presents  what it has accomplished to the parish over coffee and doughnuts or other light snacks as appropriate after each Mass. Diocesan Synod budget pays expense.

After each meeting of the Parish Synod, the Parish Synod appoints delegate to a Diocesan monthly meeting to coordinate information and share ideas.

(1) Pastoral Council chairs initial meeting of synod with first order of business being the election of a chair and synod leadership. Parish Synod/ define the Parish as distinct from other parishes in the diocese. This process takes three months or more, with one meeting per month.

(2) Parish Synod/discuss problems. These could include parish budget, parish outreach into the local community, parish influence in the political process, for example that there are 250 Catholic colleges and universities graduating 70,000 students each year, but most Catholics feel there are no candidates to vote for. Politicians are either conservative, ignoring life after birth, or liberal, ignoring life before birth. Most Catholics are uniformed as to the current Catholic understanding of ethics at the local or communal level. Most parishes suffer under the weight of the 80/20 rule. The richest 20% of parishioners, representing the richest 20% of the general population who control 80% of secular wealth, contribute 80% of church revenues. As such, they tend to be over represented in the Pastoral Council, and therefore parish decision making. This process of defining the problem takes three meetings, or more as required.

(3) Parish Synod/ define what a successful Parish synod would be quantifiable and verifiable terms. Define success for the synod in quantifiable and verifiable terms. They define how the Parish will be different after the Synod than before the Synod, in quantifiable and verifiable terms. This takes three meetings or more as required.Parish Synod appoints delegates to the Diocesan Synod.

(4) Diocesan Synod/ Diocese completes first three steps at the diocesan level. Diocesan synod proposes solutions to the Bishop and Diocesan staff. Diocesan Synod defines itself as distinct from other diocese and denominations, being favorable to other denominations. Diocesan Synod meets until the Bishop adjourns the Synod. Synod date is finalized upon completion of the last parish-completing step (3).

(5) Parish Synod/ in light of Diocesan Synod further defines itself in relation to other parishes in the diocese, and other churches close to itself. Develops ecumenical plan for participation with other parishes and local churches. Parish Synod, in light of Diocesan Synod proposes solutions to Parish Rector and Parish Council. Proposes direction for moving forward. This process lasts until Parish Rector adjourns the Synod.

Imaginative remembering

As I worked at an animal facility while being abused by a Senior Chief Petty Officer in the Name, I suffered the feeling that I was in a world that was surreal and the rules did not apply. It caused me to question my understanding of Basic Right and Wrong and to define the concept as what re-orients us in a time of crisis, when the world is surreal and the rules do not apply.

I attended a Lutheran Church studying the Documentary Hypothesis. I was doing my own re-evaluation of my values. That meant looking for the Ten Commandments, finding it in three places, and the Ten Commandments were different in all three places. As I counted I found fifteen commandments. The first rule of a counselor was to confuse the patient. Mission Accomplished!

Jesus, uses the Jewish count, “You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.” If Jesus combines our last two, how does he get Ten Commandments?

Imaginative remembering is about how the Jewish community took the customs, judicial precedents, and folkways of the surrounding neighborhood and incorporated it into their legal code. For Jesus, the first commandment is, “I am the Personal Name your Almighty Judge, who brought you out of the land of Egypt/Oppression, out of the house of menial labor.

Deuteronomy adds, “The Personal Name, our Almighty Judge, cut a Social Contract with us at Horeb; not with our fathers did the Personal Name cut this Social Contract, but with us, each of us, alive, here, this day.” “An Unsettled God,” relates imaginative remembering includes the social contract. The second is that God creates his nation from the outcasts of society.

To remember what it was like to be there and your rescue, is to get that pit in your stomach when others suffer and do something. The Passover is our liturgical celebration of that rescue. The surrounding nations had precepts for helping the poor. Israel added the reason, and made in central to the Social Contract. If everyone remembers oppression, they become too engrossed with saving the oppressed to oppress him.

The Jewish Fritz Pearls and his Gestalt therapy emphasize talking in the present tense. This is an important part of imaginative remembering. Imaginative remembering is how the Jewish community distorts time. The Jewish community created the concept of the Physical Presence, their escape from Egypt.

Another part of imaginative remembering is, “Hear, you who struggle with God! The Personal Name is our Almighty Judge, the Personal Name is One! You shall love the Personal Name, your Almighty Judge, with all your hearts, and with your whole anima, and with your whole measure.” The word for hearts,“ לְבָבְךָ” has a second “בָ” making it plural. The ending means “You,” and is singular. We each have more than one heart. “Ecclesiology for a Global Church,” mentions how Freud was also Jewish. We each have more than one heart, inclination. Our inclinations are by themselves neither good nor evil. It is how we use them that makes them good or evil.

The bully convinces his victim, he gets what he deserves. Exodus 1 quotes Exodus 1:10, “Starting in Genesis 47, and using the thinking of the modern bully, we can show how Pharaoh “Deal wisely with them.”

In his book, “A Theological Introduction into the Old Testament,” Walter Brueggemann, re-introduces the concepts of form and source criticism. In the process, he relates how scholars attribute Genesis 1 to a Priestly source. It begins:

בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים בְּרֵאשִׁית

Genesis 2:4 begins:

בְּיוֹם עֲשׂוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים–אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם

We notice אֱלֹהִים in both passages, but the second passage adds, יְהוָה indicating a second author. Walter Brueggemann relates how there is great debate about the various forms used in Torah. Ever watch Bob Ross and his “Joy of Painting?” The order of how he painted his landscapes is like how the Priestly source drew in his order for creation. Genesis 1 could simply be a verbal landscape to introduce us to Genesis.

Hebrews 4 speaks of Genesis 2’s Sabbath Rest as a type for a coming Sabbath Rest. II Peter 3:8 speaks of one day being a thousand years. From this comes the allegorical interpretation of creation being six thousand years old. The landscape hypothesis makes more sense.

Genesis 2 speaks of the four rivers. The first is Pishon; which winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. Some have noted how Troy, north of Israel, had bountiful amounts of gold. Others note a dried up river bed in Saudi Arabia, also famous for its gold.

The name of the second river is the Gihon, and winds all through the land of Cush. Cush is in Africa, south of Israel. The name of the third river is the Tigris; east of Asshur. The fourth river is the Euphrates. Geometry points to Israel as Eden.

Genesis 3 has the tree of knowledge of good and rot. Jeremiah 10 prohibits following the way of the nations. This is the apple from the tree of knowing good and evil. It knows other ways of doing things, other than the ways of Ha Shem. When we look at early depictions of the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the Garden of Eden, we note how very similar they are to the Assyrian soldiers, from the east. Likewise, Cain travels east, toward Babylonia, where God puts a mark on him so that those in the east, Babylonia and Assyria, not kill him.

Genesis 1-11 is an allegory to explain the Babylonian and Assyrian exiles. When we read the Song of Songs in Hebrew, we notice how much the Bride resembles the temple, in poetic language. Ruth, on the surface is about a farm girl from Edom. From the Jewish perspective, that she is not Jewish, with the story written at a time when Ezra commanded Jews not to marry non-Jews, speaks volumes.

Abraham, he feeds his three guests a non-kosher meal. If Halachic comes before Haggadic, if Ezra comes before this story, this part of the story at least, is an attack upon the dietary rule against eating meat and milk products together. Haggadah as a form is polemic, one group in dialectic against the other. Torah is dynamic debate, not statute, and ordinance.

I sat at a coffee table with several friends, including a fundamentalist, and a Jewish lady. As we discussed things, an atheist came up and asked if God could create a rock so big he could not pick it up. Schooled in Philosophy, the fundamentalist launched into the standard defenses, which the atheist quickly destroyed. Then he went after little Pam.

She simply said, “God threw horse and rider into the sea; then came Assyria, strong and mighty, then mighty Babylon, Greece, Rome, the inquisition and the Nazi régime. They are all gone now. If God is Almighty, All knowing, and All Present, I do not know. One thing I do know; I am picking no fights with him.” The atheist walked away.The Western God is Trinitarian, three in one, mystery. The Jew says:

Rabbi Eliezer said: If the law is as I say, let it be proven from Heaven. A Heavenly voice rang out: What do you want with Rabbi Eliezer. The law is in agreement with him in all areas. Rabbi Yehoshua got up on his feet and declared: ‘Torah is not in Heaven.’ What does ‘It is not in Heaven’ mean? Rabbi Yirmiyah said: Since the Torah was already given at Sinai, we pay no attention to Heavenly voices. It is written in Torah: ‘After the majority one must follow.’ Rabbi Nathan met Elijah the Prophet and asked him: What was God doing at that time when His Heavenly voice was disregarded? Elijah answered: He laughed: My children have triumphed over me. My children have triumphed over me.

Sholom Aleichem’s, Tevye the dairyman, had Job-like conversations with God: “O God, All-powerful and All-Merciful, great and good, kind and just, how does it happen that to some people you give everything and to others nothing?” Even in the middle of his prayer, Tevye would interject his own personal comments: “Thou sustainest the living with loving kindness, and, sometimes, with a little food.” Tevye could even be somewhat sarcastic at times: “With God’s help, I starved to death three times a day, not counting supper.”

In the Bible, we see God accepts and even welcomes criticism. Abraham told God: “Shall the Judge of the whole world not act justly?” God’s manifests his sense of irony by telling Abraham to name Isaac. Abraham laughed when he heard that he, and Sarah, his 90-year-old wife, would have a child. The Hebrew name Yitzchak means ‘he laughed,’ a name showing our God has a sense of humor.

The Israelites are able to cross safely. When the Egyptians follow they become stuck in the mud and as the waters come rolling back over them, they drown in the sea. The angels break out into song, relieved that the Israelites are finally safe. God sees the angel’s rejoicing, but God isn’t pleased. “My creatures are drowning in the sea and you sing songs.”

The angels were supposed to have a somewhat broader perspective. They should have kept their awareness of the spark of God that is in every person, even the Pharaoh himself. They should have remembered God’s teaching, “it is not the death of the Russia/wicked/those thinking themselves first, I seek, but only that he should turn from his evil ways and live.”

The ancient Midrash is preserved in our Passover seder rituals even to this day. When we come to the retelling of the ten plagues, we pour some wine out of our cup, or some families take a little bit of wine with their finger at this point. We show God that we understand that our cup of joy cannot be filled to the brim, as long as others, even if they were our enemies, have lost their lives.

This is the Jewish God.

We need to read Torah as a text in constant tension with itself

What would happen if the US government collapsed? First Texas, and then the states of the South secede from the union because of the politics we see today. After a few years, the great fear of the conservatives came true; the ultra orthodox Muslims came and imposed Sharia Law.

This would cause chaos as Christian conservatives fought this. After another couple of decades, the Chinese came in with a more Buddhist understanding and decided to allow the Americans decide upon their own laws. Let us also allow that the liberals are correct in arguing that global warming is the case. After all this time expired, the main cities along the eastern seaboard are now under water. To correct the problem requires building walls around the cities and pumping out the water. After the radical Muslims, leave the country, exiles returning from all over the world decided to build these walls and impose a strong central government.

Conservatives would object to the strong central government to China, and China would ask the Americans to prove they are in fact a nation, a people. We are of course, not one people. We are westerners, New Englanders, Southerners, people of the Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic, among other places. We are African-American, Hispanic, German, Irish, Anglo-Saxon, and more. We are rich, poor, conservative, and liberal. Not all of the people assembled would support building the city walls around Washington D.C. Still, they would want China out of America, so they could have their decentralized government.

Liberals, and others with a bent for nostalgia, would want the walls rebuilt. Some would desire a strong centralized government headquartered in D.C. while others went with strong chieftains, governors, for the various states. Some would push for strong moral, Blue Laws, while others pushed for strong Social Justice Laws. The age old fights between these diverse groups would flare up again.

As the leadership meeting in Washington writes the statement of who we are as a people, they must first convince all these disparate groups that we are one nation. The second audience, China, or its officials looking over the process, would see the approval by the people of the document, agree that we are a nation, or the disapproval, and deny the request to rebuild the walls and historic places of the nation.

Of course, this could never happen. On the other hand, it did, when Persia conquered Babylonia in 538 BCE. Tradition states the men of the Great Assembly then reconstructed Torah as we have it today. They also created the shell of the Jewish Liturgy, which evolves into the Catholic Mass. If these men did reconstruct Torah as we know it, what would Torah have?

First, we would expect a work by committee, and it would look like the proverbial work by committee. Under pressure to create a document, these men would write one, but we would see them sniping at each other in the text. This explains much of the contradictions we now see in our text. Because these men could not agree before 587 BCE, when the Babylonians came, they would not likely be able to agree afterwards. Still, needing to develop a text, they would enmesh competing traditions into the text, so each could have their side in the final text.

Ezra is sometimes accused of having been a legalist who gave excessive attention to the letter of the law. This would imply Ezra used his influence to cause חלק Halacka, or the walk, to come first in our text. This would imply Ezra used his influence to cause חלק Halacka, or the walk, to come first in our text. הַגָּדָה‎, “telling,” or story to back up or dispute חלק Halacka.

Abraham rushed into the tent and told Sarah, “Quick, three measures of fine flour! Knead it and make rolls.”

He ran to the herd, picked out a tender, choice steer, and gave it to a servant, who quickly prepared it.

Abraham got some curds and milk, as well as the steer that had been prepared, and set these before the three men. He waited on them under the tree while they ate.

You will not boil a young animal (Gadi) in its mother’s milk.

You will not slaughter an ox or a sheep on one and the same day with its young.

If, while walking along, you come across a bird’s nest with young birds or eggs in it, in any tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on them, you will not take away the mother bird along with her brood.

Jews do not serve meat and milk products together to this day, and this is the reason. Also, it teaches us to be humane, and not serve mother and child together. The problem with the rule as doctrine is that it tends to replace the meaning for the rule.

Abraham has to push Sarah to kneed the flour, as she is more interested in what the men, the messengers of God have to say. There is something more going on here, and it is in what Abraham chooses to serve his guests. After all, why should we care what a Bidoun Arab served guests three millennium ago? Bidoun is Arabic for homeless, and Abraham was at that point a wondering, stateless, Arab, from what is now Basra Iraq.

If חלק Halacka or the walk came first, the writer of this story gives the details for a reason. “Abraham did it; it must be OK to mix these products together for a kosher meal. Didn’t the angels eat it too?” We would expect different versions of the same folk tradition to be in our text, as in the story of the flood. Did the animals come in two by two, or seven pairs of Kosher, and only single pairs of non-kosher?

If you only put in one tradition, not only would you alienate the representatives present, but also the mothers with their children outside, expecting the text to relate their tradition.

Southern representatives would want to snip at their northern counterparts, but not too hard. Therefore, we see the story of the Golden Calf, Exodus 32, referring not to the time of Moses, but to the time of Jeroboam, in I Kings, 12:26-31.

We would also expect to find Brothers Grimm and Nursery Rhymes in our text. We would expect poetry and grand literature. We would expect real history, written at the eighth grade level, Paul Bunyan, George Washington and his dollar crossing the Potomac River, along with his cherry tree.

Walter Brueggeman writes in his book, Prophetic Imagination: Revised Edition (p. 68). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition, “Second Isaiah presumably lived through and knew about the pathos of Lamentations and the rage of Job.8 Nevertheless, he goes beyond pathos and rage to speeches of hope and doxology. Second Isaiah has indispensable precursors in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as Thomas Raitt has made clear.

Jeremiah of course wrote Lamentations. Second Isaiah presumably lived through and knew about the pathos of Lamentations. Second Isaiah and Jeremiah therefore presumably knew each other.

This has profound effects upon the correct way to read Torah.

Jeremiah and Second Isaiah together, poets of pathos and amazement, speak in laments and doxologies. They cannot be torn from each other. Reading Jeremiah alone leaves faith in death where God finally will not stay. And reading Second Isaiah alone leads us to imagine that we may receive comfort without tears and tearing. Clearly, only those who anguish will sing new songs. Without anguish the new song is likely to be strident and just more royal fakery.

Reading Torah chapter and verse, “This is the law; this we must do,” would be out. Instead, we need to read Torah as a dynamic text, a grand dialectic, of people struggling to find God and create a community in the face extreme adversity. It means we read the various parts of the text in extreme tension, one with the other. It means to ignore the tension is to misread the text.

The prologue to the Ten Commandments reads in most translations:

Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances which I proclaim in your hearing this day, that you may learn them and take care to observe them. The LORD, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb; not with our ancestors did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, all of us who are alive here this day. Face to face, the LORD spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire, while I was standing between the LORD and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the LORD, since you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me.

This is usually cut to “You shall not have other gods beside me,” when listing the Ten Commandments. Properly translated from the original Hebrew, the text reads:

Moses summoned all those who struggle with God and told them, Hear, you who struggle with God, the customs and what comes from the lip of God, I proclaim in your hearing, this day, that you may learn them and guard to do them. The Personal Name our Almighty Judge, cut a Social Contract with us at Horeb; not with our fathers did the Personal Name cut this Social Contract, but with us, all of us, alive here, this day. Face to face, the Personal Name spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire, while I was standing between the Personal Name and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the Personal Name, since you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain:

I am the Personal Name your Almighty Judge, who brought you out of the land of Oppression, out of the house of Menial Labor. You shall not have other saviors beside me.

A custom is by definition, not a written code. It comes from below, the masses. It is the accumulation of unspoken tradition passed on from generation to generation. “That which comes from the lips applies to what comes from above, the judicial precedents coming from the leadership. It is by definition an anachronism for these two words to be here. Custom and judicial precedent come into being over time, and cannot be given at any one point in time.

Jeremiah, Ezra, Nehemia, the men of the Great Assembly, the Gospels, St. Paul, and the other prophets disagree with one another, as do most tenets of custom and judicial precedent. What comes to us is not statute and ordinance, but custom and tradition. Never having been debated or thought out fully, these often contradict one another. The truth is not in one custom, but in the tension between customs. It does not even sound right, speaking of one custom. It is in the debate between custom and judicial precedent. This is how God wants it.

To read only one side of the story, whether it is “J,” “P,” or “E,” is a grand mistake. Finally, it means we need to look for this historical anomalies in our text, so we might understand the text for what it is, a statement of culture, a culture far more advanced than ours, and not as history.

Put the academics aside and your heart will tell you what the command of God is

“Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.”

So begins the Gospel reading for our Cathedral in Reno Nevada, this Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. How do we get ready? What does God ask us as Americans, and as Catholics to do?

I teach you the customs and correct judicial precedents as the Personal Name my Almighty Judge, commanded me, for you may guard them in the land you enter to possess. Guard them and do them, for this being the midwife of your mind and building up of your thoughts in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these customs and say, “What nation has mighty ones so close to it as the Personal Name, our Almighty Judge, is to us whenever we call upon him? What great nation has customs and correct judicial precedents that are as charitable as this whole teaching I set before you, this day? Deuteronomy 4: 5-8

This Mitzvah I give you today is not too wondrous or remote for you. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who will go up to the heavens to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?” Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?” No, it is something very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it. Deuteronomy 30:11-14

The Personal Name, your Almighty Judge, will bless you abundantly in the land The Personal Name, your Almighty Judge, will give you to possess as a heritage. There shall be no one of you in need, if you but listen to the voice of The Personal Name, your Almighty Judge, and carefully observe this entire Mitzvah I enjoin on you today. The Personal Name, your Almighty Judge, will bless you as he promised, you will lend to many nations, and borrow from none; you will rule over many nations, and none will rule over you.

If one of your kindred is in need in any community in the land which The Personal Name, your Almighty Judge, is giving you, you will not harden your heart nor close your hand against your kin who is in need. Instead, you shall freely open your hand and generously lend what suffices to meet that need. When you give, give generously and not with a stingy heart; for that, The Personal Name, your Almighty Judge, will bless you in all your works and undertakings. The land will never lack for needy persons; that is why I command you: “Open your hand freely to your poor and to your needy kin in your land.” Deuteronomy 15:4-11

Most scholars now agree how these words were not likely written by Moses, but by some unknown author at one of two dates.

The grammarian Shaphan informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book,” and then Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his garments. He then issued this command to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, son of Shaphan, Achbor, son of Micaiah, Shaphan the grammarian, and Asaiah the king’s servant: II Kings, 22:10-13

This comes from chapter 22 of a 25-chapter book. At the book’s end, the Babylonians come and the era of the kings was over. Most scholars view the book in question to be our book of Deuteronomy. Some scholars date Deuteronomy even later, during the exile. In either case, the book does not look forward to the ideal state, but backward, trying to find out what went wrong. How did the society founded by God himself, and with such high ideals, as related in Deuteronomy 4, so deviate from what was supposed to be?

“There shall be no one of you in need… if you but listen to the voice of The Personal Name… The land will never lack for needy persons,” as Deuteronomy 15 tells us. The key phrase is, “if you but listen to the voice of The Personal Name…” What does that voice say? “It is something very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it. Deuteronomy 30:11-14 “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life!…” Deuteronomy 30:19. God knows how we will not keep this Mitzvah. Therefore, there will be needy in the land. Therefore, we must strive to return to God by helping the needy. This is choosing life.

We often find it easier to live by the written law book than to follow the dictates of Deuteronomy 30, which is part of the written law book. Jesus meets a young scholar with this very problem.

A Torah scholar who stood up to test Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He replied, “Love the Personal Name, your Almighty Judge, with all your hearts, with all your anima (that which animates you), with all your measure, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” Because he wished to justify himself, he told Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

The scholar, even in the Greek, does not ask Jesus, but tells him the question. For the scholar, this is an academic question, demanding an academic response, not the serious answer to a question. Jesus chooses to avoid the academics, and force the scholar to answer his own question. We all know what the truth is; we simply need to put our mental concepts out of the way and listen to our hearts. Jesus loves to get his disputants to put their mental concepts to one side, and listen to their hearts. This is but one example of the effort.

Deuteronomy 30 tells us we already know the answer to the question. We must merely put the academics aside, the rulebook aside, and look into the rulebook of our hearts.

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You will not kill; you will not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear vain witness; you will not defraud; hold as important your father and your mother.”

This version is interesting because Jesus combines what St. Augustine calls the last two commandments in “On the Exodus,” into one commandment. This means, that for Jesus to have Ten Commandments, he must find one elsewhere in the passage. Where is it?

The Personal Name, our Almighty Judge, cut a Social Contract with us at Horeb; not with our fathers did the Personal Name cut this Social Contract, but with us, all of us, alive, here, this day. Face to face, the LORD spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire, while I was standing between the Personal Name and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the Personal Name, since you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain:

Remember, “I am the Personal Name your Almighty Judge, who brought you out of the land of Egypt/Oppression, out of the house of Menial Labor.” You will remember what it was like to be there, and you will remember your rescue. When you do this, when you see others suffering, it will bring back bad memories, and you will do something to stop that suffering.”

This is the essence of Deuteronomy 30; this is what makes Israel, the perfect society; this is what Jesus talks about in the story of the Samaritan. Put the academics aside and your heart will tell you what the command of God is, as individuals, as Americans, as Catholics, and as Christians.

Talking about God in times of suffering

In his book, “On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent,” Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, O.P. argues that the central tenet of Job is found in the Job 1:9, “The Great Accuser answered the Personal Name, “Is it for nothing that Job looks to God?” Father Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez misses some key points in his reading of Job, some of which support his argument, and some of which should take the reader in a different direction. The Gospel of St. Luke does tell us in Luke 17:7-10:

“Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come, immediately; take your place at table’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare something for me. Put on your apron; wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished’? Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.”

The problem is that our Gospels also tell us in John 15:11-16 “I told you this so my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my Mitzvah: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do my Mitzvah. I no longer call you Avodim/servants. An Avod does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends; told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me. I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain. Whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.”

Which account is the right one? Are we all simply servants doing the will of an unkind master? Do we follow the rules as Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez seems to argue, “For nothing?” Is this our lot in life, or are we friends? Which is it? One of the seven rules of Hillel is “Kayotze bo mimekom akhar.” Two passages may seem to conflict until compared with a third, which has points of general though not necessarily verbal similarity.

Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez puts the cart before the horse and this is his first mistake in translating his work. We are not the humble servants who do the work “For nothing.” We are not the humble servants who simply say, “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.” There is a reason we are obliged to do the work and this is where putting the cart before the horse comes into play. “It was not you who chose me. I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”

“Why were the Ten Commandments not written in the beginning of the Torah? A parable was given. To what may this be compared? To a king who entered a province said to the people, ‘May I be your king?’ The people told him: ‘You have not done anything good for us to rule over us.’ What did he do? He built the wall for them, he brought in the water for them, and he fought their wars.

He told them: ‘May I be your king?’They replied: ‘Yes, yes.’ Likewise, God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, divided the sea for them, sent down manna for them, brought up the well for them, brought quail for them, and fought for them the war with Amalek. Then God said to them: ‘Am I to be your king?’ They replied, ‘Yes, yes.”

St. Luke writes well within the tradition of Deuteronomy and the Ten Commandments.

Moses summoned all those who struggle with God, telling them, Hear, you who struggle with God, the customs and correct judicial precedents, which I proclaim in your hearing, this day, that you may learn them and guard to do them. The Personal Name, our Almighty Judge, cut a Social Contract with us at Horeb; not with our fathers did the Personal Name cut this Social Contract, but with us, all of us, alive, here, this day. Face to face, the Personal Name spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire, while I was standing between the Personal Name and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the Personal Name; you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain: I am the Personal Name your Almighty Judge, who brought you out of the land of Egypt/Oppression, out of the house of Avodim.”

“It was not you who chose me. I who chose you…” I rescued you from oppression first. That is the main point. We do not serve, “For nothing.” We serve because he served first. He rescued us from oppression and now he asks us to return the favor for all those other on this planet who suffer. That is the point of Job.

Speaking of God from The Suffering Of The Innocent,” is the original title of Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez’ work, “On Job.” His main point is that there is a right way of speaking about God. In his argument, he seems to agree with Fr. Francisco at our Cathedral in Reno Nevada. There is a rhetorical form the B.A.G. refers to as “Ironic Inversion,” in which a word is said to mean its opposite.

As it applies to “Job,” Satan continues his point, “Have you not surrounded him and his family and all that he has with your protection? You have Barack the work of his hands, and his livestock are spread over the land. Now put forth your hand and touch all that he has, and surely he will Barack you to your face.” Father Francisco, and by extension, Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez argue that in the first case, “Barack/Bless” is meant to be taken literally. In the second case, the context dictates “Barack,” must be taken as meaning its opposite.

Job chapter 1 ends, “Job said, “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked I go back there. The Personal Name gave and the Personal Name has taken away; Barack/blessed be the name of the Personal Name!” Job, according to the argument, again reverses course and uses Barack in its literal sense of “To Bless.”

The Great Accuser answers the Personal Name in chapter 2, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. Put forth your hand and touch his bone and his flesh. Surely he will Barack you to your face.” According to the Biblical commentators, the writer reverses himself again, and uses “Barack” in this alleged “Ironic Inversion.” Job’s wife also tells him, “Are you still holding to your innocence? Barack God and die!” The reason for doing using this “Ironic Inversion” is not clear. Hebrew does have a word meaning “To curse.”

The writer of Job uses it in chapter 3:1, “After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed /קַלֵּל his day.” The Septuagint translates Barack as “Eulogize.” It uses “κατηρασατο,” which means to curse. If Ironic Inversion applies here, why the Septuagint does not apply it is not clear. The Artscroll book of Job calls Ironic Inversion, “Euphemism.”

Using the K.I.S.S. Principle, instead of positing the writer moving back and forth in interpreting the same word to mean itself and its opposite, when the writer is aware of a perfectly legitimate word meaning the opposite of “Barack,” it makes more sense to posit that the writer means for Barack to mean the same in all cases.

This leaves the question, why does Satan say, “Now put forth your hand and touch all that he has, and surely he will Barack you to your face,” twice. Why does Job’s wife also tell Job that if he blesses God, he will die? Job says, “Job spoke out: Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, “The child is a boy!”

For Job, at this point in the story, dying would be a blessing. For Job’s wife, if Job dies, he takes his bad luck with him, and that is a blessing. More important, it sets up what for Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez is the main point of his work.

Our God is not a God who wants empty blessings. Our God is a God who wants us to get down and dirty with him and argue with him. Midrash states:

Rabbi Eliezer said: If the law is as I say, let it be proven from Heaven. A Heavenly voice then rang out and exclaimed: What do you want with Rabbi Eliezer, since the law is in agreement with him in all areas. Rabbi Yehoshua then got up on his feet and declared: ‘It [the Torah] is not in Heaven.’ What does ‘It is not in Heaven’ mean? Rabbi Yirmiyah said:

Since the Torah was already given at Sinai, we therefore pay no attention to Heavenly voices. After all, it is written in the Torah itself: ‘After the majority one must follow.’ Rabbi Nathan met Elijah the Prophet and asked him: What was God doing at that time [when His Heavenly voice was disregarded]? Elijah answered: He laughed and said: My children have triumphed over me. My children have triumphed over me.

Sholom Aleichem’s unforgettable character, Tevye the dairyman, had Job-like conversations with God: “O God, All-powerful and All-Merciful, great and good, kind and just, how does it happen that to some people you give everything and to others nothing?” Even in the middle of his prayer, Tevye would interject his own personal comments: “Thou sustainest the living with loving kindness, and, sometimes, with a little food.” Tevye could even be somewhat sarcastic at times: “With God’s help, I starved to death three times a day, not counting supper.”

In the Bible, we see even though God is perfect, He seems to accept and even welcome criticism. Abraham had the temerity to tell God: “Shall the Judge of the whole world not act justly?” This may God’s manifests his sense of irony by telling Abraham to name Isaac. Abraham laughed when he heard that he, a one-hundred-year-old man, and Sarah, his 90-year-old wife, would have a child. The Hebrew name Yitzchak means ‘he laughed,’ a strange name for an individual.

Job demanded to confront God and know the reason for all his suffering. Job angrily railed against the injustice that he perceived when he said, “He destroys the simple/Tam and the Russia/those who think themselves first.” God answered with magnificent sarcasm: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth.

God appears to enjoy negotiating with mortals. The most famous example is that of Abraham “haggling” with God to save Sodom and Gomorra from destruction:

Abraham: “What if there are 50 innocent people in the city? Will you still destroy it?”

God: “If I find 50 innocent people in Sodom, I will spare the entire area.”

Abraham: “Suppose there are 45?”

God: “I will not destroy it if I find 45.”

Abraham: “What if there are 40?’

God: ‘I will not act if there are forty.”

We see the same in relation to superiors in the New Testament. Mary, a poor woman from the Boondocks, tells Elizabeth, the rich woman whose husband qualifies to enter the Holy of Holies, “He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with nobility; the rich he has sent away empty.”

Elizabeth probably could not help but feel the comments were directed against her. A chapter later, Mary receives the same in kind, “When Jesus’ parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother asked him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” Jesus told them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” This shows the same clear argumentative style.

The Jewish tradition, which comes into the Catholic Christian tradition, is not that of a cold, stoic father figure who insists upon pure obedience. Rather, he is a warm, caring father figure who wants honesty. There is a proper time to bless God, and a proper time to argue with him.

There is a proper time to tell jokes with him and proper times to be his friend. During wild party times, it is not proper to bless God, as Job 1:4-5 relates. Times of suffering are not times to bless God either, at least without mentioning qualifications. “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked I will return; the Personal Name gave, and the Personal Name takes away;”

The point at question when discussing the proper meaning of “Barack” in Job is the very personality of God. It has ramifications in the way we counsel parishioners. Is God the Stoic high and Almighty, pure everything good, a god with no personality? Is God like us, brash on occasion, a caring father, a real character who wants to be down with us and be like us?

If God is the former, there is no room for debating with God. He is all knowing and has all the answers. If the latter, he might still be all knowing, but he gets down to our level and wants to hear our cries and our complaints. He wants us to yell at him when things are not going well. That is the very point of Job.

As the article, “Put the academics aside and your heart will tell you what the command of God is,” and Romans 2:14-15 tells us, God wrote the law and put it into our hearts. He expects us to use our understanding of the law. That means he wants us to confront him when things are not right, and do something about it.

“Barack” blessed be the name of the Personal Name. We therefore do not need to posit some “Ironic Inversion” to interpret the passage. Rather, let us have bold conversations with our God, scolding him when we think he needs it, joking with him when it is appropriate, and giving him a blessing when we are filled with joy. We then go out and rescue others, not to receive a reward, but because we have already received it.