Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Intro

God like a wave

[explain dive in or crushed]

Hand of justice o mercy

Soft gentle feminine or muscled harsh male

One single God difference is based on our choice

Wrongly think of God as the Ancient Wrathful Cosmic Emperor or the New Cuddly Cosmic Teddy Bear,

these days Teddy Bear extreme is much more common and so we ought to point out it has claws.

banal sentimentalism

reduce relig to trivial niceness

rare serious heroic struggle [including myself]

Truth is God is a mighty dignified emperor with the bleeding heart of a romantic lover

but majestic seriousness in God is so Old Testament!!

how many think righteous God o Old and soft cuddly God o New?

God NT more lenient?

Jesus come to abolish the Old way of God?

we hear Not one iota!

Christ not new God in the slightest

Same yesterday today and forever Heb 13:8

Just God of the Old who’s love endures forever

General Connection

Us Catholics cannot let God of OT be seen as a different God.

Catechism

123 “true word of God” and [vigourously opposed rejecting the OLD Testament (Marcion heresy)]

129 New Hidden in Old and Old revealed in New

Mention signs in OT briefly

Isaac stuff

Joseph

serpent pole

Manaa

OT Leniency

spare a whole city state of evil people for just a couple of good people

does not let Abraham sacrifice his son, but provides His own son instead

almost everytime someone repents seems they get mercy )even when people want God to give them wrath)

Cain

Preserves David and his line despite terrible sin

ninevah

Is 49:15

Summed up:

Ezek 18:23 and 32

NT Severity

Acts 5:5 Saphirra and Annanias

[Acts 13:8 Paul curses with blindness]

Rom 2:7-8

[Rom 12:19 never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord]

Rom 13: Gov authorities are supposed to be “the servant of God to execute his wrath upon the wrongdoer”

[2 Thes 1:6-9]

[Acts 12:23 ]

Lets not even start on the fire and brimstone of Revelation and pantokrator Christ..

Ok so medieval sounding stuff in NT, but isn’t it much more lenient for moral failing?

Heb 10:26-31

if any error made things more harsh

Spiritual rather than Physical

The promises of God are spiritual b4 physical

not aimed at a long peaceful life here for you and your bloodline

not primarily physical warfare but spiritual as Paul says

If judge by appearance think physical OT harsher, but reality is on its head

more serious. Much much more serious.

In the OT we hear much more about physical death for sin (short life cut shorter and not much more) or the loss of a country (which rise and fall constantly)

in NT damnation…

what happened in OT mercy if death was the only punishment they faced. maybe saved thru it

losing even an eye or limb the gospel says today is so much better than the punishment for continuing in evil

If we thought the death penalty our Gospel today and the book of Hebrews gives us a wakeup call.

Eternal life is very much a possibility, but so is the opposite.

Logos himself clearly gave these warnings, it would be evil of me by propping up a soft trivial cuddly idol to worship…

This is to say nothing about how many or how very few may end up in hell. have uncertain opinion, but wont give b/c its jsut that very uncertain

hope a little more soft stuffing taken from NT and given to OT, and a little more seriousness of OT given to NT

Lest we Fear unhealthily

‘you can keep them’

lies in our own mind that

mere unintentional thoughts, temptations born with, or accidents are violations

they are not, its what we choose to accept or reject

we arent strong enough

he tells us we are

life will be miserable without our sins

in the short term maybe

like most good things (study, working out, getting to bed on time, eating healthy)

not in long term

even if it were (which is a complete bold-faced lie) better to suffer now than later

THIS is what he did for us

not the image of a God who wants to punish

rather image of one who wants to do everything he can so we don’t experience him as punishment without turning us into unconscious robots

But God is the principle of all things, reality itself, truth itself, being itself, Goodness itself

Goodness is utterly generous and refuses to withhold goodness from anyone

goodness is a violent tsunami to evil and cool refreshing water to the good

it depends on how you face the wave: diving into it or standing up against it

its the same wave, (ever Old and ever New) he leaves the choice to you

therefore choose goodness.

Notes

me

contra Marcion

the ability to uphold all commands?

3 errors:

destination rather than road [product rather than command]

‘meh, Good enough’ [better scribes and pharisees]

‘too hard’ [you can keep them]

Literally “not one iota or one hook [dot]” not “the smallest letter” though the iota was that.

Commentators

not one iota

greek not hebrew letter choses

i stands for 10, thus reference to decalogue

Clear proof we have free will- Aug

counter Pelagian reading, the ability to have good will itself is grace of God -Aug

All are able to be good. St. Pamphilus

Anger

Galatian Paul calls fools

letters we hear ‘be angry’ but do not sin

old tests even added ‘w/o cause’

Christ has harsh words and anger

anger is not sin when just and when demanded lack of it is a fault.

test aug: anger agaisnt brother is forbidden, but anger at an evil is not at a brother.

Not speaking of passion of flesh but movement of will

Divorce

separation allowed for “impurity”, but not remarriage

Oaths

oaths even in Scripture NT [me: and marriage, religious life]

idea is to avoid it unless necessary (e.g. office, solemn occasion)

swearing forbidden to all things, not God himself [me: likewise God is truth, so all statements are basically oaths b4 God]

the evil of oaths is in the fallen state of man that needs it, not necessarily the oathing [Augustine]

‘anything more comes from evil’

[me: no oaths in heaven]