tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6086833995941525990.post7777564156572690768..comments2024-03-22T18:43:00.710-04:00Comments on Unam Sanctam Catholicam: Let the Dead Bury Their Own DeadBonifacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10672810254075072214noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6086833995941525990.post-15663577831288844742018-08-02T13:13:10.773-04:002018-08-02T13:13:10.773-04:00I don't have a problem with the simplest sense...I don't have a problem with the simplest sense. It reminds me of the woman with the precious ointment. It really could've been sold for much and given to the poor, likewise it would be right to return home and bury his father. I don't think there's a need to involve insincerity. Saint Gerard Majella disobeyed his mother to become a saint. Do we imagine that the apostles didn't leave relatives and communities behind?<br /><br />But there's a higher way.<br /><br />Yet, I remember a secular story about the investigation of a woman who had abandoned her daughter to follow her calling, and I found the idea laughable.Karlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6086833995941525990.post-66708488818172759912018-07-30T10:15:58.939-04:002018-07-30T10:15:58.939-04:00Aside from the literal, there is a great lesson gr...Aside from the literal, there is a great lesson grounded in the literal. Jesus had just been denied hospitality by the town from which the man came, a terrible insult. He was humanly outraged. His reaction? A lesson in how to deal with outrage. To James and John, a direction against vengeance. In the three who come to follow Him, He expresses the injury (no place to lay his head), gives the direction for letting go of injury (let the dead - the people in the town - deal with their own), and, finally, not to look back (resent, recriminate, dwell on, remember). MaryPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01505548640985877319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6086833995941525990.post-21550479370019614842018-07-30T06:06:51.825-04:002018-07-30T06:06:51.825-04:00I favour the first. It's the most obvious and ...I favour the first. It's the most obvious and the most universally applicable one. The second and third require an extra-textual understanding of Jewish custom. It's true that the man would only need a few hours to bury his dead father's body, but the point Our Lord is making is that his heart cannot at all be attached to worldly matters/concerns when it comes to hearing and following the Word. Our Lord saw in the man's heart that his wanting to go back to bury his father was not just an innocent intention to fulfil the commandment and honour the man who raised him; rather, He saw that the man would have used it as an excuse to return to the world permanently: once he had settled the matter of burying his father, another related issue would have cropped up (settling inheritance?), and so on without end, until the man had totally lost the way.<br /><br />A somewhat similar thing occurs when the Resurrected Christ practically rebukes Mary Magdalene by telling her not to touch Him, because "I have not yet ascended to the Father." I think it was St. John Chrysostom who interpreted this, "in her [Magdelene's] heart, He had not yet ascended to the Father", i.e. her understanding was still somewhat imperfect and worldly, she had not yet fully grasped the nature of Christ's divinity. Certainly it wouldn't have hurt for Christ to have let Magdalene touch Him; He let her do it when she washed His feet with her hair/tears. But Christ had to remind her of the greatness of the mystery she was being presented with, so that her merely human affection and concern didn't blind her to the reality, just like when God demands that Moses take off his sandals before approaching the burning bush. These actions may not make complete sense on a very literal or carnal level, but have to be understood spiritually as to what is taking place in their hearts. If the man who wanted to bury his father was more sincerely detached from it, perhaps Our Lord would not have prevented him; but the point is that if he had been allowed to return to bury his father, he would have become spiritually "dead" again - one of the dead burying the dead. In contrast, when a Christian buries a Christian it is the living burying the living.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13858873453982708283noreply@blogger.com