Skeptical Faith

Google Image I’m sure you’ve heard the gospel story of the “three wise men,” sometimes called “the three kings” or the “magi.” Most Scripture scholars believe the writer of the Gospel of Matthew uses this mythical story to convey Jesus’ divine and messianic stature, and the wise men “from the East” are thought to signify that gentiles as well as Jews will honor Jesus’ divinity. Although the story of the wise men has become part of the Christmas story, they are traditionally celebrated in western Christianity on Jan. 6, on what is called the Feast of the Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus as God-become-human. Though the number isn’t specified in the gospel, there are said to be three wise men because they brought three gifts to the infant Jesus. But did you know there were actually six? Me, neither. Tongue-in-Cheek But that’s part of an on-line homily of Padre Santiago Martín, a Spanish Franciscan, on the subject. He says so “tongue-in-cheek” to make a point. He points out ...

Google Image In a blog back in 2014, I wrote about Tom Pfeffer, my sister’s brother-in-law. He was an extraordinary priest who was pastor of a mostly Hispanic parish before he died in April of 2004. In my view, the measure of the man was demonstrated by the incredible outpouring of love and sense of loss at his funeral. Thousands of people attended. Long lines of people waited to touch his casket. Dozens of people accompanied his body to his burial in a rural cemetery, over an hour from the funeral. Singing songs in Spanish, they wouldn’t leave the graveside so the cemetery employees could complete the burial. A while ago, I found among my family memorabilia a copy of Tom’s notes, originally on 3X5 cards, of a homily he gave in 1990. It was a commentary on the First Book of Kings in the Hebrew Bible in which the prophet Elijah waited for the appearance of the Lord, who was not in the wind or earthquake or fire, but in a “tiny, whispering sound.” A Trip to Colorado For Tom, t...

Google Image I recently had a wake-up moment. I was reading the gospel story that includes the parable about leaving the 99 sheep to find one that was missing. In case you don’t recall, Jesus was giving a long set of instructions to his disciples when he touched on the subject of God’s view of “people who go astray.” “What do you think?’ he asked. “If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.” I’ve heard the story dozens of times and have always assumed that I’m among the 99 – even feeling a little wounded because there’s more rejoicing over the one that is lost. But why did it never occur to me that I’m the lost one? Slow to Wake Up I would bet many believers feel the same, but I don’t know how many are as slow to wake up to this as I was. Anyway,...

Google Image I’ve been watching a documentary on Netflix on the Andes Mountains. The series is mostly about the natural beauty of the South American mountain range and the people who live there. It included scenes of the famous Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, along the coast of Chile. And that’s the site of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array ( ALMA ) a collection of 66 radio telescopes, operated by several countries and groups of countries – including the U.S. – to study star birth and planet formation. It’s an impressive array of sophisticated technology, costing $1.4 billion. I found the presentation fascinating, but I couldn’t help but think of the story in the gospel of Mathew in which Jesus chides the Jewish leaders, noting that they knew how to predict the weather by observing the formation of clouds and the color of the sky but missed recognizing the signs that were important. The "Easy" Things “You know how to interpret the appearan...