Katnut d'Katnut

Luke’s Gospel speaks of the witnesses or original eyewitnesses to the Gospel right at the beginning of his Infancy Prologue.[1] Kuhn believes[2] that the characters of the Infancy narrative are also included in this term of original eyewitnesses.[3] I would like to extend that term to also include the First Testament characters drawn on by Luke. John’s Gospel speaks of Jesus saying that Abraham saw his day and rejoiced.[4] Hebrews 11:13 also claims that the saintly Israelite heroes saw the events of salvation.

There is a wonderful Australian term for those Catholics and others who are caught up in moralism and political correctness. It is wowsers. The official Australian government website states that "Wowser is a term that refers to a person who is highly moral or politically correct." One thing about wowsers is their lack of a healthy sense of humour.

Pope Francis recently spoke against Catholic theologies and interpretations that are based on a rigid and legalistic idealism. He called for a healthy Christian realism and stated this is the true Catholic approach that is in accord with the mind of Christ and the Church.[1] Unfortunately today and through the centuries a parasitical virus has infected the body of the Church affecting its theologies, spiritualities and pastoral policies.

Recently, our parish priest on Trinity Sunday spoke of his dislike of those pictures or icons that presented God the Father as an old man. Today I was speaking to a Catholic hermitess of Jewish ancestry who shared her thoughts with me about how the humanity of the God-man Yeshua connects in his humanity with the Father and the Holy Spirit (Ruach ha Kadosh).

One needs to be aware that any attempt at a critical examination of the Biblical text is one in which we bring our own subjective biases and understandings with us. So many of us think we are being scientific and objective but are in fact we are examining the text in the subjective light of the ideas of a certain school of academia or theology or philosophy that appeals to us.