Potpourri of Popery, St. Andrew Edition

Forgot to post this yesterday on the feast of St. Andrew. An Advent prayer I'm fond of.

Popery
Against the Grain has this amazing round-up in two parts of the Christian response to that Muslim letter to Christian leaders about peace. I place it here in the "popery" because the Pope's now given his response, and I can't help but wonder if the latest series of audiences isn't partly a response as well. Note the opening of this week's Audience:

According to general opinion, Christianity is a European religion that has exported the culture of this Continent to other countries. The reality, though, is a lot more complex, as the root of the Christian religion is found in the Old Testament, and therefore in Jerusalem and the Semitic world. Christianity has always nourished itself from its roots in the Old Testament.

Also, its expansion during the first centuries was both westward -- toward the Greek-Latin world, where it then inspired the European culture -- and eastward to Persia and India, thus contributing to stimulate a specific culture, in Semitic languages, with its own identity.

To show the cultural diversity of the early Christian faith, during last Wednesday's catechesis I talked about a representative of this Christianity, Aphraates the Persian sage, almost unknown to us. Along the same lines I would like to speak today of St. Ephrem the Syrian, born in Nisibis around 306 into a Christian family.

He was the most important representative of Syriac Christianity, and succeeded in a unique way to reconcile the vocation of the theologian with that of the poet.

There's much more about the saint, of course, but isn't that an interesting opening? As if to remind us all, there is no longer Gentile or Jew, servant or free, woman or man...and all the racial and ethnic and cultural clashes we're currently experiencing? You can't pin those on Christ. RTWT, he quotes some of St. Ephrem's poems, and there's a lovely one appropriate for Advent. (P.S. to students from my alma mater --take a look at the English greetings.)

Here's the homily from Christ the King. It was a concelebration with all the new cardinals last week, and he employs a nifty device, envisioning the three readings as a triptych:

We find ourselves as it were facing an imposing fresco with three great scenes: at the centre, the Crucifixion according to the Evangelist Luke's account; on one side, the royal anointing of David by the elders of Israel; on the other, the Christological hymn with which St Paul introduces the Letter to the Colossians. The whole scene is dominated by the figure of Christ, the one Lord before whom we are all brothers and sisters. The Church's entire hierarchy, every charism and ministry, everything and everyone are at the service of his Lordship.

His attention to the "central panel" is too lengthy to cite here, but read it, so you can fully appreciate this culmination:

The maximum revelation of God possible in this world occurs in Jesus Crucified, because God is love and the death of Jesus on the Cross is the greatest act of love in all of history.

Then you should see what he tells the new cardinals. I try not to gush, but I can't help myself. I read the Pope and I meet a Christian. It's a thrill.


Potpourri:

Try to contain your shock, but the Gospel of Judas? It was all a translation problem. Reports the Gray Scripture Scholar Lady:

Unfortunately, after re-translating the society’s transcription of the Coptic text, I have found that the actual meaning is vastly different. While National Geographic’s translation supported the provocative interpretation of Judas as a hero, a more careful reading makes clear that Judas is not only no hero, he is a demon.

Several of the translation choices made by the society’s scholars fall well outside the commonly accepted practices in the field. For example, in one instance the National Geographic transcription refers to Judas as a “daimon,” which the society’s experts have translated as “spirit.” Actually, the universally accepted word for “spirit” is “pneuma ” — in Gnostic literature “daimon” is always taken to mean “demon.”

Likewise, Judas is not set apart “for” the holy generation, as the National Geographic translation says, he is separated “from” it. He does not receive the mysteries of the kingdom because “it is possible for him to go there.” He receives them because Jesus tells him that he can’t go there, and Jesus doesn’t want Judas to betray him out of ignorance. Jesus wants him informed, so that the demonic Judas can suffer all that he deserves.

Perhaps the most egregious mistake I found was a single alteration made to the original Coptic. According to the National Geographic translation, Judas’s ascent to the holy generation would be cursed. But it’s clear from the transcription that the scholars altered the Coptic original, which eliminated a negative from the original sentence. In fact, the original states that Judas will “not ascend to the holy generation.

Got that? "Scholars" collectively declared it Opposite Day and ran with the results. It's okay though, they said they were sorry:

To its credit, National Geographic has acknowledged this mistake, albeit far too late to change the public misconception.

Yeah. Pity about that.

Story-wise, I don't think I can top that, so let's leave it there until Advent.