The Lair of the Catholic Caveman

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Sunday, June 07, 2009

Gumby Alert
Silly St. Luke

Helmet tip to Larry D over at Acts of the Apostasy

I really am trying awfully hard no to say anything that could be seen as uncharitable against this.... individual. Anyhow, apostasy, indeed. Here's some of Larry's posting. I'm retaining Larry's emphases and comments. There's no way I could improve on them.
These are the first [two] paragraphs from retired Bishop Gumbleton's Ascension Sunday homily, as printed in the National Catholic Distorter (emphases and comments mine). Yeah, I know it's a couple weeks old, but the NCD takes a week or so before printing these gems.

Probably all of us are able to picture the ascension of Jesus as it's described by Luke in our first lesson today. ("lesson" instead of "reading" - I wonder if the lector said "A lesson from the Acts of the Apostles") It's something that we've heard from the time we were very young and we, I'm sure, have seen many pictures showing the disciples standing around in a circle looking up and Jesus kind of floating up in the air out of their sight. But that's not the way it happened, I have to tell you this. (and how does he know this?? The Ascension is an article of faith, and he's saying it didn't happen that way? Me thinks he'll be very surprised when he sees Jesus return in the same way He was taken!) It's very important that we take some time to understand what the gospel writers are doing, what Luke is doing in the Acts of the Apostles, which is the history of the early church, but also in the gospel, and the other gospel writers -- they are not giving us historical facts. (does that include Christ's birth, or His crucifixion, or the Resurrection? Has the Church ever said the Ascension is merely metaphorical and not literal/historical? I don't think so!)

They are not trying to relate to us everything that happened in a chronological way with Jesus throughout his life, as we might write a history or a biography of someone. That's not what the gospels are. They're theological reflections. (that's not all they are - they are historical and they are biographical as well - Jesus was a real person)

5 Comments:

TCN said...: I'm not too worried about being charitable to heretics. This "man" is the same useless fool who told us we couldn't understand big words like "transubstantiation." I guess only HE can understand that word, as well as the Gospels, etc. What an unmitigated ass, and the damage he does daily to Holy Mother Church is a crime crying out to heaven.

It's not detraction if it's the truth and you are defending the Church, or so I was told in confession.; 8:38 PM
Al said...: As I said over at his blog: "lesson", Gee he sounds like a protestant.; 10:24 PM
Larry Denninger said...: Thanks for the link!; 10:26 AM
chestertonian said...: Actually, in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, "Lesson" is what the first Scripture reading is called, preceeding the Gradual, the Tract (yes, that's our word too, not theirs), the Epistle, and the Gospel. So Gumby was being a Trad without even knowing it. No one tell him, lest he get the vapors.

That said...check out that fruitcake stole he's sporting! Lex orandi, lex credendi indeed!; 11:13 PM
Adeodatus49 said...: That said...check out that fruitcake stole he's sporting!

Thus calling attention to himself in the form of his priestly authority instead of wearing it beneath the chasuble as called for by the rubrics. The chasuble is a sign of the sacrificing priesthood of Jesus Christ and the charity of God.

What am I not surprised?; 6:56 PM