On Apr 3, 2005, at 5:40 PM, maru wrote:
No, the real question is, since there are (or should I say were?) countless Catholics praying for the Pope's recovery, and odds dictate that at least *one* of those oodles of Catholics shoulda had 'faith as a mustard seed', why didn't the Pope recover? since Jesus promised that believers with even minuscule (ref. the size o' a mustard seed) faith would have their prayers answered.
This is one of the problems with most of the modern interpretations of the Gospels. Where Iasus was being metaphorical, he is taken literally; and where he was being literal, he is taken metaphorically.
The mustard seed is just such an example of metaphor being taken as real. If you believe strongly enough you are not going to levitate and float around in the air, nor are you going to resurrect a dead man. Obviously Iasus was referring to the quiet sort of perseverance, the Faulknerian endurance, that lets life and even rational hope persist when conditions are so harsh as to suggest that there's no point at all in continuing.
So too with the bread and wine, in this case a literal being taken as having deeper meaning than was intended. He wasn't suggesting that consuming bread and wine was a holy sacrament, and he certainly was not suggesting they would transubstantiate into flesh and blood. He was being very direct, very literal. The wine is life. The bread is life. Do without either -- discard food, or discard drink -- and you die. This is my body. This is my blood. When you are eating together, think of me. Remember the times we shared. Keep the message of hope alive.
But politics, as it inevitably does, corrupted the messages. There's no holy spirit for anyone to serve, and there's no god directing hearts or minds, so naturally you have to expect typical human up-fuckery to get in the way.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
_______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
