What do YOU think?
Luke 18:1-8 (NRSV)
The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge
1 Then Jesus[a] told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”[b] 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Footnotes:
- Luke 18:1 Gk he
- Luke 18:5 Or so that she may not finally come and slap me in the face
This is our gospel for the upcoming Sunday, October 20, 2013. Just as well I’m not preaching. Some scholars like to point out that what Jesus actually said is contained in verses 18:2-5; verse 18:1 is Luke’s introduction and verses 18:6-8 are Luke elaborating to have Jesus rationalize what he has just said with a softening explanation. What do you think? And is what you think an apologetic for what you came into the pericope thinking, or have you tried to give it as objective a thought as you can?
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), who said that heretics should be judged by the church and then turned over to the civil authorities to be put to death, is honored as the all time highest thinker of the Western Church, his thought blessed as the official thought of the Roman Catholic Church; and in the Episcopal Church he is honored with a saints day (January 28). But Bertrand Russell and others dismiss Thomas as not a true inquirer and independent thinker, but as one whose conclusions were foregone, simply an apologist for the Catholic faith that he brought into his thinking and his writing.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), who said that heretics should be judged by the church and then turned over to the civil authorities to be put to death, is honored as the all time highest thinker of the Western Church, his thought blessed as the official thought of the Roman Catholic Church; and in the Episcopal Church he is honored with a saints day (January 28). But Bertrand Russell and others dismiss Thomas as not a true inquirer and independent thinker, but as one whose conclusions were foregone, simply an apologist for the Catholic faith that he brought into his thinking and his writing.
Not that anything about Thomas, no more nor less a producer than he was a product of his age, was simple. But think for yourself.
What do you think?
TW+