At the wedding at Cana, Jesus told Mary: "Woman, how does your concern affect me?" Was he showing disrespect to her?
At the wedding at Cana, Jesus turns to Mary and says, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.”
Sounds disrespectful, doesn’t it?
Or at least you could take it that way.
But Jesus wasn’t being disrespectful at all.
Here’s the story . . .
Pronoun Trouble
First, the translation “How does your concern affect me?” (John 2:4 in the NAB:RE) is not a literal rendering of what Jesus says in Greek.
Word-for-word, what he says is “What to me and to you?”
In context, Mary has just come up to him and informed Jesus that the people running the wedding have no wine, so you might literally translate his response as “What [is that] to me and to you?” In other words: “What does that have to do with us?”
He’s not dissing her. He’s putting the two of them–both of them–in a special category together and questioning the relevance of the fact that people outside this category don’t have wine. He’s saying that it’s not the responsibility of the two of them to make sure they have wine.
But that’s lost if you take the Greek pronoun that means “to you” (soi) and obliterate it in translation.
“Woman”
Part of what makes it sound like Jesus might be dissing his mother is the fact that he refers to her as “woman.”
We don’t talk to women like that today–not if we respect them, and certainly not our own mothers.
But the connotations–of respect, disrespect, or other things–that a word has in a given language are quite subtle, and we can’t impose the connotations that a word has in our own language on another.
Consider: Suppose, in English, we replaced “woman” with a term that means basically the same thing but with better connotations.
For example, the word “lady” or “ma’am.”
Suddenly what Jesus says sounds a lot more respectful.
In British circles, “lady” has distinctly noble overtones (it’s the female counterpart to the noble honorific “lord”).
And even in demotic America, a son can say, “Yes, ma’am” to his mother and mean it entirely respectfully.
So what can we learn about the connotations of “woman” as a form of address in Jesus’ time?
Why does God allow evil to exist? Why is there sin and suffering in the world? And, what's love got to do with it?
The most perplexing problem in apologetics is the problem of evil: Why would an all-good, all-powerful God allow evil to exist?
There is a real mystery here, and we can only give partial answers.
Here are some of mine . . .
Two Kinds of Evil
We need to recognize that there is more than one kind of evil.
When we use the word “evil,” we often mean moral evil (sin), but historically it was frequently used for other things, such as suffering.
These two forms of evil are linked: It is a sin to cause needless suffering, for example.
This brings us to an important question . . .
Could God Stop These Evils?
Yes. God is omnipotent. He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
Without his action, the universe would never have come into existence, and without his continued action, it would cease to exist or go “to nothing” (Latin, ad nihilum–where we get “annihilate”).
God could have prevented all sin and suffering by not creating the universe.
And he could end all sin and suffering simply by allowing the universe to cease to exist.
Here is a picture of some frankincense and myrrh that I just received.
(The frankincense is on the left; the myrrh is on the right.)
I’d never seen these substances with my own eyes before, but I got them for an upcoming video I’m planning on making on . . . you guessed it . . . what gold, frankincense, and myrrh are.
But I was excited enough that I wanted to share an early photo.
Jephthah made a tragic vow, and to fulfill it, he would have to kill his daughter. What are we to make of this?
The book of Hebrews has a whole chapter about Old Testament men (and women) who achieved great things by faith.
One of them had his daughter killed–as a human sacrifice.
What are we to make of this?
Hebrews on Jephthah
Hebrews 11 celebrates various Old Testament figures who had faith in God and did amazing things. Toward the end of the chapter, we read:
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets–who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions . . . [Heb. 11:32-33].
It continues in the same vein.
The point is: These men, together with some notable women the chapter also mentions, did amazing things as a result of their faith.
One of the people mentioned in this passage is Jephthah.
Who was he?
The Stage Is Set
The stage for Jephthah’s first appearance is set in Judges 10, where we read about how the Israelites have been worshipping foreign gods and, as a result, they have become oppressed by a group of foreigners: the Ammonites.
The Israelites repent, and God is moved to have mercy on them.
So God will make sure that they are delivered from the persecution, but what historical form will this deliverance take?
The leaders of Gilead (part of the territory of Israel) start consulting about how they can free themselves from the Ammonite oppression.
Specifically, they decide that if they can find a man to lead the fight against the Ammonites, they’re willing to let him be the leader of Gilead.
Meet Jephthah
Turning the corner into chapter 11, we meet Jephthah:
[1] Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.
[2] And Gilead’s wife also bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they thrust Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall not inherit in our father’s house; for you are the son of another woman.”
[3] Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless fellows collected round Jephthah, and went raiding with him.
So already, Jephthah has had a hard life. Think about his family situation!
He’s the son of a prostitute, but his father took him (as a boy) to dwell in his own house anyway, with the sons of his wife.
Ouch! Think about how painful that must have been for everyone involved!
Then when his half-brothers are grown up, the legitimate sons drive Jephthah out so that he can’t inherit anything (meaning: he leaves penniless or close to it).
Jephthah then descends into a life of banditry.
So: Hard life. Social and familial outcast. Enters a life of crime.
When we entrust ourselves to the Lord completely, everything changes. We are children of a Father who loves us, and never leaves us.@pontifex, 2 January 2013
he Wise Men followed the star and reached Jesus, the great light that illuminates all of humanity.@pontifex, 6 January 2013
When I was at Mass, I was struck by the ending of the gospel reading:
And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way [Mt. 2:12].
This reminded me of something that I think is worth mentioning.
We often think of the warning as being one to protect the Baby Jesus–to keep Herod from finding out precisely who and where he was–and it certainly was this.
But there is another dimension that is easier to overlook: It was also a warning to the magi themselves.
What would have happened if they had returned to Herod?
He would have immediately asked who the child was and where he was located.
They would then have the choice of either telling him or refusing to do so.
If the former, they would be complicit in the murder of the very Child they had come to honor, so they would not want to do that.
But if they don’t tell him, what would Herod do?
Threats.
Torture.
Death.
In that order.
So while the magi definitely cooperated with God’s will by going back to their own country by another road, they weren’t only protecting the Baby Jesus.
The magi followed the star and found Baby Jesus. What are we to make of this mysterious event, and does it mean astrology is okay?
On January 6 the Church celebrates the feast of “Epiphany.”
This feast commemorates the mysterious visit of the magi to the Baby Jesus.
Who were the magi? What led them to visit Jesus? And what lessons should we–and shouldn’t we!–learn from this incident?
Here are nine things you should know . . .
1. What does the word “Epiphany” mean?
“Epiphany” means “manifestation.”
It comes from Greek roots that mean “to show, to display” (phainein) and “on, to” (epi-).
An epiphany is thus a time when something is shown, displayed, or manifested to an audience.
2. What is the feast of the Epiphany about?
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Saviour of the world. the great feast of Epiphany celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the wise men (magi) from the East, together with his baptism in the Jordan and the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee.
In the magi, representatives of the neighbouring pagan religions, the Gospel sees the first-fruits of the nations, who welcome the good news of salvation through the Incarnation.
The magi’s coming to Jerusalem in order to pay homage to the king of the Jews shows that they seek in Israel, in the messianic light of the star of David, the one who will be king of the nations.
Their coming means that pagans can discover Jesus and worship him as Son of God and Saviour of the world only by turning towards the Jews and receiving from them the messianic promise as contained in the Old Testament.
The Epiphany shows that “the full number of the nations” now takes its “place in the family of the patriarchs”, and acquires Israelitica dignitas (is made “worthy of the heritage of Israel”) [CCC 528].
This version of The Weekly Benedict covers material released in the last week from 11 January 2012 – 20 January 2013 (subscribe here; get as an eBook version for your Kindle, iPod, iPad, Nook, or other eBook reader):
