Ut Aliis Tradere

...there is something profound in this juxtaposition of these two very different Gospel accounts within the same Liturgy, and likely quite deliberate, blending them into a cohesive whole that emphasizes a particular truth or even perspective outside of a merely linear view of time.

Both of these seemingly hopeless, impossible cases Jesus took on to show God's power and to prefigure what can be expected of the age to come when the power of Death and Corruption are no more.

She. Brought. The. Whole. Town.

Here is where many get it wrong. Many think that belief in Jesus is merely acknowledging several statements about him to be true. While that is important, it is not what He means.

In our Epistle today,[3] St. Peter tells us that we are not following “cleverly devised myths,” as he put it, but tells us that he and the other Apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ time among us

Still, we have to consider what Our Lord really means here. For those who read the Gospels, the Law, the Prophets, and the Epistles, we see that these people did not shy away from blunt and vivid. Even Our Lord could be very direct ("Woe to you..." is not exactly a diplomatic opener).

Over the past few years battle lines have been drawn by those who have taken a hard look at the Sermon on the Mount, particularly the Beatitudes (the catalogue of blessings at the very beginning of the discourse), and those who dismiss them because they are inconvenient, particularly because they undermine their attempts to gain and to hold onto cultural or political or even emotional power.

...these followers of John the Baptist wanted to know more about this Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. So, Jesus said the next fateful three words, “Come and see.”

As Christian feasts go, our secular culture has no idea what to do with it. While the world around us has taken down their decorations (except for those people who get around to it sometime between Independence and Labour Day), many Christians, to the puzzlement of their neighbours, leave their decorations up to blaze forth in full glory until this day.