Today's gospel is a classic in tone and message. Christ is first asked
to help adjudicate an inheritance and Christ asks, "Man, who has
appointed me judge, or divider, over you?" This, of course, is exactly
what Christ is; He is the eventual judge. But He is driving a gigantic
wedge between the physical and the spiritual. Christ recognizes the
importance of the physical to humans, He just does not judge on that
basis.
Then He creates a parable about the man with a growing storehouse of "fruits." He builds a bigger barn and tells his soul, "Soul, though hast many goods laid up for many years, take thy rest; eat, drink and make good cheer." This is difficult because it is mixed, physical and spiritual, and is culturally mixed with reflections of the following:
"In the entertainments of the rich among them, when they have finished eating, a man bears round a wooden figure of a dead body in a coffin, made as like the reality as may be both by painting and carving, and measuring about a cubit or two cubits each way; and this he shows to each of those who are drinking together, saying: "When thou lookest upon this, drink and be merry, for thou shalt be such as this when thou art dead." Thus they do at their carousals."
This creepy passage is from Herodotus, in his description of Egyptian parties. (It is sometimes attributed to the physician and architect Imhotep who was worshiped as a god and healer from approximately 2850 B.C. to 525 B.C., and as a full deity from 525 B.C. to 550 A.D.. Imhotep was a known scribe, priest, architect and astronomer. It is Imhotep says Sir William Osler, who was the real Father of Medicine, not Hippocrates, who came 2000 years after him.)
The Egyptian take is straight materialism; the physical is all. But Christ takes the physical image--and the physical history amongst the Egyptians--and complicates it. In Christ's parable, it is the Soul that is indulging itself. But Christ is saying that there is no spiritual bank, no spiritual savings plan.
Virtue is is an element in us. It does not rest. It does not retire.
Then He creates a parable about the man with a growing storehouse of "fruits." He builds a bigger barn and tells his soul, "Soul, though hast many goods laid up for many years, take thy rest; eat, drink and make good cheer." This is difficult because it is mixed, physical and spiritual, and is culturally mixed with reflections of the following:
"In the entertainments of the rich among them, when they have finished eating, a man bears round a wooden figure of a dead body in a coffin, made as like the reality as may be both by painting and carving, and measuring about a cubit or two cubits each way; and this he shows to each of those who are drinking together, saying: "When thou lookest upon this, drink and be merry, for thou shalt be such as this when thou art dead." Thus they do at their carousals."
This creepy passage is from Herodotus, in his description of Egyptian parties. (It is sometimes attributed to the physician and architect Imhotep who was worshiped as a god and healer from approximately 2850 B.C. to 525 B.C., and as a full deity from 525 B.C. to 550 A.D.. Imhotep was a known scribe, priest, architect and astronomer. It is Imhotep says Sir William Osler, who was the real Father of Medicine, not Hippocrates, who came 2000 years after him.)
The Egyptian take is straight materialism; the physical is all. But Christ takes the physical image--and the physical history amongst the Egyptians--and complicates it. In Christ's parable, it is the Soul that is indulging itself. But Christ is saying that there is no spiritual bank, no spiritual savings plan.
Virtue is is an element in us. It does not rest. It does not retire.
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