Sunday/The Greatest Commandment

On this day:

1147
Seljuk Turks completely annihilate German crusaders under Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum.
1147
The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a four-month siege.
1415
The army of Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt.
1760
George III becomes King of Great Britain.
1854
The Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade).
1917
Traditionally understood date of the October Revolution, involving the capture of the Winter Palace, Petrograd, Russia. The date refers to the Julian Calendar date, and corresponds with November 7 in the Gregorian calendar.
1944
Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, takes place in and around the Philippines between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the U.S. Third and U.S. Seventh Fleets.
1944
Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich.
1944
The USS Tang under Richard O'Kane (the top American submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by the ship’s own malfunctioning torpedo.
1962
Cuban missile crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at the UN proving Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba.
1983
Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d'état.

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“I'm a liberal in the real sense of the word. The word comes from the Latin which means a free person, as—and this was very much in the minds of Romans when they used the word—contrasted with a slave. And one very simple way of describing true liberalism is to say that everyone has the right to say no.”--mccloskey

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The Rays traded Lowe, Mangum and Montgomery, won 98 games and captured the American League pennant anyway. Pittsburgh acquired them, received tremendous production from all three, and still couldn't do better than an 82-80 record.

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Metonymy: noun, Rhetoric 1. a figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part, as “scepter” for “sovereignty,” or “the bottle” for “strong drink,” or “count heads (or noses)” for “count people.” 1540-50; < Late Latin metōnymia < Greek metōnymía change of name;

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A Scottish museum has reportedly removed mummies because the individuals hadn't given their consent. A reminder that Kafka's world is self-imposed.

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Sunday/The Greatest Commandment

In today's gospel, a scribe asks Christ which commandment is greatest. It is interesting because questions usually are aimed at either defeating Christ in an argument or placing Him in opposition to the Law. In this instance, the question is sincere and welcomed.

Christ answers to love God completely. His answer is very close to the Shema, a declaration of faith that every Jew of the time recited twice a day. And every Jew would have given the same answer to the scribe's question. (The first line of the Shema, "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.")

Then Christ does something curious; He goes further and gives the famous second commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. This question was not asked. He takes a question that every Jew would see as demanding a narrow definition and expands it much further. He then says, "There is no greater commandment than these two," essentially joining the two as one. When the scribe agrees with Him, Christ says, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

What is wonderful here is Christ's acceptance of questioning as not just reasonable but as a way to truth, with faith as a process, a step to understanding.