Merry Christmas (prote egeneto) !!! While Quirinius Was Governor in Syria and Then Some

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.   (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius (Quirinius) was governor of Syria.)3   And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.” Luke 2: 1-3 (emphasis my own)

Merry Christmas!  I am at the age . . .no this is not a Viagra commercial . . .of grown kids at Christmas.  On Christmas Eve the oldest child was with her in-laws to be; the male child was at work and the baby child went out to dinner with her gentleman caller's Mom and Pop.  I had taken my lady love to O'Hare Airport for her flight to Florida and Christmas with her family.  I hit the early Mass.

I love the Christmas Gospel of Luke, always have, from the time that I was able put words together.  I had hours of time to enjoy the quiet and peace of Christmas Eve having already spent more than was prudent on gift cards and gift certificates for loved ones - also one of those 'You are at the age of . . .getting things done' harbingers aging male mandates - get something they will like.

Luke got me at Quirinius this year.  I recalled a social gathering a few years back that was peopled by folks of diverse opinion - out of the comfort zone one might say.  Such occasions test ones moral mettle with statements so outrageous that one feels compelled to respond, but decorum dictates a conversational moderation that would flummox St. Francis of Assisi.

As it was a Holiday gathering,  edgy wags found it necessary to challenge the spirit of the season.  A Cliff's Notes Know It All took to harping that Luke's gospel was a key contradiction in the synoptic gospels and further proof that Christianity, faith, the Bible, the Vatican, The Vienna Boys Choir and God His Own Bad Self are fabulous yarns crafted for squares, rubes, dummies and helots.  This particular tweedy-loud mouth exercised his gums with factoids gleaned from other clever agnostic Volvo owners - "If Quirinius ruled Syria in 6 AD, Hooowwwww does one explain the Nativity after the birth, marked by the Census of Augustus sooo necessary to the proof demanded by believers that the historical Jesus must be accepted?"

I knew about Quirinius, Publius Sulpiciius Quirinius.  He was a favorite of Emperor Augustus and distinguished Middle East hand for the Empire.  He served in Syria for many, many years and conducted not one census, but two.

I was under the very strictest of orders commanded by a diminutive woman of great charms and manners not to engage any person on any subject of a controversial nature . . .whatsoever.  My three score and change in size tens treasures readings of not only scripture, but also Tacitus, Suetonois, Dio Casius, Horace, Virgil, and the I Clausius novel of Robert Graves.  So, I had some ammo.  All of my bullets remained in my mental magazine on this occasion and I offered, " Hey, I like Christmas. You try these phlyo doughed shrimps?"  Q.E.D.

The tweedy goof held the floor. I take a back seat to no man, in being a confrontational pain in the rump, but I managed to choke down my prideful bile as well as a number of phylo dough wrapped goodies in deference to the season and the orders from herself.

 I got me a huge thank you for allowing an opportunity to conversationally yank down the britches of a snotty dope.  Quirinius stayed in my guns.  You see, Luke was no slouch. Not only had the physician who attended to St. Paul written the gospel, but also the Acts of the Apostles, in which Luke clearly presents his knowledge of the Roman tax and census table of organization ( Acts 5:37).  It was also clear from my reading of scholars like Dave Miller, PhD, that Luke's use of the phrase prote egeneto (first took place) indicates that there was another census by Publius Sulipicius Quirinius in 6AD - there was a second census. Professor Miller's 2003 essay on the contradictions surrounding Quirinius concluded

In addition, historical sources indicate that Quirinius was favored by Augustus, and was in active service of the emperor in the vicinity of Syria previous to and during the time period that Jesus was born. It is reasonable to conclude that Quirinius could have been appointed by Caesar to instigate a census-enrollment during that time frame, and his competent execution of such could have earned for him a repeat appointment for the A.D. 6/7 census (see Archer, 1982, p. 366). Notice also that Luke did not use the term legatus—the normal title for a Roman governor. He used the participial form of hegemon that was used for a Propraetor (senatorial governor), or Procurator (like Pontius Pilate), or Quaestor (imperial commissioner) [McGarvey and Pendleton, n.d., p. 28]. After providing a thorough summary of the historical and archaeological data pertaining to this question, Finnegan concluded: “Thus the situation presupposed in Luke 2:3 seems entirely plausible”  (emphases my own)

Getting in the last word sure does stroke the old ego, but it sadly affirms the Viagra advertisement's  'this is age of getting things done' . . .artificially.

This is the Season of being better than we usually are three hundred and sixty four days of the yowling year.  Merry Christmas!!! Prote Egeneto - it was the First, but it certainly will not be the last.

Who Is My Neighbor? Not Necessarily the Folks at the Block Party

The great Trevor Jensen, obituary editor of the Chicago Tribune wrote a sweet piece about the death of Herman Mills, a Leo Boxing Coach, last October.

Herman Mills, a quick-footed 138-pounder who fought on the undercard of a Joe Louis exhibition bout during boxing's golden era, worked with young fighters in Chicago gyms for more than 50 years.

Mr. Mills, 85, died of colon cancer Friday, Oct. 9, in Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, said Mike Joyce, who runs the boxing program at Leo High School.

Mr. Mills had been a volunteer coach at Leo for 12 years, and since his wife died four years ago had been living with Joyce. The former resident of the city's Bronzeville neighborhood had been spry until only recently, working with the boxers at Leo during the day and playing bingo in various Catholic churches at night.

Click my post title for the story. What goes unsaid in the story is the fact that Mike Joyce, an attorney and former pro boxer, had taken in Herman Mills, paid his bills, bought his clothes, his food, and made certain the the old gentleman was safe and happy and needed.

Mr. Mills had fallen on very hard times and much younger Irish American single man gave him a home.

That fact has always humbled me and jarred me today when I listened to Today's Gospel at Sacred Heart Church. Father Gallagher read:

Luke 10: 25 - 37
. . . ."And who is my neighbor?"
Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion,
and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, `Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.'
Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?"
He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
. . .

He explained that our neighbors just might not be the folks we enjoy at our block parties.

I pray that someday I might be a much better person than I seem to continue to be - I'll do the easy ones twice; let's see how I do when my neighbor needs me.

The Ascension Sunday with Jazz Great Wes Montgomery and St. Luke

. . . Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.
While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven.
And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and were continually in the temple blessing God. Luke 24: 46 - 53

Down here on the ground, we tend to dart our glances and concerns at eye-level -rarely tracking above the horizon. "Nothing down here, folks; it's all about above and beyond."

Faith moves our eyes away from ourselves and somehow carries along with that change in perspective the people we are meant to love.

Happy Ascension Sunday! All the saints who were keeping their eyes locked on the quotidian and the trite are up above the weather and the silliness down here on the ground.