First, I need to take some time and identify the who and why behind this information I have for you.
Between the years 1991 and 2005 my wife and I were extremely active in our small Catholic Community in Lancaster, Kentucky. We had just moved from a Catholic Church in Bedford, TX with a total community of 3500 +/- families. Our new church had a total of 60 +/- families. Our church was so small by staffing guidelines that we should not have had a resident priest, but we did. In fact as the priestly draught wore on, it was decided that our church would be “Twinned” with a sister church St. Sylvester's in Ottenhiem, Kentucky. In time, our resident priest withdrew and we the church communities were left without a priest for at least six months. The diocese of Lexington, Kentucky was very understanding and pledged all the “Lay” assistance they could give us. But the then leaders of these communities would have to decide to pull together and manage until a priest became available or dissolve and be absorbed by other parishes.
Enter into my life, Mrs. Margaret Rolf(?) – “Marge” was and is still a formidable person. She was at the time responsible for monthly article for our local Catholic Diocese newspaper and ran the Adult Studies along with a fellow named Pat Bischel, I believe.
Marge was and hopefully still is a Theologian, forced to study her passion of religious studies under the guise of “Literary Studies”, why, she is a female, horror of horror, can we imagine that, a woman with a very sharp brain, guys we are in trouble yet again!
To Marge, I say once again, I cannot thank you enough for your labors! She and I battled for hours on end as we entered deeper and deeper in to the Catholic Adult Studies Program. Thank you for you Marge! Don Lyn Ling, Get other books Preferably, The Roman Catholic Bible, Roman Catholic Study Bible and of course the "Infancy Narratives and Commentaries.” I’ll bet you can't tell that I'm a Roman Catholic yet, can you ?
The Infancy Narratives, and I have to defer to much more learned theologians than me, are STORIES, written backward in time after the Crucifixion and Resurrection. To set up the just past recent event’s
Had Jesus just lived and died as a Jew in Roman controlled lands there would not even be a footnote about him in History. However, thank you, God, he did live a remarkable life and one that I believe that is still present among us today.
Now, picture yourself as a pious Jew, in that era in time, wondering, who was this mere man, where did he come from, what set him apart from me, another holy person. How could the Jewish nation missed so badly on their target of the Messiah?
The authors of the Nativity Stories now saw that there is a need to reach back into a time period that no one had previously cared about and find the historical youth named Jesus and His Family. They can do that because they have access to people who knew Jesus the child, Mary and Joseph. People who knew and lived through the life changing events of the Roman Occupation, the Roman census and so on.
Unlike our present times, spoken word was as good as carved in stone then, that's why it was so vehementally guarded and protected. Now-a-days, you better have a web blog if you are to believe anything, even if it is wrong but not then. If you said it, it was true, period!
So the infancy narratives are a precursor of the events of the Gospels, to show that although the entire peopled world did not realize what happened that night, the world itself did in fact sit up, take notice and settled back down so that history would become history.
Pagans – Ah there’s a word to strike fear into any one's heart, “That man is a Pagan!” Oh, golly do you mean he's a member of a motorcycle gang that kills and rapes? “Get out of our town, you PAGAN!”get out!”
No, no, a pagan is someone who is not of your faith. They have religious feasts and holidays other than what we hold to be true. For example, let’s look at our conquerors the Romans, why just look at all the gods they have, we have one. Our God has three distinct Personalities within the one God. No, I don’t understand how and why, but as an article of my faith I believe that to be true.
Now, we are a small group of people who understand and claim Jesus and his beliefs as He taught them to us. We need to find ways to draw other believers and non-believers into our faith system. How can we use elements of their truths to draw on too help them to believe as we do?
Let’s see, the Romans have a feast of the Sun to celebrate the gifts of their Sun God has give them.
We have the Son of God, can we teach or pagans neighbors how blend their belief in Sun to make their SUN god in the image and understanding of our belief in the Son Of God?
Marge, I truly hope I have not butchered all your work beyond recognition. You were an inspiration to me then and you are still with me even now.
With Love and a great deal of respect to you Marge!
Don
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