Beholding the Beauty

Today I was humbled a bit to be reminded that I don't know everything, and I always have more to learn. I have read John 6 probably more times than I could reckon up, especially since it's a "go to" in debates about the Eucharist. (This post is not about that.) However, I have always had the idea of the conversation recorded in vss. 25-58 as being an outdoor scene. Perhaps this is because in vs. 25 we are told, when they had found Him on the other side of the sea , and I must have just thought subconsciously, OK, they were standing on the one side of the sea (vs. 22), and now they have found Him on the other side of the sea, at the land (vs. 21). But no. Today, a verse that I'm sure I've read at least a dozen times finally hit my stupid brain. Verse 59 says plainly, These things said He in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum. Well paint me red and call me a firetruck. If it'd been a snake, it would've bit me! This is an i...

Today, we celebrate the memory of the Holy Prophet Joel. The epistle reading is from St. Peter's quotation of him at Pentecost. I have often thought it strange that St. Peter continues the quotation, of which he says Pentecost was the fulfillment, with the statement that there would be blood and fire and vapor of smoke, and that the Sun would be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible Day of the Lord. Regarding the blood and fire, the Fathers are unanimous that this refers to the Incarnation, for the fire of the divinity came and dwelt bodily -- that is, in flesh and blood -- among us, and returned in this same body, and with the blood He shed for us, into the heavens, from whence He sent forth the Spirit. Likewise, the sun being darkened refers to both the darkening of the Sun at the crucifixion, and also that the pure doctrine of Christ would be obscured by the noxious smoke of heresies in the history of the Church from that day to this, particu...