The Fellowship of St. Columbanus

I Samuel 3:3-10, 19 St John 1:35-42 When St. John the Baptist tells the two disciples that Christ is the Lamb of God, they immediately turn aside to follow him, but their first question to him surprises us. They could have asked "Are you the one who is coming?" (Matt. 11:3), they could have asked "Art thou the Christ, son of the Blessed?" (Mrk. 14:61), or else "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Lk. 18:18), or "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" (Jhn. 6:28) or even something more practical like, "how shall we pray?" (Lk. 11:1) God calls Samuel while he dwells in the Temple These are the sorts of questions that people usually ask Christ in the Gospels, and for obvious reasons. So we should be taken off guard when Andrew and the other disciple ask "Where are you dwelling?" But on reflection, we shouldn't be surprised. St. John began the chapter by making this same point, "And the Wor...

Isaiah 60:1-6 St. Matthew 2:1-12 The thing that stood out to me most on this reading of the lessons for Epiphany is their relentless use of the imagery of Empire. In Isaiah, the kings of the world come to the light of God's people, bringing tribute in almost unimaginable volume, to the extent that the land will be "covered" with the multitude of camels. The idea of Imperial Israel is heightened by pointing to the exile, "your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried in their arms" (RSV), referring to the return from an exile inflicted by the empires of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, a similar contrast occurs: rulers bring tribute to the newborn King of the Jews from afar, and at the same time, the petty ruler of a backwater province of the Roman Empire secretly attempts to find out where the High King is dwelling in order to put out his light. The brief scenes of Herod in Matthew 2 are stinging satire: ...