Author: Chris Lee

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Chris Lee

The ‘zealot’ versus the real Jesus

When I saw that Reza Aslan’s portrait of Jesus, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, had risen to number one on the New York Times bestseller list, I must confess, I was both disappointed and puzzled.

For the reductionistic and debunking approach that Aslan employs has been tried by dozens of commentators for at least the past 300 years, and the debunkers have been themselves debunked over and over again by serious scholars of the historical Jesus.

Aslan’s portrayal of the ‘zealot’

The Jesus that Aslan wants to present is the “zealot,” the Jewish insurrectionist intent upon challenging the Temple establishment in Jerusalem and the Roman military power that dominated Israel.

His principle justification for this reading is that religiously motivated revolutionaries were indeed thick on the ground in the Palestine of Jesus’ time; that Jesus claimed to be ushering in a new Kingdom of God; and that he ended up dying the death typically meted out to rabble-rousers who posed a threat to Roman authority.

 

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Chris Lee

Living the paschal mystery with hope

Cutting Edge by Sr. Margie Lavonis

Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ and is the most important feast of the Church.

At Easter we renew our faith and welcome new members into the Church.

It is the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil) that is the high point of the Church year.

Paschal mystery

Easter is the fulfillment of the paschal mystery — the suffering, death, and rising of Jesus. This mystery is not a one-time historical event. As members of the body of Christ, we live this mystery throughout our lives.

We entered the paschal mystery at baptism. We were baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. This means that we share in Christ’s suffering, death, and rising throughout our lives.

The paschal mystery assures us that the “pain and dying” we experience in our daily lives ultimately leads to resurrection.

It is our Christian belief that God can and does bring good out of evil and suffering.

Jesus’ life is the greatest example of this. God did not leave Jesus in his pain. God raised him from the dead. Death had no power over him.

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Chris Lee

Madison Catholic Woman’s Club serves causes for 100 years

Madison Catholic Woman’s Club plans 100-year anniversary celebration

All women of the Diocese of Madison are invited to join the Madison Catholic Woman’s Club for its 100-year celebration to be held at the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, 702 S. High Point Rd., Madison, on Tuesday, May 6.

A social at 9:30 a.m. will begin the day with coffee, pastries, and historical exhibits. A Rosary is scheduled at 10:40 a.m. with Mass at 11 a.m. followed by a luncheon.

Bishop Robert C. Morlino will preside at the Mass, which will be a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the patroness of the club. Concelebrants will include Fr. Roger Nilles, the club’s current spiritual director, and priests who served as previous spiritual directors. Lori Lonergan will be the cantor at the Mass and Josephine Cowen will be the accompanist.

A program, “A Walk down Memory Lane,” will begin at 1:15 p.m. All past spiritual directors and past Christian Achievement Award recipients are especially welcome.

Paid reservations must be received by April 23. Cost is $22 per person. Make checks payable to MCWC and send to Teri Kinney, 5117 Comanche Way, Madison 53704. For more information, call 608-246-8508.

Guests are welcome. The facility is barrier-free.

Thanks to Madison Catholic Woman’s Club members Ann Furhman and Syl Kimberly for historical information provided for this article, along with an archived article by Helen Matheson Rupp published in the Catholic Herald on the occasion of the club’s 75th anniversary in 1989.

MADISON — In 1914, three women met in Madison and conceived plans to form a Madison Catholic Woman’s Club (MCWC) with a great eagerness to do good work.

Mary Adams, Mrs. E. T. Adams, and Mary O’Connor encouraged 100 women to join them at a meeting held at St. Raphael School hall in downtown Madison. Eighty-five more women joined them as charter members of the new club. Dues were $1 a year.

First service project

In 1915, the club launched its first major project: service to what was then Madison’s neglected minority, the Italian immigrant community in the Regent-Brooks-W. Washington Ave. area, which was known as the “triangle.”

This “Italian Aid” project would continue for over 40 years, until the neighborhood was bulldozed in the path of urban renewal.

Celebrating 100 years

Today as the MCWC prepares to observe its 100th anniversary with a special celebration on Tuesday, May 6, it can rejoice in a notable record of charitable work undertaken, in addition to spiritual, educational, cultural, and community activities.

Barb Kutchmarek, chairman of the club’s anniversary celebration, commented, “I am so happy to be part of this 100-year anniversary celebration. Having served as co-president for two years and working with many of the wonderful members of MCWC, I felt we could make this a remarkable event and provide many memories for the members, both old and new.

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Chris Lee

Millions of refugees with no place to call home

Emergency: Syria! Emergency: South Sudan! Emergency: Democratic Republic of the Congo!

These are the alarming messages being displayed on the homepage (www.unhcr.org) of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

People uprooted from their homes

According to the UNHCR, Syria has more people forcibly displaced than any country on earth. Over nine million Syrians have been uprooted from their homes due to civil war — over 2.5 million of them have fled to neighboring countries as refugees. And most distressing, more than half of the displaced are children.

In South Sudan, UNHCR reports the civil war and growing food shortages there has led to approximately 2,000 people crossing into nearby countries per day. Many of these refugees have been arriving exhausted, nutritionally weak, and in poor health.

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Chris Lee

Noah: A post-modern midrash

Darren Aronofsky’s cinematic re-telling of the story of Noah has certainly stirred people up.

While quite a few reviewers, both religious and non-religious, have given the film high marks, many Christians, both Evangelical and Catholic, have registered a far less than enthusiastic reaction.

One prominent Catholic blogger and movie reviewer opined that Noah is “embarrassingly awful” and “the stupidest film in years.” Most of the religious critics have complained that the film plays fast and loose with the Genesis account, adding all sorts of distracting and fantastic elements to the well-known story. In the midst of all of this — and no doubt in part because of it — Noah took in $44 million on its opening weekend.

Modern cinematic midrash

Noah is best interpreted, I think, as a modern cinematic midrash on the Biblical tale. The midrashim — extremely popular in ancient Israel — were imaginative elaborations of the often spare Scriptural narratives. They typically explored the psychological motivations of the major players in the stories and added creative plot lines, new characters, etc.

 

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Seminary basketball team with Madison players wins tournaments

Players on the Sacred Heart Major Seminary basketball team in Detroit, Mich., include Clint Olson (#16) and four other seminarians from the Diocese of Madison. (Contributed photo)

DETROIT, Mich. — While Wisconsin fans look forward to the Badger basketball team competing in the Final Four in the NCAA’s March Madness, a basketball team from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit with five players from the Diocese of Madison has already won two tournament championships.

Playing on the Sacred Heart team from the Diocese of Madison are: Stephen Brunner, first year pre-theology; Jared Holzhuter, first year theology; Deacon Scott Jablonski, fourth year theology; and Drew Olson and Clint Olson, both in second year pre-theology.

The Sacred Heart basketball team competed from October through February. They played against a variety of teams, including Catholic high schools, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Sacred Heart security guards.

In competition against other seminary teams, they won a tournament held at Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., in January and won another tournament held at the

Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, in February.

At the tournament in Mundelein, Jared Holzhuter made the game-winning free throw in the championship game.

Clint Olson was named the Most Valuable Player in the Josephinum tournament.

Deacon Scott Jablonski also won a three-point shooting contest.

Besides the basketball players, Madison seminarian Andy Teeter, who is in his first year of theology studies, plays in the pep band at Sacred Hearts.

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Chris Lee

Clinic, women’s care center to hold benefit dinner

MADISON — Our Lady of Hope Clinic and the Women’s Care Center are partnering to hold “A Celebration of Life” with a benefit dinner for both organizations to be held on Saturday, May 10, at the Alliant Energy Center.

Members of the community are welcome to attend. The benefit will begin with cocktails at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner and a program detailing how both organizations have worked to build a culture of life in Dane County.

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Chris Lee

Catholic Relief Services: Focus on Haiti

Guest Column

In this fifth week of Lent, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) highlights Haiti, where CRS has been serving since 1954.

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. With almost 70 years of experience, CRS works to alleviate suffering and provide assistance to people in need in nearly 100 countries, without regard to race, religion, or nationality.

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Chris Lee

Anti-Catholicism should bother everyone

Recently two outrageously anti-Catholic outbursts took place in the public forum.

The first was an article in the US News and World Report by syndicated columnist Jamie Stiehm. Ms. Stiehm argued that the Supreme Court was dangerously packed with Catholics, who have, she averred, a terribly difficult time separating church from state and who just can’t refrain from imposing their views on others.

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