The Surest Sign

Our readings for this Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are here. The readings are again ABC, so I have used the notes from 2017 (Cycle A).

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the 10AM Mass on December 31, 2017.  And a couple tip-ins on the nature of what a Holy Family is!

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The poems Fr Dennis references in 2017 are:

Advent by Mary Jo Salter (2017 homily)

Course of Treatment of Treatment by Linda Pastan (2017 homily)

Vocational Training by Carrie Shipers (2017 homily)

and Fr Tom McClain, SJ in 2014 offered a homily that has stuck with me,

and, likewise, Fr Peter Fennessy, SJ contributed a visual image.

In 2017 with Fr Dennis, we reflected on —

• Simeon and Anna are the symbolic grandparents in the story of the Nativity.  In the apocrypha, stories are told of Mary’s parents, Anne and Joachim. Over time we have come to celebrate them on July 26th.  However, Simeon and Anna represent Jesus’ grandparents in this early story in Jesus’ life.  Both the symbolic and the actual grandparents are our reminders that Emanuel, God-with-us, came to “pitch tent” with us, that his humanity fully encompasses ours. And so eventually through the resurrection, our humanity is resurrected with his fully shared humanity into the divinity of God.  In short, humans have grandparents, so our savior had grandparents as part of his fully human experience.

• All the readings encompass the themes of
  • looking back, reflectively, as Simeon recalls the prophecy from earlier in his life; of beginning leanings, such as both Simeon and Anna offer about Jesus,
  • and of families, as all of the readings offer — with concessions to the culture and language of their times.

• In Mary Jo Salter’s poem, Advent, she captures the sense that Advent = Coming and how a mother and daughter inhabit Advent, the coming, and the becoming of their space and relationship together.  The poem shares the holiness of the interweaving and recognition of our lives with each other and with the physical world.

• Linda Pastan’s Course of Treatment has 40 visits of (probably) a spouse, but an unnamed relation, being released from treatment for a new year, with hope.

• In Carrie Shipers’ Vocational Training she presents the wisdom internalized and practiced by her mother, a doctor.  You get the sense of the Anna type wisdom and the details of advice, the practice we need so we “know what to do” in the moments of need.  

• So we pray for our families — biological (through birth), adopted (our functional families), social (varied), and global (all of humanity) — that we may create more loving and giving, inwardly and outwardly, families.

In 2014, Tom McClain offered that Holy Families are our communities that offer

• the gift of intimacy;
• safety in our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual beings; and
• apostolic mission/service for others, as in I love you but I’ll let you go to do what you must for Christ.  In other words, the absence of an authentic sense of service for others eventually leads to interior rot.

Holy Family Imagined

On one of my (rl’s) retreats at Manresa Jesuit Retreat House, Fr Peter Fennessy, SJ shared our featured image of “Christ Discovered in the Temple” by Simone Martini (1342).  It is from a scene in scripture (Luke 2:41-50) just before “the hidden years” of Jesus (Luke 2:51-52).  (Correct! — it is not an image matched to today’s gospel reading, but it captured the flavor of Fr Dennis’ homily message better.)

Jesus has, in essence, ditched his parents and family caravan to return to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem to be “in my Father’s house,” and the Holy Family is having a conversation after his human parents found 12-year-old Jesus three days later.  Can you imagine?!

This image reminded me of D2’s main theme that Jesus lived all of our family experiences, including adolescent challenges. Martini’s image of the expressions on Mary’s, Joseph’s, and Jesus’ faces are those of human families past, present, and future.  Exasperation, anguish, frustration … all these are part of Holy Families, as are patience, tenderness, and love. 

I found myself so relieved on sitting with this imagining — for contrition of some of my adolescent behavior, for renewed compassion toward my parents’ human frailties, and redoubled gratitude for their many, many gifts of love they gave beyond our human limitations.

Merry Christmas!!

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are some of the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Christmas Masses in 2017.  For about ten years prior to the pandemic, Fr Dennis Dillon SJ celebrated the Nativity Pageant Mass (you know … Charlie Brown and the Christmas pageant?).  🙂  His spoken homily was very brief, then he invited the children close near at the sanctuary.  He then performed and amiably chatted his way through a couple magic tricks sharing the wonder and awe of Christmas.  You could see the kiddos have excitement, joy, and wonder — see those emotions being bundled with their pageant experience and the coming of Jesus Christ.  Pretty cool.

The children themselves create the Living Word in ways our adult imagination fails, or has forgotten.  One year at the pageant, after the Annunciation, Gabriel threw her hands up in joy and bounced herself up and out of the choir loft after getting Mary’s “yes.”  It’s easy to forget the joy of heaven of sharing the good news, let alone someone accepting it! 

This year, when the narrator read that ” … Gabriel departed,” Gabriel dropped like a rock (whump!!), slunk up the stairs until the focus was on the Visitation occurring on the other side of the choir loft.  It’s easy to forget, holy or not, Mary said “yes” amidst some pretty challenging irruptions of God in her life.

***

The gospel readings for Christmas are tied to the Mass, e.g., Vigil, Night, Dawn, or Day, and come from the gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John.  The Christmas readings are listed for ABC, rather than a single cycle, like we read during Advent, e.g., Matthew’s gospel is the dominant gospel account in Cycle A this liturgical year.  It and the Gospel of Luke are the only two of the four which discuss the birth of Jesus.  Luke has the shepherds and angels, Matthew has the magi and more about Joseph’s interactions with the angels. 

For clarification, both the gospels according to Luke and Matthew have plenty of angels!  However, one would expect the angels to interact with the key people in the story, like Mary and Joseph.  The messengers of God interact with key people. What is unusual about our God and the account in Luke, is the angels proclaimed “glad tidings of great joy” to shepherds, at that time some of the lowliest members and most on the fringes of Jewish society.  This is God’s very different take on who the key players are in God’s eyes and heart! This is one more exclamation point by God that salvation is for everybody!  St Gregory of Nazianzus wrote that we are most made in the image of God when we love humans, preferentially the poor.  This is one more example of God doing so!

Fr Jim offered the reminder in the homily today that Jesus was born poor so the lowly shepherds AND magi could visit him.  Birth in a palace would have left the shepherds out in the cold.

So the following is from a 2017 10AM Christmas Day Mass, I believe, celebrated by D2.

Some of the poems Fr Dennis references over the years:

• Christmas Light by May Sarton

• December by Gary Johnson (a favorite, used on Christmas Eve 2016)

• Looking at the Stars by Robert Bly (rl recent addition, Fr Dennis-y).

In 2017, we reflected on —

• The Nativity Pageant and Mass are a celebration of the children of the world.  The pageant and its fresh interpretation of the story by each year’s cast of children renews our faith.  Fr Dennis wore the stole of children to honor all the children — those who are children by age, and those who are children at heart.  Most importantly, he wore it to honor the One who came to be with us … as a babe!
• Why would the Trinity do this, this mystical incredible idea of the Incarnation?  What was Jesus hoping to say with the Incarnation?  Solidarity. Jesus of the Trinity became incarnate to share the vulnerability of a fertilized cell on to his last breath on the cross to be in total solidarity with us humans, God’s Created.  This form of solidarity means:
  • His mercy comes from within, from his full humanity and divinity
  • He felt himself at home with us in a very simple meal of bread and wine, and being divine could leave this expression with us in the Eucharist, so we can always be together in the Sacrament
  • He became helpless, like we are helpless and vulnerable
• Because of Jesus’ mercy of Incarnation, we aren’t so helpless, and no one of us is ever alone.  Our facades of independence become a barrier to our divinity and acceptance of salvation.
• In today’s Collect Prayer for the Vigil Mass for the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas!), we pray that because of God we “share[e] in the divinity of Christ.”  In other words, through the Incarnation, we are called to be divine, and the call itself as well as its manifestation is Grace, God’s Life within us, now. 
• May Sarton’s poem, Christmas Light, feels extra resonant tonight … as it feels like the joys and the busy-ness of creating space for reflection or giving or service this autumn and Advent having finally ceded before the coming of the Babe, and his Peace. I sit with my “small silent tree” bedecked with ornaments glittering with family memories and
  
  I [feel] reborn again,
  I kn[o]w love’s presence near
  …
  [Is] with me in the night
  When everyone ha[s] gone
  And the garland of pure light
  Stay[s] on, stay[s] on.
  .
• Our featured image (seeking permission) is John Swanson’s Nativity. He passed in September 2021. From his website: Mr. Swanson’s art reflects the strong heritage of storytelling he inherited from his Mexican mother and Swedish father. John Swanson’s narrative is direct and easily understood. He addressed human values, cultural roots, and the quest for self-discovery through visual images. These include Bible stories and social celebrations such as attending the circus, the concert, and the opera. He also depicted everyday life, city and country walks, visits to the library, the train station or the schoolroom. His parables optimistically embrace life and spiritual transformation.

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Masses of

• December 18, 2016 5PM
• December 22, 2013 Noon

The poems Fr Dennis references this year are:

• December by Gary Johnson in both 2013 & 2016
• Going to Bed by George Bilgere in 2016

In 2016, we reflected that —

• the Nativity is only in Luke and Matthew, but all the gospels have his death and resurrection because that is central to his life and message.
• However, culturally, Christmas has moved to a more central part of the story
  • The birth of Jesus isn’t “all happy” because of the Death of the Innocents, as well as the pain and danger of birth to mother and child.
  • There is cultural fun, too, in that there are different stories about the birth of Jesus (e.g., the Huron Carol) and that every child, each of us!, is a reaffirmation of the birth of Jesus.
• In December by Gary Johnson
  • He alludes to many Christmas carols (see some below). The allusions suggest our hopes of greater holiness and wisdom
  • the dark of night : the dark of the future
• In Going to Bed by George Bilgere
  • It is not just a poem about every day matters; like Johnson’s, he ties the ordinary modern things to reverence
• In the sum of it all, there is simple excitement in knowing Jesus is our Savior, and that is something to celebrate in and of itself.

In 2013, we reflected that —

• Joseph is a righteous man, meaning that he follows the law, but doesn’t want Mary to face public shame.
• This sense we get of Joseph being faithful to the law and conscious of the people involved is like Pope Francis, about placing the person first then the law, i.e., being pastoral.
• Gary Johnson’s December poem utilizes snippets and words evocative of specific Christmas carols, resulting in a poem with smiles but also the richness of a realistic faith:
  • Adeste Fideles — “singing for the faithful to come ye”
  • Twelve Days of Christmas — “partridge in a pear tree // And the golden rings and the turtle doves.”
  • O Little Town of Bethlehem — “In the dark streets [lights shining]”
  • Adeste Fideles — “Not much triumph going on here.”
  • O Little Town of Bethlehem — “And my hopes and fears are met // “
  • Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — “And are there angels hovering overhead? Hark.”

Our readings for Sunday are here.  Rejoice! It’s Gaudete Sunday! This is the break in Advent the Church provides, but a focused break, as our Advent may be having challenges. A re-focusing to remember this entire season is pointed toward the Incarnation, the Great Joy!

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretation of Fr Dennis’ homily from the Mass of

• December 11, 2016 10AM

The poems Fr Dennis references this year are:

• I Think Constantly of Those Who Were Truly Great by Michael Blumenthal
• In This Season of Waiting by Linda Pastan. It is a poem he used at some point but whose date I couldn’t place … but fits well here.

In 2016, we reflected that —

• In the gospel, there is the list of what Jesus tells the messenger to tell the imprisoned John the Baptist of what is happening — healing blind, lame, deaf, dead, etc…  Usually in a list the last item is the most important.  In this case, the last item is “the poor have good news preached to them.”  A good cause for reflection that it is in the same list as the others and in the place of prominence (the one that the listener will most likely remember).
• Who could be scandalized by Jesus’ miracles?  Why are leaders so hostile?  It’s not just the miracles; it is what underlies them, i.e.,  that God is reconciled with us, and there is a Messiah, a Messiah and God Who lift up the lowly.
• John the Baptist is the great cry in the wilderness but the least in the Kindom according to Christ is the greater, and so John journeys on in his role.
• Michael Blumenthal’s poem I Think Constantly of Those Who Were Truly Great is about the least in the Kindom of our times, and it has a lot of vocabulary builders!
  • quotidian = daily, ordinary
  • Perseus = an ancient Greek hero who slew Medusa (serpent head, and could turn you to stone) and flew the winged horse Pegasus
  • mundanity = common, of the earth
  • übermenschlicke = good human, really humble, to the nth degree
• Even John the Baptist is pointing to Jesus. The ordinary folks like us?  We’re still in the Kindom recognizing the presence of our Savior.

• Something that I enjoyed from SALT Lectionary’s The Dawn Chorus reflection booklet this week: When birds break into song and begin their glorious dawn chorus, you might wonder: Why do they sing in the first place? Here’s what we know. Birds sing for two big reasons: first, to mark their territories (This is my house!); and, second, to attract a mate (Want to make a home together?). But some scientists believe birds also sing for the sake of delight. Charles Darwin, for example, wrote that birds sing “for their own amusement.” A third big reason, then, may be just that: birds sing because it gives them joy!

The same is true for humans. Especially when we sing with others, our brains release endorphins and oxytocin (the “bonding” or “love” hormone), which is known to reduce stress and increase feelings of trust and gladness. It’s no wonder Isaiah’s vision of a new world features the wilderness singing for joy! Rejoice!

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Masses of

• December 4, 2016 10AM
• December 8, 2013

The poems Fr Dennis references these year are:

• November, 1967 by Joyce Sutphen in 2016
• Wild Geese by Charles Goodrich in 2013
• Advent (for nelson mandela) by r. russeth

In 2016, we reflected that —

• Waiting in Advent is
  • Expectation as hopeful waiting; God is present to us now and newly (and past … and future)
  • Waiting more peacefully as we look back on all that we have been given, in thanksgiving; waiting in hope is what sees us through these times
  • A practical sense of keeping hope alive with
    • a daily process of prayer
    • Sundays – 🙂 to see who would be there; seeing them there (good and bad), silent needs, and the community as a whole — we take strength and learn from one another.
    • rl notes the final comment about Sundays is significantly more poignant with our recent pandemic experience; how hard it was not to see each other … or our body language in group settings that provided relevant social cues by each individual in response to the group dynamic.
• Joyce Sutphen’s November, 1967 poem captures our sense of gratitude for things in the past … in film, poetry, life, … We learn from the old and past to indeed be hopeful that God can bring about the miraculous.
• It is like the shoot that springs from the stump: David.  Exile is a dead stump that brings forth life; it’s not logical.  🙂  But God can do remarkable, miraculous things … like bring out a new king, Jesus.  And God is constantly doing these remarkable, miraculous things.
• There is the scary and encouraging line re chaff thrown into the unquenchable fire.  The unquenchable fire is like the burning bush, the fire that burns but does not consume. Thus, chaff thrown into the fire is more like God’s Light and heat in people — transformation without destruction.  (In a different homily once, Fr Dennis reminded us that John the Baptist was off the mark about the nature of Jesus as more condemnatory than the relatively gregarious, humorous, peaceful encounters we hear about.)
• We are called to look for hopefulness, not just “better.”  Life goes on — remarkable things go on and arise, even out of things seeming dead.

In 2013, we reflected that —

• The Wild Geese poem is a bit like the work-a-day commitment of John the Baptist to his role, helping people prepare the way.  He preaches character and repentance — which is pretty hard work in preparation of Jesus and the Baptism of Holy Spirit and Fire He will bring.
• Advent (for Nelson Mandela) by richard russeth offers the nobility and hope of the promise of Isaiah for Nelson Mandela, who had recently passed in 2013. I apologize … the text of this poem had been hard to find ten years ago. I continue to have no luck finding it this year.

Our featured image is one of our Celeste Novak’s Advent offerings for this Advent Week of Peace.

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the Masses of

• November 27, 2016
• November 29, 2013 Noon

The poems Fr Dennis references this year are:

• Country Roads by Joyce Sutphen
• Rutabagas by James Silas Rogers

In 2016, we reflected that —

• We receive apocalyptic phrasing (“swords into plowshares”) in Isaiah but they are nonetheless uplifting readings.
• Gospel?  Stay awake! But what does that mean?
• Advent is a time of rethinking / start over / retelling a story in our religious and personal and spiritual lives … and in retelling these stories we remember who we are and how God is in our life.
• That kind of staying awake — a contemplative awake, an aware in gratitude awake (not fearful) — the kind we want more of!
• Remember that Eucharist = thanksgiving, so we practice to turn more quickly to gratitude.
• Poetry gets underneath where we are in our lives and their meaning.
• Joyce Sutphen’s Country Roads
  • “as if we were waiting” evokes Advent
  • “for the waters to open” reminds us of the Red Sea or a river parting
  • “cross over Jordan” reference is the cross over to death in the psalms, the Hebrew scripture.
• Other new life is the waiting to be seen or crossed over to.
• This idea of “waiting for more” is waiting for the more who is once again the infant Jesus.

In 2013, we reflected that —

• Each new birth is a sign of joy, of hope, of a soul being given some purpose before God.
• Advent is the waiting, the collapse of Mary’s pregnancy into 1 month.
• Advent is getting into the earthiness, the realness of God-with-us, of God being with us: The Incarnation is on His Way.  🙂
• James Silas Rogers’ Rutabagas evokes this sense of Advent.  Each earthy taste of the dirt; the realness that won’t go away, like The Gift, the child Jesus Christ.

Our readings for Thanksgiving are here. 

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Masses of

• November 24, 2016 10AM
• November 25, 2010

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The poems Fr Dennis Dillon, SJ references are:

• 2016 homily — i thank You God for most this amazing by e.e. cummings
• 2010 homily — The Sycamore by Wendell Berry

In 2016, we reflected on —

• The origins of Thanksgiving, as captured in The Writers’ Almanac for that same Thanksgiving Day.  He noted the complexities that surround the stories of origin, but asked us to stay focused on the gratitude in the celebration.
• rl notes the SALT Lectionary crew similarly has a good reflection on Thanksgiving.
• He also shared the story from earlier in his Jesuit life, of a parishioner from a parish of limited means, in an urban area.  The only name he received from her and others was “Bottle Mary”; it was not used pejoratively in any way.  She had had tuberculosis and spent 14 years or so in a sanitarium, of which 3 to 4 years she was restricted to bed.  She would chat with all, cheerily.  Someone with no reason to be kind or good-natured, yet she was.  He had one photo with her … “hulking over her at his 6’2″ or so” he said, and she was small (in part due to so many years of poor health).
• She is one of the people in his life that he turns to as a model of gratefulness, and encourages us to find those individuals in our own lives.
• The E. E. Cummings poem encourages us to move outside our box, our comfort zones … and the last lines of seeing and hearing seem especially fitting to our gospel of healing today.

In 2010, we reflected that —

• Our gratitude and joy often arise in the broader context of challenges.  Our personalities and quirks, our defining characteristics seem to come more from these experiences that challenge us.  Wendell Berry’s poem, The Sycamore, captures this sense beautifully.
• At this Mass, Fr Dennis drew us close to the altar for the Eucharistic Rite — about 100 of us gathered from all parts of the church to its liturgical center, the altar, near and with him.  We always held hands for the Our Father at our parish, but this was something much more intimate.  The Last Supper, a table of close friends, seemed closer … and thus Christ seemed closer.  Then, just when we thought we were bound in — how do we manage communion like this?!?, among 100? — out he comes from the altar, moves far enough down the center aisle, so that the two Communion queues form and flow without verbal instruction, gradually unwinding from the altar & sanctuary and weaving into straight lines to him to receive the Sacrament, and we then headed down the empty rows to return to our original seats for the post-Communion reflection moment. A “thin space” to be sure, and one chock full of gratitude.
• In that Mass, I began to understand how a Good Shepherd creatively holds the flock close to the Sacrament and to himself (without ever getting between the Creator and God’s Created) in a Christian love.  The Mass became a work of art in the hands of a creative spirit, rather than a dry checklist unimaginatively completed. The mystery of our faith was easy to feel in that Thanksgiving of thin space.

Today’s image is the one Fr Dennis referred to in his 2016 homily. It was one of the items displayed at his funeral in April this year (2025).

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the songs, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Masses of

• November 24, 2019
• November 20, 2016 5PM
• November 24, 2013 8:30AM

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The songs that Fr Dennis Dillon, SJ references these years are:

• 2019 homily — When the Stars Begin to Fall (trad) sung by the Tannahill Weavers
• 2016 homily — Give Me Jesus (trad) sung by Jessye Norman
• 2013 homily —  Give Me Jesus (trad)

In 2019, we reflected that —

• The end time themes, like the traditional When the Stars Begin to Fall, embed new hopes (“what a morning”) with the endings.  This is what we know from Christ’s life and death; it all brings newness and salvation.  There are no promises about the Way, just that it is the Way to and with Love Loving.

In 2016 & 2013, we reflected that —

• The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, is an observance originated in the 1920s by the Church as a statement against the totalitarianism of Russia, Germany, and Spain, which were persecuting and murdering those who weren’t sycophants to the state.  No personal dignity or sacredness.
• With Christ as King, each of us has God-given dignity.
• The United States can feel different, but we had sanctioned and institutionalized slavery (no personal dignity or sacredness) which has simply changed form in our culture over the centuries; it has not been eradicated.  Racism remains a great weight.  Yet Christ was a huge call to Africans for freedom from exile, from slavery (Moses), for the Good News, for Christ’s Kingdom, and thus they could not be kept down in spirit because of Christ the King. Or perhaps more accurately, Black spirituality and abiding faith in Jesus raised up in dignity and love and forgiveness those who believe.
• D2 played one of Jessye Norman’s versions of “Give Me Jesus.” 
• The simplicity but power of the message, particularly arising out of the African-American … or any marginalized or oppressed people’s experience.  Jesus is enough.
• The featured image is the original art, “Glimpses from the New Creation,” created by W David O Taylor.

RL notes that in 2025 the United States Bishops recently addressed this loss of human dignity in immigration matters, the full text provided in America Media.

Our readings for Sunday are here for the 32nd Sunday OT and here for Feast of the Dedication of the (St John’s) Lateran Basilica in Rome. 

Sooooo, why is the Roman Catholic Church celebrating a building dedicated in 342 C.E.? The abridged version, based on this excellent article in America Magazine is … home. In John Shea’s wonderful poem, the “A Prayer to the God Who Fell From Heaven” he ends with, “for by now / the secret is out. / You are home.” We are celebrating that we have a home in God, really, the only true home we have, but it can be symbolized and present in a magnificent building yet most importantly in our hearts, wherever we go, whenever we turn to God.

Kind of like the starlings of our featured image today somehow know to turn and remain with each other in the dynamic movement of their bird lives.

These are the poem, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the Mass for the Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time which we would otherwise be celebrating …

• November 10, 2013 9PM

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The poem Fr Dennis references this year is:

• 2013 homily — Starlings in Winter by Mary Oliver

In 2013, we reflected with Fr Dennis that —

• At the time of the Maccabees , the Jewish people began to believe in resurrection (~200 to 100 B.C.E.). But, of course, humans being human — not all Jewish people did:
  • the Pharisees became the branch of Judaism that did believe in the Resurrection, and so this is the tradition Jesus was a part of.
  • the Sadduccees did not believe in the Resurrection and stuck tight to the first 5 books (the Pentateuch), which is why they begin their conversation with Jesus with “Teacher, Moses wrote for us …”
  • In a book D2 recommended to me the year before he passed, The History of the Primitive Church by Jules Lebreton, SJ and Jacques Zeiller (1949), pp 60-65, Lebreton offered a helpful description of Pharisees and Sadducees.
  • The Sadducees structure to Jewish society was more like a caste system of lay priestly and aristocratic people with an almost exclusionary focus on written law (and near neglect of oral tradition). So the written law was supreme, especially for those who were not of the ruling caste. We can easily imagine this structure opened the path to cruelty by the Sadduccees to the every day Jewish people. Without the consideration of oral tradition, the Sadducees and their followers did not have a belief in resurrection or angels.
  • The Pharisees sit on “the chair of Moses,” i.e., and serve as magistrates of sorts. In contrast to the Sadducees, all classes of people are Pharisees, e.g., priests, scribes, and the simple folk. The Pharisaic tradition is rabbinical, i.e., a master-disciple transmission of the law and faith in the tradition of the elders, more so than a current scrupulous reading of the law in Scripture (i.e., the wisdom of the elders prevailed in interpretative disputes). They also believed in angels and the resurrection of the body AND scrupulous conformity to the law, e.g., observing the Sabbath and legal purity.
• The Jewish people were not unique in this regard.  The Greeks of the time continued to press an engraved coin under the corpse’s tongue (only one side of the coin was engraved — cheaper production cost that way!) to pay the ferryman Charon for passage across the River Styx.  This is just one cultural example, among many, indicating how the Spirit or soul lies beyond corporeal death.
• This sense of disintegration, flying away in spirit, and re-configuring in hope of new life is captured in Mary Oliver’s “Starlings in Winter.”  It reminds us of our hope in the life in the Resurrection.
• This action of the starlings is called murmuration.