Celebrate the season with Ken Overberg, S.J.:
The mood switches as we turn to Luke. Here we meet again John the Baptizer, but now getting some sense of his strong message. We are reminded that discipleship has a cost. The haunting figure of John the Baptizer now stands in our midst, leading us to ask: “What then shall we do?” His response still rings true (a message to be affirmed by Jesus): generous care for those in need, fairness in business practice, no violence. Advent themes suddenly present us with profound social, economic and political challenges. Issues of global poverty and hunger, corporate corruption, and national policies of war and nuclear arms become gospel concerns.
In the end all you can do is chuckle, really; he probably can't help himself.
Update:
And if chuckling won't do, you can always fisk, which Dale Price does in this excellent post:
To be blunt, the overarching dreadfulness of the essay is mind-blowing. Milk-jug absent from the commentary are such traditional concepts as repentence and preparation for the Advent of the Lord, which, of course, are the focal points of the season for those not allergic to the Church as it existed in 1962. To give you a brief flavor of the problem: there are three dutiful references to "God's Reign" in the essay, but zero to "repentance/repent." As in zilch.
…
(3) Christ Without a Cross.Fr. Overberg hates atonement. Hates it.
God's not about atonement. Not even in the Gospel of John:
John’s Gospel does not see Jesus’ life and death as atonement or ransom. There is instead emphasis on friendship, intimacy, mutuality, service, faithful love—revealing God’s desire and gift for the full flourishing of humanity, or in other words, salvation.
!Here's the part where I am compelled to ask–"Don't you have to be fatuous somewhere else?"
Yeah, sure–if you ignore all of the "lamb of God" references, Jewish sacrificial allusions and every other signal of the atoning mission of Christ which bubbles up from the text. Of course –pay no attention to the creative theologian behind the curtain! Or: "Don't believe your lying eyes–I have tenure!"
Go read it all.
