Gospel (On the Road To) Emmaus: Volume One

© 2011 Edward Joseph Clemmer. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 3/11/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4567-7430-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-7429-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-7359-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011901580

Printed in the United States of America

Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul © 1987 Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, Stockbridge, MA 01263. Used with permission.

Cover Art: Robert Zünd,

Der Gang nach Emmaus, 1877

Oil on canvas, 119,5 x 158,5 cm

Kuntzmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Part One

From the Coming of John to the Lord’s Transfiguration

Chapter 1

John the Baptist — The Desert Messenger

Chapter 2

Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary — the Presence of God

Chapte r 3

Christ—A Mighty Servant is Come to Build a House

Chapter 4

John and Jesus, the Christ—By Whose Authority?

Chapter 5

Jesus and the Devil—The Kingdom of God in the Desert of Sin

Chapter 6

Discipleship and Cana—Invitations to a King’s Wedding Feast

Chapter 7

A Passover Journey—Return to Cana from Judea through Samaria

Chapter 8

The Prophet Comes to Galilee—Prophecy and Faith at Home

Chapter 9

Catching Men and Facing Demons—Be Not Afraid

Chapter 10

The Divine Mercy among Outcasts and the Respectable Priests, Lawyers, and Politicians—Sin, Forgiveness, and Our Call to Repentance

Chapter 11

The Widow of Nain and a Sinful Woman at Dinner—Empathy and Love

in the Footsteps of the Prophets

Chapter 12

Pharisees and Teachers of the Law versus the Lord of the Sabbath—Counter Accusations, Refutations, and Death Plots

Chapter 13

Jesus Sends Them Apostles of the New Covenant —A Retreat to the Hills and Crowds along the Lake

Chapter 14

The Word of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Church are God’s Eternal Love

Chapter 15

Jesus Urgently Wanted, Men and Women of Faith and Revolutionary Spirituality Needed, and Good Shepherds Required—Apply Within

Chapter 16

Violence against the Kingdom of Heaven from King Herod and the Political and Religious Elite—and Revolutionary Monarchists in Opposition to the Bread of Life: Who, then, is the Baptist and Jesus?

Chapter 17

The Aftermath: the Repercussions of Bread and Fish, and the Ramifications of Food for Eternal Life—So, Do You Also Want to Leave?

Chapter 18

Lost Sheep Preoccupied with Traditions about Ordinary Food versus the Faith of House-Dogs Begging for Scraps of Real Food—Pharisees and Scribes, as Children from the House of Israel, versus a Syrian-Phoenician-Born Woman of Greek Origin Fighting for her Child

Chapter 19

The Disciples’ Mission Journey is a Perilous Exodus, Not a Holiday—But, Don’t Forget to Laugh in Ministry to the Ragtag Church

Chapter 20

A Messiah of Suffering and Glory —

and for his Disciples Too:

An Interpenetration of the

Human and the Divine

Part Two

Life in the Resurrection from Galilee to Bethany

Chapter 21

Please, Do Not Disturb the Church in Training:

Jesus is Giving Private Lessons to his Disciples

Chapter 22

The Autumn Feast of Tabernacles, the Festival of Water and Light—Jesus, Nicodemus, an Adulteress, and Those Who Would Kill a King

Chapter 23

Faith in Action—Divine Justice and Christ Our Justification, Descendants of Abraham, Disciples of Moses, and Various Blind Men

Chapter 24

To All Pharisees—

An Invitation for Our Purification:

from Candlemas to Chanukah to Calvary,

Because I am the Gate of the Sheepfold and the Good Shepherd—Sincerely Yours,

Jesus, the Lamb of God and Lord of the Sabbath,

I AM Who AM, the Son of God, Who is My Father,

and We are One

Chapter 25

Keeping the Lord’s Focus—

Towards Jerusalem from Galilee via Samaria:

Always Giving Thanks to God, and Praying Constantly

Chapter 26

Lenten Sermons near Bethany across the Jordan—Faith in the Light of Fruitful Works and True Repentance: Followers versus Pharisees

End Notes

Post-Post Post Foreward

In mid-January 2009, I began to re-engage my search for publishers, which I had prematurely initiated two years before. Shortly afterwards, Rev. Dr. Paul Sciberras of the Department of Theology at the University of Malta also volunteered to review my entire manuscript. In February 2009, I had made necessary revisions to the final Chapter 40. Then, three days later, Father Paul’s initial comments and observations regarding the first ten of the forty chapters arrived on 3 March 2009. And so began in earnest my third and final round of layered revisions.

This last editing and revision process would take another fifteen months: the original forty chapters of the book were concluded on 6 May 2010. However, four months earlier, on the Feast of the Epiphany 2010, I began to write Chapter 41. Then, on the Vigil of Pentecost, 22 May 2010, I once again concluded the editing process, but now with the addition of the final 41st chapter. From Pentecost, and continuing for the interim period of eighty days, I wrote what would become the Appendix, the synopses of the chapters. Yet, I didn’t know that or plan it that way. Then, on 10 September 2010, the actual last chapter, Chapter 42, sprang to life, and it was concluded in one month.

During October 2010, there were other developments. Rev. Dr. Hector Scerri replied to me from the Malta Curia on 16th October with his evaluations as theological censor. He wrote to me as follows:

I can say that your book does not require a Nihil Obstat and an Imprimatur. The type of text you have produced consists of your own spiritual reflections, as well as information gleaned from historical and other sources, and applications to modern life. My task as theological censor—as specified by the Code of Canon Law (in canon 830, paragraph 2)—concerns an examination whether the doctrine of the Church concerning faith and morals as it is proposed by the ecclesiastical magisterium is upheld. Since your book offers an interesting reading, paraphrase and personal application of Scripture—as reflected in your own faith journey—you are free to publish without having recourse to ecclesiastical approval.

On 28th October I heard from one particular editor: This is a mammoth manuscript, and I have to let you know that in spite of its merits we are not in a position to work with you towards publication: we would not be able to recover the cost of producing and printing it. Then, on 31st October, my Crosier friend and mentor from Phoenix, Arizona, Rev. Francis Kelly (Bud) Sheets, O.S.C., suggested that I retry Author House.

After my resurrected discussions with Maya Lang of Author House and a week of various consultations, we concluded that the book would require multiple volumes. The A4 single-spaced manuscript was 916 pages, and more than 420,000 words. I had recently understood, when I had concluded Chapter 42, the final chapter, that there was a conceptual link and rationale between chapters for concluding Volume One with Chapter 26. The conceptual and pragmatic rationales for two volumes overlapped. And so Volume Two would begin with Chapter 27. And the rest of the layout began to fall into place.

Today, at the end of the past week, is the 32nd Sunday (Year C) in Ordinary Time, and the readings from scripture for the day (2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14; 2 Thessalonians 2:16—3:5; Luke 20:27, 34-38) provide our theme. The King of the world will raise us up to live again, forever (2 Maccabees 7:9). It was from heaven that I received these [tongue and hands]; from him I hope to receive them again (2 Maccabees 7:11). It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by him (2 Maccabees 7:14). And in the gospel Jesus himself provides, God is not the God of the dead but of the living. All are alive for him (Luke 20:38).

And from the day’s Liturgy of the Word St. Paul also provides his prayer for us: May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, may God our Father who loved us and in his mercy gave us eternal consolation and hope, console your hearts and strengthen them for every good work and word. For the rest, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may make progress and be hailed by many others, even as it has been by you (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, 3:1). And, as another foreward comment from my fellow Maltese traveller on this journey with me, Father Mario Attard, O.F.M. (Cap), he has provided us with this particular Wisdom from God now on this day:

Courage shatters enemies attacking the soul from without, mercy those attacking it from within. May God Almighty bless you in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

With courage to dwell with God in Spirit and Truth, and with God’s mercy, the Lord will bring to you His peace. Enjoy the book, and with it also every grace that comes to us from God. Let us pray together as one, Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

Edward J. Clemmer

7 November 2010

Post-Post Foreward

From 30 March 2008, on Sunday of the Divine Mercy, I came to understand that I needed to take up an extensive editing of this entire book, round two after my first entire manuscript review. It took me eight months to complete this second task. Sometimes, so much was necessary that, in fact, it seemed shocking; yet, the active process and the end result were rewards in themselves. Any limitations are still my own; but the Lord has overcome my own limitations, if I have been listening well enough, my principal task.

At the same time, from the beginning of 2008, nearly daily I also took up my first reading of Maria Valtorta’s Poem of the Man-God. In her book, as I am writing this, I am now at the point after the Lord’s passion, beginning with the Glorification. Before the year is done, I will have finished reading her gospel from the Lord. This parallel reading to my own task has been a wonderful companion in my conscious spiritual journey. And simultaneously to my own task and with the Lord’s added instruction through Valtorta, in culmination the Lord has graced my wife Jane and I our marriage in the church on 8 December 2008: with this Feast of the Immaculate Conception (John 2:1-2, 5; Revelation 19:9-10).

And now, from start to finish for the writing phase for the manuscript, nearly sixty-three months have passed. Every time I thought that I had reached some conclusion of this project, I found that there was something else to be done. Compared to the beginning, I now find the ways of God to be less mysterious than before, but most astonishing still the same. Even so, as my dear friend and professional colleague, Rev. Dr. (Father) Daniel C. O’Connell, S.J., has reminded me now at his eighty-years of age, God is still two eternities ahead of us.

The gospel as a spiritual task is an integrative journey. The narrative of this gospel proves it. Although I did not know beforehand, I discovered as I went along that my personal history, like your personal history, is an integral part of the truth of the gospel. Therefore, this presentation of the gospel, even as an academic task according to my skills, remains primarily a spiritual journey, both for me and for you the reader, as we all journey the gospel on the road to Emmaus together with the Lord. But our journey is directed, not by me, the inferior human agent of the text, but by the Spirit of God, who, with the love and mercy of Christ and by the will of the Father of us all, is its divine author.

So, with God in the lead step by step as the loving Shepherd, and very much ahead of me or any of us, may his graces be his gift to you and to each of us, as together we learn to love his gospel and all of its commands: to take up the cross and to love one another, as only the perfect One, our Lord Jesus Christ, has shown us the way. And with us and the Lord on this journey, I have learned that Mary of the Immaculate Conception also is assisting in the background, in my life and yours, as she always did throughout the Lord’s life among men, and as she does now in her motherly grace from God’s eternity.

Edward J. Clemmer

8 December 2008

Post Foreward

My journey with Christ on the Road to Emmaus, for me, has been an amazing experience: demanding in its requirement of my obedience to the grace, and profoundly full of peace in its activity and in its accomplishment. Although from the beginning I understood how to follow the grace, indeed, never could I have foreseen where the Spirit would lead me. For my part, it was a constant task, squeezed into every available moment and cranny of my life; and very soon I discovered how amazingly available those spaces are within an active lifestyle of regular responsibilities and daily household chores. Foremost, my duty was to listen to the Lord—and then to write. And my wife, Joan, also allowed me to do this, even though she couldn’t fathom why or what it was that I was doing, trying to write this book. I can only hope, if you should follow the disciple’s journey of this Gospel Emmaus, that with this book as roadmap you too will enter fully into your own companion-walk with the risen Christ on the way of the Gospel to your destination with him on our journey towards Emmaus.

The only tools you need are this book, your bible, and with the grace, your openness to the word of God and to prayer. If even I discovered time to write this, then anyone can find the time to read and pray. This book began with my understanding of the historicity of Jesus: he is a real person who truly entered human history; and there was a basic chronology to the events of his life. The greater historical context is provided by the entire bible. I am not a trained biblical scholar; but my mind was trained in analysis by my profession, and the Lord did the rest of the preparation of my soul before and during the task. Also, along the way, historical tools were provided for me. What I did not fully understand or appreciate, until the task demanded its inclusion, was that the historicity of Christ exists within our specific personal histories: Christ actually enters into our own lives, both yours and mine. This accounts for the unplanned autobiographical elements of this book. I tell the gospel of the Lord including parts of my history because Christ lives in me, where also the gospel takes place: Christ is alive in me, in my history, not in ancient history.

In the same way, when the Lord reveals himself to you on your Gospel Emmaus journey, you will come to know and appreciate the very personal nature of your relationship with Jesus Christ, subsequent to his incarnation on Christmas Day. It is astonishing enough that God should intervene in history (Ephesians 3:4-9); more so, we may be surprised to find out just how active God is, precisely in our personal histories. Jesus is not just another holy man from God; he is the spirit of God in you. But he is not just spirit; he is human, body and soul, God and man. Where do we find him? He is in you; he is in other persons; and he is present in his word, in scripture; in the Eucharist he shares with us; in our prayer; and in all of the sacraments, where we meet with the risen Christ. This book is intended by the Lord to allow you to meet him in the Gospel: in the interior of your conversations with the Lord as you follow his voice, wherever it is he is leading you, alive in your soul. Listen to him; and follow his deliberate actions and his intentionally dynamic words.

Edward J. Clemmer

24 December 2007

Foreward

Some of us only know the gospel from our school days, or as adults, mostly also from our hearing of it along with the other scriptures during the Liturgy of the Word when we go to church on Sundays. Occasionally, some of us may read the scriptures, even if for only a few minutes, on our own initiative—and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit; or, we may even be daily readers of the word of God, or at sometime we may have taken scripture classes under the direction and instruction of our local churches, seminaries, or universities. Other persons may have professional responsibilities in their teaching of religion or in their preaching the word of God. And then, many persons either may be simply curious about the gospel, or about a book that purports to explain the gospel, or they may have profound questions about the meaning of the gospel of Jesus Christ for their own lives and for their personal existential realities in their relationship with a meaningful God.

Yet, if we are really novices in our experience of the divine, or even if we consider ourselves to be experienced—even if we have devoted ourselves to great prayer and reflection on the gospel, or none at all—if you are like most persons, including myself before my calling to this project, we may not be able to claim that ever in our lives have we managed to read all of the New Testament, or all of the evangelists in their entirety, or even just one of the four evangelists (Mark, Matthew, Luke, or John) completely, or let alone the whole Bible. Although, at sometime in our lives, we may have tried to do so; starting to read, of course, from the beginning—either from Genesis or from Matthew. Eventually, the marathon and somewhat mechanical task becomes inevitably tedious, and daily life seems to call us away from our best good intentions and the best of our fortitude.

However, reading and knowing the gospel is a spiritual task, and the gospel must be lived, not read; yet living with God, and according to his will, requires that we read and know the gospel of Jesus Christ. A proper reading of the gospel requires academic discipline, but it is not an academic exercise; it is always a spiritual exercise, and it requires our listening to the voice of Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit, which the Father gives us: a proper reading of the gospel requires God’s grace and our life with God in the Trinity. But how do we read the gospel with our personal understanding from God unless we are guided expeditiously by the Holy Spirit, or unless we have his immediate help, like a roadmap or a reader’s guide to the most fascinating mystery novel ever written: God’s own revelation to mankind of his own mind and heart through the gospel, the revelation of his Son Jesus Christ in fulfilment of the prophets. This book, the Gospel Emmaus (Luke 24:27, 44), is that practical introduction and unfolding of the entire gospel to anyone who seeks God, for whomever comes from God (John 8:47), and it is a guide for whomever desires to worship him in spirit and truth (John 4:23).

This book of Jesus Christ is a chronological narrative and explanation of the gospel according to the Lord’s public life among men. It may be read, quite naturally, entirely as a written narrative; however, that is not the intention of God. The word of God does not work that way; it is not a linear experience in our soul or in real-time human history, with God’s dynamics. Rather, the gospel is a matrix of harmonies, textures, and light that also need to be engaged in our soul as we follow the basic story, even line by line. So, the footnotes provided herein are [10,548][1] grace notes and references for you to use along with your Bible—whichever one you prefer to use—as you read and follow and discover Christ along the way of this gospel narrative on your road to Emmaus and beyond. You may read according to your interest and your grace from God, more typically from the book’s beginning to its end that follows the natural chronology of Christ’s revelation to us. And in the process of the journey, as I am doing with the Lord, you only may begin to follow and understand the dimensions of grace that God does provide for you and for each of us.

You will never cease to be amazed, just as I was continuously, by what God is doing—if we read the gospel, listen to God, and pray. And this book, in my experience of it, introduces us to the complimentary nature of each of these three divine actions as we read, listen, and pray: the integral unity of the gospel of Jesus Christ and its fulfilment of the prophets; the living voice, mind, and soul of God; and the nature and natural exercise in our soul of prayer and meditation. Enjoy the Gospel Emmaus and the living presence of the Word of God, who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit dwells in your heart and reveals himself to you (John 14:21-23). And afterwards (John 3:8), the Spirit of God will tell you what to do (John 15:16-17).

Edward J. Clem mer

Msida, Malta

3 January 2007

Preface

Jesus Christ is the source of your and my spirit and life. And your and my physical, mental, and spiritual lives are subject to the light of Christ that shines in our darkness. Even should we not recognize this, or even abuse or reject Christ through sin, this truth still is the law of the universe. We otherwise become dead, lifeless, burdened, and oppressed and remain so—much like the experience of psychological depression, but an actual joylessness and ennui—unless we do not (and even when we do) allow ourselves to be deceived, or we are blinded and deaf to the grace of God.

Because in our experience of sin, which in truth we must reject in our personal lives, there only is spirit and life through Christ in our faithful and total obedience to the will of God for each of us. This experience of grace, which only comes from God and is not the creation of any man, brings genuine peace of soul and a profound joy. Grace is an unearned and undeserved gift from God, given how God pleases and to whom he wishes. Grace is the gift of redemption through the passion and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which He offers to all men and women of faith.

With grace comes the power to love and to serve. We may, too often, be reluctant to open ourselves to the demands of real love in our very ordinary and sometimes extraordinary lives. Grace requires of us purity of heart and absolute obedience to the will of God, which usually exposes our own spiritual weaknesses—our need to de-center from self-preoccupations and egoisms and to get about the specifics of God’s expectations and purposes for us, which may be regarded by our own standards or by the standards of others as inconvenient, foolish, or preposterous, or even as disastrous. It is true that God’s expectations will require personal sacrifice and even sufferings. And generally, God’s will is not confined by our previous personal plans.

Instead, often enough, we have to learn to become truly free by allowing ourselves to discover and to follow God’s spirit that blows where it wills; which is determined by God, and not by us. In grace, we choose to conform our personal will to God’s in an active faith—and we refuse to anaesthetize ourselves to its call and to our necessary obedience, where otherwise we can slide into illusory affairs of the world, self-absorption and sin as alternatives to grace. In contrast, through grace there is the hope of salvation through Jesus Christ, and there is real joy. Sometimes, we may falsely regard God’s grace to ourselves as really insignificant. Such an attitude devalues God, and not only oneself. In truth, unworthy as we are, each of us is worth the infinitely precious ransom paid for us by God’s Son, Jesus Christ. That has been the measure of God’s love for us.

Christ does extend his spirit and life to all men, but especially to the poor and the lowly. When these gifts are offered to us, we are asked to accept the grace, but we may choose to reject. Unfortunately, outside of grace there is infinite damnation. Grace is an all or none affair as we develop along the path of holiness, or go down the path of destruction. Led by grace, we do know and experience God’s infinite love. Therefore, the following goes where it leads, as Christ is our Spirit and Life, and I too hope with the reader to arrive to where it goes—to the will of God. In response to the moment of grace: this is the beginning.

Edward J. Clemmer

Church of the Immaculate Conception

Hamrun, Malta

12 September 2003

Dedication

For a work started in the hope and triumph

of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

on 12th September

in anticipation of the Feast

on 14th September 2003

and

its first draft concluded on 3rd January 2007,

its initial editing and proofing, at first, finished

on 15th April 2007

with its graces on the Feast of the Divine Mercy

and subsequently corrected and amended

as determined by the Lord:

Chapters 1-20, first round of editing, on 6th July 2007

in anticipation of the Transfiguration on 6th August

Chapters 21-40, first round of editing, on 24th December 2007

in anticipation of the Birth of Our Lord

this work of the Lord and what proceeds from it

are dedicated to God,

to the source of all goodness and wisdom,

"according to the plan which he had formed

from all eternity in Christ Jesus our Lord."

(Ephesians 3:11)

Through you, O Lord, I entrust your actions

and my will to your divine intentions.

With initial new proof-reading corrections,

amended on 24th February 2008,

Third Sunday of Lent:

"They begged him to stay with them.

So Jesus stayed there two days, and through

his own spoken word many more came to faith.

As they told the Samaritan woman:

‘No longer does our faith depend upon your story.

We have heard for ourselves, and we know

that this really is the Saviour of the world.’"

(John 4:40-42)

With Chapter 40 footnote (195) at the conception of re-editing:

25 March 2008, Feast of the Annunciation

The process of subsequent writing, review and re-editing

was initiated then for all 40 chapters:

30 March 2008, Feast of the Divine Mercy

and

was concluded for its [penultimate] round of editing:

8 December 2008,

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Brief Biography of Graces

Edward Joseph Clemmer, born 28 June 1948 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was the eldest of six surviving children born to Benjamin Othmar Clemmer and Rita Cecelia Clemmer nee Weaver. Born two months premature, he was baptized the day he was born. At about age four, in a house visit, the pastor of his local parish church, Father Moskel asked Eddie Joe what he wanted to be when he grew up. Looking at the parish pastor, the young boy seriously responded at the instant of the Spirit, A priest, and with great surprise everyone laughed, except Eddie; yet, at that moment, Eddie resolved to stand by the truth of his statement. Then, at eight years of age, his native-Polish third-grade teacher, Sister Stanislaus, who was preparing the children for their first communion, addressed all the boys of the classroom: Which of them would be priests when they grew up? Of course, all of them raised their hands, although Eddie was truly serious, just as he had been in the interior of his soul for the previous four years. But, sternly, the nun replied, Well, none of you will be! Eddie was very shocked by her surprising assertion, by what probably had been a bad class day for the middle-aged nun, yet it was then that he resolved indeed to prove her wrong—at least, about himself.

At age nine, a few months later, his family moved into a newly built house on the other side of town, where he entered Queen of Angels School for fourth grade, which was a difficult year of transition. After his first year of school there, in the summer of 1958, his mother’s parents and his mother’s sister, who was sixteen years younger than his mother and five years older than Eddie, took Eddie as a map-reading navigator on a pilgrimage by auto to religious shrines in Canada: among them St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, Our Lady’s Shrine at Three Rivers, and St. Anne’s Shrine, Quebec. These three persons, his maternal grandparents and aunt, would be his primary faith community for his initial religious formation into adulthood. Later on his aunt Mary Ann became a Racine Dominican nun; and Ed would follow her into the seminary for the Dominicans, until they both left these potential religious vocations simultaneously in 1967. But ten years earlier, back in July of 1957, his aunt had spent four weekly sessions at Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) camp at Our Lady of the Lake Seminary, Lake Wawasee, Syracuse, Indiana. In summer of 1959, Ed also went there for the same CYO camp for boys, for one week in August and again in August for 1960, 1961, and 1962. Ed’s favourite part of CYO summer camp, besides his independence from home, was the congregational singing at daily Mass, and especially singing the divine praises for the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

From 1960-1962, Ed took weekly Latin lessons from the associate parish priest at Queen of Angels Parish, Rev. Father Denis Blank, to prepare for entrance into the familiar diocesan seminary (OLL) on the lake at Syracuse, Indiana. The seminary was staffed by priests and brothers of the Crosier Fathers, an American religious community of Dutch origin. Father Thomas Sheets, O.S.C. and Father Francis Kelly (Bud) Sheets, O.S.C., brothers, would be Ed’s religious and academic mentors through minor seminary at secondary-school from 1962-1966. With the institution’s name change post-Vatican II, Ed graduated in 1966 from Wawasee Preparatory: 7th in his class of thirty with a 90% academic average. Among his extra-curricular activities, Ed was noted for his particular excellence in choir, original oratory, essay writing, and theatre performance. At that time, Ed had aspired to follow a Dominican missionary to Bolivia. Accordingly, he spent a year in college seminary for the Dominicans at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, 1966-1967.

Between 1967 and 1970, and during the Vietnam War, Ed then returned to Fort Wayne, Indiana to complete his undergraduate degree at St. Francis College (now Saint Francis University), B.A. (Honors) in Psychology and Social Work. The Head of the Psychology Department, Sister Mary Amatora, suggested to Ed that he apply to Saint Louis University for their graduate program in Psychology. And after one year of graduate study in psychology at the New School for Social Research, New York, NY, from 1970-1971, Ed transferred his master’s and doctoral studies to Saint Louis University, where he completed both his M.S. (Research) and Ph.D. studies in psychology from 1971-1975. As a student, he was part of the faith community of the Jesuit Church at Saint Louis University, where they sang the original Glory & Praise songs from mimeo sheets, as the songs were created. His professional mentor, and life-long friend, continues to be the Jesuit priest Father Dan, Daniel C. O’Connell, S.J. He and Ed were research colleagues together, and there they both specialized in teaching and research in areas of cognition and in language performance and communication.

After finishing his Ph.D. in 1975, Ed joined the graduate faculty of Saint Louis University Medical School, Department of Orthodontics, as Research Director, 1975-1980. And in St. Louis, after graduate school, from 1975 he involved himself in his local parish church choir; and he advocated Vatican II liturgical reforms for his parish church, whose pastor was an auxiliary bishop. His four sons were born in St. Louis, between 1974 and1980. And in 1980, the family moved from St. Louis, Missouri, to Oswego, New York, on the shores of Lake Ontario, where he taught psychology at the State University of New York from 1980-1981. There, most importantly in that single year, Ed consciously realized for the first time that his marriage to Kathleen was, and had been, greatly troubled; and there for the first time, he and she sought their initial professional counselling from the local parish priest, who also was a clinical psychologist.

Then, from 1981-1986, Ed moved the family to both his and his wife’s hometown, back to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Ed taught psychology for the Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne. Ed continued to be involved with the choir of his local parish church, St. Charles Borromeo, just as he had done in Oswego, NY and in St. Louis; but, most importantly for this book, he also became involved in the Christ Renews His Parish movement, where he was re-introduced, post seminary and post graduate school, to the personal reading of the scriptures. After his initial weekend experience, he spent two six-month periods as part of two subsequent teams for leading weekends. Ed also became a church lector and Eucharistic minister. And also, during these years, he continued to struggle with his conflicted marriage.

In 1986, Ed took a teaching position in Boston, Massachusetts; and again the family moved: to Haverhill, Massachusetts, on the border with New Hampshire. From 1986-1991, he taught psychology at Emerson College, Boston, renowned for its students specializing in language, communication, mass media, writing, and theatre arts. Throughout his professional career, Ed published in various professional journals and books. And as his marriage also continued in conflict throughout, once again he involved himself in the community life of choir and in weekly homily preparation at St. Augustine’s Parish Church, Lawrence, MA. The pastor of St. Augustine’s, Father Bill Waters, O.S.A., at that time also had invited Ed to consider becoming a married deacon. Eventually, however, Ed and his wife undertook professional marriage counselling, leading to separation; and afterwards, and before he came to Malta, he continued on his own initiative with individual psychological counselling during his separation. Also, while he was living in New England and working in Boston, Ed usually prayed the Liturgy of the Hours in his daily train-commute to work and on return between Lawrence and Boston.

After twenty years of marriage, and the last ten years of it in solid conflict, Ed and his first wife were legally separated in 1991. He then took a visiting teaching position in psychology at the Benedictine college, Saint Anselm College, in Manchester, New Hampshire from 1991-1992, where he also had the further opportunity to teach credits on the Psychology of Religion. In October 1992, he came to the University of Malta, as Acting Head of Department of Psychology from 1992-1993, where he continued to teach a variety of psychology courses until 1996. During this turbulent time, his civil divorce and church annulment for his first marriage became finalized. In 1996, he married his Maltese wife in a civil ceremony, Joan Zammit, the eldest daughter of Raphael and Vincenza Zammit, both now deceased, respectively in 2006 and 1992.

From 1993, Ed supported his future wife throughout her only son’s drug addiction and rehabilitation, until her son was killed in a tragic motorbike accident in 2002, his leaving behind a five-week-old daughter. Ed’s wife’s grandchild now lives in Amsterdam with her mother. Today, Ed occasionally does some professional consulting in statistics at the University of Malta, Medical School; and he now manages his wife’s wholesale business in religious goods and articles. But, he is no longer involved in full-time university teaching since 1996; and subsequent to the tragedies of his wife’s immediate family, for 40 months from 2003-2007, Ed completed his initial draft of the Gospel Emmaus. Much more work followed. His four sons, Kenneth Benjamin Clemmer (San Francisco, CA), James Anthony Clemmer Dearlove (Denver, CO), Andrew John [Andy Jack] Clemmer (Portland, OR), and Stephen Joseph Clemmer (after living in and leaving Boston, MA, now living in New York City), continue to live in the United States. Ed, now, also enjoys dual USA and Maltese citizenship; and his Maltese wife, Joan Zammit, still works as a retired tourist guide. And also, but just only now thirty-six years after Ed’s annulled first marriage, in another present mercy from the Lord, Ed has managed, at long last, to completely forgive his ex-wife, Kathleen Ann (Kathy) Herber (Hosea 2:25).

Edward J. Clemmer

15 April 2007

Post-Dedication Apologia

In itself, belief in God does not establish God’s existence. For theists, God does exist; but for atheists, God seems not to exist. Non-believers may regard God to be a human invention: perhaps the imaginary by-product of archaic brain processes; perhaps wishful thinking born of psychological needs or desires; perhaps magical thinking, having its cultural roots in ancient (or modern) pre-scientific histories, towards explaining the world; or perhaps an existential strategy, the striving of persons to give meaning and purpose to human life and life events. For non-theists, for sceptics or atheists, cultural variations and anthropological assimilations of religions and their literary texts (as oral narratives or as written scriptures) may seem to be equivalent to classical or modern mythologies. And sometimes, those who would believe in God or religious fables are termed religionists by analytical non-theists.

However, apart from the rational logic of potentially deducing the existence of God through reason, or of potentially denying God’s existence, logically, if God truly exists and a personal God is a reality independent of complex human invention; and if God is not totally other, that is, not beyond the mental categories of human experience and understanding; if such a God wishes human beings to know him; then human knowledge of a transcendent God would and must be possible. And then, like any other human or natural science, which is subject to the filters of human experience, God’s revelation to humans would be evident to our intellect, to our heart, and to our soul. This personal experience of God, by its very nature, is inductive and historical and partial: and for anyone to experience God, God must enter into their personal histories, into the story and realities of their individual lives and their histories.

Apart from mystics or others who may claim personal experience of God, how can this happen? Theists would claim that knowledge of God can be rationally documented through particular inductive human experiences, and generalized across persons and cultures, within the constancies of God’s truth and the spiritual confines of God’s grace (God’s gift). For Christians, these historical interventions of God in human history include the historical revelations from Judaism; the historical reality of the incarnation of God’s Son, Jesus Christ; and also, the Word of God as found in the whole of biblical scriptures, but fundamentally revealed in the gospel and its New Testament commentary. For some Christians, especially for Roman Catholics, divine revelation also is sacramental and institutional. However, for anyone who does find the experience of God, God’s revelation of himself is personal and social, just as faith is a personal dynamic of one person’s soul with the spirit of a living God, in unity with the faith community of the Church. Christian revelation also needs to be understood in its Trinitarian essence: it involves a human encounter with the three divine persons in the unity of the one true God: our spiritual communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This book, Gospel Emmaus, is a fully inclusive companion to the gospel of the four canonical evangelists: Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. By definition, its narrative is inclusive of portions of Acts (by Luke). And the narrative in forty chapters includes gospel commentary as found throughout the New Testament, particularly in the letters of Paul. This book’s journey also includes my commentary and observations in relationship to the gospel. Of necessity, given the true nature of the gospel, it is not possible to engage the gospel as if it were only an academic task. For the gospel is a spiritual journey, mine and yours, if one begins to understand the words and actions of Christ; as we ourselves make the same journey with the Lord and listen to his words; as we enter into the prophetic prayer of the psalms; and as we use the path of the gospel contextualized by the scriptures to enter into the mind and intentions of God. For the reader, although this book is a faith journey into the experience of God, it also is the narrator’s personal story of faith. And like the story of so many others in the gospel’s narrative, the mystery of the gospel becomes evident in the narrator’s personal story. In the end, the reader’s faith and experience of God does not depend upon the narrator’s own story, but as the reader experiences God through the words of Christ speaking to you through his gospel, the Word of God also becomes the reader’s story.

This journey provided by the Gospel on the Road to Emmaus is a comprehensive and analytical presentation of the one gospel of Jesus Christ, who had several evangelists and disciples. This unified gospel narrative retains their theological variations, emphases, and singular contributions, while it also organizes and makes coherent the singular Word of God made flesh. For anyone who takes up this journey in honesty and truth, God will reveal himself to you, as he does to all who strive to hear and to follow faithfully the voice of God. This book is for everyone: for anyone of any degree of faith or non-faith; for those espousing conversion or for the impenitent; for those in spiritual light or in spiritual darkness; for those of greater experience or minimal familiarity with the gospel or the scriptures. This is a journey for every potential disciple of Jesus, whether or not we are scripture scholars; if we are regular or irregular readers of God’s word; and especially, even if we are sceptics or non-believers or committed atheists.

Entering into the Kingdom of God is a gradual, virtually evolutionary, sometimes torturous, and life-long process for everyone. However, this mystery of God in his revelation to us is accessible by our devotion to the truth and by our devotion to our union with God in prayer. If we make this journey through the gospel, we have been called; if we have been called, we will experience God. Other journeys may also lead to God. But on this journey on the road to the cross of Jesus, and beyond his resurrection, as we journey with Christ on the road to Emmaus, we come to our personal journey into God’s New Creation established by his Son, Jesus Christ, who is the revelation of God’s love for all sinners, and for the saints we can become. Unfortunately, there will be those who choose not to make this most fascinating excursion of their natural lives. This always is so terribly sad. This brief life too soon opens up to our eternity.

Edward J. Clemmer

7 March 2008

Acknowledgements for Scriptural Resources

The New American Bible. (1991). Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: World Publishing. Translated from the Original Languages with Critical Use of All the Ancient Sources with THE REVISED BOOK OF PSALMS and THE REVISED NEW TESTAMENT.

The New Testament of the Jerusalem Bible, first edition. (1966). Garden City, New York, USA: Doubleday. The English text of the Bible itself, though translated from the ancient texts, owes a large debt to the work of the many scholars who collaborated to produce La Bible de Jerusalem (1961) published by Les Editions du Cerf, Paris.

The Word of God: The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior in Today’s English Version. (1971). Walls, Mississippi, USA: Sacred Heart League by the American Bible Society.

The New Jerusalem Bible: Study Edition. (1994). London: Darton, Longman, & Todd. The introductions and notes of the Bible are, with some variations and revisions, a translation of those which appear in La Bible de Jerusalem by Les Editions du Cerf, Paris (revised edition 1973). The English text of the Bible itself, though translated from the ancient texts, owes a large debt to the work of the many scholars who collaborated to produce La Bible de Jerusalem, a debt which the publishers of this English Bible gratefully acknowledge.

Holy Bible: New Living Translation, Catholic Reference Edition. (2001). Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

The Holy Bible: The New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. (1993). Thomas Nelson for Theological Publication in India: Bangalore.

Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours. (1976). New York, USA: Catholic Book Publishing Company. The Divine Office revised by decree of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and published by the authority of Pope Paul VI.

The Bible Prayer Book. (1981). Eugene S. Geissler, editor. Notre Dame, Indiana, USA: Ave Maria Press. All the prayers, songs, hymns, canticles, psalms, and blessings in the Bible. The Bible text, except in the few instances otherwise noted, is from the Good News Bible (1976) published by the American Bible Society.

New Saint Joseph Sunday Missal, Complete Edition, Vol. 1. (1986). New York, USA: Catholic Book Publishing Company. Scriptural Readings and Responsorial Psalms are taken from the Lectionary for Mass (1970) published by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., USA.

Saint Andrew Daily Missal. (1962). Bruges, Belgium: Abbaye de St. Andre. Distributed by The E. M. Lohmann Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. New edition in conformity with the latest decrees and ordinances of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

Twenty-Four Psalms and a Canticle. (1955). Translated from the Hebrew and arranged for singing to the psalmody of Joseph Gelineau. Toledo, Ohio, USA: Gregorian Institute of America. New antiphons were added, together with notes on the psalms. The original version of this book was Vingt-quatre Psaumes et un Cantique (1953) published by Les Editions du Cerf, Paris. This American edition is reprinted by special permission of the copyright owners, The Grail, England.

Glory & Praise: Songs for Christian Assembly, Volumes 1, 2, and 3. (1977, 1980, 1982). Phoenix, Arizona, USA: North American Liturgy Resources.

Songs for Worship, second edition. (1985). Chatsworth, California, USA: Sparrow Birdwing Music. Compiled by John Michael Talbot and edited by Phil Perkins.

Nuevo Testamento. (1953). Madrid, Spain: Bibliteca de Autores Cristianos. Version directa del texta original griego por Eloino Nacar Fuster y Alberto Colunga Cueto.

Il-Bibbja. (1995). Blata l-Bajda, Malta: Librerija Preca, Societas Doctrinae Christianae, M.U.S.E.U.M. Maqluba ghall-Malti mill-ilsna originali minn Monsinjur Professur P. P. Saydon.

Acknowledgements

for Historical Resources

His Holiness Benedict XVI (12 September 2006). Faith, Reason, and the University: Memories and Reflections. Meeting with the Representatives of Science, Lecture of the Holy Father, Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg.

Duncan, David E. (1998). The Calendar. London: Fourth Estate Limited.

Molnar, Michael R. (1999). The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Perowne, Stewart (1956, 2003). The Life and Times of Herod the Great. Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton Publishing.

Bruce, F. F. (1963/1965). Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea. The Annual of Leeds University Oriental Society, 5, 6-23.

Volume One

Index of Psalms and Canticles

Psalm/Canticle: Verses

(Chapter and Page)

Ps 1:1-6 (Ch. 1, p. 8)

Ps 3:1-8 (Ch. 12, p. 161)

Ps 4:1-8 (Ch. 13, p. 203)

Ps 5:1-12 (Ch. 13, p. 202)

Ps 10:1-18 (Ch. 15, p. 255)

Ps 15:1-5 (Ch. 6, p. 62)

Ps16:1-11 (Ch. 20, p. 391)

Ps 17:6-15 (Ch. 19, p. 363)

Ps 19:1-14 (Ch. 8, p. 96)

Ps 23:1-6 (Ch. 24, p. 515)

Ps 24:1-10 (Ch. 6, p. 68)

Ps 26:1-3 (Ch. 25, p. 542)

Ps 27:1-14 (Ch. 25, p. 543)

Ps 31:2-16 (Ch. 22, p. 432) Cf. Only

Ps 31:17-25 (Ch. 22, p. 452) Cf. Only

Ps 32:1-11 (Ch. 9, p. 111)

Ps 34:1-22 (Ch. 3, p. 28)

Ps 40:2-14, 17-18 (Ch. 10, p. 127)

Ps 40:2-18 (Ch. 23, p. 492)

Ps 41:2-14 (Ch. 12, p. 159)

Ps 42:2-12 (Ch. 22, p. 452) Cf. Only

Ps 43:1-5 (Ch. 22, p. 452) Cf. Only

Ps 45:2-18 (Ch. 22, p. 446) Cf. Only

Ps 50:7-13 (Ch. 10, p. 126)

Ps 51:1-19 (Ch. 9, p. 109)

Ps 55:2-15 (Ch. 22, p. 436)

Ps 55:16-24 (Ch. 22, p. 463)

Ps 69:2-13 (Ch. 24, p. 495) Cf. Only

Ps 78: 1-4, 8-11; 12-20; 21-33, 38-39; 52-58; 65-72

(Ch. 16, p. 284)

Ps 80:2-20 (Ch. 7, p. 81)

Ps 82:1-8 (Ch. 24, p. 514)

Ps 84:2-4, 11 (Ch. 3, p. 26)

Ps 90:1-17 (Ch. 18, p. 339)

Ps 91:1-16 (Ch. 5, p. 49)

Ps 96:1-13 (Ch. 21, p. 430)

Ps 103:1-22 (Ch. 11, p. 140)

Ps 107:1-3, 23-32, 1-22 (Ch. 14, p. 219)

Ps 107: 1-9, 17-22, 33-43 (Ch. 26, p. 583)

Ps 111:1-10 (Ch. 8, p. 95)

Ps 113:1-9 (Ch. 2, p. 17)

Ps 116:1-9 (Ch. 22, p. 456)

Ps 118:19-29 (Ch. 4, p. 40)

Ps 119:153-160 (Ch. 22, p. 454)

Ps 139:1-24 (Ch. 17, p. 312)

Ps 146:1-10 (Ch. 19, p. 364)

Canticle of Hannah: 1 Samuel 2:1-10 (Ch. 13, p. 204)

Canticle of Wisdom: Proverbs 8:22-36 (Ch. 24, p. 512)

Canticle of Mary (Magnificat): Luke 1:46-55 (Ch. 3, p. 20)

Canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus): Luke 1:68-79 (Ch. 3, p. 21)

Canticle of Simeon (Nunc Dimittis): Luke 2:29-32

(Ch. 3, p. 24)

Part One

From the Coming of John to the Lord’s Transfiguration

Chapter 1

John the Baptist — The Desert Messenger

Readings: Luke 3: 1-9; Mark 1:1-5; Matthew 3: 1-10; John 1: 19-23

John the Baptist was a cousin of Jesus, whose mother Mary was a relative of John’s mother Elizabeth.[2] He had lived a long time in the desert before his first public appearance throughout the whole Jordan district and more particularly at Bethany on the east side of the Jordan. The Jordan River, along where John preached and baptized, with its remote sources in mountain springs near Caesarea Philippi,[3] ran from the Lake of Galilee in the north of Israel, where Herod was the ruler of Galilee, to the Dead Sea in the south of Israel in Judea, where Pontius Pilate was governor.[4] We are told that, at some specifically defined moment in real history, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness,[5] where he had been living in the desert,[6] as had been foretold by Isaiah, the prophet:

Someone is shouting in the desert:

"Get the Lord’s road ready for him;

Make a straight path for him to travel!

All low places must be filled up,

All hills and mountains levelled off.

The winding roads must be made straight,

And the rough paths made smooth.

All mankind will see God’s salvation!"[7]

John, as an adult in his nearly mid-thirty years of age, and six months older than Christ,[8] was a fairly wild-looking character coming out of the desert. He was described as wearing clothes of camel hair, with a leather belt about his waist; and eating a staple diet of locusts and wild honey,[9] he preached: Turn away from your sins and be baptized, and God will forgive your sins.[10] From all over Judea and from Jerusalem, everyone came to hear John preach, to confess his or her sins, and to be baptized as a sign of repentance.[11]

John’s preaching seemed to be as extraordinary as his appearance. You snakes! he said to some Pharisees, who were sent to John by Temple authorities. Who told you that you could escape God’s wrath that is about to come? Do the things that will show that you have turned from your sins. [12] They, in fact, rejected John’s baptism. Even so, the public appearance of repentance would be insufficient. Which is to say that superficially showing up, applauding, and having a bath in the river, doesn’t fake out God! And John continued, And don’t start saying among yourselves, Abraham is our ancestor.’"[13] Which was to say don’t claim justification, privileged status or birthright from God, as if one could hold a legal claim against God, or as if others by God’s law were outcasts and inferior to God’s chosen people. However, sometimes don’t we as much do the same, who may not be Jewish, but, perhaps, an even more highly regarded exceptional case: such as an American Christian, or a Maltese, or an Irish Catholic? Or perhaps, we may even try to claim, like some nobility through our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, or even several generations before, that we were card-carrying (baptized and ritualized) club members of the faith.

John fired back, I tell you that God can take these rocks and make descendants for Abraham![14] This is a double-damning statement. First of all, John is implying that while people afforded themselves the supposed security of their deemed privilege, they actually were as lifeless and dead as rocks. And on the other hand, the inheritance of Abraham can be given to others instead, even to supposed rocks! However, there is one saving element of this same statement by John. It includes the sense that forgiveness and salvation may be extended yet to repentant rocks, to such rocks as the Pharisees may have been, or even to the possible rocks we ourselves presently may be!

In this context, it may be instructive to remember that when Christ made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which is celebrated on Palm Sunday, some Pharisees rebuked Jesus for his disciples’ joyous praising of God for all of the miracles they had seen.[15] In response, Jesus said, If they keep quiet, I tell you, the stones themselves will shout.[16] This, in fact, includes our personal obligation and calling to live our lives in praise of God according to the salvation given to us by our God. This includes repentance, but goes beyond it. Also, like Moses’ bringing water from a rock,[17] and as Peter reminds us in his letter, we are called to be living stones:

Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected as worthless by men, but chosen as valuable by God. Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.[18]

Similarly for us, John’s exhortations, which he directed at Jews and non-Jews alike, are a call for action: for dead rocks to become genuine descendants of Abraham.[19] And accordingly, John continued his preaching:

The axe is ready to cut down the trees at the roots; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.[20]

Readings: Luke 3: 10-17; John 1:24-28; Mark 1:7-8; Matthew 3:11-12

People were quite disturbed by John’s preaching. Many ordinary people asked John what they specifically should do then in their own personal lives. John was clear in his answers: Whoever has two shirts must give one to the man who has none, and whoever has food must share it.[21] John was not simply preaching against obvious extravagance that we all recognize, like the Philippine ex-President’s wife Imelda Marcos’ closets full of thousands of shoes; or like Saddam Hussein’s amassed palaces and fortunes taken from the Iraqi people; or like in the Enron Corporation swindle in the United States. John was not that simple or conventional.

In itself, it is not wrong for someone to have possessions or wealth, when so many others have not;[22] however, the privilege of wealth inherently carries a moral risk.[23] After my originally writing the paragraph above in 2003, these cited examples seem almost harmless compared to the scandals unfolding now, in March of 2009, in Zimbabwe and in the United States. Zimbabwe’s entrenched 85-year-old dictator, President Robert Mugabe, and his 44-year-old wife, Grace, live in obscene luxury, as they both horde and recklessly spend the country’s wealth for themselves, while Zimbabwe struggles with hyper-inflation at 281 million percent, mass unemployment of around 94%, and a cholera epidemic killing thousands. And now, a global economic catastrophe has originated from the United States: several years of greed and unrestrained credit excesses were exposed by the commercial collapse of an unsustainable housing market within an insufficiently regulated financial system. Consequently, the world has been plunged into its first global contraction of GDP since the end of World War II, in the worst crisis since the Great Depression; in a matter of months world stock markets have lost 65% of their value; and along with the unfolding global devastation in developed and developing economies worldwide, in the United States alone millions of people are loosing their homes, their jobs, their savings, their present or future retirements, their financial supports for medical care and for just basic commodities. Several trillions of lost dollars are represented here. And now, for the largest fraud in Wall Street history, far greater than the Enron Corporation swindle, Bernard Madoff has been sent to prison after pleading guilty in court for his swindle of more than fifty billions, his own contribution to the financial and personal devastation of innocent victims and the greedy.

In a financial environment where figuratively everyone is loosing their shirt, according to John, should we be obliged to have only one shirt because someone might not have even one? A communist or socialist interpretation of the Gospel may seem to suggest this.[24] And certainly, the modern-day redistribution of wealth through taxation is one part of everyone’s moral obligation.[25] Yet, even Jesus himself, during the week he would die, did not rush to aide the poor widow who had deposited two small coins in the temple treasury, all she had to live on.[26] So, even if our wardrobe diminished to two shirts, were we obliged to hand one shirt over to any person with none? After all, we only need to wear one shirt at a time, which we can wash and wear again. If we have two shirts, saving another shirt for ourselves for today or tomorrow is not an option when some else needs a shirt today. Our owning two shirts would be enough to help someone else with none. However, we are not obliged to help someone because of our surplus, large or small, but because of our sufficiency to love.

For Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, she turned her house in Harare into a soup kitchen for starving people from nearby townships. She also quietly supported her husband’s long struggle in political opposition, and stood by her husband when he shunned Robert Mugabe’s lavish 85th-birthday celebrations, complete with cakes and ice creams, in solidarity for the suffering people of Zimbabwe. She intended a life of compassionate service to her people—much, much more—only for her life to be cut short by the tragic car crash that ended her life and put her husband in hospital. In Malta, or anywhere, we are not obligated to not eat cake and ice cream when others have nothing to eat in Zimbabwe; yet, it would be admirable for us not to eat cake and ice cream, not only in public outrage and personal witness against the abuses of Mugabe, in solidarity with suffering Zimbabweans, but as a private sacrifice joined with