Thursday, March 16, 2023

Lent Madness: Augustine vs Joanna

Greetings Saint Boosters:

 

 

Well, now it gets hard.  With Martin de Porres crushing poor Maximus the Maimed, we now get into the battles of the Saintly Sixteen!  Every one of these contenders has their fans, so someone’s going to lose, though, I hasten to add, thanks to God’s grace and the blood of the Lamb, we are all in the winners’ circle.   Phew!

 

If Maximus’ fate is any indication, then a learned and wise theologian will probably lose out to a simple saint of service like Martin.   So, I don’t rate Augustine’s chances much against Joanna.   I think people will want myrrh of her and less of him (see what I did there?).

 

Fortunately, most theologians are humble folk who know that there is something innately ridiculous about filling pages attempting to capture the essence of mysteries.   Hence,  in today’s Lent Madness post, the lovely story of the boy at the seashore telling Augustine that the mysteries of the Holy Trinity were an “incomprehensible ocean”.   Most theologians, from Thomas Aquinas to Karl Barth, knew that writing books is a way of passing time before eternity, and if those books help the church, then that’s God’s grace at work.

 

So Joanna, a woman who had so much to lose (wealth, privilege, a powerful husband) and who still followed Jesus, will probably get the nod, and why shouldn’t see?  I’m sure that the wise Augustine will smile and step aside, with only the faint envy that of the two them, it was actually Joanna that walked and talked with Jesus.

 

You can vote here:

https://www.lentmadness.org/2023/03/augustine-v-joanna/

 

While you’re there, why not take a chance on guessing how the rest of the brackets will play out?

https://www.lentmadness.org/brackets/saintly-16-percentage-bracket/

 

 

Cheers and blessings,

 
Michael

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