I found myself pondering on the occupation of Christ at the weekend.
That may sound like a strange thing to do, but we are doing some pretty major renovations on our house at the moment, and I found myself marvelling at the carpentry work of the guys we have working on the house. Just the way they are able to fit the wood together and create something amazing in the process – it’s quite something. Especially when you are someone whose daily job is not nearly so “hands on”. 
Carpentry led me to thinking about Jesus as a teenager and young adult. We know very little about that period in His life as there isn’t really any coverage of it in the Bible, save for one passage in Luke (2:51-52) which states:
He went down with them [Our Lady and St Joseph] and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced (in) wisdom and age and favour before God and man.
That’s it. But, as a priest once told me, we can infer a lot from this passage. It is relatively safe to assume that Christ became a carpenter, following in the footsteps of St Joseph. In fact, if he didn’t follow in the family business, that probably would have been noteworthy enough to write it down! We can also assume that Our Lord would have applied Himself to His job in the same way that He applied Himself to everything else in His life – i.e. perfectly. There should be no doubt that He would have lived what He believed, and what He later came to preach to others. The concepts of Him being lazy, or derelict in his duties, or a sloppy worker – none of these are even possible if He truly was the Son of God. Also, one would imagine, if He was a total slacker, Jesus would not have “advanced in the favour” of His customers, now would he! 
What’s my point with this pondering? Well, I note that with upcoming appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, the majority of judges on the bench will, in fact, be Catholic. 6 out of the 9, to be precise. Which means that the majority now is Catholic, and has been for a while, right? I find this interesting since the Supreme Court has (in)famously clung to the ruling of Roe vs. Wade (as we all know) legalising abortion and contributing in a manifest way to the deaths of tens of millions of unborn children.
How do those judges separate their Faith from their jobs so clinically? Isn’t that a fascinating/horrible contrast to the way in which Christ would have carried out His job? Can you imagine Him…I don’t know…making tables on the Sabbath because obeying the laws of the time was more of a “conscience issue”? Or, can you imagine anyone ever meeting Him and not knowing – for certain from His actions and behaviour – that He was a Jew?
Probably not.
Here’s another question: name for me, please, the Catholic MPs in our current government. I only know of Bill English; I’m sure there are more – but why can’t I name them? Why aren’t their actions speaking so loudly that I can’t not know who they are?
We live in a time when it is more important than ever for our actions to speak loudly to our Faith, to what we believe, and to what makes us different. Now more than ever because what we believe is no longer the same as the majority of society. People are falling away from God, and taking society with them! Whose job is it to fix this?
Well, a good place to start is with everyone reading, hearing or typing these words.
er…
Whose job is it?
(That’s because my job is being a writer)
Thoughtful post though
Whoops!
I can’t believe that one skipped past! Thanks eleus! 
Bill English is Catholic? Like proper Catholic or just in namesake?
No probs James, it happens! I just hate it when things slip past me in my own work teehee.
You can take these two comments down now if you like
David Bennet the MP for Hamilton East (National) appears to be a practicing Catholic. I used to see him regularly at mass when I attended the 10.30am sacrifice at the Cathedral.
I know Bill English; he is practising Catholic; he just doesn’t advertise it.
Michael Joseph Savage described his policies as “applied Christianity”. I can’t imagine any politician saying that today in New Zealand or any other Western country.
MFSS…I’m glad
But the US? There are quite a few politicians there that could say that easily I’d bet. Especially in the bible belt.
fishe,
So you’d like to see an end to the welfare system? After all, that’s one of the outcomes of “applied Christianity”.
OK, so I’ve only just now got around to reading the post.
On the topic of Catholic MPs, here are a few more who at least have a Catholic background:
Bill English and David Bennett (mentioned above), Chris Finlayson, Clayton Cosgrove, Peter Dunne, Jim Anderton, Gerry Brownlee, Michael Woodhouse, Sue Moroney, one of the Carters from National (John or David), Damien O’Connor, Paul Quinn. There may well be others.
Of course, they practise (in terms of Sunday obligation and in legislating) to varying degrees. I don’t know enough about all of them to give a checklist, but Bill English, Chris Finlayson and Gerry Brownlee are regular Massgoers. I think Woodhouse, former CEO of Mercy Hospital in Dunedin, practises, as does Cosgrove. Sue Moroney has said she goes on special occasions; Jim Anderton, from his public comments, would be similar. Don’t know much about the others.
I think MFSS is right that most wouldn’t publicly talk about “applied Christianity”, but I’d hope some would use their faith to guide their thinking.
Scribe, no I wouldn’t thanks.
And I don’t think the welfare system has any claim to an exclusive christian cause.
I am happy though to live in a country where both PM candidates in the pre-election leaders debates could say without hesitation that they don’t have any particular religious beliefs. Go NZ.
Unlike in the poor old US of A, where they have “universities” that teach such courses as: http://www.designinference.com/teaching/teaching.htm
That includes assignments that go like:
So basically creating a theocracy based around Christianity and ID.
*spew*
fishe,
The welfare system has Christian origins. Who runs the soup kitchens and homeless shelters and halfway houses in New Zealand — and around the world? Adherents to Christianity have moulded the world you take for granted.
And as far as Intelligent Design goes, have you seen (or heard about) the movie Expelled? It’s amazing how supportive of free speech these academics are until someone disagrees with their worldview.
Yes, a lot of excellent people go to church and do great things for the community. This does not necessarily mean christianity is the cause. Those people wouldn’t be doing those things otherwise? All those non-religious groups out there today are inherently less effective?
And of course I’ve seen Expelled
One of the funniest docos I’ve seen in ages. A real documentary that brought in a horrible Hitler argument. It was like a lame internet forum debate between 16 year olds, but on celluloid.
I think you need to read: http://www.expelledexposed.com/
Maybe start with the dodgy production tactics they used to literally trick the scientists they interviewed to be interviewed: http://www.expelledexposed.com/index.php/background/interview-tactics
The wikipedia page has a nice summary of the controversy around the doco as well. The doco actually nicely summarises the ID movement – all talk and PR, no substance.
There are some real issues with “free speech” in academia. But this doco really has nothing to do with those, it’s an “appallingly unscrupulous example of hack propaganda” (Canadian review)
In fact, why does this film not insult you as a Christian? That’s worrying…have you not seen it?
Track down this doco Scribe if you want to watch something about ID…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_Day:_Intelligent_Design_on_Trial
It is pro-evolution, and probably not entirely balanced. But undoubtedly a heck of a lot more accurate on ID than Expelled. It nicely explains the origins of the movement in relation to the Dover trial.
Fishe
Wonderful people who are not christians do do great stuff. However, I believe if you look back into the mists of time, the welfare state WAS born out of Christian states – originally it WAS the christians who looked after the sick, poor or dying. The romans used to think they were crazy and Nitchze (spelt wrong!!!) talked about it with great disdain.
Gianna, yeap all good. My earlier comments on causality still apply – you should have a good grasp of this issue Miss Psychologist
Haha. Ok you give me statistical data, I’ll run some stats on to prove causality.