Santa Barbara - In Praise of Barbara Organ, Mentor and Friend
I have a small plastic statue of Mary Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven) above my kitchen sink.
To my non-religious friends, this is (a) cute but quaint.
To my Catholic friends, this is (b) as it should be.
To my devout Protestant friends, this is (c) "Heh!?" The correct answer is (d) a reminder of Dr.
Barbara Organ - a devout Catholic who taught me a course in Biblical Hermeneutics that gave me a fresh and undying appreciation of both Hebrew and Christian scripture - but mostly the Jewish canon.
Up until I took a Masters level course with her, I confess, I had fallen into a liberal Protestant rut of seeing Hebrew Scripture aka the Old Testament as a bloody but necessary prelude to Jesus the Christ.
Mon Dieu - one class with her was enough to knock me out of my "Mary rejoicing" complacency to the "Rachel weeping" reality of the Slaughter of the Innocents by King Herod in zero CE.
Barbara loved Hebrew scripture.
The story of the creation of the world according to Genesis would have been enough material for an entire course for her.
As it was, we spent an entire evening on one verse and we felt by the end of the class that we too had only just begun.
And how would I have ever known that the story of Ruth was really the story of Naomi and her great grandson - without Dr.
Organ's passion for the story within the story.
And Jonah!? I had loved the story as a child in Sunday School and as an adult watching the Veggie Tales version - but no one else had ever brought it home to me that the real story was about a God who loved and desired to redeem all - regardless of their religious predilection, or lack thereof.
Barbara had a very special place in her heart for the Virgin Mary.
She led us through the first chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew and pointed out to us the seemingly wayward girls of the Bible - Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba - the great grandmothers of Jesus of Nazareth.
Mary during her time would have been whispered about too.
Only after taking her course did I hear a radical protestant Bible teacher, Dr.
James MacDonald, extol the virtues of Mary in a way that I had never heard before in the fundamentalist tradition.
But first and foremost Barbara was a devout Christian - a believer in and follower of Jesus.
I remember her describing a workshop she had been at where a woman was to play the part of a person who had been stooped from birth until Jesus touched her.
After the presentation the woman told the group that in actual fact she had been unable, once she had assumed that posture, to rise until the person who played Jesus touched her and helped her into a standing pose.
Barbara's spirit bubbled over when she recounted this to her class.
Who could ever accuse Dr.
Organ of being anything but the Real Thing!? Dr.
Barbara Organ, author of a number of articles and books including "Judaism for Gentiles," died of Lou Gehrig's disease on Sunday, August 6, 2006 Anno Domini at the age of 64 years.
I think all of Christendom and Jewry should weep.
The Ursuline Order, of which she was a member, has as its mission statement: "We are always ready to approach life from a fresh perspective, to change according to the needs and circumstances of the times.
" They are devoted to those things that are near and dear to the heart of God - the poor, women in poverty, and God's creation as lovingly described in the first chapter of Genesis.
St.
Barbara in the Catholic Church is the patron saint in times of danger from thunderstorms and fire.
Given her love for Israel and the Middle East, I think she was well-named.
Lekhayim far sholem (a toast for peace) dear Barbara, Lekhayim!
To my non-religious friends, this is (a) cute but quaint.
To my Catholic friends, this is (b) as it should be.
To my devout Protestant friends, this is (c) "Heh!?" The correct answer is (d) a reminder of Dr.
Barbara Organ - a devout Catholic who taught me a course in Biblical Hermeneutics that gave me a fresh and undying appreciation of both Hebrew and Christian scripture - but mostly the Jewish canon.
Up until I took a Masters level course with her, I confess, I had fallen into a liberal Protestant rut of seeing Hebrew Scripture aka the Old Testament as a bloody but necessary prelude to Jesus the Christ.
Mon Dieu - one class with her was enough to knock me out of my "Mary rejoicing" complacency to the "Rachel weeping" reality of the Slaughter of the Innocents by King Herod in zero CE.
Barbara loved Hebrew scripture.
The story of the creation of the world according to Genesis would have been enough material for an entire course for her.
As it was, we spent an entire evening on one verse and we felt by the end of the class that we too had only just begun.
And how would I have ever known that the story of Ruth was really the story of Naomi and her great grandson - without Dr.
Organ's passion for the story within the story.
And Jonah!? I had loved the story as a child in Sunday School and as an adult watching the Veggie Tales version - but no one else had ever brought it home to me that the real story was about a God who loved and desired to redeem all - regardless of their religious predilection, or lack thereof.
Barbara had a very special place in her heart for the Virgin Mary.
She led us through the first chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew and pointed out to us the seemingly wayward girls of the Bible - Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba - the great grandmothers of Jesus of Nazareth.
Mary during her time would have been whispered about too.
Only after taking her course did I hear a radical protestant Bible teacher, Dr.
James MacDonald, extol the virtues of Mary in a way that I had never heard before in the fundamentalist tradition.
But first and foremost Barbara was a devout Christian - a believer in and follower of Jesus.
I remember her describing a workshop she had been at where a woman was to play the part of a person who had been stooped from birth until Jesus touched her.
After the presentation the woman told the group that in actual fact she had been unable, once she had assumed that posture, to rise until the person who played Jesus touched her and helped her into a standing pose.
Barbara's spirit bubbled over when she recounted this to her class.
Who could ever accuse Dr.
Organ of being anything but the Real Thing!? Dr.
Barbara Organ, author of a number of articles and books including "Judaism for Gentiles," died of Lou Gehrig's disease on Sunday, August 6, 2006 Anno Domini at the age of 64 years.
I think all of Christendom and Jewry should weep.
The Ursuline Order, of which she was a member, has as its mission statement: "We are always ready to approach life from a fresh perspective, to change according to the needs and circumstances of the times.
" They are devoted to those things that are near and dear to the heart of God - the poor, women in poverty, and God's creation as lovingly described in the first chapter of Genesis.
St.
Barbara in the Catholic Church is the patron saint in times of danger from thunderstorms and fire.
Given her love for Israel and the Middle East, I think she was well-named.
Lekhayim far sholem (a toast for peace) dear Barbara, Lekhayim!
