nunblog: Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We've reached the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray:

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this, until Jesus comes again in glory.

Open my mind today to the gift of life and truth your Word offers me through the Church. By your Holy Spirit, grant me wisdom and strength to put this Word into practice and to become, myself, a presence of Jesus for people who are looking for you.

Jesus, eternal Word and Son of the Father, live in me with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Today's chapters are John 11-13.

The Book of Signs reaches its high point with the raising of Lazarus. Jesus has shown power over all of nature. He has healed human ailments, and in giving sight to a man born blind, he had offered a sign that none of the prophets had done; it was almost an act of creation. Prophets had raised dead persons before, but John goes out of his way to show that this case was different. Elijah and Elisha each raised a child who had recently died, but in both cases, the boy was still laid out in an upper room (the stories are basically identical). Lazarus had already been bound up in a tight shroud and buried for four days. That length of time is important: The grave had already made its claim on the body. In the raising of Lazarus, Jesus is showing a power not just over the immediate details of death and dying: He is overthrowing the power of the grave entirely.

Naturally, this will have consequences. Not for nothing does John tell us, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." He waited until the sick Lazarus was good and dead before heading into Judea (where his enemies were setting traps for him), so that his final, unforgettable sign would be for a family he loved, even as it provoked the circumstances that would lead him to his own grave. Notice Mary's tender response at the banquet, and how Jesus makes it his own in the Last Supper.

In Chapter 12, the "Greeks" (not Gentiles, but Greek-speaking Jews in town as Passover pilgrims) are seeking Jesus. This is a signal to the Lord that his "hour" is at hand. What we see next corresponds (in that unique Johannine way) to Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane as found in the Synoptic Gospels. Notice that Jesus' reaction to the Greeks' interest in him is not one of delight, but of anguish at the nearness of his hour, and the instinctive wish to escape. He admits wanting to pray, "Father, save me from this hour." But he overcomes his natural impulse, and in words similar to the petition "Hallowed be Thy Name," prays, "Father, glorify Thy Name!" And whereas in Luke's Gethsemane account, "an angel from heaven appeared" (Lk 22:43), in John's Gospel, a voice comes from heaven.

The Book of Signs ends with the closing of Chapter 12, and with Chapter 13 we begin the Book of Glory. Knowing John (And by now, "well, you know John!"), that "glory" is not exactly the kind we are likely to go looking for, whether for ourselves or those we love. But maybe if we received an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we would follow Jesus that far.

Start reading here.

For additional background

This year for "Buy a Nun a Book Day," one of the first books I received was Dr John Bergsma's Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood. As I read it, I saw how many of the Old Testament "types" and institutions we read about through the year were fulfilled (super-abundantly) in Jesus and in the Church. This is especially clear in the Gospel of John, which in a way is the most "priestly" of the four Gospels.

If you have questions about the priesthood in the Church, or about the difference between our baptismal participation in the priesthood of Christ and that exercised by our ministerial priests, or even simple questions like why Catholics call priests "Father" (when Jesus said, "Call no one on earth 'father'"), or if you would like to see in a fuller way how very many Old Testament types were pointing to Jesus and to the Church, this very readable book is for you.

I am happy to recommend this volume of The Four Gospels in an edition directed to young readers and their parents. The text of all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in the New Revised Standard Translation is accompanied by FAQs that a middle-school reader might ask (or, to be honest, anybody reading the Gospels for the first time). The footnotes were prepared by a team of Scripture scholars for parents and guardians, making the book ideal for family Bible reading.