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 are finishing 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. By your gift, the Church continues to receive unfathomable riches from the inheritance handed on from the Apostles and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.

Let the Spirit who inspired the writing of today's pages "guide me in the truth and teach me" to follow Jesus ever more closely, until he calls me to follow him to the Kingdom where he lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.

Today's chapters are Hebrews 13 and James 1-2.

Remembering that chapter divisions were not introduced into the Bible until 1205 can help us maintain a bit of the connection with the theological reflection that we are still in the middle of, even as the author moves into few practical applications of what it means to live in this world "with eyes fixed on Jesus." Then the homily that is Hebrews ends (as ancient Christian homilies will for hundreds of years) with a doxology and an Amen (13:21), and the "Letter" ends with a very quick update (not about the writer, but about Timothy!) and a sign-off.

With that, we have completed the Pauline Epistles (yay!) and move into the section of the New Testament known as the "Catholic Epistles," not because the other ones are not Catholic, but because they are addressed to a "general" (catholic meaning "everybody") and not a specific community or person. 

The first of these is the Letter of James. Which James? There are at least three candidates in the Gospels, but a strong line of tradition identifies the writer as the "brother of the Lord," a son of "Mary the mother of James and Joseph" (Mt 27:56) and later head of the Jerusalem community. Paul testified to the Galatians that after his conversion, when he met with Peter, he also met with "James, the brother of the Lord" (Gal 1:19). At his final, eventful visit to the Holy City, he made sure to visit James again (Acts 21:18-19). If this is our author, he was indeed, one of the "pillars" of the Church (see Gal 2:9).

Our entry into the Letter of James wounds like one of the Wisdom books, but updated according to the example and teachings of Jesus. As you read, don't just speed by any passages that make you feel a bit defensive, lest you be "a hearer of the word and not a doer, like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror and... promptly forgets what he looked like" (1:22, 24). You will find much practical guidance from the very first page! And why? Because, as the Letter of James famously puts it, "faith without works is dead" (2:17). 

Finish reading Hebrews here and start reading James here.