Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

My God, I adore and thank your loving and wise Providence, manifested on every page of Sacred Scripture. You have always been close to sinful and erring humanity, and have indicated the way and given hope. Amid the shadows of error and corruption, you kindled the light of your truth; amid universal corruption, you are the Just One; amid so much idolatry, humanity in every corner of the earth has cultivated a sincere worship of you.
Let my reading today increase my trust in your goodness, your mercy, and your unfailing faithfulness.

Today's chapters are 1 Samuel 2-4 

Hannah's canticle of praise on dedicating her toddler son to God will be mirrored in Mary's Magnificat. Both women glorify God who turns the expectations of the world upside down, raising the lowly and providing amply for the poor. Samuel (whose name means "God hears") will become a model of listening to God: "Speak, Lord: Your servant is listening."

If Chapter 4 were a scene in a movie, it would start with one of those sustained low notes that gives you a definite sense of foreboding. Not because the Israelites had just lost a battle, but because of the way they dealt with it: They asked each other “Why has the Lord permitted defeat?” From the results, you see this was a rhetorical question. They took things in their own hands and decided to take the Ark of the Covenant into battle like some kind of good-luck charm.

The people fell into the trap of thinking that their military victory and God's glory were one and the same thing. With a worldview like that, it is easy to understand the temptation to instrumentalize God's transcendent presence (something which the Sacred Writer emphasizes by referring to "the ark of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned upon the cherubim"). Nobody suspected God to bring about his glory through failure and defeat or the capture of the Ark. (But hadn't the Israelites themselves attempted to "capture" God's power for themselves?) 

Tomorrow we will begin our Lenten observance: all of Lent draws our attention to God's paradoxical glory in suffering, in loss, in "death, even death on a Cross" (Phil 2: 8). 

Start reading here.

If you are looking for a solid but approachable companion to the Bible, I can wholeheartedly recommend A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by John Bergsma and Brant Pitre. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts, and how each book of the Bible has been understood by the Church Fathers and used in Liturgy.