Read the Bible with Me!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers and godmothers among the Bible readers!

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 2 Maccabees 6-8 and (because it is Sunday) Psalms 87 and 88.

Now we get to the heart of the first religious persecution in the history of the world. Earlier programs against the Jews had been ethnic or political. This time, life or death hinges on a strictly religious test: will this or that person obey God's law, or the political laws?

The world had known heroes. Now it sees martyrs of faith. Notice how a belief in personal resurrection (on the basis of God's power as Creator) has gradually developed on the basis of earlier divine revelation.

Psalm 87 sees Jerusalem as the "mother" of all who believe in the one true God. They may be from Babylon or Egypt, but in what really counts, they were born in the Holy City. This understanding of universal motherhood that links Jerusalem with all who worship the living God explains why Psalm 87 is often used as the Responsorial Psalm on feasts of Mary, the Mother of the Lord and of his Church. As mother of believers of every race, Jerusalem itself is a type (a prophetic foreshadowing, or in this case, an image) of Mary!

But wait, that's not all! Mary is, in her turn, a type of the Church! So Psalm 87 can also be interpreted of the Church. In fact, much of what we say about Mary, we also say about the Church, and biblical images of each are often understood of both one and the other. (When we reach the poetic books and the prophetic writings, and then when we reach the Book of Revelation we will find this in abundance.) Both Mary and the Church are Virgin, Bride, Mother: Mother of Christ and Mother of the Faithful. Mary is the first member of the Church; she is the first believer and the first member of the Church to fully experience the resurrection (through her bodily Assumption at the end of her earthly life). 

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.