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: 

Everlasting Father,

All time belongs to you, and all the ages. In signs, in songs, in words of promise, you reassured your chosen ones, “I am with you; fear not.” You taught them through the prophets to trust that your saving deeds were not limited to the past.

When Jesus came, he fulfilled “all that was written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”

The Church has found him everywhere in these same holy books.

Help me to find Jesus in my reading today, to listen to him, and to follow him with all my heart.

Amen.

Today's chapters are Ezekiel 14-16 and (because it is Sunday) Psalms 117 and 118.

Ezekiel's image of the abandoned girl-child who becomes an adulterous bride is at once a familiar image (we've heard God complain of his people's infidelity in matrimonial terms before) and at the same time horrifying for modern readers. It is only natural for us to bring our awareness of the psychological vulnerability of such a child into our reading. We have to remind ourselves that we are dealing with a parable in which elements have been exaggerated in order to make a point: God's love has been extravagant, and the people have still betrayed him, even to the point of human sacrifice. And even so God will be faithful to his love for them. (Drs Brandsma and Pitre offer more helpful insights in A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: Old Testament on Ezekiel's hyperbole concerning women.)

Psalm 117 is the shortest of the psalms, a perfection in parallel structure.

Psalm 118, the last of the Hallel psalms, is theologically rich and liturgically important for Catholics. During the Easter Vigil, it follows the solemn Alleluia that prepares us to hear the Gospel, and appears as a privileged Responsorial Psalm throughout the Easter Season. That Easter connection continues in the Liturgy of the Hours, where Psalm 118 is prayed every Sunday in the Four Week Psalter (at Morning Prayer for Weeks Two and Three, and Daytime Prayer for Weeks One and Four), and for the Evening Prayer I of the Common of Martyrs. Throughout the year, it is prayed at Morning Prayer on Sunday in Week Two of the Four-Week Psalter. (Sundays are always a celebration of Easter.) Jesus cited Psalm 118 in the context of his parable of the Vineyard laborers (Matthew 21:36-43), and we quote one line of this psalm in each and every Mass: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord"! 

Start reading Ezekiel here and the Psalms 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.