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 Matthew 19-21.

Yesterday's reading challenged us to "become like a little child." In today's passage, people will bring little children to Jesus for him to bless. In between the two (an editorial positioning that highlights what is in the middle position), we find one of Jesus' most challenging teachings ("whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery" Matthew 19:9) and one of his most striking challenges: to "renounce marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it" (Matthew 19:12).

Jesus' invitation to voluntary celibacy is different what we read about in Jeremiah. The young prophet's celibacy was a sign of the impending fall of Jerusalem: ordinary life would be completely disrupted; things could not go on as usual. Jesus is calling for an entirely positive kind of renunciation: "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven." This is something that St Paul (who famously accepted the challenge) will develop for us in 1 Corinthians 7.

Notice how the solemn entry into Jerusalem and the "cleansing" of the Temple fulfills one after another the prophecies we read over the summer. The children were chanting "Hosanna to the Son of David" (using the royal title) fulfilled yet another. Jesus' parables continue to urge the hard-hearted to open themselves to the incredible truth that the prophecies are being fulfilled, at long last, right before their eyes. What is keeping them from being as docile as the prostitutes and tax collectors who changed their ways at the preaching of John the Baptist? They have only to let go of their ambitions and their plans, to "become like a little child" in order to "enter the Kingdom of God."

Start reading here.

For additional background

On Matthew

We have barely a week and a half with the Gospel of Matthew, and there's just too much wealth there for me to even hint at in my little introductions (to three chapters a day!). So Dr Edward Sri's companion to the Gospel of Matthew is a good study guide: it even has reflection questions and space for you to write your answers!

For all Four Gospels

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.