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 22-24.
We have some powerful material here! Notice how many Old Testament references and quotations there are, too, as we get closer to the Passion Narrative. Because of that, I think it is important to highlight a few especially significant passages:
In Chapter 22, Jesus responds to a sneering question about the resurrection of the body. As in our own day, sophisticated people thought that the body crumbled to dust and that was that. The Sadducees were a highly sophisticated religious elite who only accepted as "dogma" whatever could be found in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Since nothing from Genesis to Deuteronomy teaches that the dead will rise again, they ridiculed the very notion, which had gradually developed among the Chosen People especially through periods of persecution. (Remember finding expressions of faith in life after death in Maccabees and Daniel?) Notice how Jesus responds to the joking "challenge" by quoting...Exodus, the second book of the Bible. We need a renewal of faith in the resurrection of the dead in our day, too. May today's reading increase our faith and hope of one day being fully conformed, body and soul, to the Risen Jesus!
In Chapter 23, we find exceedingly harsh words about the Pharisees (a lay movement concerned with exact observance of religious regulations). Jesus is not condemning the Pharisees for being Pharisees, but for pride and for acting in a way that puts all religious observances on the same level, instead of prioritizing the things that really matter.
Chapter 24, with its apocalyptic language, has been a playground for people who mine the Scriptures for signs of the "end times." Keep in mind that Jesus is speaking of two things in this discourse: the Fall of Jerusalem (which took place in 70 AD) and his own eventual Second Coming, which we proclaim every Sunday in the Creed. We have seen apocalyptic language before, especially in Daniel, and we will find it again in Paul and in Revelation. We can also look back at Ezekiel 32:7, which we read in late August. Back in 585 BC, Ezekiel foretold the fall of Egypt's Pharaoh Hophra to Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar:
When I extinguish you,
I will cover the heavens
and darken all its stars.
The sun I will cover with clouds;
the moon will not give light.
Though Egypt did indeed fall to Nebuchadnezzar (in 568, during the reign of Hophra), there is no record of apocalyptic phenomena accompanying the event. The apocalyptic language is a literary form, not a prophecy in itself.
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
 |
| A look inside; I translated the FAQs (above the eagle) and footnotes for Mt 16-28! |
No comments:
Post a Comment