Monday of 2nd Week in Lent
Verbum Domini
The wicked and adulterous generation that our culture has become is heartily in favor of the words of Jesus here–it’s about the only ones they ever quote–“Judge not, and you will not be judged.” They believe that if one loves the sinner, which Jesus commands, one also has to love the sin that has imprisoned the sinner and given rise to his groaning. As the psalmist says, if they remain in their sin, they are doomed to eternal death. But if the Christian encourages the sinner to see the sin as a source of slavery and pain, that Christian is called intolerant and judgmental.
Recently, for instance, the Planned Parenthood crowd has found the perfect patsy to help them turn the protests of Catholics against forcing people of conscience to pay for immoral drugs and procedures into something else. They have decided their position against the first amendment is indefensible, so they want to accuse Catholics and other people of conscience of trying to make contraception illegal. They search for and find an attractive young Catholic university student to make their case. It’s an old and disingenuous ploy–when you are losing an argument, change the subject. The only victim is the truth.
Last week we looked at the Pope’s insistence that in the pursuit of Truth, those who study the Bible must remember that the Scriptures are read in the context of the Church. He goes on to say that someone who studies the Scriptures without the faith of the Church might find “interesting elements on the level of textual structure and form, but [such studies] would inevitably prove merely preliminary and structurally incomplete efforts.” If our studies do not come out of a life of faith, we’ll never have “access to a proper understanding of the biblical texts.”
I have found this to be true in my own life. As I have grown in my ability to pray, and my understanding that it is a conversation with the Trinity, with three divine persons who love me, I have been able to glean more from the psalms. They more and more become my prayers, not just archaic poems. The more we mature in the life in the Holy Spirit, the more we can understand the meaning and purpose of the words inspired by the same Holy Spirit. It was St. Gregory the Great who taught: “The divine words grow together with the one who reads them”.
