BIBLE  DISCOVERIES - 

TAKE TIME - 

THEN  KEEP  THEM  IN MIND 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 22^nd Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Bible Discoveries - Take Time - Then Keep Them in Mind.”

This will be a teaching homily.

One of my Bible discoveries is that people get more out of reading the Bible when they have a couple of theories about the how the Bible works - about what’s going on in the Bible - and they spot it when reading the Bible on their own or when they hear it being read in church.

FOR EXAMPLE # 1

For example, the word Bible comes from the word “biblia” - plural for books.

The Bible is a library of different books and different types of literature. It’s a whole stack of books. Better: it’s a lot of different scrolls.  If you were at Mass yesterday you heard in the gospel of Luke how Jesus was in the synagogue and was handed one such scroll - that of Isaiah.  It was kept in a box - a tabernacle - and the attendant like a Eucharistic Minister would open up the tabernacle and take out the word and hand it to someone.

Sound familiar?

We come to Mass and are fed with the word and the word made flesh Jesus.

So the first learning is to ask what kind of literature am I reading or hearing? A kid’s story is different than a book in the history section of the library. The Bible has fiction and non-fiction. Both contain truths. And they have various other types of literature as well.

So those who see the Bible as the same kind of literature can end up taking everything literally. Then some give up, because they know a person can’t be in the belly of a whale for 3 days and live. Then when they hear it’s fiction and non-fiction they throw up their hands saying, “I don’t know what to believe any more.”

FOR EXAMPLE # 2

When listening to and hearing the New Testament we discover that from after Jesus was killed and then rose from the dead as we believe - there was a major question about the Second Coming. So after he left us around the year 33 till sometime after 100, people weren’t sure if this whole world was about to end.

When it wasn’t happening, when it wasn’t ending, different people got on a new train - the one that was saying, “Jesus didn’t mean what we thought he meant.”  Keep your ears open for that one. You could cut and paste a whole series of texts to show that this was happening. Think about all those texts we have at the end of the Church year  - when we hear about not knowing with the Bridegroom would appear.

In today’s first reading we have the oldest New Testament text is 1^st Thessalonians and it’s dated around the year 50 and 51. Those of you who have Magnificat, or This Day or a small Missal - re-read today’s first reading and this question is front and central. The end is going to come like a thief in the night. It’s like being pregnant. Couples near the time of birth are anxious - and make all kinds of contingency plans - not knowing when the baby would arrive..

So read the New Testament remembering this question is front and central at times.

FOR EXAMPLE # 3

The gospels and the letters of Paul etc. have in mind an audience who want to know who this Jesus is. Peter is not the only one who is being asked, “Who do you say I am?” 

That question is aimed at everyone - and the gospels etc. are probing and pushing us to answer that question.

In today’s gospel we have the funny story that this crazy guy in the synagogue in Capernaum knows who Jesus is, “the Holy One of God” but the crowds don’t get it yet - and the Scribes and the Pharisees never get it.

Keep that in mind when you hear the gospels. A main question is discovering and coming up with answers to the Who is Jesus question

CONCLUSION

So that’s my homily. When we come up with some key questions and key issues to keep in mind, we’ll grasp the scriptures that much better. Amen.