Scripture Notes: Speaking Up (Luke 2)

Anna has been waiting a long, long time when Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus into the Temple. She is 84 years old, dedicated to prayer and fasting, determined to wait in faith, hope, and love for the coming of the Messiah. Her heart is open, her mind clear, her spirit attuned to truth. And she recognizes Jesus the moment she sees Him. This is the One Who is at the heart of her life, the One for Whom she has been waiting, finally the One Who will redeem Israel.

When she sees Jesus, Anna goes straight to Him, giving thanks to God. We can imagine her excitement, her smile, her gentle touch. Perhaps she, like Simeon, holds the Baby, cuddling Him close to her, looking into His eyes, experiencing the connection, the joy, of this intimacy with God. Then Anna speaks up. She tells everyone about Jesus. She may focus on those who have been waiting with her for the redemption of Israel, but most likely, she spreads the news to anyone who can hear. 

But do these people listen? Do they believe Anna’s message? Perhaps some merely smile and condescendingly think what a sweet, silly old lady Anna is. Others may scoff, still others ignore. But some probably listen, caught up in Anna’s enthusiasm. These would be waiting to see what happens next, what this little Baby might grow up to be. Anna does not live to see Jesus’ return to Jerusalem during His public ministry or to witness His salvific death and resurrection, but she knows the truth. The Redeemer has come, and she never hesitates to speak up.

Scripture Notes: Choose (Joshua 24)

As the conquest of the Promised Land progresses and the people begin to take possession of the heritage God is giving them, Joshua calls together the twelve tribes. They have an important decision to make, a critical decision, one that will affect the rest of their lives and even eternity. 

Joshua reminds them of God’s care and the great favor He has given His covenant people. Then he tells them, “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if you be unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh 24:14-15). 

Here is the choice. The people must make it right now. They can serve God and keep the covenant He has made with them, renouncing all other “gods” forever. Or they can abandon God and rely on the “gods” they served in Egypt or in the homeland of their ancestors. It must be one or the other. They cannot do both. Joshua gives the people an example by clearly stating his choice. He and his house will serve God. 

The people respond, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods” (Josh 24:16). After all, God is the One Who rescued them from slavery in Egypt and led them into the Promised Land. He has shown great signs and wonders in their midst and fought their battles for them. So, they conclude, “we also will serve the Lord, for He is our God” (Josh 24:18).

Joshua warns them that it will be no easy task to serve God. He sets standards. He has laws that must be obeyed. He will not tolerate idolatry even for an instant. And He punishes people when they sin. The people firmly maintain their choice to serve God, and Joshua ratifies that choice with a ceremony. 

Of course, the people soon do exactly the opposite of what they so vigorously proclaim. They do not serve the Lord, nor to do they obey Him, and they even begin to worship other “gods.” Their words and their actions do not match, and when times get a little tough, their good intentions melt away, and they forget that they have chosen God. 

Scripture Notes: Taming the Tongue (James 3)

We all know that James is right. The tongue is an untameable little beast, “a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8). We all know the power of words. We have all said things we wanted to take back. We know what it is like to use our tongues to hurt others, and we know what it is like to have others hurt us by their words. Yet we continue to struggle to tame our tongues, to keep our mouths shut, to think before we speak.

James compares the tongue to the rudder of a ship. It is so small, yet it can guide a large ship wherever the captain wishes it to go. He also compares the tongue to a little fire, just a spark, that can set a whole forest ablaze. If the rudder goes bad, the ship can crash into rocks and sink. If the little fire gets out of control, things burns, lots of things.

So what are we to do? James says that “no human being can tame the tongue” (James 3:8), but God can. He can and will give us His grace to help us control our tongues, to mind our words, to think before we speak. But we have to want it and accept it and use it. With God’s grace, we can fix the little rudder and direct it on the right path toward speech that will truly help and build up others and ourselves. With God’s grace, we can keep the fire under control so that it provides a beautiful light and a nourishing warmth to all those around us.

Scripture Notes: Tested or Tempted? (James 1)

In his New Testament letter, St. James makes a critical distinction between testing and temptation. Apparently some Christians of his day were getting confused, thinking that God was tempting them to commit sin. No way, James responds; God does not tempt anyone. God never deceives anyone or leads anyone into sin. God never wills us to do evil. When we are tempted, the problem is ourselves, our concupiscence (that tendency we all have toward sin), our disordered desires, our out-of-control passions. Sometimes the devil tempts us, too, nudging us toward something we know is wrong, making it look really good, prodding us to take just one more step (and then another and another) down a path we should not go. But the choice is ours, and God gives us the grace to resist temptations that come from ourselves and from our enemy.

While God does not tempt us to sin, He does test us at times, and He does so because He loves us. James tells us that God sends us trials, but He has a very good reason for this. We need to grow. We need to understand ourselves better. We need to strengthen our faith. All of this happens with God’s help of course, but it does not tend to happen when our lives are smooth sailing. It is then that we get complacent, flabby, lazy. Everything is going great, and we forget we need God. We forget we are supposed to be on the path to Heaven, and the world looks pretty good as it is.

So God wakes us up. He tests us, challenges us, sends us some difficulty to work through so that we discover how small and weak and sinful we are and then turn to Him, embrace His grace, and grow stronger by it. We learn how to endure, how to have patience, how to rely on God. We find out that we are not as independent as we thought we were; in fact, we are completely dependent upon Him. And when we work through these trials, these tests, with God’s help, they lead us to deeper faith, deeper hope, and deeper love and, as James says, to the “crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.”

Tempting and testing, then, are fundamentally different. Temptation can lead us away from God, but only if we choose to give in to it. Testing can lead us closer and closer to God, but only if we understand what is happening and reach out to God in our need, relying on Him to give us the grace to pass the test and keep on strive for the crown of life.

Scripture Notes: Paul, an Apostle (Ephesians 1)

St. Paul begins many of his letters with a variation of the declaration that he is “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” While we might dash right past this introduction, it actually contains a great deal of deep meaning that we would do well to reflect on. The word “apostle” refers to someone who is sent. Notice the passive voice there. Paul is not sending himself. He is sent by Christ to carry His Gospel to the world. On that decisive day on the road to Damascus, Paul encountered our risen Lord in person, and his whole life changed in an instant. He was sent, sent to the Jews, sent to the Gentiles, sent to the whole world, sent to us. He became an apostle.

And Paul knows exactly Whose will is behind that sending: God’s will. Paul did not make the first move. In fact, he was persecuting the followers of Jesus, believing them to be blasphemers. He thought he was perfectly fine, right with God, keeping the Law and in good standing as a Pharisee. But Jesus knew better. There was something more in store for Paul, and Jesus chose him specifically for his mission. Paul’s job was to accept the choice and the call and to conform his will to God’s will. 

We have the same job. We, too, are called and sent to speak the message of the Gospel to all the world. We will likely do that in different ways than Paul did, for we all have different gifts and talents and abilities and missions. But, we too, are invited to conform our wills to God’s will and accept His choice and call. 

Scripture Notes: Intense Prayer (1 Samuel 1)

Hannah is a miserable woman at the beginning of the First Book of Samuel. She is beloved by her husband, but she has no children. Her rival wife (a real issue in those days of polygamy) apparently has several sons and daughters and taunts Hannah unmercifully about it. Hannah’s husband, Elkanah, tries to comfort her, but she is not comforted. She seems to know deep down that there is only one place she can find hope and peace and comfort, and that is on her knees before God.

Elkanah and his family are devout people who often go to Shiloh, the place of God’s Tabernacle in those days, to sacrifice and worship. Hannah struggles, hardly even able to go through the motions, and eventually, she simply kneels before God, weeping and praying so intensely that her lips move (literally “shake” or “tremble”) but no words come out. She is praying from the very depths of her heart, asking God to remember her, begging for the son she desires so deeply, and vowing that if God gives him to her, she will give him back to God.

The priest Eli sees Hannah kneeling there before the Tabernacle, so deep in prayer, and he misunderstands. He thinks she is drunk. He looks only at Hannah’s appearance and makes a snap judgment without getting the facts. Eli rebukes her, but she answers humbly and respectfully, explaining the situation and outlining her misery. By this point, Eli probably feels rather sheepish (as he should), and he blesses Hannah, telling her that God will grant her request.

And God does. Hannah gives birth to a son, Samuel, and when he is still a small child, she brings him to Eli, entering her boy into God’s service, where he remains the rest of his life. Hannah fulfills her vow, for her intense prayers have been answered, and her heart is filled with gratitude and love.

Scripture Notes: Examine Yourselves (2 Corinthians 13)

At the end of his second letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul both warns and commands. There have been problems in the Corinthian Church, sins and rivalries, disunity and liturgical abuse, pride and disdain for truth and goodness. And Paul is determined to correct this. He warns the Corinthians that if he comes to them again and the problems are still active, he will not spare them. He will deal firmly with them because, as a minister of Jesus Christ, he is capable of acting by the power of God, not to condemn them (although this is a risk if they fail to repent) but to bring them to conversion.

But Paul also commands the Corinthians to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves.” They need a reality check, and Paul knows all too well that they are the only ones who can truly administer it. They may or may not accept what he says. They may or may not receive the truth from his pen or his lips.  But they absolutely must discern the truth within themselves. They have to look closely at what they really believe and how they really act, not with the idea of excusing themselves or pretending or trying to shove reality in a corner somewhere and ignore it, but with sincerity and truth. 

This is not an easy task. It was not for the Corinthians, nor is it for us. In fact, it can be very painful to learn the truth about ourselves. Yet it is necessary. We need to be humble enough to know and admit that we sin all the time, that we are not yet the people God wants us to be, that we tend to hem and haw, to rationalize, to tell ourselves that we are not really that bad, that we are actually pretty good people overall, and that we do not have much to repent of. But it simply is not true, and if we obey Paul’s command to examine ourselves, and do so in all sincerity, we will see much more clearly. Then we will be able to go to God in prayer and to meet Him in the sacrament of Confession and to receive the grace He wants to give us as He forgives us and strengthens us to grow closer to Him and to obey His will in love.