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.

Scripture Notes: Crucified with Christ (Galatians 2)

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” St. Paul is quite clear in his letter to the Galatians: Christ is everything to him, his whole world, his whole life, the center of his being and his mission. 

In baptism, Paul died with Christ, just like we all do, and he rose with Christ, just like we all do. The water is a symbol of both death and life, and because baptism is a sacrament, it effects what it symbolizes. It makes us a new creation, filled with the divine life that we call sanctifying grace. God loves us so much that He came to die for us. He gave Himself for us when the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became incarnate and suffered and died on the cross. We enter into that suffering and death but only so that we can enter into the new life of the Resurrection. We no longer live our old sinful lives; rather Christ lives in us.