Month: June 2015

Why Catholics MUST Have Bible ADD!- Intro

/ chicoinematt / 1 Comment

I recently finished up teaching high school Scripture this past May. Some of my students complained when I started the Old Testament as to why I was going to the New Testament to better understand passages like the Temptation in the Garden or the Passover event in Exodus. I responded whimsically, “I ensure you I do not have Bible ADD, I simply want to show how the Old Testament prepares us for the New Testament and how the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament!”

 

I had to mention this many times to lackadaisical students. We as a Church have lost a sense of the Bible as containing an over-arching story line — God’s plan of salvation to overcome sin.

The sheer number of books in the Bible should not distract or overwhelm us. Rather, I believe Bible ADD is the perfect way to capture how Catholics must approach reading the Bible.

 

groot gif

 

This being an introductory post on understanding the bible in a contextual way I will not go into too detailed of an example. But I do think a starter example will aid in how a Catholic needs to approach the Bible. For example, to best understand the reason for Jesus’ death we have to turn the pages to Genesis 3 which features the fall of humanity out of God’s grace. Thus, knowing that humanity is not in favor with God the life and death of Jesus makes more sense.

 

Reading the Bible Contextually

 

Now, when I use my term “Bible ADD” I am not saying that Catholics should scan the pages of the holy text in a frenzied hyper-squirrelly way without any regard for order and thought. I used the term “Bible ADD” because my students told me it helped them remember the importance of reading the Bible contextually.

 

They can remember the importance to look at the entire Bible as a whole and not in fragments. Furthermore, Catholics have to be wary of a fundamentalist viewing of the Bible which limits passages to a single-literal meaning. Some passages [I will demonstrate this in future posts] are meant to be taken symbolically because they are poems or parables.

 

They can remember the importance to look at the entire Bible as a whole and not in fragments. Furthermore, Catholics have to be wary of a fundamentalist viewing of the Bible which limits passages to a single-literal meaning. Some passages [I will demonstrate this in future posts] are meant to be taken symbolically because they are poems or parables.

 

words have different meanings

 

Words contain multiple meanings. The inspired authors wrote with the ability for their words to be interpreted to meet the needs of our current situation today. A rubber-band has limits to how far it can stretch.So toopassages in the Bible must be interpreted in light of Church Tradition. They must make sense in light of the whole context of the Bible.

 

I guess to go back to my above example to properly read the Bible as a Catholic is to have Bible ADD. I should qualify that to say we should avoid moving to having a Bible ADHD because our theological “rubber-band” might break. We will jump into the Bible with concrete examples later. 

Thank you for sharing!

When God’s Love Spans Six and Half Decades…

/ chicoinematt

wedding rings

Marriage. Commitment. Life-long. Children. Sacrament. Relationship. Infidelity. Temporary. Burdensome. Secular. 

 I wrote out 10 words that relate to the topic of my post today-marriage. The first half relate to a Catholic understanding of this institution whereas the second half refer to how marriage is viewed under a modern lens. I recently saw on Facebook a person who celebrated the fact that they were getting divorced and gaining freedom to “do whatever they wanted to now!” Mind you, I do not know they story and I hope there was a valid reason for why they got divorced. Furthermore, we as Catholics are attacked for having an “antiquated view on marriage”. People say that it is not possible to stay in a monogamous and committed marriage for life. We don’t have to look to far in Hollywood when former Disney star, Miley Cyrus, is lambasting Christians for being judgmental towards others on the topic of who can marry who.

I am not out to start a debate over marriage. I simply want to give you, my readers, a tangible glimpse at what God’s love looks when the sacrament of marriage is lived as it ought to be–a faithful life-long commitment between a man and woman. This Friday, my grandparents  celebrated 65 years of marriage. You heard me right 65 YEARS OF MARRIAGE! I am blessed to witness their love and patience over the years. To quote my grandmother when asked what it takes to make it that long she stated, “You need to rely on God for strength”. I have never heard my grandparents argue. I have heard them discuss things at length, but voices never seemed to raise to the point of an argument. I firmly believe that was not by their own will power. It is through God that my grandparents learned patience and forgiveness. 

Having 11 children [my dad being the oldest] my grandparents had lots of helpers to grow in holiness. Now a generation or two later they have over 35 grandchildren and great-grand-children. During their celebration luncheon my aunts and uncles wanted to get pictures of every family combination with grandma and grandpa. Let me tell you both of them were troopers and emitted rays of holiness through their patience. I have seen plenty of elderly people and not-so elderly people (myself included) that get impatient with family photos and the constant phrases of “say cheese!” or “only one more time” or “where is cousin Benji?. But my grandparents calmly waited. Why? Because they know that why the day was in honor of them an awareness that the needs of their family was more important. THAT IS WHAT GOD’S LOVE LOOKS LIKE! It is about sacrifice. It is about not arguing with your spouse [grandpa is great with this] because your pride is not all that matters.

I hope you share this post with anyone who comes from a shattered family. Not because I am saying my family is perfect [everyone can always improve in holiness] but rather to show them that finding an “end-game spouse” is possible. Finally, I am grateful for grandparents’ openness for life and not seeing children as a burden since now I enjoy spending time with many cousins who I consider friends. Plus, I had a bunch of people to play Ultimate Frisbee with yesterday, but more about that in a later post. 

Thank you for sharing!

Writer’s Block

/ chicoinematt

Writer’s block. This is the most feared word duo a writer could ever possibly encounter. Such a phrase represents an impasse. It shows a writer has reached a metaphorical brick wall that seems impossible to scale. Why am I telling you this? Well, simply put, I am suffering from a writer’s block of sorts. It started a couple days ago so let’s start from the beginning.

My wife and I recently got back from our five year wedding anniversary trip and I am coming back to reality from that brief recess from my fatherly duties. But now my “official full-time job” is up and running again and I am quite tired. My daughter Amelia, who is nearly 2 years old, has decided to revert her sleeping patterns back to that of a newborn. Literally, it has taken us at least an hour to put her to bed and she has woken up at least twice every night since we got back from vacation. So I am drained physically and mentally.

Sometimes, I tend to think that God may suffer from writer’s block as well–at least with the “writing of my story”. Lately, I feel that I have been a victim of divine writer’s block because things in my life right now are at a crossroads with little resolution in sight. To use a biblical example, I liken my situation to that of the Israelite’s time  in wilderness. Just like God’s people in the book of Exodus who circled the desert many years in a seemingly dry and dull period of their lives with no purpose so too I find myself.

Perhaps God has grown tired of my storyline and cannot produce more character development. Who am I to judge his work? I am not the most charismatic person. I am not the funniest person. I am not even the smartest person. So what could God possibly want from me in this life?

Now I could stop with the above sentence and click publish and anticipate comments of piety to fill the shell of my current self-esteem. But I won’t. Because that is not the Catholic view of God. Jesus and the Church proclaim that each person is created with a specific purpose in this life and everyone is created with equal dignity. When I truly think about my vocation– I am not reducible to a job or even how many ribbons I have in my resume– I am first a Catholic, second a husband, and third a father.

In the process of typing this post I realized that I have over four hundred words written. Perhaps I did not suffer from writer’s block at all. I may have simply a period of dryness in my prayer life. And if I can overcome writer’s block most certainly the author of the universe can write a decent story with my character to impact others and draw them closer to Him.

Thank you for sharing!