Gn 9:8-15; 1Pt 3:18-22; Mk 1:12 -15
1st Sunday of Lent
As I am on vacation this weekend, I’m going to take this opportunity to share with you today’s spiritual reflection by Fr. Richard Rohr. It’s about how to approach the interpretation of scripture and is one of the best things I’ve read on the subject in some time. Keep Fr. Rohr’s interpretive principle in mind particularly as you reflect upon this Sunday’s first reading which comes from the conclusion of the Noah’s Ark story.
Jim Philipps (3rd millennium pilgrim)
“What is God doing in the Scripture reading? With that question in mind, I want to give you an operative principle that, I believe, had it been used the last 500 years, would have given us a much more exciting and positive Christian history. If you are meditating on a Bible text, Hebrew or Christian, and if you see God operating at a lesser level than the best person you know, then that text is not authentic revelation. “God is love” (1 John 4:16) and no person you meet could possibly be more loving than the Source of all love itself. It is as simple as that.
Haven’t you read texts like this, and not known what to think? Yahweh presumably tells the Israelites to kill every Canaanite in sight—men, women and children—and then has them impose a ban on every pagan town, telling the Israelites to enter, burn, and destroy everything (e.g., Joshua 6-7). Do you really think that is God talking? I don’t think so.
Well, you say, it is in the Bible and that makes it right, right? That is why we have to use a whole different lens for interpreting any authoritative text. How we deal with sacred texts is how we deal with reality in general. And how we deal with reality in general is how we deal with sacred texts. And both reality and all sacred texts are also fragmented and “imperfect” (1 Corinthians 13:12). It takes a certain level of human and spiritual maturity to interpret a Scripture. Vengeful and petty people find vengeful and hateful texts (and they are there), but even when they are not there! Loving and peaceful people will hold out until a text resounds deep within them.”
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