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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Bible and Catechism in a Year: Day 37

A few days behind...but I'm going to catch up.  I've decided not to do the two-fers anymore, though, but to post each day separately.

Exodus 9:

More plagues...plague, boils, and fiery hail rain down. 

Still, Pharaoh's heart is hardened.  As I read this passage, it reaffirms what I wrote on day 36, because it says that Pharaoh "sinned yet again," which implies a choice.  Pharaoh's free will is intact.  He could, in fact, have chosen to let Moses and the Israelites go at any time, but did not.  Now God could have given Pharaoh graces to make him more likely to choose the good of releasing the slaves, but ultimately Pharaoh has already rejected the grace of God, and so his heart is hardened and he chooses to do as he wishes.

I find not a little humor in the fact that the "magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils."  Scripture makes a point of putting the magicians out here, as if to say "look what happens when you try to be like God..."

Also I think that the Lord's short discourse on why He doesn't just wipe out the Egyptians entirely is revealing.

Psalm 36:

A study of contrast here, the first part dealing with the wicked and the second part dealing with God's treatment of those who follow Him.  What I really like here is the second to last verse, though, where the psalmist asks God to "Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away."  In his humility, he recognizes that He needs God to keep from being like the folks in the first part of the psalm.

Matthew 20:17-34

Here, Jesus tells the twelve what is going to happen to him.  They don't appear to protest this time around, so perhaps they have become used to hearing it, even though they clearly don't understand it.

They we get the mother of the sons of Zebedee asking that her son's be at Jesus' right and left hand in His kingdom.  It is pretty clear that dear old mom is still thinking along the lines of an earthly kingdom, so it is a shock when Jesus indicates that it is not His place to grant this request.  Jesus then goes on to speak about servitude, and of the importance of being humble.  Very similar to the "first shall be last," this proclaims that the Son of man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

This chapter ends with the healing of two blind men.  They are persistent and continue to call after Jesus even when they are told to quiet down by "the crowd."  How often are we told to quiet down by "the crowd?"  Sometimes following Jesus means being unpopular.

Catechism 295-301

More on creation - God creates by wisdom and love, out of nothing, an ordered and good world.  As Catholics, we believe that the material world is a good thing, and often the Church has had to defend and put down as heresy teachings which said that matter is evil.  It is through matter that we experience the world, and our God himself took on matter to come to us in the incarnation.  Some time ago, I subscribed to the belief that matter was, at best neutral, following the Yoda-ism "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter."  But I've come to see that we indeed are matter just as much as we are spirit, and that matter is anything but crude. 

So God upholds and sustains His creation.  Has our world fallen?  Certainly.  But, to grab another star-wars-ism:  There is still good in it.  God does not abandon his creation...quite the opposite...He loves it.

"Tomorrow's" readings:

Exodus 10-11
Psalm 37
Matthew 21:1-22
Catechism 302-308

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Bible and Catechism in a Year: Day 36

Exodus 7-8

Here come the plagues...blood, frogs, gnats, and flies in these two chapters...

Two things jump out at me.  (No, not the frogs...)

The first is the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.  Often folks ask how an all good God could harden Pharaoh's heart, apparently just so he could make him suffer?  Is God robbing Pharaoh of his free will?

Remember that we need to look at the whole of scripture, especially when we try and figure the mind of God.  We know that God is all good and does not do evil, and we know that free will is a gift we have.  To take one's free will is indeed an evil, so God would not do this.  But we do know that God allows evil, since it is a byproduct of our free will, though he often (and some might argue always) uses that evil to bring about a greater good. 

It follows, therefore, that God does not take Pharaoh's free will.  But if that is the case, how do we make sense of this?

We need to remember that to do the will of God, in our concupiscence, requires God's grace, which he freely gives us.  God's grace is a gift...and gifts can be refused.

Have you ever refused a gift?  I was in a situation once at work where I was offered a gift of substantial value by a client.  Accepting the gift would have been a breech of our code of ethics, so I was forced to graciously decline it.  Even after I declined it, though, the would-be giver offered it to me again.  I had to decline it again, and ultimately a third time.  But after the third time my client relented, and ceased offering me this gift.

God, likewise, in respect of the free will he gave us, will stop offering us His gifts if we refuse him constantly and make it clear that we don't want them.  This would seem to be the case with the Pharaoh, who declares at one point "I do not know the Lord..." and in so doing so intimates that he does not wish to know the Lord.  So perhaps it is that the hardening of Pharaoh's heart by God is a withdrawal of God's offer of grace.  Certainly, Pharaoh acts in a very deceptive way moving forward. 

The second item which I find curious is the "secret arts" of the Pharaoh's wise men or magicians.  Are their replications of the miracles and plagues mere prestidigitation, or are they more sinister in nature?  It is hard to say from the scripture...but I guess in the end it isn't important.  We know what is from God and what is not.  We also know that after the gnats, the Pharaoh's wise men couldn't keep up with God's works.

Psalm 35

This psalm is a plea to God to bring down one's foes.  It's a pity party of sorts, but it is punctuated with heartfelt moments of praise between the call to God to smite those who grieve the psalmist.

Matthew 20:1-16

We ended chapter 19 on a "first will be last, and the last first," and now Jesus goes on to explain himself with (wait for it...) a parable.

So often we are jealous of others for what they receive as a benefit of generosity.  We feel vindicated in doing so, because "They didn't earn that" or "They didn't deserve that, but got it anyway."  Rather than be happy for those who benefit, we try and tear them down.  The laborers hired early in the day here do just this, but the master explains that he is free to do with his money what he will, and if he wishes to pay those who came late the same as he agreed to pay those who came early as a sign of his generosity, he is free to do so.  It all comes down to the agreement...if the terms of the agreement are met or exceeded, then what complaint is there to levy?

It seems to tie back to the reading from Exodus.  God is free to do with his grace as he wills.  He gives us each at least enough to hear him...but he can choose to give abundance or not as he wills and as he sees fit.  I, for one, think he's probably got a better idea of where it is needed at any given moment in history than I do.

This time we end with a "last will be first, and the first last."

Catechism 290-294

The world exists for God's glory.  That's pretty simple, and yet terribly profound.  The work of the Trinity is to create, and yet He doesn't create out of necessity, but out of desire.  It is in His nature to create, to be "creative," since he is pure being, his "words" manifest in an existence all their own, yet completely dependent upon Him.  Existence of the universe does not increase God's glory, but proclaims it with every covalent bond that forms or electron that flows.  From the tiny quark to the vast milky way, the glory of God rings out just as strong, for it was an infinite God that created all of this ex-nihlo.

Tomorrow's readings:

Exodus 9
Psalm 36
Matthew 20:17-34
Catechism 295-301