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The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, July 30, 2002 The Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time St. Peter Chrysologus Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word: Jeremiah 14:17-22 Psalm 79:8-9,11,13 Matthew 13:36-43 A reflection on today's Scripture . . . . "Explain to us the parable. . ." How like children! Explain what you just said! Say it again. Tell me what it means. I don't understand. And yet Jesus, very patiently does so. He explains His words carefully so there can be no misunderstanding. He also explains them so that we who read later understand that the words are not simply rural stories that could be interpreted any way we choose. Jesus gave the Church its original guidelines in the interpretation of scripture. Those who are wise read the Bible in accordance with the teaching of the Church. The Church tells us that the words of scripture must be interpreted in the original sense in which they were meant. That is to say, poetry is poetry, letters are letters, and narratives are narratives. The danger many of our fundamentalist brethren run into is that they choose individual interpretation over the understandings that have developed through the years. Here Jesus tells us to read and understand the words, but also not to make too much of them on our own. Test them against common sense, test them against the historic teaching of the Church, and trust the Holy Spirit to help us understand the particular relevance each word of scripture has in our present day life. In other words, don't go off the deep end in interpretation. Be like children and be ready to be guided. In that way you will know that you can trust the scriptures, and you can take great delight in reading them. - JuandelaCruz, T.O.Carm. ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) YOU CAN HELP to evangelize the Word of God: Please recommend our website to your friends and Catholic webmasters at: http://www.borg.com/~joachim/DailyMeds.html (case sensitive). ARCHIVED Meditations: http://www.abcsoffaith.com/quiet/quietplace.html and at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] For ALL communications, including subscribe/unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (c)2002 The Way, The Truth, The Life. Permission granted to make reprints of the meditations or to post on any web page, except for profit. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms (c)1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Full text from the New American Bible: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/index.htm Lives of the Saints: http://www.christdesert.org/public_texts/martyrology/ |
Title: Meditation: Tuesday, July 30, 2002
