The first words of our 1st reading today gives us a “sticky wicket” as they say. Well not including the added “Brothers and sisters”. These words appear to be added in the Liturgy to make these letters seem more personal (Before anyone asks, yes this is done in the Extra-ordinary form of the Mass as well
So our first line from the 1st reading is, “To this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over the hearts of the children of Israel, but whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed.” That seems kind of odd.. It is all in the Bible? It obviously says that the Old Testament is not as good as the New ! Proves that Christians are better ! These seem to be the standard rejoinders to anyone wanting to make a political argument about Christianity or Judaism.
How to read the Bible
I don’t think this is what Paul is saying in this line. First off the Church is not a political entity. People within the church are that comes naturally as each of us are political as we comprise of a community. So lets drop the cherry picking of quotes and look at the entire Biblical structure, Who is the words written towards? What is the genre of what we are reading? And how it fits into the overall message of Scripture?. Parts of the Bible we can read like a novel, telling a story. Parts of the Bible we can read like poetry, telling a story,but with a much different use of words. Mixing the two up, can really mess with things. Try reading a Shakespeare sonnet like a novel or vice versa.
We have to look and see who are the Corinthians. We have to recognize that Corinth was not a quaint seashore community in the middle of Vermont. It was a rough and tumble hard drinking sailor bar type atmosphere (no offense to sailors.. just using a simile to paint a picture). There are serious moral and ethical issues there and Paul is addressing them. The genre is a letter addressing the various problems he is seeing.. this is a bit clearer reading 1st Corinthians
So what is going on?
The first line of the text really throws a light on reading the Scriptures. Because you cannot read the New testament well without knowing the Old Testament. it might seem at first that this line throws away the Old Testament, but it never really does that. As I just used a simile above to paint a scene about the town of Corinth, it loosk to me that Paul was doing the same.
The Old Testament.was written with the backdrop of Sinful mankind, in order to be brought in union with God, needs a Messiah. This Messiah will come in the future.Therefore they cannot use exact wording to describe the Messiah. In the old Testament, “the Messiah is like” is used quite a bit. We could say there is a veil put over the people, because they cannot see what the future is. There are tons of prophecy (see my entry on prophecy ) but that isn’t telling the future, but based on the facts and what God is telling me(to those who are in tune with God, He speaks volumes), something along the lines of this will be happening.
Paul is speaking the Words of Truth
I think this is what Paul is speaking of. Because once the Messiah appears, everything changes. I no longer have to imagine God.. I have seen Him. I no longer have to guess at what the message means.. He tells us directly. Remember in Luke the story of the two men walking to Emmaus… Jesus explains all of the references to Him in the Scriptures. There is no longer a veil… We know, because the message was given by God himself. No confusion. Although try as humanity can to mess up the words, there is a bastion of knowledge that keeps Jesus message as it was given. Seldom does anyone like what is said.
Speaking the truth is difficult because we want to make God in our image, not properly ordered. But the Church comes out day after day speaking up for the oppressed.So the “ad hominum” berating begins. The same tired old lines that has been heard for the past 2000 years. For a while humanities sinfulness reacted, but another generation of priests, deacons and Bishops have learned “speak the truth” pray that the hearts melt a bit and some of the good news of Jesus gets in there. Once Jesus is there, He will do amazing work.Because everyone acknowledges Jesus.
Jesus leads us
Those that do not believe Jesus is the Messiah still acknowledge Him. The Atheist try continually to mock him, but in doing so acknowledge He is special.Governments throughout the world recognize Jesus and disdain what they hear. Take care of the poor, the hungry, the naked, No No we want to pass laws that make the poor criminals and if we can make them go away, by whatever means. and over the centuries they have done everything. Yes, Jesus says every day, “May my peace be with you”
So as the last line of the reading says:
For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness , has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ
2 Corinthians 4:6
We see the face of God, we feel Him in our hearts. This is the most wonderful thing. And if people stopped thought about it for a bit would agree and stop the fighting and killing and focus on others and their lives.
Be good Play nice Think God !
Please see the USCCB readings for June 13, 2019 at the following: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061319.cfm