THE SUBTLE SEDUCTION OF SACRED SCRIPTURES

My Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) presented me with a bit of a puzzle that I am still trying to decipher. As God’s word, bring the words, the prayer, the sharing, the becoming what you read into your inner room (Matthew 6:6) is like having a glass of concentrated orange juice in front of you that is jammed packed with flavor and goodness, but you can’t drink it as it is. The only way to drink it is by adding the water of your life experiences to it, the sum total of who you are (failures and successes, in good times and in bad, for richer for poorer) until death do you part.

Scriptures are there, waiting for us to approach The Word in humility and obedience to God’s promptings to do something with it. Scriptures are seductive because they are action-oriented, not passive as in “Read it and forget it.” reading Scriptures is like that, in so far as God’s word is so full of what is true, that no human can drink it without adding something to it to water it down so that our human nature can take it in and digest it. No one reads the word of God without receiving the energy TO BECOME WHAT YOU READ.

The depths (and heights) of seeking God to increase in you while you decrease is limitless. Here is another idea to move even deeper. When you think of reading Scripture, “Whatever is received is received according to the disposition of the one who receives it.) In practice, it means Scriptures contain the way, contain the truth, and is the life we must follow to fulfill our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father. And here is the deeper meaning. It also means each person who reads the immutable Scriptures does so using the totality of who they are and wish to become. Ten people could look at the phrase, “Have in you the mind of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5) and view it from ten different applications of that Scripture passage. All interpretations come from the heart of the person involved. The result is ten different ways to approach the text or nine other ways the Holy Spirit speaks to you in the Gathering Day of Lay Cistercians each month, where we gather to allow our hearts to be near the heart of Christ.

Scriptures were written down “so that we might come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and that, believing in Him, we might have life forever in his name.” John 20:30-31.

Let’s move deeper (higher). Scriptures are dead until and unless each one of us takes THE WORD into our hearts and “listens with the ear of the heart.” The seductive part of the written WORD is that it arouses in my feelings and emotions that I have accumulated throughout the years and enlivens them against the capstone of my Temple of the Holy Spirit, The Christ Principle that holds my broken-down, old temple of the Holy Spirit together. Cistercian practices and charisms are one way to approach the Sacred and to re-position and re-new The Christ Principle is central to how I look out at reality each day. This is what I understand “seeking God each day” means.

Allow me to explain with a few verses from Sacred Scripture and what it evokes within me as I read it. Remember Scriptures are not dead, but I am, until my humility and obedience to the Word unlocks those latent feelings and emotions that I have as I sit next to the heart of Christ AND WAIT.

https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/lent/seven-penitential-psalms-songs-of-suffering-servant

1A psalm of David.

LORD, hear my prayer;

in your faithfulness listen to my pleading;

answer me in your righteousness.

2Do not enter into judgment with your servant;

before you no one can be just.^a

3The enemy has pursued my soul;

he has crushed my life to the ground.^b

He has made me dwell in darkness

like those long dead.^c

4My spirit is faint within me;

my heart despairs.^d

5I remember the days of old;

I ponder all your deeds;

the works of your hands I recall.^e

6I stretch out my hands toward you,

my soul to you like a parched land.^f

Selah

7Hasten to answer me, LORD;

for my spirit fails me.

Do not hide your face from me,

lest I become like those descending to the pit.^g

8In the morning, let me hear of your mercy,

for in you I trust.

Show me the path I should walk,

for I entrust my life to you.^h

9Rescue me, LORD, from my foes,

for I seek refuge in you.

10Teach me to do your will,

for you are my God.

May your kind spirit guide me

on ground that is level.

11For your name’s sake, LORD, give me life;

in your righteousness lead my soul out of distress.

12In your mercy put an end to my foes;

all those who are oppressing my soul,

for I am your servant.ⁱ

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/143

I added the footnotes from Psalm 143 to read the commentary on this Psalm.

* [Psalm 143] One of the Church’s seven Penitential Psalms, this lament is a prayer to be freed from death-dealing enemies. The psalmist addresses God, aware that there is no equality between God and human beings; salvation is a gift (Ps 143:1–2). Victimized by evil people (Ps 143:3–4), the psalmist recites (“remembers”) God’s past actions on behalf of the innocent (Ps 143:5–6). The Psalm continues with fervent prayer (Ps 143:7–9) and a strong desire for guidance and protection (Ps 143:10–12).

1A psalm of David.
LORD, hear my prayer;
in your faithfulness listen to my pleading;
answer me in your righteousness.
2Do not enter into judgment with your servant;
before you no one can be just.^a
3The enemy has pursued my soul;
he has crushed my life to the ground.^b
He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.

Going even deeper…

When I read this Psalm (or any Scriptures), I am conscious that I am dead and the Word of God is alive. I must take that Word into my heart to start up the old temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of the corruption of the world in which I live, if I don’t keep my eyes fixed on the Lord, I rust in the climate of Original Sin. One way to keep my spiritual grass cut is to mow it daily with Cistercian practices and receive its charisms’ strength.

Going even deeper…

Scriptures are meant for me to take them into my heart and become what they say. In the passage above, when I read “listen to my pleading,” it is me talking to God at this moment. I feel the reason for the pleading. “The enemy has pursued my soul.” I am trying each day to move from my false self to my true self. People around me tell me to stop my blog, that no one wants to read that la-la land stuff, that I am no good and God doesn’t love me. Do you see this Psalm as my prayer to God for what is happening to me now, at this moment in my life, as well as past occurrences where I just completely lost sight of God in favor of my own importance?

Going even deeper…

God has given me the energy to try to create a habit of reading Sacred Scriptures as one way of many to make God’s will known to me. “For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, now and forever.” It is only when I die to self that I can begin to transform the seductive words from Scripture with my lived reality and deepen my understanding, my love for others, and my service to those around me, especially those who love me but try to cancel out Christ as my center.