Anytime I begin to think in terms of commenting on the scriptures, I immediately feel the need to pre-empt what I’m about to say with: “Caution: You are about to enter thee No-Scripture-Scholar Zone.”
Which is not to say I’m unfamiliar with scripture. It just so happens for well over a dozen years now, part of my early morning routine has included padding out of bed, loading up a hot, fresh cup of coffee splashed with just the right amount of cream, then squirreling away to my prayer chair of choice to get up close and personal with the day’s readings.
When I first began praying the daily scriptures, it meant sitting down with my (now) well-worn St. Joseph’s Missal. You know. An actual book. With an actual hard cover filled with pages the thickness of a gnat’s eyelash--assuming gnats have eyelashes. However, for the better part of the past several years, I’ve opted to go high tech and now access the readings via my smarter-than-me phone. Talk about letting your fingers do the walking. In less time than it takes to pin on a chapel veil, with one quick tap on a bookmark, you’re transported to a veritable string of scriptural pearls quicker than you can say “Jumpin’ Ja-hos-aphat.”
And once there, what’s not to love? Particularly this time of year when we hear from the book of Acts on an almost daily basis. Finding ourselves cradled between Christ’s Resurrection—complete with an account of an impromptu (you think?) grilled-to-order fish breakfast on the Tiberius seashore—and the oft copied, but never fully recreated Whoosh!/Hallelujah!/Attention Christian Shoppers! debut of the Holy Spirit at the feast of Pentecost—a plethora of events and emotions await.
Seriously. You cannot make this stuff up. One day the apostles are hunkered down in fear behind locked doors (I always picture a massive, rough-hewn, wood slab the thickness of two queen size mattresses stacked together) and the next, they’re out and about preaching the good news to every Parthian, Mede, and Elamite, with ears to hear.
I’m also quite taken with the stories found in the 4th chapter of Acts re: the total harmony seemingly present in those early days of the Church. “The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any possessions were his own but they (held) everything in common.” Although, to give equal time to both sides of the story, all was not well with quite everyone’s soul as witnessed one short chapter later in Acts 5 where we hear of the Apostles being flogged for speaking in the name of Jesus. As it turns out however, even this was cause for rejoicing as “they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the (Lord’s) name.”
That God. Just when you think you know how a story’s going to end, He pulls the old switcher-oo and comes up with something way better. And with good reason. After all, God is the consummate story teller, yes? ABC’s ‘Wide World of Sports’ just thinks they invented that whole thrill of victory/agony of defeat thing. Hmmmm… It’s almost enough to make some of you other non-scholar types consider nabbing your own cup of coffee, tea, diet Mountain Dew or what have you, and quietly steal away to explore/discover/ponder Him in the scriptures for yourselves.