1 May 2003
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Genesis 15:1-6Abraham is in a difficult situation: did he not leave everything to respond to God’s call (Gen 12:4)? But not only does God’s promise take time to become reality; it seems to become more and more impossible.
The patriarch is thus called to do something absolutely new; he has to believe that God is preparing a future for him. The early Christians will speak of him as their ancestor in faith, a man who hoped against all hope (Romans 4:16-25). Far from remaining theoretical, that faith inspires a new way of living (James 2:21-23) (...)
1 April 2003
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Matthew 5:1“Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on a mountainside. He sat down, and his disciples came up to him. Opening his mouth, he taught them.”
This is the verse that introduces the Beatitudes. Why, before listening to this essential text, and the entire Sermon on the Mount that will follow, are we asked to look at Christ? Undoubtedly because, for Matthew, the Beatitudes are not a philosophy, an abstract message, a teaching which could hold its own even without the presence of Jesus. The Beatitudes are only true because Jesus is there. (...)
1 March 2003
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Hosea 2:16-17“All God can do is love.” Few believers have known this as well as the prophet Hosea, even though he lived eight centuries before Christ. Hosea discovered this truth and expressed it in his life as a prophet. Although several prophets made use of symbols, the symbol Hosea chose was quite dramatic and intense. To express God’s relationship with the people, Hosea was asked to take a prostitute for his wife and to love her. He had to bear her unfaithfulness. What was the prophet thinking about? Political alliances with other (...)
1 February 2003
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Zephaniah 3:16-18Madeleine Delbrêl, a 20th century French mystic, wrote the following lines in 1938. She had begun to live out a community presence with others in a poor working class town on the outskirts of Paris, with a desire to share as much as possible in the daily life of the neighbourhood. These lines can be read as an echo of the text where the prophet Zephaniah speaks of God as “the one who will dance with shouts of joy over us”.
“To be a good dancer with you, Lord, as elsewhere, there is no need for us to know where it will lead. (...)
1 January 2003
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Jonah 2:1-5When all seems to be finished for Jonah, he is saved by a ‘great fish’, a monster, which traditionally symbolises death. We know nothing of the nature of this fish. It becomes like a parable: God can even make use of adverse forces in order to save. This monster becomes a domestic animal in the garden of God.
What does Jonah experience inside the fish’s stomach? He comes through an experience of death. This experience of intense solitude is precisely the opposite of the strongest experience that we can undergo in the ‘Temple’ (v. (...)
1 December 2002
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Psalm 103The three central verses of this psalm (11,12,13) celebrate God’s love intensely. Three images evoke God’s inexhaustible efficacy and sensitivity. This confession, born of a personal experience, develops in two directions that come to a climax in the invitations that open and close the prayer: “Bless the Lord, my soul!” “Bless the Lord, all his works!”
Thankfulness for God’s intervention leads to knowledge of God’s will and ways of acting, both in the life of individuals and in the history of the nation (verses 3-10). It leads believers (...)
1 November 2002
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Matthew 28:1-8According to the Gospel accounts, the first ones to receive the message of the resurrection were the women who went to the tomb early in the morning, bringing ointments to accomplish the funeral rites. They were still bewildered by the passion and death of Jesus. They were upset and worried: “Who will roll away the stone for us?” The discovery of the empty tomb increased their confusion: “Where is he?”
Beyond their perplexity, however, something new is beginning to dawn. The empty tomb, like the message of the angels they meet, (...)
1 October 2002
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Luke 15:31-32If the heart of the “parable of the father” (Luke 15) is the father’s welcome of his son who comes home (v. 20-24), the climax of the parable is the father’s reply to his elder son. We should be thankful to the older son for having merited that unparalleled response! If the parable had concluded with the unexpected welcome shown to the younger son, we could have thought that the father had not fully shown himself as he was. His reply to the older brother, however, makes it evident that that is what the father truly is like. That (...)