Fr. Richard on the Bible

Two Steps Backward Often
Precede Any Three Steps Forward

 

There is a necessary and inherent dissonance in many of the texts in the Bible (Jesus calling a woman “a dog” in Mark 7:27). We largely remain unwise if we avoid these conflicts, dilemmas, paradoxes, inconsistencies, or contradictions; and I want to say those contradictions are in the Biblical text itself and presented to you for serious consideration—until you get the point. This is the real meaning of what we call Lectio Divina, or spiritual reading of a text. You are supposed to struggle with spiritual texts; but when you make the Bible into a quick answer book, you largely remain at your present level of awareness. There are groups who would describe the Bible as an answer book for all of life’s problems. The Bible is actually a conflict book. It is filled with seeming contradictions or paradoxes, and if you read it honestly and humbly it should actually create problems for you!

The way you struggle with the fragmentation of the Bible is the way you PROBABLY struggle with your own fragmentation and the fragmentation of everything else. The Bible offers you a mirror that reflects back to you how you live life in general. There are very high levels of consciousness and holiness in the Biblical text, and texts which are frankly hateful, selfish, and punitive. You need to recognize them as such. As Wendell Berry says, “the mind that is not baffled is not employed.” The Bible mirrors our own human fragmentation, your own two steps backward and your own occasional three steps forward. Your spiritual eyes will eventually be trained to see which way you—and the text—are going (See 1 Corinthians 2:10-16).

From A Teaching on Wondrous Encounters (webcast/CD, DVD)

by Fr. Richard Rohr