an excellent way of enabling people find wisdom...
1.7. MEDITATING ON A DIFFICULT TEXT.
For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough;
but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (Mt. 25: 29).
I promised to return to this verse. Is Jesus advocating that the rich should get richer and the poor get poorer? It is essential to the method of lectio divina that you see yourself as a partner in dialogue with another partner, the text. You are not a passive listener. You come to the dialogue with your own experience and with your convictions. However, the dialogue must be between the text and what is best in yourself, not with what is worst. A selfish and greedy person could interpret the text to say that the capitalist system is right and that God wills that those who have a lot, should have more. If you allow the text to speak to what is best in yourself – your generosity, compassion, humility, your willingness to trust and to risk – then you cannot accept such an interpretation.
Fr. Michel adds the following point: often in the history of Christianity, what seemed an ‘evident’ meaning of Bible texts was totally against the teachings of Jesus and was interpreted in a way that tolerated or even encouraged self-righteousness, violence, the acceptance of slavery etc. We read the Bible in the light of ‘the signs of the times’ too, that is in the light of the noblest aspirations of our culture, which often challenges the culture of the Church, e.g. on the issues of racism, sexism, elitism, authoritarianism etc.
What then does this verse mean? William Barclay says that it lays down a rule of life which is universally true. If we have a talent and exercise it, we will progressively be able to do more with it; if we do not exercise it we will inevitably lose it. He says that this is equally true of playing golf or playing the piano, singing songs or writing sermons. (Commentary on St. Matthew. The St. Andrew Press, Edinburgh, 1967. p.358).
You may recognize from your experience that the same is true of the exercise of virtues like courage, endurance, fidelity and trust. The Russian dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, reflecting on his long years of persecution said, ‘Long periods of well-being and comfort are in general dangerous to all. After such prolonged periods, weak souls become incapable of weathering any kind of trial… But strong souls in such periods are still able to mobilize and to show themselves and to grow through this trial.’
3. WISDOM AND MORALIZING.
3.1 MORALIZING
Michel deVerteuil says that for many people reading the Bible is like visiting a fussy aunt or uncle when you are a child: they will always point out something that is wrong with you; your hair is not properly combed or your words not properly pronounced. Many read a passage of Scripture and their meditation is:
‘I should do this,’
or
‘If I were a better person I would be doing this.’
Preachers are similarly tempted:
‘This is what Jesus did;
my dear people, is this what you and I do? (The answer is presumed to be No).
Therefore, let us begin to do this.’
People may have come to church with several burdens; after the homily they go home with an additional one.
A young mother took her four year old child into her local church to say a prayer one afternoon in the early 1960’s. A few people were praying in different parts of the church; there was not a sound to be heard. Before she noticed, her child trotted up the aisle and into the pulpit. She leaned over the pulpit and said loudly, ‘You mustn’t touch the new Singer sewing machine.’ Then she trotted back down the aisle.
3.2. WISDOM.
The way of lectio divina is the way of wisdom, not the way of moralizing. It took me a long time to see clearly the distinction between the two. If you meditate on the beatitude, ‘Blessed are the gentle; they shall have the earth for their heritage’ and your conclusion is ‘I should be more gentle,’ you are not following the method of lectio divina. In lectio divina you ponder over ‘the gentle’, the non-violent.
You go from the Gospel verse to memories of your experience.
Suppose you are reminded of a teacher who was gentle even with the most disruptive pupils and never said anything that would humiliate a child; she did became school principal, nor was she known outside her own area, yet she was loved and respected by generations of past-pupils; she was gentle but she inherited the earth.
You think of great people like Aung Suu Kyi of Burma, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, who have lived by this beatitude; the inspiration they have given to millions of people and the influence they have exerted show that they have truly inherited the earth.
You think of Alcoholics Anonymous, with no money or political influence, made up exclusively of recovering alcoholics who acknowledge their powerlessness over alcohol, and yet transform the lives of millions of people.
You recognize the pattern in all these memories: it is courageous gentle non-violent people, not the rich and the powerful, who transform the world. And you sense how extraordinary this is, and what a wise and wonderful way to live this is. This wisdom makes you aware of its moral implications and invites committment; it invites you to renounce what is violent in your attitudes or behaviour and moves you to embrace and to promote this gentle non-violent way of living.