Undusted Texts

A lithograph of the Eishet Chayil in Hebrew by Shuki Freiman " A woman of valor who can find?  More honorable than costly stones is such a one."--Prv 31:10 As we complete our reading of the Proverbs of Solomon for this Lent, we come across that great praise of the Godly woman that ends this book.  It is a well-loved passage among the Jews, who call it by the Hebrew name Eishes Chayil (or Eishet Chayil ), which means "Woman of Valor."  It is the Jewish tradition to recite the passage before the Friday meal every Sabbath to praise the women of the house or all the women of Israel; thus the man recites it to his wife or to any woman there, and if there are only women in the household, they recite to praise all the women of Israel.  The passage describes the characteristics of a wonderful wife or "the perfect wife," as Fray Luis de León calls it in his commentary of the same title ( La perfecta casada ).  Such a woman works to beautify her home and...

  "Not such a fast I have chosen, says the Lord, but loose all bonds of iniquity, separate knots of violent covenants, send forth the shattered in release and all wicked contracts tear asunder."--Is 58:6 When we fast, we are not to merely refrain from food, though it is praiseworthy to do so to control our passions and offer our sacrifices to God; we are also to do good to our neighbor, as the Spirit spoke through the prophet Isaiah.  We are to fast from wickedness and fast for good, for the more exact fast, the true fast, is to abstain from sin, as St. John Chrysostom remind us, and while we abstain from sin we should also actively do good; thus the Lord directs us to do good for our neighbor during our fasts, expanding the normal definition of almsgiving, calling us to all of the corporal works of mercy.  Yet, are there not other ways we can assist our neighbor during the Fast, in addition to the physical assistance?  If we do not have a brother bound in wic...

Holy Prophet King Solomon, traditional author of Proverbs "To man are the preparations of the heart: from the Lord is the answer of the tongue." --Prv 16:1 The Lord holds sway over all: with Him is all power, and for this we call Him Pantokrator, All-Mighty.  Heaven and earth and all their inhabitants are under His command, for "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein," and "He stretches forth the heavens like a tent," a tent which He can set up and take down at will.  If He wills, He could wipe out man from the face of the earth, as in the time of Noah, yet instead He wills that we work out our salvation in fear and trembling in this world.  Though He does not use His power in its most sweeping way, He still has all power over all created things, down to the smallest speck, and He watches over all and cares for all, as He even numbers each hair on our heads.  Thus He has rule even over the...

"And there will be the remnant of Jacob before God the Mighty.  And even if the people of Israel became like the sand of the sea, the remnant of them will be saved."--Is 10:21-22 The man of faith will not be afraid of the remnant, for he trusts in the Lord, God the Mighty, Who can bring forth fountains from waterless land.  The remnant is a sign of hope from the Lord, for He could have destroyed all of mankind in the Flood, but He chose to save the righteous Noah and his family.  He could have let all of Israel be destroyed by the hands of mighty strangers, but He kept two tribes alive in exile.  With the power of the Lord, the remnant is a sign of hope, not of sorrow. From a single small seed sprouts the mustard tree,  and so from a handful of men can God reclaim the world for the Truth.  God does not leave us orphans, alone; He keeps a family of those who love Truth alive, and He guides them as their Father.  When Elijah lamented that he a...

 "And saw the woman, that beautiful was the tree for eating..."--Gen 3:6 Just a few days ago we heard of the beautiful goodness of creation (for καλον means both "beautiful" and "good"), and now we hear of evil coming from something good.  How can this be, that what was made good can to evil?  When we are allured by that good beauty into turning away from the Lord and His designs. The Lord designed creation beautifully, beautiful exceedingly, and He gave us wide freedom to use it.  "From every tree which is in paradise for food, do yotu eat."  Out of every tree, every plant bearing fruit with its seed in it, from every plant on earth man could eat: to this freedom God gave but one restriction.  "From the tree of the knowing of good [καλὸν] and evil, do not eat from it.  In the day you eat from it, by death you shall die."  To this one restriction did God place a mightily terrifying punishment: the punishment of double death. ...

"And God saw everything, which He made, and behold! it was beautiful exceedingly."--Gen 1:31 Tradition lends a new dimension to the Faith which can easily be missed.  Think, for example, of the account of creation in Genesis, in which each day it is repeated: "And God saw, that it was good."  A quick comparison of English Bible translations shows how ubiquitous the use of the word "good" is in these passages, with only one rebel saying "He was pleased" instead.  Even the Vulgate speaks of how God's creation is "bona."  These all translate well the Hebrew טוב, "pleasing, good, agreeable."  Yet Tradition gives us a rich nuance which should not be avoided. The first line of this post is a translation from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Scriptures, according to tradition a miraculous translation, of which St. Augustine said, "the same Spirit that was in the prophets when they spoke was present al...

"Come after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men."--Mk 1:17 This command of the Lord was heard yesterday (though in the New American Bible translation, not the Douay-Rheims) during the Gospel reading at Mass.  Though it was addressed to Simon (Peter) and Andrew, it is in some sense addressed to all of us: we are all called to follow the Lord.  While some (that is, religious and consecrated virgins) answer this call by "[following] the Lamb whithersoever He goeth", the rest of us are called to follow Him "not whithersoever He shall have gone, but so far as ever [we] shall have been able" (Rev 14:4; St. Augustine, On Holy Virginity 28). In response to this call to be followers, we are to draw close to Christ, so close that to be apart from Him is painful to us.  (Thus the absence of Christ's presence, or the feeling of it, is part of the dark night of the soul.)  Many spiritual writers have expressed this fervent desire to be with C...

The Church is wise: this is a truth I am reminded of frequently, through various ways. One of these ways is through her selection of Scriptures for the Mass. One of the greatest reforms of the Mass during Vatican II, in my mind, is the ability of the Liturgy of the Word to now draw on all of the Scriptures, not only the Epistles, and to draw on more texts throughout its cycle. The Church has picked these readings carefully so that the Gospel often coheres with the other Scriptures immensely well, particularly on Sundays and solemnities. The particular incident lately that reminded me of the Church's wisdom in her Scripture selection is the selection of readings for the memorial of St. Mary Magdalene, July 22. The readings for this day in the Proper of Saints are Sgs 3:1-4b (or 2 Cor 5:14-17, though the former is the one I discuss in this post), Ps 63:2,3-4,5-6,8-9, and Jn 20:1-2,11-18. The first reading is a selection from the Song of Songs in which the Bride searches for her ...