Meeting 2 - Then Their Eyes Were Opened *************************************** .. tags:: content|word-of-god|Word of God, content|seeking|Seeking, content|truth|Truth, method|text-work|Text work, method|group-work|Group work, method|sharing-questions|Sharing questions, type|biblical|Biblical Meeting Goal ============ 1. Showing the experience of "overgrowth" as something positive 2. Realization of two key directions in the cognitive process - deepening and widening, especially through questions 3. Showing the Bible as the Living Word 4. Presentation of interpreting as a necessary attitude in the development of a relationship with God Impressions from the Conference =============================== We just listened to the conference. Everything at this retreat is a proposal that we can use in freedom. (animator asks one max two questions from the list): - What did I remember most from the conference? - What was the biggest surprise/discovery for me? - What do I take from it for myself? - What in my life is multi-level like the temple of St. Clement? "Positive Overgrowth" - Role of Questions ========================================= The example of the basilica of St. Clement shows that very often an issue is much broader and more complicated than it might seem at first glance. It is good to have consent in oneself that we will never fully fathom the mystery, because it outgrows us and goes far beyond ourselves. Let's read: Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. -- 1 Cor 2:6-16 - Why is God's wisdom hidden in mystery? Why is it not public? - What does judging "spiritually" consist of? - "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" - what does such a perspective awaken in me? - What does the desire to know the final answers do to us in the head? St. Paul writes that thanks to the Holy Spirit we are able to know in a completely new way. God gives us his Spirit so that we do not feel paralyzed by the depth of the mystery, but so that it inspires us to ask questions. Questions are often born in us when we feel surprised or astonished by something. Let's look at this scene from the Gospel, which describes one of the most surprising behaviors of Jesus: Let's read: The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. -- Jn 2:13-21 Expelling the sellers from the temple is one of those scenes from the Gospel in which we get to know a slightly "different" face of the Master. Let's try first to deepen the meaning of His behavior and words in this fragment as much as possible: .. warning:: This moment of the meeting has an activating character and consists in inventing **deepening** and **widening** questions to this fragment, and not in searching for answers. **WORKSHOP ON ASKING QUESTIONS** Let's start by trying to **deepen** the understanding of the fragment itself - entering the situation of the characters, activating the imagination regarding how this scene looked. Sample questions: How must Jesus have felt? What caused such a violent reaction? How did the disciples react? How would I react in their place? How did Jesus know how to braid a whip? xd And now let's try to **widen** the context of this fragment by viewing it in the context of the whole, from a bird's eye view. Sample questions: - At what time does this scene happen? (Immediately before Passover) What significance can this have? - In which place of John's Gospel? Why at the beginning for him, and at the end for other evangelists? - How did the Jewish system of sacrifices work in those times? - What significance did the Jerusalem temple have for the chosen nation? - What was its layout? Jesus' words about destroying and rebuilding the temple could be properly understood only after His resurrection, only then did they make sense. - Which questions come easier to me - deepening or widening? - What in my life do I understand much more broadly now than before? - How does time affect my perspective? - What became clear to me "over time"? If we focused only and exclusively on what directly results from this fragment, we would lose a lot of its meaning. The key is to combine both perspectives - both deepening and widening, and this in relation not only to interpreting the Holy Scripture, but generally to any cognitive processes in which we participate. If we continue to explore only one topic, we will become an expert in it, but our understanding will still be quite narrow. On the other hand, if we continued to explore new areas without deepening any of them, development would not be possible. Trusting in God's guidance and the fact that we have been equipped by the Holy Spirit with appropriate tools, let us not be afraid to attempt to understand God's great design. Especially since sometimes the most important thing is not getting the answer, but the process of searching for it itself! God Wants to Be Interpreted, but Not Fully Interpreted ====================================================== Let's read: Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." -- Gen 1:26 Have we ever paid attention to the fact that in this fragment God says "let US make man in OUR image"? To whom does he turn at this moment? In the rabbinic tradition, there are several possible interpretations, let's look at them. God speaks to creation Rabbi Joshua b. Levi said: "God took counsel from his creation - heaven and earth, like a king who has two advisors, without whose knowledge he does nothing." God addresses these words to angels Since people were created in the likeness of angels, God consulted them so that they would not be jealous of man. God speaks to the righteous unborn God before creating the world consults those souls who have not yet been born. - Rabbi Joshua of Siknin God consults his own heart Like a king who has a palace built by an architect, but when he saw it, it disappointed him, so who will he blame? Of course, the architect. Similarly God in Genesis 6:6: And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. - Rabbi Ammi God speaks in the plural to emphasize royal majesty - Pluralis maiestatis Just like e.g. in Polish - We, Stanisław August, by the Grace of God King of Poland - fragment of the abdication letter of Stanisław August Poniatowski. - Which of the given interpretations appeals to me the most? When everyone shares their answer, we ask deepening questions: - What does it tell me about myself that this particular thing touched me the most? - What do the individual ones change in my view of God? - What questions arose in me after getting to know these interpretations? There is one more possible interpretation of this fragment saying that God has in mind primarily Jesus - who already existed as a man, with human nature, at the creation of the world. It was looking at Him that the Father created us. Jesus is therefore not so much the New Adam, but actually the original Adam, the model of all humanity. However, we are able to realize this only by looking at the Bible and the history of salvation from the perspective of time. Interpreting the Word of God ============================ When the disciples on the third day after Jesus' death go to Emmaus, they meet him, unaware of who becomes their travel companion. Together they start a conversation about the events of the last days. Let's pay attention to what this "scene" of the road ends with: Let's read: But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. -- Lk 24:21.25-27 Jesus tells the history of salvation, starting with the Mosaic Pentateuch. He tells his story. He tells everything once again, in a way reinterpreting, because his explanation does not agree with the one presented by the disciples. How very new experience it must have been even for him to quote prophecies about salvation when it had already happened. - Did I have such a moment in my life that gave some words a new expression? The history of God and man, the history of salvation, is a story in which such things happen. Experiences open our eyes to new meanings of God's Word. The same fragments of Scripture read after time seem to have a completely different overtone. The relationship with God, although the same all the time, has so many shades. God is the same, we change. We mature, discover, experience, different things work in us. All this makes the story carried by the Word of God gain new perspectives. With our lives, we constantly interpret God, his Word and our relationship with Him. Constant reinterpretation of the Word of God is a space for deepening and widening our knowledge. - What is working in my life now? - What chance do I see in this to deepen my relationship with God? - How do I feel when I realize that interpreting Scripture is a task for a lifetime? Active contemplation of the Word of God, opening eyes to it, deepening, widening, looking around, constant openness to searching give us uniquely many ways to talk to God. The Word is living and together with us, as recipients, creates a dynamic whole, therefore we cannot close it in a single act of interpretation. Thanks to this, it can become for us a truly ongoing story, which it actually is. Application =========== As an application from the meeting, we ask participants to try to ask themselves one good question (in the light of the workshop) regarding each of the readings during the "Path of the Story" to which we will go immediately after this meeting.