Seek and you will see that you can find an icon with every character from the Holy Bible.🙂— Kalina Boulter (@KalinaBoulter) January 18, 2018
So Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father:..’Let not the king sin against his servantDavid,for he has not sinned against you,&what he has done has been greatly to your advantage. pic.twitter.com/1t09bJoPU7
The Second Book of Samuel pushes to strain our comfort with response to death of family and intimate friends.
The reaction of kinsfolk to Jesus ministry, in the Gospel of Mark, to the unclean and outsiders suggests our view of mental health may need review.
There were those even among the relatives of Jesus who disbelieved and regarded Jesus as out of his mind (Mk 3:21).Chas Kestermeier, S.J. literally goes between the lines to reflect on internal division that is in tension with our call to focus on Christ.
In the only case that we have real power over, our own, we truly must decide where our heart is, whether we have an undivided loyalty to Christ and His Kingdom or not. That does not mean that we have achieved perfect control over our lives, only that we have set ourselves to know, love, and serve Christ, His Father, and His Spirit and that we will do our very best to make all our choices in the light of that decision. Only then can we claim to speak and work in God's name as we try to bring unity to our own families, our communities, and to the world.Friar Jude Winkler provides some background to the situation of David when he hears of the death of Saul and the beloved Jonathan.
A claim by The Anointed One “Son of Man” that he is going to suffer and die in resonance with Daniel 7 and the Suffering Servant of Isaiah is difficult to understand, now and certainly then by those in Jesus immediate family.
Don Schwager shares the comments of Jerome, (347-420 AD), on the family perception of Jesus mental state.
"In the Gospel we read that even his kinsfolk desired to bind him as one of weak mind (Mark 3:21). His opponents also reviled him saying, 'You are a Samaritan and have a devil' (John 8:48)." (excerpt from LETTER 108, TO EUSTOCHIUM)Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, advises that we can only safely read Scripture, if we are somehow sharing in the divine gaze of love that through prayer helps us develop a “third eye” for the golden thread of inclusivity, mercy, and justice.
A life of prayer helps you develop a third eye that can read between the lines and find the golden thread which is moving toward inclusivity, mercy, and justice. I am sure that is what Paul means when he teaches that we must “know spiritual things in a spiritual way” (1 Corinthians 2:13). A hardened heart, a predisposition to judgment, a fear of God, any need to win or prove yourself right will corrupt and distort the most inspired and inspiring of Scriptures—just as they pollute every human conversation and relationship. Hateful people will find hateful verses to confirm their obsession with death. Loving people will find loving verses to call them into an even greater love of life. And both kinds of verses are in the Bible!There is no rule book for how we live with grief and division. Prayer helps to open our perception to the gift of Love and our experience of gratitude for living the experience of Love.
References
(n.d.). 2 Samuel, chapter 1 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/2samuel/1:1
(n.d.). Mark, chapter 3 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/mk/3:1414
(n.d.). Would Jesus Discriminate? - David loved Jonathan more than women. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://wouldjesusdiscriminate.org/biblical_evidence/david_jonathan.html
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/
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