Introduction
You may subscribe to any number of daily devotionals, blogs, scriptures of the day, etc. You may also have shelves full of Bible commentaries. And of course, it’s very likely that you access to online scriptural interpretations from time to time (especially when it’s your turn for the class devotional).
I heartily recommend any and all of these sources. After all, scripture is literally alive with meaning. It never grows old. Yet our human brains can go only so far in plumbing its depths. And if you’re like me, you can use all the help you can get!
With this blog I hope to create a new category of spiritual resource. Sounds auspicious doesn’t it? In a way, though, it’s only a new variation on something very old, i.e. the teaching method most favored by Jesus Himself. He did preach in an expository way, of course, the best example being the Sermon on the Mount. But often, in fact very often, He favored teaching by employing stories that we call parables.
We surely remember the beatitudes (but can you recite them?) and of course, the Lord’s Prayer. But I will wager that you can easily retell story after story that Jesus told two thousand years ago. Memorable stories like the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, the Lost Coin, the Pearl of Great Value, etc., seem to etch themselves into our very spiritual culture.
And the best part of these stories is that they animate the scriptures in our minds, giving life to them in a way that we can even contribute to, out of our own imaginations. We can almost see the prodigal as he transitions from arrogance to humility (Rembrandt’s famous painting surely helps). We can imagine his stiff-lipped older brother, and of course, the loving father. They are no longer inanimate figures: instead, they literally come alive as the story unfolds, speaking the words that Jesus has given them. And so, we become bystanders, watching and listening as Jesus weaves His story.
We can even fill out the character of figures in the stories. What was the Good Samaritan really like? Was he always good or was he inspired only for that moment? What did he forego by stopping to help the wounded man? What price did he pay?
These stories can stimulate us like no other style of teaching. They take our cognitive ability and combine imagination with our personal experience to enable us to animate a view of the teaching that is, in some ways, unique to each one of us. No other style of learning can do that.
St. Ignatius was a pioneer of this manner of opening up the Gospels. He outlined the practice in his Spiritual Exercises, enabling a deeper look at the Gospel stories, using one’s own imagination to literally enter into the story. And he did so, not only for the practice of Bible study, but also in personal prayer and meditation.
What these stories attempt to do is to take this style of teaching and employ it on the Gospels themselves, i.e. the story of Jesus. It presents stories from His life and ministry, animated to encompass the surrounding characters and their interactions with our Lord.
To be sure, these stories, though based on scripture, go beyond scripture and are not to be taken as biblical. They are meant to fill in blanks, add color and most of all to stimulate you, the reader, to create your own personal story from what you read. I truly believe that is what Jesus intended. Consequently, each story can have many meanings, as each one of us receives it in our own personal way. Meanings can even change over time, as our circumstances change and our faith deepens.
The Apostle Paul tells us to have the “mind of Christ.” We know that we never will, at least in any full sense. My hope for this blog is that you will read these stories and allow them to stimulate you in a way that brings you a bit closer to His mind.
Where possible, I have specified references to the scripture on which each story is based. My recommendation to you, as you read these stories, is to first read the scriptural passage. The actual passage should always be the basis of our understanding.