Lent with Anthony Bloom: Reading #4

On Reading Scripture

This year’s daily Lent postings for my subscribers will taken from a short anthology of writings on prayer taken from the corpus of Metropolitan Anthony Bloom. Without a paid subscription, only the first portion of the post will be available.

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READING SCRIPTURE, PART 1

When we read the Scriptures honestly we can admit that certain passages mean little to us. We are ready to agree with God because we have no reason to disagree with Him. We can approve of this or that commandment or divine action because it does not touch us personally; we do not yet see the demands it makes on us personally.

Other passages frankly repel us. If we had the courage we would say “no” to the Lord. We should note these passages carefully. They are a measure of the distance between God and us and also they are a measure of the distance between ourselves as we are now and our potential definitive selves.

For the Gospel is not a succession of external commandments; it is a whole gallery of internal portraits. And every time we say “no” to the Gospel we are refusing to be a person in the full sense of the word.