These Mondays I am taking a Biblical Pastoral Formation course for the Deacons. The first few sessions are conducted by Catholic Hong Kong Bible Association「天主教聖經協會」. We spent 2 sessions to discuss the Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini promulgated by Benedict XVI on September 30, 2010. Then we also learned some Bible Sharing activities such as Bible snapshot, compressing a five-minute talk into one. Tonight, we practised some procedures in which some texts of the first chapter of John were shared. I am rather rational in Bible sharing and many times, I do exegesis rather than sharing. Tonight, it was no exception and I had difficulty staying at the sharing level. Of course, the host did not condemn me. She tried to explain away my shortcoming, saying that all of us had undergone rigorous theological trainings. Therefore, it was easy for us to go deeper and our sharings would turn into exegesis.
The spirit of Biblical sharing is to allow us to be moved by the Holy Spirit and to discover what messages the Holy Spirit tries to convey to us through the text. Everybody shares with the group what messages he receives and what changes in his religious life these messages call for. In the practice, I got stuck in some verses.
We were sharing John 1:36-42. John the Baptist was standing with 2 of his disciples. They saw Jesus and the Baptist told his disciples that Jesus was the Lamb of God. The 2 disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned around and asked, "What do you seek?" 「你們找什麼？」They answered, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" 「辣彼！你住在那裡？」 (John 1:38) The Chinese translation gives me a feeling that the disciples were not answering Jesus' question. It sounds a bit odd to answer a question with a question. "What are you looking for?" "Teacher, where do you live?" Perhaps it makes perfect sense for some people. For me, it is a bit odd. Perhaps I am not quite used to such a style of writing.
In another verse, I was puzzled by the statement of Andrew. John the Baptist said Jesus was the Lamb of God. But when Andrew went to Simon Peter, he told Simon that they had found the Messiah (John 1:41). Was that how Andrew understood the Baptist's testimony? There was a gap between these 2 titles. How did he equate the Lamb of God with the Messiah? Had Andrew understood the Baptist correctly?
In this verse, SaiLing saved me. He said that our students/catechumens usually do not understand us completely and correctly. It is a fact of life. At that moment, perhaps Andrew really misunderstood the testimony of the Baptist. Ah! That made sense to me.
In the second practice, we read the text John 1:45-51. We read the text 4 times, each time we labelled the text with special punctuation marks. The first time, we used question marks to label text we don't understand. The second time, we used exclamation marks to label text we agree. The third time, we used small circles to label exaggerated text. The last time, we used an up-arrow to label text relevant to our life. During the sharing, we explained why we had labelled the text in such ways. This procedure slows down my tendency to do exegesis. Still, I have a lot of question marks.
What did Nathanel do under the fig tree such that Jeus could conclude that Nathanel was an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile? (John 1:47) Of course, nobody could answer. But I am sure many people are curious like me to know what was going on.
When Jesus told Nathanel that he had seen him under the fig tree before Philip found him, Nathanel exclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God, the King of Israel (John 1:49). I did not understand the thinking of Nathanel. How could he equate the Son of God with the King of Israel? SaiLing also marked this verse with a question mark but for a different reason. He queried why Nathanel could have jumped to the conclusion that Jesus was the Son of God.
My next question mark went to the last verse. Where in the Bible can we find angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John 1:51)?
Many of us marked John 1:48 with an up-arrow. Jesus sees us all the time. This can be frightening for some of us but it can also be comforting when Jesus sees us unjustly treated by our boss.
Dear Lord, help me get Your message properly. Amen.
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