Day 1 (Monday)
1 Kingdoms 20:1-42 (The Friendship of David & Jonathan)
Last time we saw flee from Saul once again after Saul gave himself over to jealousy and tried to kill David with a spear. Saul sent messengers after him three times, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon them and they prophesied instead of killing David, and when Saul himself came after David, the same thing happened to him. In this way, God has showed Saul very very clearly that what he is seeking with David is against God's will. We will see whether that makes a difference in this reading.
The Friendship of David and Jonathan
20 David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came before Jonathan and said, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin against your father that he is trying to take my life?” 2 He said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. My father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me; and why should my father hide this from me? Never!” 3 But David also swore, “Your father knows well that you like me; and he thinks, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, or he will be grieved.’ But truly, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.” 4 Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”
5 David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at the meal; but let me go, so that I may hide in the field until the third evening. 6 If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city; for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ 7 If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant; but if he is angry, then know that evil has been determined by him. 8 Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a sacred covenant with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?” 9 Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! If I knew that it was decided by my father that evil should come upon you, would I not tell you?” 10 Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” 11 Jonathan replied to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So they both went out into the field.
12 Jonathan said to David, “By the Lord, the God of Israel! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow, or on the third day, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? 13 But if my father intends to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan, and more also, if I do not disclose it to you, and send you away, so that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. 14 If I am still alive, show me the faithful love of the Lord; but if I die, 15 never cut off your faithful love from my house, even if the Lord were to cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” 16 Thus Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord seek out the enemies of David.” 17 Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him; for he loved him as he loved his own life.
18 Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon; you will be missed, because your place will be empty. 19 On the day after tomorrow, you shall go a long way down; go to the place where you hid yourself earlier, and remain beside the stone there. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. 21 Then I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, collect them,’ then you are to come, for, as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go; for the Lord has sent you away. 23 As for the matter about which you and I have spoken, the Lord is witness between you and me forever.”
24 So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat at the feast to eat. 25 The king sat upon his seat, as at other times, upon the seat by the wall. Jonathan stood, while Abner sat by Saul’s side; but David’s place was empty.
26 Saul did not say anything that day; for he thought, “Something has befallen him; he is not clean, surely he is not clean.” 27 But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to the feast, either yesterday or today?” 28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem; 29 he said, ‘Let me go; for our family is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your sight, let me get away, and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.”
30 Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan. He said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.” 32 Then Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 33 But Saul threw his spear at him to strike him; so Jonathan knew that it was the decision of his father to put David to death. 34 Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food on the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, and because his father had disgraced him.
35 In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him was a little boy. 36 He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is the arrow not beyond you?” 38 Jonathan called after the boy, “Hurry, be quick, do not linger.” So Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. 39 But the boy knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. 40 Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said to him, “Go and carry them to the city.” 41 As soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He bowed three times, and they kissed each other, and wept with each other; David wept the more. 42 Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since both of us have sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants, forever.’” He got up and left; and Jonathan went into the city.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out how this story sets two ways of approaching power and authority against one another. Saul's perspective is that there is only room for one person at the top. He is determined to be that person, and any threat, real or imagined, must be destroyed. Jonathan, who is indeed Saul's heir and ought to inherit, is not treating the kingship as a thing to be seized or grasped; he knows and loves David, and knows that David is anointed to be king, and he willingly gives up what he could, but does not, consider to be his birthright. As at the beginning of Jonathan's story, so now, he entrusts himself to God's will, and himself chooses the one that God has chosen to support and to defend and to love with all his heart. The contrast between the seizure and protection of power, and the faithfulness to God above all, is profound. In all this, the action and initiative belongs to Jonathan, and he has shown himself faithful to God throughout. David's action has been in choosing not to act; although Saul is seeking to kill him, David is not raising a hand against Saul. If we ever wonder what it looks like to wait upon the Lord…these two men give us a good example.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 2 (Wednesday)
St. Anthony the Great – 4
Last time, we saw St. Anthony complete his account of the attacks that the demons will make against humanity, and especially against the monastics, by speaking of how they appear even like the great Leviathan, the great serpent or dragon, threatening to destroy us, but proceeding with the reminder that the Lord has overthrown the power even of such dragons, and has hooked them and bound them. Thus, he says, the evil spirits will act instead by deception, pretending to be pious, and try to lead us astray by trying to be too pious, or not pious enough, in order to overthrow us. So he urged his hearers to ignore them, whether they threaten or lead astray. We will see how he continues from this point.
St. Anthony the Great on the Evil Spirits
Reading 4
28. “I have so far spoken of this matter in passing, but now I must not hesitate to give a fuller account of the things concerning them, for the reminder will work for your safety.
“Since the Lord made his sojourn with us, the enemy is fallen and his powers have diminished. For this reason, though he is able to do nothing, nevertheless like a tyrant fallen from power he does not remain quiet, but issues threats, even if they are only words. Let every one of you consider this, and he will be empowered to treat the demons with contempt. Now if they were bound to bodies of the sort we have, they might have to say, ‘We cannot find the men who hide themselves, but when we do find them, we inflict injury.’ By hiding, then, we would be able to escape them, locking doors against them.
However, even if they are not like this, but have the power to enter through locked doors, and they are met everywhere in the air—both they and their leader, the devil—and though they intend malice and are ready to do harm, and as the Savior said, ‘The devil, the father of evil, is a murderer from the beginning,’ (John 8:44) nevertheless we are now living, and indeed we lead our lives in opposition to him. It is evident that they possess no strength! For a place does not prevent them from planning treachery, and they do not look on us as friends, in order to show us mercy, and they are not lovers of the good, with the intention of being reformed.
On the contrary, they are evil, and they desire nothing so much as inflicting injury on those who love virtue and honor God. But because they have no power to act, they do nothing except issue threats. If they had the power, they would not delay, but immediately would perform the evil for which they have a ready inclination—especially evil directed against us. Take note, then, that we who are gathered here now speak against them, and they know that as we advance they are weakened. Indeed, if they had authority, they would not permit one of us Christians to live, for godliness is an abomination to the sinner (Sirach 1:24). But since they are powerless, they wound themselves instead, because the things they threaten they are unable to perform.
“To end our fear of them, we ought to ponder this: If the capability were theirs, they would not come in great mobs, nor create phantasms, nor would they work their fraud by being transfigured. It would suffice for only one to come and do what he can and wills—especially because everyone who actually possesses the power does not destroy with apparitions, nor arouse fear with large mobs, but exercises his might directly, as he wishes. The demons, however, unable to effect anything, play parts as if they were on stage, changing their forms and striking fear in children by the illusion of the hordes and their shapes.
For these antics they deserve instead to be ridiculed as weaklings. The true angel of the Lord, at least, who was sent by the Lord to the Assyrians, had no need of hordes, nor of visible apparitions, nor of crashing sounds and rattling noises. He wielded his authority quietly, and at once destroyed a hundred and eighty-five thousand foes (2 Kings 19:35). But the demons, who lack the power to do anything, these are the sort who must try to frighten, even if through illusions.
29. “Now if anyone considers the events of Job’s life, and says: ‘Why then did the devil set forth and do all those things to him? Did he not strip him of his possessions, destroy his children and strike him with painful boils?’ (Job 1-2)—let such a questioner know that the devil was not the one possessing strength, but it was God who turned over the testing of Job to him. It is clear that because he was capable of doing nothing, he asked this, and when he was granted his request, he acted. So on this ground also the enemy is to be condemned, that even when he desired it, he did not prevail against one righteous man.
If he possessed strength, he would not have made the request. But in asking—not once, but twice—he showed himself weak and capable of nothing. It is not remarkable if he had no might against Job, when indeed destruction would not befall even the man’s cattle unless God allowed it. In fact, the devil has no authority over swine, for, as it is written in the Gospel, they begged the Lord, saying, ‘Send us to the swine.’ But if they held no sway over the swine, how much less do they hold over people made in the image of God!
30. “We need, therefore, to fear God alone, holding them in contempt and fearing them not at all. Indeed, the more they do these things, let us all the more exert ourselves in the discipline that opposes them, for a great weapon against them is a just life and trust in God. They are afraid of the ascetics on several counts—for their fasting, the vigils, the prayers, the meekness and gentleness, the contempt for money, the lack of vanity, the humility, the love of the poor, the almsgiving, the freedom from wrath, and most of all for their devotion to Christ.
It is for this reason that they do all they do—in order not to have those monks trampling them underfoot. For they know the grace that has been given to the faithful for combat against them by the Savior, in his saying, Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19).
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note the summary of St. Anthony’s point; he is showing to his contemporary monastics, and also to us, how the evil spirits have no power at all, and how all their threatening and noise and disruption is a sign of their powerlessness, because if they had power, they would simply annihilate or overthrow everyone opposed to them. But since they do not, we see in that simple fact the proof of what God has revealed to us, that their power is overthrown, and they are constrained by His will and His power. We should therefore indeed walk in loyalty and faithfulness to the Lord, and reject every assault or temptation of the evil ones.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 3 (Friday)
John 9:13-34 (Pharisees Investigate the Healing)
Last week, we saw the Lord after leaving the Temple with the Pharisees determined to stone Him for His statement that “before Abraham was, I am.” On the way, He encountered a man who had been blind from his birth, and He spat on the ground, made mud with the dust and the spittle, and placed the mud in the man’s eye sockets, sending him to the pool of Siloam to wash. When the man obeyed, he received his sight, and when the people afterward asked him how he had received his sight, he answered that Jesus had healed him, telling the story. This time, we will see the Pharisees get involved.
The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”
22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”
30 The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out how Jesus, in performing this miracle, has given a proof of exactly Who He Is, in making new eyes for the man born blind, showing Himself to be indeed Yahweh, the Creator of all things, He Who Is and Brings into Being. As the Pharisees investigate, we see them divided, at least until the man healed of blindness begins to teach and instruct them, upending their sense of the right order and hierarchy of things. At that point, they reject his reasoning, make an appeal to their own authority, and drive him out of the synagogue, expelling him from the community. But he, the uneducated, unlettered one, has perceived what they have so far been entirely unwilling or unable to recognize, that God is with us.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?