Day 1 (Monday)
Proverbs 22:17-29; 23:1-35 (Sayings of the Wise)
As we begin the final third of Year 4, we will pause for one more week from our normal narrative readings, and return once again to the Book of Proverbs. This book, written by a father seeking to provide good guidance to his son, and then including other proverbs from the Wise, directs all of us to walk the narrow path of faithfulness, avoiding the common temptations and holding fast to the Lord in all things. It is a good reminder of the essential responsibilities of parents to their children, and of children to their parents.
Sayings of the Wise
Chapter 22:17 The words of the wise:
Incline your ear and hear my words,
and apply your mind to my teaching;
18 for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you,
if all of them are ready on your lips.
19 So that your trust may be in the Lord,
I have made them known to you today—yes, to you.
20 Have I not written for you thirty sayings
of admonition and knowledge,
21 to show you what is right and true,
so that you may give a true answer to those who sent you?
22 Do not rob the poor because they are poor,
or crush the afflicted at the gate;
23 for the Lord pleads their cause
and despoils of life those who despoil them.
24 Make no friends with those given to anger,
and do not associate with hotheads,
25 or you may learn their ways
and entangle yourself in a snare.
26 Do not be one of those who give pledges,
who become surety for debts.
27 If you have nothing with which to pay,
why should your bed be taken from under you?
28 Do not remove the ancient landmark
that your ancestors set up.
29 Do you see those who are skillful in their work?
They will serve kings;
they will not serve common people.
Chapter 23
When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
observe carefully what is before you,
2 and put a knife to your throat
if you have a big appetite.
3 Do not desire the ruler’s delicacies,
for they are deceptive food.
4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
be wise enough to desist.
5 When your eyes light upon it, it is gone;
for suddenly it takes wings to itself,
flying like an eagle toward heaven.
6 Do not eat the bread of the stingy;
do not desire their delicacies;
7 for like a hair in the throat, so are they.
“Eat and drink!” they say to you;
but they do not mean it.
8 You will vomit up the little you have eaten,
and you will waste your pleasant words.
9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
who will only despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not remove an ancient landmark
or encroach on the fields of orphans,
11 for their redeemer is strong;
he will plead their cause against you.
12 Apply your mind to instruction
and your ear to words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from your children;
if you beat them with a rod, they will not die.
14 If you beat them with the rod,
you will save their lives from Sheol.
15 My child, if your heart is wise,
my heart too will be glad.
16 My soul will rejoice
when your lips speak what is right.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but always continue in the fear of the Lord.
18 Surely there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Hear, my child, and be wise,
and direct your mind in the way.
20 Do not be among winebibbers,
or among gluttonous eaters of meat;
21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
and drowsiness will clothe them with rags.
22 Listen to your father who begot you,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23 Buy truth, and do not sell it;
buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
he who begets a wise son will be glad in him.
25 Let your father and mother be glad;
let her who bore you rejoice.
26 My child, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit;
an adulteress is a narrow well.
28 She lies in wait like a robber
and increases the number of the faithless.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who linger late over wine,
those who keep trying mixed wines.
31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
32 At the last it bites like a serpent,
and stings like an adder.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
and your mind utter perverse things.
34 You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.
35 “They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I will seek another drink.”
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note how this selection is dealing with common temptations, and especially with the common temptations of the world around us. Wealth, pleasure, power, drink, and in general, the high life, full of glamor and parties and excess…all this is to be avoided. But what is helpful about this is that these sins are not simply warned against; their consequences are explained and expanded upon, so that we may learn to be watchful and avoid going down those paths that lead to destruction. And especially during Bright Week…it’s good to have a limit set on our consumption.)
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)
Gospel of Nicodemus – 5 of 5
Last time we saw Adam and Habakkuk give glory to the Lord as He came to deliver them in Hades, speaking and singing praises to God much like the Three Young Men in the fiery furnace in Babylon. As they finished their offering of praises, we saw all the saints there in Hades follow the Lord as He led Adam out of bondage. This time, we will see where He leads them, and will come to the end of this text.
Reading 5
CHAP. 9 (25)—And the Lord, holding the hand of Adam, delivered him to Michael the archangel: and all the saints followed Michael the archangel, and he led them all into the glorious grace of paradise. And there met them two men, ancient of days. The saints asked them: “Who are you, that have not yet been dead along with us in the regions below, and have been placed in paradise in the body?”
One of them answered, and said: “I am Enoch, who by the word of the Lord have been translated hither; and he who is with me is Elias the Thesbite, who was taken up by a fiery chariot. Here also even until now we have not tasted death, but have been reserved to the coming of Antichrist, by divine signs and wonders to do battle with him, and, being killed by him in Jerusalem, after three days and half a day to be taken up alive again in the clouds.”
CHAP. 10 (26)—And while the saints Enoch and Elias were thus speaking, behold, there came up another man, most wretched, carrying on his shoulders the sign of the cross. And seeing him, all the saints said to him: “Who art thou? because thy appearance is that of a robber. And what is the sign which thou carriest on thy shoulders?” In answer to them, he said: “Truly have you said that I was a robber, doing all sorts of evil upon the earth. And the Jews crucified me along with Jesus; and I saw the miracles in created things which were done through the cross of Jesus crucified, and I believed Him to be the Creator of all created things, and the King omnipotent; and I entreated Him, saying, ‘Be mindful of me, Lord, when Thou shalt have come into Thy kingdom’.”
“Immediately He accepted my entreaty, and said to me, ‘Amen; I say to thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise’. And He gave me this sign of the cross, saying, ‘Walk into paradise carrying this; and if the guardian angel of paradise will not let thee go in, show him the sign of the cross, and thou shalt say to him, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has now been crucified, has sent me’. Having done so, I said all this to the guardian angel of paradise. And when he heard this, he immediately opened, and led me in, and placed me at the right of paradise, saying, ‘Lo, hold a little, and there will come in the father of the whole human race, Adam, with all his children, holy and just, after the triumph and glory of the ascension of Christ the crucified Lord.’”
Hearing all these words of the robber, all the holy patriarchs and prophets with one voice said: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord Almighty, Father of everlasting benefits, and Father of mercies, who hast given such grace to Thy sinners, and hast brought them back into the grace of paradise, and into Thy rich pastures; for this is spiritual life most sure. Amen, amen.”
CHAP. 11 (27)—These are the divine and sacred mysteries which we saw and heard, I Karinus, and Leucius. More we are not allowed to tell of the other mysteries of God, as Michael the archangel adjured us, and said: “You shall go into Jerusalem with your brethren, and continue in prayers, and you shall cry out, and glorify the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has raised you up again from the dead with Himself. And with none of men shall you speak; and you shall sit as if dumb, until the hour shall come when the Lord Himself shall permit you to relate the mysteries of His divinity.”
And Michael the archangel ordered us to walk across Jordan into a place rich and fertile, where there are many who rose again along with us for an evidence of the resurrection of Christ the Lord; because only three days were allowed to us who have risen from the dead to celebrate in Jerusalem the passover of the Lord, with our living relations, for an evidence of the resurrection of Christ the Lord: and we have been baptized in the holy river of Jordan, receiving each of us white robes. And after three days, when we had celebrated the passover of the Lord, all who rose again along with us were snatched up into the clouds, and taken across the Jordan, and were no longer seen by any one. But we were told to remain in the city of Arimathæa in prayers.
These are the things which the Lord commanded us to relate to you. Give Him praise and confession, and be penitent, that He may have mercy upon you. Peace be to you from the same Lord Jesus Christ, and the Saviour of all of us! Amen.”
And after they had finished all, writing on separate sheets of paper, they arose. And Karinus gave what he wrote into the hands of Annas and Caiaphas and Gamaliel; in like manner also Leucius gave what he wrote into the hands of Nicodemus and Joseph. And being suddenly transfigured, they became exceedingly white, and were seen no more. And their writings were found exactly the same, not one letter more or less.
All the synagogue of the Jews, hearing all these wonderful sayings of Karinus and Leucius, said to each other: “Truly all these things have been done by the Lord, and blessed be the Lord for ever and ever. Amen.” And they all went out with great anxiety, beating their breasts with fear and trembling; and they went away, each to his own house.
All these things which were said by the Jews in their synagogue Joseph and Nicodemus immediately reported to the proconsul. And Pilate himself wrote all which had been done and said concerning Jesus by the Jews, and he placed all the words in the public records of his prætorium.
Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., “The Gospel of Nicodemus,” in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, the Clementina, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains of the First Ages, trans. Alexander Walker, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 448–453.
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 Paradise is shown to be a different space than Hades, and that the great Saints who had not seen death, Enoch and Elias, are there to greet those delivered out of Hades. It is worth noting, as well, the tradition that Enoch and Elias are not reserved from death forever, but are waiting for the coming of Antichrist, as described in St. John’s Apocalypse. This is not a dogma of the Church, as such, but it is a common thread in the tradition, as it is quite remarkable that of all of humanity, only those two have not died; even the Theotokos died, and then was raised up into heaven and glorified above all the angels, and there is a strong sense that a similar thing happened to Moses. At any rate; the rest of the story is worth noting, and we need to repeat that none of the details of this story are dogma in the Church, but they do reflect for us what the mind of the Church was in the 4th and 5th centuries, as they read and understood what is described in the Gospel accounts, with the Lord raising up the righteous dead, and many of them being seen in Jerusalem for a time, but not remaining indefinitely. It is also worth noting that this text has all of them baptized before they are assumed into heaven in their resurrected bodies…so they do not REMAIN in Paradise, and thus a distinction is drawn here between Paradise, where the Robber is brought in, and where we pray even now that the souls of the Faithful who have died will dwell, and the transfigured, resurrected life of the Saints in Heaven, in the Divine Council with the Lord’s Angels.)
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 20:19-31 (Jesus Appears to the Disciples, Jesus and Thomas)
Last time we saw Jesus buried at the end of the 6th Day, the day of Preparation (Friday), and then rise on the third day (the 1st being Friday, the 2nd being the Sabbath, or Saturday, and the 3rd therefore being Sunday, the 1st Day of the new week), and appear to Mary Magdalene. We also saw the apostles Peter and John run to the empty tomb, and see the grave clothes left behind, but no sign of the Lord Himself. This time, He will reveal Himself to them.
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Jesus and Thomas
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
The Purpose of This Book
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note two things. First, that the Lord appears to them in the evening on the Lord’s Day, the Day of the Resurrection, when they are all gathered together with the doors locked. This is surely a matter of historical fact, but it is ALSO a point that would resonate with the early Christians, who we know met to worship and to celebrate the Eucharist in the evening on the Lord’s Day, often having gathered to pray as well in the early morning, before the rising of the sun, and of course before the day’s labors, since at that time, the 1st day of the week was certainly a work day for everyone. The second thing to point out is that, however often we hear belittling references to “Doubting Thomas,” Thomas here is not presented as unwilling to believe, but rather as the one who insisted on a direct encounter, and thus is able to bear witness of that direct encounter to everyone who follows long after, even including us ourselves. His confession of Jesus as “My Lord and my God” is an affidavit, as it were, confirming the truth of the Lord’s Resurrection to all, through all the ages. The final verses of this selection confirm that this is the point of this story being included.)
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?