"Jesus, Focus of Division”
August 14, 2020
Deacon Dennis Walters

It must seem ironic that Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, should say He’s come from heaven to establish division. From the beginning of His life, though, that was made clear. A choir of angels proclaimed to the shepherds “peace on earth among men with whom [God] is pleased” (Luke 2:14); but at Jesus’ presentation Simeon warned His parents that their child would be a sign of contradiction, a sign that would reveal those who in their hearts would accept or reject Him and what He stands for (2:34).  

At this point in Luke’s account, Jesus has been meeting significant opposition. He has been driven out of His home town, accused of violating the Sabbath, asked trick questions to discredit Him, charged Him with having a demon, and plotted against by those out to kill Him. Jesus knows He is headed for the cross; He’s already begun warning His disciples of that fate. Now, in an emotional outburst, He yearns for it to happen. “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” of a kind that will pit even close family members against each other (Lk 49-51).

There are several ways to look at what Jesus is saying. Take the wish to set the earth on fire.The wish is common enough to anyone who wants to transform the world, but Jesus’ meaning is unique. John the Baptist had announced that the One who came after him would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16). Fire in this case is an image of the Holy Spirit, and would remind Luke’s readers of the tongues of fire at Pentecost. Fire purifies, separating what is genuine or valuable from what is false or worthless (Mal 3:2). Fire also represents judgment, separating those consumed with the fire of God’s love from those condemned to the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

We use the expression “baptism of fire” to mean a challenging experience that initiates someone into a difficult role. Jesus’ “baptism of fire” referred to His total immersion in unspeakable suffering, culminating in His death on the cross.  It was also a baptism in which His disciples would participate. When James and John asked to be seated at Jesus’ right and left in His glory, He asked them if they could go through the same baptism that He would be baptized with. When they said ‘Yes,’ Jesus assured them that they would indeed undergo that baptism, but their position in glory was not His to grant (Mark 10:37-40). As it turned out, James was the first apostle to receive that baptism when Herod beheaded him (Acts 12:2).
Any way you look at it, though, Jesus’ words about establishing division are disturbing. It’s not that He wants to provoke division.

Rather, the simple fact that He is who He is and says what He says, divides people. It’s always been over Jesus Himself and His message. We must either accept both or reject both. We cannot accept Jesus and reject or water down His message; nor can we claim to follow His teaching for its great moral wisdom but deny the reality of the one who taught it. Indeed, the Man and His message are the same: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one can come to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Whether we accept that or reject it, our choice will determine our future.

But what we decide splits families. Who of us has not already seen relatives separate from us over issues of faith? How many of us refuse to talk about religion at home for fear of starting an argument? And how many of us, when a family member gets attacked for holding to a basic tenet of Christian morality, dares to stick our neck out to defend that person? Of course, we can extend this beyond the immediate family to the society at large, and even to the family of the Church. Every day, we hear of Christians attacked for being homophobic, transphobic, fundamentalist, for being the most bigoted adherents of an outmoded religion. Even within the Church, we see division between practicing and lapsed Catholics, orthodox and “Catholic lite” members of the faithful, and bishops and cardinals criticizing each other publicly.  

The division Jesus established is both within us and around us. What matters for us is which side of the division we land on. The note of urgency in Jesus’ voice in our passage still applies. He still wants to set the earth on fire. Even though He is the focus of division, He ardently wishes that people decide in His favor. The salvation of souls — of real human lives — is at stake. If there is any way in which you have not made up your mind about Jesus Christ, about making Him the center of your life, now is the time to do it. You may be criticized for being too religious, for being a “Jesus freak,” but at least the dividing line will be clear.  

Yes, Jesus is and always will be the focal point of division. The good news is, you were called to experience peace. But that peace can only come when you decide to make Jesus and His message the focus of your life; only then will you enjoy the peace to which the Gospel calls you (Col 3:15-16), even if suffering and division result from it. Learning to know Jesus and to know His love puts you in the best position to work for peace within your family and within the Church at large. To this peace, and to this mission, you have been called.

“The Lord Is Knocking. Will You Answer?”
August 7, 2022
Fr. Bosco Padamattummal

The Gospel reading this morning seems more in place around the time of Advent; when we find the Gospel readings with the theme of being ready and awake for the Lord’s coming. This morning’s Gospel reading seems a little bit out of place in mid-summer. Yet its placing on this Sunday of August is a reminder to us that we need to be alert at all times to the coming of the Lord. 

In the imagery of the parable, we are called to be servants who are always dressed for action with our lamps lit, who are always found awake, ready to open the door as soon as the Lord comes and knocks. The Lord comes and knocks every day of our lives, not just at the end of our lives or the end of time. He comes to us in those we meet in our daily lives. In a very real sense, every hour is an hour of the Lord’s coming and knocking. 

In the book of Revelation, the risen Lord declares, ‘Listen, I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with Me.’ The emphasis is ‘be awake with your lamps lit’. 

Our baptismal calling is to be alert and responsive to the traces of God in our daily lives. That call to be awake to the coming of the Lord is a call to be awake at all times in its deeper dimension. The opposite of being awake is to be asleep, to be spiritually tuned out. That can be a great temptation, especially perhaps in the times in which we live. There are times in the history of the Church, like some recent times, that we have not been alert. These are not the times to put out the light and go to sleep. These are the times to be spiritually alert, to awaken our faith, to persevere in our journey towards the future that God has in store for us, like Abraham in the first reading.

Abraham was always on the move, according to that first reading. Even when he arrived in the Promised Land, he did not settle, rather, he continued to look forward to a city founded, designed and built by God, what the gospel reading refers to as ‘the kingdom’ of God. 
There is a wonderful saying of Jesus at the beginning of this morning’s Gospel reading, ‘there is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom’. It is also constantly coming towards us.  Elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus says, ‘the kingdom of God is among you’. We need to be awake and alert to the kingdom of God which is among us. The Lord knocks on the door of our lives with a great gift. It is a knock that fills us with a sense of joyful hope, and that calls on us to allow that gift to shape our lives. Look at the image of the Lord given here in an extraordinary role. The Lord of the universe will put on an apron, sit His watchful servants down at table and wait on them. We all have our own image of God, but, perhaps, this morning’s image of God in an apron is not one that comes to mind very often. 
Jesus revealed that image of God when He put a towel around His waist and washed the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper. That is how the Lord relates to us at every Eucharist. The Eucharist gives us what our lives as Christians are about. It is a moment when we are spiritually awoken to the Lord’s coming, when we are attentive to His knock, when we open our lives to His coming, when we experience His generous service to us, and then are sent forth to serve one another as He has served us.

In this parable our call to a new way of seeing and living is explained. Jesus said to His disciples: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” 

He is not suggesting we all need to be poor, go without, or be lacking. And He is not saying we shouldn’t own or have anything because inherently, there is nothing virtuous about poverty, lack, or insufficiency to support ourselves and our loved ones. The world does not need more poor people. What the world needs is people who are not possessed by their possessions, people who live non-possessive lives, kingdom people. 

Jesus is offering another vision of life, a kingdom vision. When I live a possessive life, I am more focused on me than we, more passionate about my rights than my responsibilities, and more concerned about being right than doing what’s right. I worry about the thief that steals and the moth that destroys. I fear not only not having enough but that I am not enough. I am always striving for more: more money, more stuff, more status, more success, more control. We are concerned about keeping what we have and getting what we don’t have. 

Dear brothers and sisters, we’re at our best when we live non-possessive lives. We become more welcoming and hospitable. We forgive more freely. We’re more generous with our time,
money, and resources. We  l o v e  m o r e  extravagantly. We see more clearly our deep interconnection with and need of others. A non-possessive life deepens our conversations and intimacy. It makes us better parents, spouses, and friends. We handle conflict and differences in better and more productive ways. We open our hearts and minds to other people and new possibilities. We’re more creative and less judgmental of ourselves and others.

“Growing Rich in What Matters”
July 31, 2022
Deacon Dennis Walters

When I worked for GM during the ‘90s, I helped train new design engineers who would be developing and marketing the SUVs and other crossover vehicles that have now become so popular. One of the pet words GM used in its marketing strategy for these vehicles was “stuff” ─ an SUV is great for loading all your stuff, as much stuff as you need for your road trip. The word covered anything you could pack into such a vehicle, but it also spoke to consumers who had money for lots and lots of nonessential … stuff.

Our economic system is built on the need to keep people buying stuff. A hundred years ago, most people did not “go shopping” unless they needed food or necessary items for the home or farm. Advertising, which was in its infancy then, has now become the art and science of creating a felt need, whether a real need exists or not.  

Today, shopping either online or in-store is a form of recreation. Many people from third world countries are astounded at the amount of stuff in our stores. And despite recent supply-chain problems, our stores are bigger and better stocked. We’ve graduated from mom & pop storefronts to markets to supermarkets to mega-malls selling everything you can imagine ─ and people flock to them. Online shopping has only made it easier to restock our home shelves with the newest stuff.

The word of God in today’s liturgy directly addresses this development. The pursuit of wealth for its own sake is vain. The Hebrew word for vanity means a breath or vapor, something insubstantial or empty. Qoheleth’s expression “vanity of vanities” is a Hebrew superlative; it means “the most vain” or “the utmost vanity,” an empty pursuit, indeed the emptiest pursuit one can engage in. It’s empty, both because it’s pointless, and because greed of any type is a form of idolatry. The urge to acquire stuff ─ be it financial security, a bigger home, the latest electronic toy, and what not ─ just so you can have it is idolatry, the worship of a false god. To the biblical mind, false gods are hollow, and so are the people who worship them.

To be clear, the issue in these readings is not that a desire for a well-paying job so you can support your family or improve your life is a vain pursuit. The Christian ideal is to earn enough to provide a modest level of comfort and financial security for our families, plus a little more to use as alms for the poor. We want to provide enough so that when we die our families will be able to survive financially for at least the near-term future.

Rather, here’s what our readings are getting at. For Qoheleth, pursuing riches at all is vain because someone else will inherit what I’ve worked for. For Jesus, what makes the rich man a fool is that he assumes he will live to old age and that his wealth will last him that long. Jesus points out that I don’t know the day of my death. It could be today. If it is, what future have I stored up? I can’t keep what I have. Naked I came into this world, and naked I’ll leave it. If I’m to prepare for the day of my death, I ought to be concerned about what happens after it ─ about my eternal future.  

Jesus ends his parable by saying that I should try to grow rich in what matters to God. So, what does matter to God? Our second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians provides a glimpse.

Since I’ve been raised through baptism into a new nature with Christ, logically I should be seeking the things that belong to that new nature ─ things that pertain to heaven, not to things on earth. In other words, I should be looking to grow in the character traits that make me more like Christ.  

But my fallen human nature doesn’t act that way. I’m more inclined to the character traits that Paul calls earthly, such as the greed, competitiveness, and evil desire that compel me to collect stuff regardless of expense. For me to become more like Christ, Paul says, I need to start acting according to the new nature He’s given me. That involves a kind of death to self, but it results in developing character traits like compassion, kindness, lowliness (humility), meekness (gentleness), patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and above all love that “binds everything together in perfect harmony.”  

It's vain —empty and pointless — to spend my life collecting stuff. None of that matters to God. If I follow Paul’s advice, over time I’ll grow rich in what does matter to Him: the pursuit of holiness. Amen.
 

“Pray With Boldness”
July 24, 2022
Fr. Bosco Padamattummal


Our Lord’s disciples had asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. As part of His answer, He
gives us “The Lord’s prayer.” This is called “Lord’s prayer” because the Lord is teaching this prayer. In the Lord’s prayer, we have a pattern for prayer, given to us by Jesus Himself.  He then tells His disciples a  story about a friend who disturbs his neighbor in the middle of the night for some bread to serve a guest. You see, in this story, Jesus is still teaching us about prayer and in it He outlines some principles we can apply if we want to be more effective in our prayers. Jesus shared a parable with them designed to illustrate what kind of praying we must do. Paul picked up on this idea in Philippians 4:6 -  “Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Like a child expects the necessities of life from a loving father, and seeks them boldly from him, so we  too can go to God and boldly expect him to meet all of our needs.

I hope you can see the increasing intensity in these verses - ask, seek and knock: asking means making a simple request, seeking implies a stronger desire and a more definite kind of request - something that takes time and knocking shows determination to get an answer. It is as simple as this. The passion and persistence with which we pray reveals our true heart. Passion and persistence in our prayer shows the sincerity of our desire. God wants to know your real heart. You see, God will not put something in our hands until he has first prepared our hearts. Ephesians 3:20 “God can do anything; you know far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams.” Our hearts need to be prepared before God’s answer can be received. There is no unwillingness on God’s part, just unreadiness or lack of persistence on our part. When a soldier is in battle, he goes to his commanding officer to request the tools or weapons he needs to get the job done – to win the battle – and he expects to get them. In the same way we can go to the Lord with boldness and confidence knowing He will give us everything we need to get the job done.

Ask him in complete trust and confidence: Praying in Jesus’ name involves operating in and asking according to His authority. Our prayer request must reflect the majesty and power of our God.

Another thing Jesus wishes to teach about prayer is selfless concern for a good cause. We notice that the man in the parable asked his friend for three loaves. He was willing to go out to find loaves of bread to feed his friend, regardless of the time of day. What I want you to see here is that the friend at midnight took the initiative to go to his neighbor and persist until he got an answer – and we are to see that he was inspired by the need of a weary traveler. He was there knocking on the door of his neighbor in the middle of the night because he had a selfless concern for someone who was far from home. Jesus is saying here in Luke 11:8 that we are to be like this neighbor at midnight, we are to boldly approach God and ask Him to meet our needs. And the verse says that God is like the neighbor who gives the bread. He gets up and "gives as much as is needed."

 Likewise, if we are going to pray as we ought, we must be willing to make whatever sacrifices are required to spend time in prayer. Hebrews 4:16 “Let us, then, have no fear in approaching the  throne  of  grace  to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help” 

What an incredible picture the Lord gives in this parable for the believers’ duty to pray. Believers are to take the initiative to go to the Lord in passionate and persistent prayer, even if it is in the middle of the night, until we get the answer. We go to prayer because of the needs of the weary travelers we meet in life quite often. Jesus said, "I have not come to be served but to serve," and we are to have that same attitude in our prayer. The greatest thing anyone can do for God and man is pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer, or those who say they believe in prayer, nor those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray. "Devote yourselves to prayer, be watchful in it with an attitude of thanksgiving," (Colossians 4:2). 

We have to keep in mind: “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray." The closing verses of Jesus’ teaching on prayer in this Gospel passage is "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" These verses teach us that we can expect marvelous and wonderful things from God’s hand. We learn here that God’s answers to prayer are always good ones. Because God is a good God, a loving heavenly Father, He will answer them in such a way that is for our highest good.

Dear brothers and sisters If we simply want to see good things happen in our marriages, our families, at work, at church or in our children and friends, then we must pray with boldness, with passion, and with expectancy.

“Make the Better Choice”
July 17, 2022
Fr. Bosco Padamattummal

When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” (Lk 9:51). The journey to Jerusalem continues. “Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha  welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching.” This is the only conversation between Martha and Jesus that Luke recounts. “Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord do You NOT CARE that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.” Jesus’ gentle response to Martha is the key point-“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.”

There have been times when I made a choice and I knew deep within that it was the only choice to be made. It was absolutely the right choice. If I could do it all again, I would make the same choice and do so with thanksgiving and gratitude. There have also been times when I made what I thought was the right choice but can now see there was a better choice to have been made. I would do things differently if I had the chance to choose again. I suspect most of us could say the same thing. Too often we equate the choice we make, and its subsequent approval or rejection, with our goodness, our worthiness, our acceptableness, our faithfulness, our lovableness. That’s what most of history has done with Mary and Martha. Mary made the better choice, Jesus says, and we quickly conclude that we should be like Mary, not Martha. Mary is equated with the contemplative life and Martha with the active life and much of Christian history has seen the contemplative life as the more perfect life.  

That’s one reading of this text but is it the only reading, the definitive reading? Is Mary necessarily better, more holy, more loved, more acceptable to Jesus? Martha, the gracious hostess who has opened her home to Jesus and has been serving Him and His disciples, has now turned “anxious and troubled” by many things. She has the huge task of cooking for a large group of people and wishes to make it very special for such an important guest and His disciples. Of course she is anxious and troubled about many things.

If Jesus is saying that Mary, to the exclusion of Martha, is the way we are to be, then if the next time your wife asks you to run some errands or help with the house cleaning you will just tell her, “No babe, you go ahead. I’m going to choose the better part and sit here with Jesus and read the Bible.” I don’t think that is what Jesus is saying. Jesus is making an observation, not a judgment. I don’t think this text is really even about Mary and Martha but about us and the choices we make. If Jesus wanted us to do that, why didn’t He tell us clearly what that “one thing” is? He could have at least given us the five easy steps to choosing the better part, but He didn’t.  

‘Necessities’ are those things that we cannot live without. What isn’t a ‘necessity’ isn’t ‘needful.’ We can live without it. We’d all probably be very surprised and ashamed if we took an inventory of those things that are actually ‘necessary’ and those things that are not but that we treat as though they were ‘necessary.’ Keeping ‘necessities’ and ‘non-necessities’ in their proper place seems like it should be pretty obvious and easy to do. But it gets very confusing. And without realizing it, we consider that which is ‘not-necessary’ to be ‘absolutely necessary,’ and that which is ‘absolutely necessary’ to be entirely optional.

Jesus is saying that choices matter. We are always making choices. I wonder how many choices we make each day? Sometimes we choose unconsciously, sometimes quickly and easily, other times with great deliberation and struggle. Some choices are insignificant. They are forgotten the next day. Other choices have great meaning and significance and the consequences are long lasting. Our choices can shape who we are. They can establish in us patterns and habits of how we see and act, the words we speak, and the ways we relate to each other. Our choices make a difference.  

In this particular context Mary made the better choice but it was a choice for that time, that place, and those circumstances. It is Jesus’ last time to see them, as I said in the beginning, from Luke 9:51 Jesus is on His last journey to Jerusalem which will lead to His arrest, trial and crucifixion. He knows those things but Martha, Mary or His disciples do not know it. Change the setting and Martha’s choice might have been the better part, that is, not to be anxious to prepare a big menu for dinner. But instead spend time with their Master and listen to Him speak as there will be no more opportunities to listen to their beloved teacher.  

We can see that in Jesus’ own life that sometimes He went off by Himself to be alone and silent, to pray, to sit and listen, to be present to His Father. At those times he was like Mary. Other times Jesus was active, on the move, in the midst of people, and busy teaching, healing, feeding 5000. On those days, He was more like Martha.

Dear brothers and sisters, this Gospel passage of Mary and Martha there is a common theme: “presence”. Mary and Martha represent two ways of being present. Both ways are necessary, faithful, and holy. There is not simply one choice that is to be made for ever and always. We are always to be discerning the one thing needed in this time, this place, these circumstances. What is the better part given our particular situation? How can we be present, show up, to the divine presence that is already and always before us? That’s the question. Some days Mary will be our guide and other days Martha will be our guide. Either way we must choose. May we be as wise as Mary and so order our lives rightly, knowing the ‘necessity’ of sitting at Jesus’ feet and receiving from Him “the good portion” so that we may be as gracious as Martha and serve others with a ‘true heart’ and a ‘right spirit.’


 

Meanings Behind the Good Samaritan Parable
July 10, 2022
Deacon Dennis Walters

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of those whose meaning seems abundantly clear on the surface. In fact, Jesus states it plainly when the scholar of the Law admits that the person who treated the robber’s victim with mercy is the Samaritan. The scholar is to treat others with the same mercy as the Samaritan did.

But, as with many passages in Scripture, the story has other levels of meaning. There is the literal meaning, contained in the words the narrator uses; its moral meaning, or how the story speaks to our conduct; the allegorical meaning, or what it illustrates about Jesus Himself; and the anagogical meaning, which applies to our ultimate future. Let’s take a quick look at how these four levels of meaning show through this parable.

At the literal level, the story may have been inspired by an incident that happened during the early part of the divided monarchy several centuries earlier. An army from the Northern kingdom of Israel had captured a large company of men, women, and children from the Southern kingdom of Judah, intending to take them to the capital city of Samaria as slaves. But, because of a prophetic warning against this, four of the military commanders of Israel arranged to send the captives back to Judah. They provided clothes and sandals for the captives, gave them food and drink, anointed with oil those who were injured, put the weak on donkeys, and led them back to where they belonged — from Samaria to Jericho (2 Chr 28:8-15).

The moral meaning of the parable is obvious in how Jesus answers the scholar of the law. In the Old Testament, the command “Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy,” (Lv 19:2) required separation from all things and persons who were considered unholy, or impure. Jesus’ parable illustrated how the priest and the Levite might practice that separation, avoiding contact with a corpse. The Samaritans of Jesus’ day followed an impure religion, part Jewish, part pagan, which required Jews to separate themselves from them (Jn 4:9). In his Sermon on the Plain, Jesus reformulated the law of holiness this way: “Be merciful even as your Father is merciful,” (Lk 6:36). Mercy requires reaching out to anyone who needs mercy, even enemies; it demonstrates love of neighbor. By crafting a story that would force the scholar of the Law to admit that the impure Samaritan, rather than the pure priest or Levite, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim, Jesus made it clear that love of neighbor means extending mercy even to enemies. The message is the same for us as it was for the scholar of the Law. We are to behave as the Samaritan did.

Modern readers do not generally “take” well to allegorical interpretations of Scripture, finding them artificial and sometimes strained. But for ancient readers, many passages invited allegory. It enriched Scripture for them. In this case, to St. Augustine, the parable signifies Jesus’ restoration of mankind to a life of grace. Adam (whose name in Hebrew means “man”) is on a downward path from virtue (Jerusalem) to vice (Jericho), and is attacked by Satan and his legions. They strip him of his immortality and leave him half dead in sin. The priest and the Levite stand for the Old Covenant, which promoted a high standard of holiness but did not give man the power to attain it. Jesus arrives on the scene as the Good Samaritan to rescue man from death, dress his wounds, and take him to the Church for healing through the sacraments. This allegorical interpretation expands the literal meaning of the parable by placing its focus on the saving mission of Jesus Himself.

These meanings of the parable help us see what its anagogical sense might be; that is, what it tells us regarding our future. The allegorical sense leads us to appreciate what Jesus has done to accomplish our salvation. Ultimately, He desires all to be saved. But we, weakened by original sin and subject to sinful inclinations, often find ourselves on the wide, easy, and downward path that leads to eternal death; this makes us prime targets for the devil, whose only desire is to see us reach that destination. Jesus’ death on the cross opens for us the way to safety, and His resurrection gives us hope of heaven. But the way is narrow and hard; as indicated through the moral sense of the parable, we work out our salvation in “fear and trembling,” aided by the sacraments. Our destiny is heaven. Holiness is necessary to get there; our life’s final judgment depends on how we cooperate with grace.

The literal sense of a passage doesn’t always exhaust its meaning. The other senses of Scripture can reveal new and rich depths of understanding. Of course, sometimes the reader will need help unearthing these depths, but that’s what footnotes and commentaries are for. Jesus taught in parables. It’s usually the case that there is more to them than the literal meaning alone gives.