First of all let us continue to pray today for those who are suffering from the effects of Sandy.
As a Southerner today's first reading draws us back to one of the most shameful parts of how history and points out the danger of how the Bible can be misused, what I think of as the danger of a verse. For those who want to decry the days when the Catholic Church "discouraged people from reading the Bible" they need to remember that the church knew from experience how individual verses without the context without theology without the tradition could be warped.
Today we read:
Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling
Sadly this was used by the defenders of slavery as proof that God approved of the institution of slavery. They conveniently omitted the anti-slavery passages.
In this year of faith as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Vatican II this reading reminds us of the importance of Dei Verbum, which not only encouraged study of the Bible but provides principles for a proper interpretation of what one reads.
