Conflicts between Christians

kristleKlear asked this question on 7/17/2000:

How many of would like to respond to how Scriptures speaks to you in your life. We could all take down the readings for each Sunday and then come back to share, not to debate each other's lived experiences.

Those who are familiar with small faith sharing groups would understand the concept. Faith is what we live and each individual may experience the same reading differently. Just because someone else reading it hasn't "been there, yet" doesn't give then an opportunity to tear down the other's experience.

This Sunday includes Jeremiah 23, 1-6; Ps 22, 1-3, 4, 5, 6; Ephesians 2, 13-18; and Mark 6, 30-34.

Any takers???

mscperu gave this response on 7/18/2000:

Dear KristleKlear

The joy of the risen Lord be in your heart.

Any means and way to help each other in understanding and assimilating God's Word is to recommend. We are overflowed with so many words so we should procure these moments of peace and growth.

May I suggest a wonderful and centuries old method to approach the Word? The "Lectio Divina". The presupposition is that the Bible explains itself through the coherence of God's inspiration. One passage explains others.

Take the Bible of Jerusalem. At the margin of the text there parallel citations. You go from one to the next and encounter clarification. Every passage read should tell you something about your life. As a Church father said: "When you pray you talk to God. When you do the Lectio Divina God talks to you".

vale

mscperu

PD. Don't be afraid of some debate on this board. It helps to discuss openly the issues even if there is some conflict. Look at the Bible, there are some portentous conflicts:

The Hellenists with the Jewish Christians

The Jewish Christians with Peter coming from the house of Cornelius.

Barnabas with Paul.

Paul with Peter

The same Saint Paul describes how he resisted Saint Peter "in his face"; and the same Apostle tells us that he went to Jerusalem to explain his teaching so that he might not teach anything different than the columns Peter and John.

So don't be afraid of different opinions even if it means to suffer a bit. I only hope it is because we are all passionate about our faith.

kristleKlear rated this answer:  

 Passionate we might be, but not at the expense of a neophyte who once slapped down may not want to enter into sharing. As one Nun friend stated to me, if I tell you my lived experience then no one cannot tell me that I didn't have it. Personally, I have had some experiences that even my own husband didn't believe me until by mishap he read the incorrectly marked pages for his assignment, and came home all excited you know that poem you wrote, about your experience of the Lord at the alter, "They say all people at sometime in their lives should come to live it." Then that really shook me up because what is it the Lord is asking of me the female who is a sensate and fellow classmates see me as a threat to their studies rather than some one who has been placed as a messenger. Gentleness is what the Lord asks in sharing from the heart not head knowledge is what I'm suggesting. To debate is to go at it from the intellect not the heart. SO let our hearts speak what is natural and real!