“Gird Your Loins!”

Back when I was just a kid, our family Bible was a Douay-Rheims translation filled with prints of those wonderful biblical engravings by Gustave Doré. (You can view them all here.) As a young child I would sit on the living room couch turning the pages of that Bible and examining Doré‘s remarkably detailed scenes. My approach to Bible Study at that age was rather random, a hit-or-miss approach in which I would look at one of the pictures, then read the opening passages of the book I thought was associated with the picture. Often enough I didn’t understand much of what I’d read and found myself wondering just what those words were telling me. Many of the words were not yet part of my vocabulary, so I’d occasionally ask my mom what they meant. Once, while reading the opening verses of Jeremiah, I came across the following in which God commanded the young prophet:

“Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command thee…” [Jer 1:17]

So I asked Mom, “What does gird up thy loins mean?” As I recall, she didn’t provide a full explanation, but simply replied, “It means to prepare for battle.” At the time that was enough for the nine-year-old me. I’m guessing it was a few more years before I even knew what loins were. Truthfully, I’m still a bit foggy about it today since loins rarely, if ever, find their way into everyday conversation. 

Anyway, the phrase was not restricted to the Old Testament. St. Paul, for example, used it when writing to the Ephesians:

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil…Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” [Eph 6:11,’14-17].

Here the Apostle, using a variety of military images, instructed those early Christians to prepare themselves for spiritual battle, armed defensively with truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, and faith. St. Peter, addressing new Christians who were undergoing persecution and hardship, used similar language to encourage them in their faith:

“Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” [1 Pet 1:13-16].

Peter used only part of the “girding” metaphor, telling these Christians, “gird up your minds” and calling them to the holiness God wills for them. 

Until the other day, the last time I heard anyone use the phrase publicly was on April 17, 1970, when the Commanding Officer of our Navy helicopter squadron rose up from his ready room chair and gave some final instructions to the crews who would recover the Apollo 13 astronauts. Chuck Smiley looked out at us all and with a smile on his face said, “You’re all professionals, so I know you’ll do an outstanding job today, so let’s just gird our loins and do what the nation expects of us.” And we did. 

Why my current interest in all this loin-girding?  Because of something I read a few days ago in a news article. As you might have heard, the Los Angeles Dodgers invited a radical anti-Catholic hate group to the team’s June 16 Pride Night game. During the game the group will receive the team’s “Community Heroes” award. The group, calling themselves “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” openly mocks the Catholic faith. The Dodgers invited this extremist trans group, but responding to strong criticism and complaints from Christian groups, the team dis-invited them. But then the leftist hate attacks began so the team re-invited them. 

Drag Trans "Sister of Perpetual Indulgence"

While the Archdiocese of Los Angeles issued a statement condemning this hateful decision by the Dodgers, perhaps the best response came from one of the more courageous of American bishops, Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco. Archbishop Cordileone accused the Dodgers organization of worshiping “alternative gods” and then added:

“Our Catholic sisters devote themselves to serving others selflessly. Decent people would not mock and blaspheme them. So we now know what gods the Dodger admin worships. Open desecration and anti-Catholicism is not disqualifying. Disappointing, but not surprising. Gird your loins.”

Archbishop Cordileone

Don’t you just love it? “Gird your loins,” the archbishop tells his flock. Like St. Paul and St. Peter, he calls us to prepare for spiritual warfare; indeed, we are already in the midst of the war’s ongoing battles. Satan is pulling out all the stops in what will ultimately be his failing effort to destroy God’s Church. I expect this warfare to go on for quite some time, so it would be best to equip ourselves with that same defensive armor recommended by St. Paul: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, and faith. And to these let’s add our most effective offensive weapon: prayer.

Oh, and for all you Dodger's fans out there, I'd suggest switching allegiance to another team or just doing what I decided to do and just avoid Major League Baseball altogether. Or as we New Yorkers say: "Fugeddaboutit!"

Bible Study Redux

Alleluia! 

After 16 months of, well, nothing much, our parish's Bible Study sessions will recommence on Monday, July 26. Back in March of last year, as COVID began to infect the world, we had to stop meeting together. At that time we had approximately 100 parishioners coming together weekly to strengthen and enliven their faith by studying and coming to a greater understanding of Sacred Scripture. Because the numbers of participating faithful had grown so much since I started our little study group 15 years earlier, we had to schedule three weekly sessions. We will follow this same plan as we restart the program: three sessions, on Monday morning, Monday afternoon, and Wednesday Morning.

Before the pesky virus tore people apart from one another, these sessions had become my three favorite hours of the week. Those who participate are wonderful, enthusiastic, faithful people who willingly share their faith and their experiences to help the rest of us understand the depth and breadth of God's Word. I've studied Sacred Scripture, formally and informally, for many years and thought I was pretty knowledgeable, but believe me, I came away from these weekly sessions with new insights and, more importantly, a deeper awareness of how God's Word enters directly into the lives and loves of His people. It was similar to what I experienced when, almost 54 years ago, I met this strikingly beautiful young woman named Diane, who over time deepened my love for Sacred Scripture. She was a former Baptist and Pentecostal who loved the Lord and knew her Bible. She kept me grounded in the Truth and has been an effective footbrake to keep from doing stupid things. 

If you managed to survive the COVID experience, you'll understand how a person needed to stay busy. As Diane once remarked, "You can watch only so many Hallmark movies," and watching the news...well, that was anything but cheerful. I did, however, listen to a lot of music -- mostly Baroque, thanks to Alexa and my SiriiusXM account. 

But that wasn't enough. Throughout the COVID weirdness, in an effort to keep my aging brain active and encourage our participants and other parishioners to turn daily to Sacred Scripture, I decided to write a series of weekly (more or less) Scripture-based reflections. The topics I chose were of an eclectic sort -- everything from Trees to Mercy to Prophecy -- but all tended to turn to the Bible for support. You can access all 30 of these reflections on the documents page of my parish Bible Study site. Here's the link; just look for the section entitled, COVID-19 Reflections:

    www.catholic-scripture.com/documents 

The parish then asked me to make video recordings of these reflections and these, too, are available online. Although not all of the reflections were actually recorded, those that were may be found on Rumble.com here: 

    Deacon Dana Bible Study Reflections (rumble.com)

From the start of our Bible Study years ago, I would write what I called "Study Guides," really rather lame overviews of specific books of Sacred Scripture. I didn't plan to refer to these guides during our sessions; rather they were intended to provide our participants with a little background on each book so it would make a bit more sense when they read it for the first time. As it turns out, during our year off, I revised several of these guides and wrote almost ten new ones. As I said earlier, I was more than a little bored. All the new and revised guides can also be found on the documents page of my Bible Study website (see the above link).

And so, with COVID behind us -- we hope! -- and a bright, God-in-charge future ahead of us, we can come together in faith and hope as we turn once again to His holy Word. How wonderful it will be to come to a deeper understanding of God's gift of the Way, the Truth, and the Life.