Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 393 

"This will be the sign for you from the LORD
that he will do what he has promised:
See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun
on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz
go back the ten steps it has advanced."
So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.

Since the advent of science and the belief that truth is known by proven facts rather than by divine revelation, skeptics routinely challenge many stories in the Bible. Besides the sun shadows going backwards in today's first reading, there is the sun's standing still, (Joshua 10:12-13); Jonah's being swallowed by a whale, and his composition of a song while he was in there; creation in seven days; Noah's flood which covered the mountains; and Jesus' walking on water; to name a few. 

These accounts were stoutly defended for many centuries by the Church when serious thinkers asked serious questions. Some bishops denounced all fiction writing like novels and short stories because they were fabricated and not historical truth. When Dante said Aeneas had taken him on a guided tour of Hell, he had to make it sound plausible by speaking of a cave somewhere amid the mountains of Italy. Even in modern times, creationists insist upon Eve's being formed from Adam's rib, and Youtube routinely discovers Noah's ark on another mountain. And, in the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was struck on the head and found herself somewhere over the rainbow. So it was a dream after all! 

The pointless battle of science versus religion continues. 

Serious scientists understand their limits but many faux-scientists -- e.g. high school kids -- insist, "If it's not proven by science, it's not true." and "God's revelation must be verified by human science." Nevermind the other fact that scientists routinely disprove each other's facts and theories. Not long ago, phrenologists studied the shape of human skulls to determine the intelligence and morals of their occupants. Phrenology proved the superiority of the white race and the Nazi science of eugenics. 

I have met one scientist (with a real doctorate!) who insists a man might become a woman with surgery and chemicals; and women can become men! He points to some insects to prove it! It's called gynandromorphism, and it's right there on the Internet! I asked him if these bugs have their own surgeons and pharmacologists to help them make the transition. 

In the meanwhile, scripture scholars have assured us that we needn't take all the stories of the Bible literally. Every one of these texts were written long before scientists dared to challenge God's word, and long before facts could be used to demonstrate a hypothesis or prove a theory. Post-modern philosophy challenges scientists with their own contradictions, and points out that facts mean nothing without their contexts of theories and hypotheses. Circular reasoning assumes the truth of the very thing it is trying to prove. Facts ground their theories and theories are used to generate facts; and sometimes they prove nonsensical.  

We search for guidance, reassurance, and healing in God's word and we find them in ample measure. We don't need to prove the Bible by the secular sciences, for our learning is well respected in philosophical and theological circles. The divinely inspired and faithful Church wrote the Bible and, if anyone knows what it means, we do. 

The story of Hezekiah's serious illness and his miraculous recovery is credible. We see that sort of thing all the time. And we are grateful that God continues to heal broken bodies, troubled minds, and troubled spirits.