The Chosen: We Know What’s Coming. We Should Watch It Together.
Season 6 of The Chosen takes us somewhere many viewers have admitted they are not sure they are ready to…
A Bible sitting unopened on a shelf does very little. Scripture is meant to be heard, turned over, and lived. That is what a parish Bible study is for and it resumes this week.
Two studies begin this week. Both are on James. Come to the first session and see.
It is not a classroom for experts. It is a regular hour with other people who want the Word of God to reach past Sunday morning. You hear a passage out loud. You notice a line you have skipped for years. Someone else names a struggle you thought was only yours. Over a season, that habit changes not only changes how you pray, but speak, and treat people.
The Letter of James is a strong book for that kind of group, accordingly it is only five chapters. Most people can read it in fifteen minutes, nevertheless it spends the rest of the year catching up with you.
A few things worth knowing before the first night:
James writes like a pastor, not a theorist. The letter is packed with direct instruction, more than fifty verbs that tell the reader what to do. Be quick to hear. Slow to speak. Care for widows and orphans. Do not fawn over the rich and ignore the poor. Tame the tongue. Pray when you suffer.
Straightaway it sounds like Jesus. Of all the New Testament letters, James stands closest to the Sermon on the Mount. You can hear Matthew 5–7 in its bones: mercy, honesty of speech, refusal to live a faith that never becomes action.
Its most famous line is also its sharpest. “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” James is not arguing that we earn heaven. He is refusing a faith that never reaches the hands. Belief that never changes how we treat a neighbour is not the faith of the Church.
The letter also sits underneath a sacrament we already celebrate. When the priest anoints the sick, the Church is obeying James 5: “Are there any who are sick among you? Let them send for the priests of the Church.” The prayer over the sick is not a modern invention. It is apostolic.
James is practical enough for a first-time participant and deep enough for someone who has been in the pews for forty years. It talks about money, gossip, plans, suffering, and the gap between what we say on Sunday and what we do on Tuesday. That is why it is a good book to reopen a parish group.
After the opening sessions, the Tuesday group meets at 7:00 pm in Our Lady’s Room on September 8, 22 and 29; October 6, 13 and 27; November 3, 10 and 24; and December 1 and 15. The Thursday morning group meets at 10:00 am in the Hall on September 10 and 24; October 1, 15 and 29; November 5, 12 and 26; and December 3 and 17.
If you have been waiting for a simple way back into Scripture, this is one.
