Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Paraleipomena
Some of us have a great deal of information about who is in our family tree; others of us have less. Our family history – whether or not we have the details – is certainly filled with characters and incidents that read much like the stories in sacred scripture. We are all human beneath the skin and our stories vary, but they carry the common themes of suffering and joy. Perhaps we stick to a lineage of names and dates with little else attached because we are afraid of who and what we might find once we begin the digging. We are afraid that the pain far outweighs the celebration.
The Chronicler, as we have investigated in other Noontimes, originally compiled both books of Chronicles along with the books of Nehemiah and Ezra in one historical work. This bore the Greek title of Paraleipomena meaning “things omitted, or passed over (in Samuel and Kings)”. We learn, when we further examine notes, that “sacred history” is not so much an exact accounting of events in the past as it is the story of how the living God moves and acts in “the affairs of men”. The Chronicler’s first concern is to bring to his reader “the divine or supernatural dimension of history”. (Senior 408)
I am imagining how our lives might be different if we had access to the history of how God has moved in our family tree, how he brought ancestors safely across oceans and through hardships, answered prayers, abided with love. If we knew more about how God has moved in the lives of our elders, we might be less fearful about the future. Once we heard a story or two of the miracles we know live in our history, we might ask for them in our present, and we might be hopeful about the future.
As we move through the days we are given, we might think about recording some of the ways God has blessed us so that those who follow will have a better understanding of the importance of God’s presence and grace in our human existence. Our descendants will recognize that our one true home is God, that our one true hope is Christ, that our one true comforter is the Spirit.
Perhaps we hesitate in this search because we are not certain about what to set down or what to omit. If this is so, all we need do is to begin . . . and trust Christ to complete the tale, for he is the one who told his followers as recorded in John 16:33: In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.
How can we go wrong when we allow Christ to be the author of our personal Paraleipomena?
Senior, Donald, ed. THE CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE. New York, Oxford University Press, 1990.408. Print.
A Favorite Noontime from May 17, 2010.
Go to the Family Album page on this blog and consider sharing a story from your own Paraleipomena as a comment.
Image from: https://www.theredheadedhostess.com/home-and-family/home-and-garden-home-and-family/family-tree-boy-version/
The Noontimes 