CATHOLICS MUST RETURN TO THE BIBLE
I used it often in grade school to fulfill my class assignments. I was so fascinated by it in high school that I gathered my cousins to share about it. In college I truly fell in love with it after I joined a Catholic Charismatic group. In the seminary, I formally studied and analyzed it. As a priest, it was my constant and daily companion. This year, I have received a great gift, a rekindled love affair with it that I want to savor it again from beginning to end in one year!
Let me introduce to you… my Bible!
Last week we started the celebration of Bible Week and today we bring it to an end. As Catholics, we must remember that the Bible is our book. Our forebears in faith wrote, preserved, protected and delivered it to us in this complete form today. There is nothing here against the Church for it is the book of the Church.
In the gospel, the people are blessed to encounter Jesus, the Eternal and Saving Word of God in person. They heard him speak. They saw his actions. He touched their hearts and freed them from sin and from slavery to evil. Today we still meet Jesus working in a powerful way through his Word, the Bible.
But why are many Catholic allergic to the Bible?
Some of us think that the Bible is a Protestant-thing or a sect or cult-thing or anything connected to non-Catholic believers. No.The Bible is our book, a book that we share with other believers in Jesus. Do you not notice that whenever we celebrate Mass, we devote a long time for reading the Bible, responding to it, proclaiming it and learning a lesson derived from it? The first part of the Mass is Bible part. Listen attentively to it and you will be led to a change of heart.
Some of us think it is boring to read the Bible. This book is all about love. From cover to cover, there is only one message and it is love! God’s love for Israel, for the Church, for you and me. When you read this prayerfully, you will discover that God continues to hold us in the palm of his hand and he guides us to understand his plan for our lives.
Some of us think that it is difficult to read the Bible. But there is a Bible for everybody, for old and young, in various languages, illustrated or straight texts. For the most part, it is stories. Sure there are difficult passages, and for this, we must ask the experts, or our priests and bishops, our guides. But the Bible is always God speaking plainly to us and therefore leading us to the light.
Friends, this week, why don’t you take up your Bible and just read a short verse or a story. Do it with love and reverence. Do it expecting a miracle – that Jesus will speak to you. I am sure you will encounter Jesus as he was encountered by many before you: “They were astonished at his teaching for he taught them with authority.” Read the Bible and fall in love with it again!
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