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Exploring the word

26 Nov 2017 - Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Cycle A

For 70 years the National Bible Association has designated the week of Thanksgiving from Sunday to Sunday as “National Bible Week.” A movement started among secular business leaders in New York City during World War II, their signature event is this simple allotment of a week of encouraging scripture reading. It seems so benign and easy: Read your Bible. No propaganda, no politics, no denominationally colored rhetoric. Just read your Bible. Those of us in the Good Word business, of course, know there’s nothing innocent or simplistic in this undertaking. Reading the Bible isn’t an activity one can engage for a week, no harm done. Nor is it about hearing these stories passively, as if divine healing rays can be absorbed through mere exposure. If that were true, why not just leave a Bible open in the living room to radiate its beneficial influence? In addition Catholics, partial to the unity thing, prefer the tribal method of scholarship-supported scripture study to the lone wolf interpretation. The word of God isn’t anything we want it to mean, or what already suits our personal opinions. If folks undertake scripture reading at home, fine, but be sure it’s augmented with a first-rate commentary and a decent Bible dictionary. The capacity to be mentored is a sign of the virtue of humility, essential to the learning process and the wisdom quest alike. Opening the Bible will do us no good if we can’t admit to any ignorance or bow before any intelligence larger than our own. Guidance from the learned among us isn’t the same as being controlled by the thought police, as our increasingly libertarian society reflexively insists. The wisdom of the ages used to be regarded as a good thing in a less paranoid culture. While hierarchy is an almost universally derided structure in these down-with-government days, a wise person is one who agrees that scholars, experts, doctors, mystics, and leaders may indeed know something he or she doesn’t. Why else take your car to the garage or submit to surgery? On the feast of Christ the King, we acknowledge the supremacy of one Son of God who is head over this Body, the church. We bow before one Lord and confess him as the ultimate ruler over truth and guide over human history. We accept that Christ alone shows us the way of life and all other routes will prove futile and frustrating. If we want to inherit the Kingdom prepared for us since the dawn of time, the instructions are absurdly simple: Take care of one other. Love your neighbor. In doing so we participate in the love of God. If we learn nothing else from reading the Bible, this instruction would be enough to hold us in life everlasting. Related scripture links Love Command: John 13:15, 34-35 Judge not: Isa. 28:6, 30:18; Matt. 7:1-5; Luke 3:17, 6:37-42; Rom. 2:1-11 God sees the interior: Luke 16:15; Acts 15:8 Weddings, God, and us: Matt. 22:1-14, 25:1-13; Luke 14:7-14, 15-24 Faith, hope, and love: 1 Cor. 13:13 Catechism links Love Command: 782, 1822-1829, 1970, 2822, 2842 Corporal works of mercy: 2447-2449 Theological virtues: 1812-1832

Authors Alice Camille

national bible week scripture study scripture reading

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27 Apr 2025 - Solemnity of the Second Sunday of Easter; Divine Mercy Sunday, Cycle C

In Latin class back in high school, our doddering teacher used to try to get us motivated by telling us how useful knowing Latin would be. But we knew better. It was a dead language. Sure, many words have Latin roots, but that's why God made dictionaries. That was before Google, of course, and Wikipedia, resources that make being literate and informed even easier. Latin would only be "useful" in those rarefied circles of people who think reading Virgil in the original tongue is a fun way to spend an evening. I avoid such circles, to be honest. For most of us, learning Latin remained just a milestone on the road to a good education. For too many people, knowledge of the Bible is as musty and pointless as Latin. Sure, "speaking Bible" would come in handy on trivia shows or to catch the odd allusion at certain elite dinner parties. But many folks get along quite well in the world without more than a passing introduction to salvation history. Adam-Noah-Moses-David-Jesus: If you can do at least a one-word association with each of those names, you're good to go, right? When we consider the writers of the sacred story, we may be persuaded they wrote largely for the sake of posterity. But the great takers of divine dictation like Moses, the prophets, John of Patmos, and John the evangelist are adamant about the reason for what they did. They didn't write chiefly for the record, as journalists on the God beat. They weren't historians, nor did they care a whit about preserving the past. Scripture was written by folks convicted by the imperative that such words would set hearts on fire and penetrate minds and compel actions. A living word such as this could never be one only for the libraries. "Write what you see," John of Patmos was told by the man in the gold sash whose name was Alpha-Omega. So John wrote of distress, kingdom, and endurance, three conditions that every genuine disciple in every age would know about. In the same way the gospel evangelist also known as John tells the story of Thomas and his doubt, not to tell tales on Thomas but because one day each of us would have to stare down our own doubts and dispel them with our own touch—or be overwhelmed and defeated by them. The gospel isn't words to put in a sacred book, saved for holy times and places. Scripture is a toolbox, or the glove compartment, or a backpack in which we keep the things we truly need on hand, every day. As the evangelist says, these things are written so that you and I may come to faith. Don't just honor them. Take them with you. Related scripture links Jesus and the hemorrhaging woman: Mark 5:25-34; Matt. 9:20-22; Luke 8:43-48 Blockage in Nazareth: Mark 6:5-6; Matt. 13:58 Two-step healing: Mark 8:22-26 Good shepherd: Matt. 18:12-14; Luke 15:1-7; John 10:1-16 Will not lose those given to him: John 10:27-29, 17:6-24 Thomas the skeptic: John 11:16, 14:5 Catechism links Mercy: CCC 2447-2449 Meaning of Jesus’ death: CCC 312; 598-608 Adapted from a previously published Exploring the word.

Authors Alice Camille

Scripture

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Take Five for Faith Daily

Wednesday
March 19

SOLEMNITY OF JOSEPH, SPOUSE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

An example we can trust

Trust—even when risky—is at the heart of any good and lasting close relationship. Saint Joseph chose to trust a messenger from God, and he also chose to trust Mary at a time when many would have walked away claiming infidelity. Joseph too often fades into the background when biblical heroes are held up as role models, but he deserves to be front and center. Saint John Henry Newman sings Joseph’s praises in this way: “He is Holy Joseph, because no other Saint but he lived in such and so long intimacy and familiarity with the source of all holiness, Jesus, God incarnate, and Mary, the holiest of creatures.” Take a moment to reflect on how your own close relationships built on trust can lead you to holiness.

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