Read the Bible: Read About Jesus by Fr. Bryan Howard “The Scriptures are in fact, in any passage you care to choose, singing of Christ, provided we have ears that are capable of picking out the tune. The Lord opened the minds of the Apostles so that they understood the Scriptures. That He will open our minds too is our prayer.” – St. Augustine “Christ will not say to me what He said to the Jews, You erred, not knowing the Scriptures and not knowing the power of God...ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – St. Jerome “Listen carefully to me...Procure books [of the Bible] that will be medicines for the soul... Dont simply dive into them. Swim in them. Keep them constantly in your mind. The cause of all evils is the failure to know the Scriptures well.” – St. John Chrysostom As Catholics, attending the Mass is the most important thing that we do to grow closer to God, for in the Mass we receive the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord and are given the grace that He merited for us on the Cross. But attending Mass is not enough, we must live out the grace that we receive during the rest of the week. If not, then we are like the Pharisees who liked to be seen praying, but did not practice the love of God. So, how do we live our lives as followers of Christ? How do we walk in His steps? We have to read the Holy Bible. The first step to becoming more like Christ is to get to know Christ, and as St. Augustine says, every word in the Bible is about Christ. The Old Testament proclaims His coming and prepares us to receive Him. The New Testament tells us how He lived among us and died for us. If you wish to know Christ, know the Scriptures. But it is not enough just to read the Scriptures, St. John Chrysostom tells us, “Dont simply dive into them. Swim in them. Keep them constantly in your mind.” We must let what we read in the Scriptures interact with our lives. None of us are perfect, we all sin. Through the Bible, God calls us to become better people. When you realize that you are not living according to the teachings of the Holy Bible, resolve to change your life in some concrete way, to stop lying, or to do more to help the poor and homeless. Praying with the Holy Bible can be very difficult. The Bible can be confusing and hard to understand. Sometimes, the Bible appears to contradict itself or the teachings of the Church. I have three suggestions to help you as you begin to pray with the Bible. Christ gave Peter authority to lead Christs Church on earth (Mt 16:17-19). This authority is passed down to the Church today. In his first letter to Timothy, St. Paul says, “But if I should be delayed, you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.” (1 Tim 3:15) The Church has the authority to interpret the Scriptures; therefore, the teachings of the Church should guide our interpretation of the Bible, just as the teachings of Jesus and the Bible have guided the teachings of the Church. Second, remember that the most recent books of the Bible were written almost 2,000 years ago, and the oldest over 3,000 years ago. The human authors of the Bible were guided by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who protected them from error, but they were still writing from their own perspectives and to very different cultures than ours. A good commentary can help you to understand what they are saying, such as The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, or any books by Dr. Scott Hahn or Dr. Brant Pitre. Finally, the Holy Bible was originally written in Ancient Hebrew and Greek. Unless you speak those languages, you need to find a good translation of the Bible, but some translations are better than others. There are two types of translations, literal and dynamic. A literal translation translates the Bible word for word; while a dynamic translation preserves the meaning of the original text by putting it in language that a modern reader would understand, thus making them easier to read than literal translations. In the next few weeks, Ill share my thoughts on what are the best translations (both literal and dynamic).
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 16:07:12 +0000
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