Last week, the Church celebrated the memorial of St. Jerome. He is widely known for saying, “Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.” These seemingly simple, but profound, words have stuck with me since the time I first heard them. The Bible is the living word of God. Do we take time reading scripture in order to know Jesus?
Non-Catholics like to say “Catholics don’t read the Bible.” However, if we simply look at the Mass, we know that the whole Mass comes from scripture, and readings are proclaimed at every Mass. And this is a great starting point. Do we spend time reflecting on the readings we hear at Mass?
The Bible is a large book. Where do we even start? One of the easiest ways to incorporate scripture is to read the daily mass readings for each day. The Church has a reading plan already set out for us! Taking time to read and reflect on the daily readings, especially the Gospel is a great place to begin to encounter Christ through scripture. Reading the Gospels helps us to meet Jesus and come to have a deeper knowledge and understanding of who He is. This also helps us to become more like Him.
It can be easy to think that the Bible is just some old book that doesn’t have much relevance to us. However, that is far from the truth. The Lord reveals Himself to us through scripture. He speaks to us through scripture and wants us to apply it to our lives today.
Oftentimes, if you’re like me, you might read a passage and wonder what it means. The Bible can be confusing and hard to understand at times. Thankfully, there are so many resources out there that can help enlighten us on what we read, from podcasts, to books, to articles , and so much more, there are clergy, religious, and people with theology degrees that can help explain the meaning of scripture passages in ways that we understand. Thankfully, the Church has interpreted scripture for us, so we do not have to do that on our own.
If we never read scripture, we will not really know Jesus. So, crack open your Bible that’s sitting on your shelf, or find a Catholic app that provides the daily readings or the whole Bible. You don’t have to spend a lot of time reading, just start small. Jesus is waiting to meet you in the scriptures. My prayer for each of us today is that we would read scripture often, encountering Jesus and becoming more like Him.
