Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 67​

Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness:

for there is no gloom where but now there was distress. 

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.

You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as people make merry when dividing spoils.

Last year, In an apostolic letter, Aperuit Illis, Pope Francis announced that the Third Sunday of Ordinary time should be called "Word of God Sunday."  He wants all Christians to be steeped in the Word of God. He recalled the words of Saint Jerome, the great scholar known for his translation of the Bible, the Vulgate -- and for his blunt manner of speech -- “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”

Christians can be grateful that, despite its many translations, the Bible is eminently approachable. Although it was written and compiled many centuries ago, in languages and cultures very different from ours, its stories, songs, and proverbs describe a familiar world. More importantly, the Lord who inspired the Scriptures still guides our reading and understanding.

Occasionally, someone asks me about reading the Bible. "Where should I begin?" they ask. My first advice, "Join a church. The Bible is the handbook of the Church." When I was eleven years old my father gave me a birthday present, "Handbook for Boys." I didn't know what to make of it until he explained, "You're joining the Boy Scouts." There may have been some interesting reading in the book for a solitary lad, but its purpose was to guide me through the "classes" of Boy Scouting from Tenderfoot to Eagle. Christians read our "sacred handbook" together to discover what the Lord is saying to us. With that insight, I have a better understanding of my place, purpose, and direction within the community. Without it, I am lost in the world and the Church. 

The second thing I say about the Bible, "We wrote it." It didn't float down out of the sky, a tome full of fanciful history, heavenly songs, and ethereal advice. We wrote it over the course of many centuries; first in Palestine and then in other places, in Hebrew and Greek. We have no original copies of any its documents, only copies of copies. The Lord inspired our writing, our reading, preserving, translating, and compiling of these documents, which range from "books" to one-page "letters." The Catholic Church did not formally decide which books belong in the Bible until the Council of Trent although there was widespread agreement on the canon since the fourth century. The conciliar bishops were responding to Martin Luther's version of the Bible.  

Thirdly, if you want to understand the Bible, read a history of ancient Israel. The near east was ancient when Abraham lived there; the land was dotted with the ruins of abandoned cities; there were religions aplenty when the Lord called the Patriarch out of Ur of the Chaldees. Some verses of our Bible were written before he was born! The Jews didn't mind borrowing good advice from other nations just as we take good advice from our misguided culture. To read the word of God, you should know something about ancient Jerusalem, Babylon, Damascus and Egypt; their cultures, trade, warfare, and politics. The authors of the Bible were as aware of the geopolitical world as you and I are. They had to pay attention because Jerusalem was never a major player in the mid-east.

We study the Bible not to learn history but to discover who we were many thousands of years ago, and who we are today. We are the same people, gathered by the same Lord, and guided by the same Holy Spirit. There has been no rupture between that history and ours; we are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are the Church founded on the foundation of the Apostles. The Bible refreshes our memories so well some people think they need pay no attention to the twenty centuries since then, which would be a mistake.

The Bible gives us common references. Not everyone knows our allusions to Jonah, Lazarus, or Pontius Pilate. Many people cannot recite the Lord's Prayer. Even words like creation redemption, salvation, and grace are foreign to our contemporaries. Knowledge of the Bible identifies us and sets us apart.

We look to the Bible for inspiration. When we feel lost in this confusing, dangerous world, we turn to our ancestors, who knew all about confusion and danger. Their Spirit is ours; they lead us on.

Finally, we read the Bible because God wants to speak to us. And we want to hear.