Posted on 10/31/2012 3:47:21 AM PDT by koinonia
An amazing story told by Fr. Dean:
Reading “The Fire of the Word” reminded me [Fr. Dean] of a story, a true story…
A woman was browsing through some used books for sale in an antique store, more for curiosity than anything else, and she spotted a title which grabbed her interest. The books were a quarter a piece, so she unceremoniously grabbed the book and went to the counter. She paid the twenty-five cents and the store owner asked, “You you like a bag for that?” “No thanks,” she said, “I’ll just put it in my purse.” With that they thanked one another and off she went.
Once home she lightened her purse and put the book on the small table next to her reading chair and then went off to finish other duties. A few days passed and, perhaps a Saturday morning when the kids were at play and her husband was mowing the lawn, she had a moment to read. She situated herself in her ‘reading throne’ complete with foot rest, turned on her reading light and took the book in hand. “So what could this novel possibly be about?” she thought. She had not even opened the book yet. And so she opened it so as to glance at the table of contents and… lo and behold, on the first page there was a $100 bill! “Whoa… how did that get here?” she exclaimed. She looked at the bill closely… it was in mint condition, yet had been printed by the New York Federal Reserve some 30 years before. She finally put the $100 bill on her reading table, and somewhat distracted began looking at the table of contents. When she turned the page to head toward the Preface… yes, lo and behold, she discovered another $100 bill! “Now wait a minute. What’s going on here?” she said with a bit of wonder and trepidation. So she started turning through the pages of her book and, to her utter amazement, there was a $100 on every single page!!!
I don’t know if she ever actually read the book, and I’m sure that the simple explanation is that some Grandpa or Grandma had stuffed their assets in their books rather than put them in the bank and, when they died, the children and grandchildren probably sold off the estate to an antique broker without ever knowing what they had done.
At any rate, it struck me that this was a parable of the Bible. On each page there is an infinite treasure – “words of everlasting life” (Jn 6:69), awaiting us, surprising us. And the words of Our Lord came alive to me again, “If you didst know the gift of God!” (Jn 4:10), as too the parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price (Mt. 13:45-47). If only Christians would approach the Bible as if there were a $100 bill on each page! Alas, how many who know of the Bible don’t read or pray through it; and yet, to their shame, how many others who aren’t expecting anything from the text find their lives tranformed, even turned upside down, by chancing upon a single line of the Gospels through mere curiosity or hearing a sermon on some word spoken by Our Divine Lord.
Ping... and God bless! :-)
Sounds like an urban legend to me
No legend here. The woman's friend Kathleen (whom I know personally) actually came to Father Dean because they wanted to know if they needed to restore the book with the $20,000 in it. He has shared this on any number of occasions when speaking of the treasure we have in the Word of God.
At any rate, with the Bible we have much more than $100 on every page; we have the revelation of God Himself. And that's no legend. :-)
Good post. I would just add that reading the Bible isn’t simply about getting something from God-although that is indeed true. I would suggest that it’s an indication of our love of God. It should be our desire to hear God’s word whether we feel we are getting anything out of it or not. It’s like wanting to spend time with a good friend. If we don’t understand this principle there is something wrong with our relationship.
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