Some choose to lose a few extra pounds or to establish a new exercise regimen. Others decide to spend more time with their families. Still others establish a new budget and set some kind of financial goal for the year. Finally, others choose to devote the year to getting to know God a little bit better.
This last resolution can take many different forms, but the one we would like to focus on this year is centered on Scripture. Not only does reading the Bible tell us more about God; it also has the power to communicate God’s own love, grace, healing, and mercy to our hearts.
Learning How to Live. While there can be many personal benefits to reading and praying through the Scripture each day, two stand out above the rest. One benefit is the Holy Spirit’s way of bringing the Scriptures to life when we read in faith. When we give him the chance, he writes his laws on our hearts and shows us how words written thousands of years ago still contain wisdom for today. As St. Paul once told Timothy, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work” ?(2 Timothy 3:16-17).
This is one of the most common—and most powerful—ways that the Holy Spirit works. He uses God’s word to teach us, to correct our wayward paths, and to enable us to bear fruit for him. Perhaps he will use Jesus’ parable about the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30) to illustrate how our minds have many, many gifts and virtues—the wheat—but that they also have some areas that are out of order—the weeds. Or perhaps the Spirit will use the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:21-35) to call us to be more kind and thoughtful toward others.
An Example. Once a man named Al faced an almost overwhelming challenge. He was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer, and he felt completely at a loss. Al had never been very good at inspiring himself, so he found it hard to say, “I am going to beat this cancer.” Most of the time, he was depressed and sad, convinced that he was going to lose the battle with this illness.
One day not long after Al received his diagnosis, his wife came into their kitchen with a Bible and said: “Al, I want you to read a few passages that Fr. O’Malley has put together for you.”
The first passage came from the Gospel of Matthew, and it centered on Jesus’ words to his disciples, words like: “Do not worry,” “You are more valuable than anything else,” and “Seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:25-34). The second was Paul’s words to the believers in Philippi, telling them how he had learned to be content in every situation and that he was confident that he could do all things in Christ (Philippians 4:10-13). The third passage came, again from Matthew, and was Jesus’ simple but tender invitation to come to him and give him all of our burdens (Matthew 11:28-30).
As Al read these passages every day, he became more peaceful and calm. He felt as if the Holy Spirit were ministering to him personally, and that gave him a lot more confidence. He grew so confident, in fact, that he began to give away Bibles to other cancer patients whom he had come to know in the hospital. Over time, Al invited some of these people to join him in a Bible study group, where they could explore God’s word together and support one another in the challenges they face.
As the year progressed, Al’s body slowly deteriorated, but his spirit—his entire disposition toward life—came alive more and more. This once- depressed and discouraged man was transformed into a man who had fallen in love with Jesus by spending time reading his word every day for that last year of his life. And even after he died, Al’s own enthusiasm for Scripture spread to the rest of his Bible study group and continues to affect them this very day.
Through the simple act of reading Scripture every day, Al allowed the Holy Spirit to change his way of thinking. The Spirit used the words of Scripture to teach Al, to help him overcome his defeatist disposition, and to equip him to minister to other cancer patients— exactly what Paul’s letter to Timothy said it could do two thousand years ago. And what’s even better is that we don’t have to wait for a painful situation like a terminal illness to begin reading the Bible and letting the word of God do a great work in us!
The Scripture Burns in Us. The second benefit to reading the words of Scripture is the way the Holy Spirit uses them to lead us to Jesus. On a number of occasions, we read about how Jesus taught people about the Scripture, and how his explanations brought the Scriptures to life for them. Two of the most powerful occasions occurred after Jesus rose from the dead.
When he met the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus challenged the same kind of downcast spirit that Al had (Luke 24:17). Cleopas and his friend were depressed because Jesus had been put to death and all their hopes and dreams seemed to have died with him. Disguised, Jesus challenged their faith: “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe” (24:25). Using the Hebrew Scriptures, he then went on to teach them about himself. The disciples finally recognized Jesus when he broke bread with them at supper, but all throughout their conversation, they found their hearts burning with hope, expectation, and joy as he opened Scripture for them (24:32). Then, a short while later, when Jesus appeared to the apostles in the upper room, a similar thing happened: Jesus “opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (24:45).
Jesus wants to teach us how to live in such a way that we can bear much fruit for him. But he also wants to teach us who he is, in all of his glory and splendor. He wants to reveal himself to us—in Scripture, in the Eucharist, in our personal prayer, and in many other ways. He wants to take everything that we know about him intellectually and bring it to life in our hearts, just as he did for the disciples on the way to Emmaus and just as he did for the apostles in the upper room.
Called to Read the Word of God. The Fathers of Vatican II called all of us to read the Bible because they knew that this was where we could find Jesus: “This sacred Synod earnestly and specifically urges all the Christian faithful … to learn by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures the excelling knowledge of Jesus Christ. For ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ?… . Let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of sacred Scripture, so that God and man may talk together” (On Divine Revelation, 25).
Those words may have sounded new and revolutionary at the time, but in fact the Fathers were echoing a long tradition in the church. Centuries before the Council, St. John Chrysostom issued an even stronger call: “This is what has ruined everything, your thinking that this reading of Scripture is for monks only, when you need it more than they do. Those who are placed in the world and who receive wounds every day have the most need of medicine. So, far worse than not reading the Scriptures is the idea that they are superfluous” (Homilies on Matthew, 2,10).
Scripture is the word of God. It is sacred writing that was given to us by God himself for the sake of our salvation. We are not meant to live by bread alone but by the words that come from the mouth—and the heart—of God (Matthew 4:4). So as you begin this new year, make it your goal to become more familiar with the Scriptures. Make it a point to read and ponder the Bible every day. Especially on Sundays, spend time with the gospel reading from Mass so that the Holy Spirit can reveal Jesus to you—and so that your heart will burn with love for him. The Bible really can transform our lives!