The Catholic Liturgy for Word of God Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. Gospel of Matthew 4:12-23. Theme: Ignorance
of
Scripture
is
Ignorance
of
Christ
This Sunday, for the first time ever in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church, we are observing a brand-new liturgical celebration,
Word
of
God
Sunday. Pope
Francis
intentionally announced
this last
Sept.
30,
which is the
feast-day of St. Jerome who lived in the 4th
century
AD.
St.
Jerome was very important to
Christianity because he was
an extraordinary Scripture scholar. But he wasn’t always
such a devoted fan of the Bible. He
was at first,
to
be
kind
to
his
memory,
only a half-hearted
Christian.
When he was an academically-gifted but hedonistically-promiscuous
college
student
in
Rome,
Jerome
contracted
a life-threatening disease.
Up
to
this
point
in
his
life his practice of
Catholicism was done mostly
out
of
a sense of guilt after nights
of partying. But during his sickness he had a dream in which he found himself before the judgment seat of Christ. Trying to put his best foot forward,
Jerome confidently
declared
to
Jesus
that
he
was
baptized
and
so
should
be let into Heaven.
Our
Lord
replied
to Jerome
that he ought
to
think
twice
about
that
statement. He
informed
him
that
simply
going
through
outward
religious
rituals
without
them
affecting one’s life is
of
little
to no
value
when
it
comes
to
where
he would spend
eternity!
Jesus’ words shook Jerome out of his spiritual
apathy and
he
experienced
a Holy Spirit “aha!” moment. He saw that he
was
not
an
authentic
Christian
because
he
didn’t know Christ.
And he
didn’t know Christ
because
he
didn’t know the
Scriptures!
From
that
point
on,
Jerome
embraced
his
faith
wholeheartedly
and
made
the
decision
to
devote
the rest of his life
to
the
study
of
the
Word
of
God. The most famous quote we have
from
St.
Jerome
comes
from this
experience
and
it
goes
like
this:
“ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”.
Pope Francis has instituted
Word
of
God
Sunday
precisely
to
help
us
to
avoid
– or get out of - of
that
kind
of
ignorance.
He
wants us
to
realize
the
place
that
the
Bible
must
have
in
the
life
of
every
Catholic
Christian.
He
is
hoping
that,
like
St.
Jerome,
we
will
come
to
really
encounter
Christ
up
close
and
personal
through
Scripture.
But
for this
to
happen, we
have
to
approach
the
Sacred
Scriptures
very
differently
than
we
do
any
other
writings. We
need
to
accept
them
as
they
truly
are:
the
Word
of
God
and
not
simply
the
words
of
human
beings.
Sure, we can find
other
writings
that
are
more
beautifully
composed or even more
personally inspirational to us than some books of the Bible. But their advice and lessons rest upon fallible human experience
and
limited knowledge.
The
power
of
the
Scriptures, on the other hand,
is
not
in
their
literary
composition
or beautiful imagery. The power of the Bible is in the Holy Spirit who
interacts with us through the Word of God!
The uniqueness
of
the
Bible
is that
it
originates
in
mind of God,
so
to
speak.
He
inspired
the
various
authors
of
the
Scriptures
to
write
down
only those
things
that
he
wanted
to
share
with
us
concerning
himself,
concerning
our
lives
as
human beings
and
how
we
should live in this world in order to be with him forever in the next. Unlike
ordinary human writings, God’s Word has the power to touch the heart, to heal
the soul, to enlighten the mind and to strengthen the will to do good and avoid
evil.
But it seems to me that if a person is
going to accept all this as true about the Bible, then
there
remains
one
vital question
that
must
be
asked
and
answered:
how
can
we
know
that
the
Scriptures
are
truly
the
inspired
Word
of
God?
We can’t simply say that the Bible says it’s so! That’s just a circular
argument. There
is
quite
honestly
only
one
sure
reply
and
it
is
the
reality
of
the
Resurrection
of
Jesus
Christ
from
the
dead. In
other
words,
the physical historical
Resurrection
of
Jesus
Christ
from
the
dead
proves
his
Divinity because no one who is
just a human being can die and then rise up from the grave on his
own power.
You
see, the Resurrection shows us that Jesus was not just a man, but that he was
also fully God. And God does not fool or deceive us. So, the reality of the Resurrection
confirms for us the reality of
the Sacred Scriptures. As St. Paul
teaches in his letters: if the Resurrection is not true then everything we have
been taught and believe is not true, and that includes the Scriptures as the
inspired Word of God. In other words, the degree to which we accept
the Bible as the inspired Word of God is equal to the degree in which we accept
and believe that Jesus is truly risen from the dead as Son of God and Savior.
With this in mind it seems to me that one of the best things Word
of
God
Sunday
can
do
for
us
is
to
send
each
one
of
us
to
the
Bible
so that we can come to this conviction about the reality of the Resurrection
for ourselves. We need to find a quiet place where we will
not be disturbed for a short time. Then
take up the
New
Testament
and
turn
to
one
of
the
four
Gospels.
The
eye-witness accounts of the Resurrection
can
be
found
towards
the
end
of
each
of
them.
Read
thoughtfully.
Think about it carefully. Pray
sincerely from the heart. Ask
the
Holy
Spirit
who
dwells
within
you
to
enlighten
your
mind.
I am totally confident that the person who perseveres in doing this will
come
to
see that the
Word of God
is a shining light that disperses spiritual
darkness
and
gloom from our lives,
as Isaiah
prophesied in today’s first
reading. And I believe that the person
who sincerely commits to this prayer-time will come to experience Jesus up
close and personal and will be strengthened to respond to Jesus’ call in today’s
gospel to repent. “Repent” means to change direction in one’s life; to turn
around and take up a new way of thinking, a new way of acting, a new way of
living. It is a renewed life that is
fueled by the Word of God which enlightens us and leads us to the Kingdom of
Heaven.
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