Column: Why We Should Get to Know the Story of the Bible

Greetings in Christ on the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. One of the privileged things I’ve been able to do here at St. Michael is write a monthly bulletin article. Each time, before I write the article, I sit down and spend time praying and reflecting on the passages of scripture that the Church provides for us on my scheduled Sunday. I also interact with saints, theologians, thinkers, and with the official teachings of the Church. It brings me great joy to continually learn God’s word and to be able to share it with our parish family. I am convinced that coming into a deeper understanding of God’s word is vital and necessary for all disciples of Jesus Christ.

This year in Family of Faith, through the Great Adventure series created by Jeff Cavins, we are exclusively focusing on the story of the Bible. Back in September, before our formation year began, I had the privilege of speaking to our parents at our annual information meeting. I took that opportunity to share reasons on why we should put forth the effort and commit ourselves to learning the story of the Bible. I would like to share those reasons with you.

1. Most Christians today don’t know the story of the Bible very well: It’s been argued that we live in an age of biblical illiteracy. I can only speak antidotally, but I would agree with this sentiment. In my twenty plus years of working in the Catholic Church it has been my experience that most Catholics do not have a deep-rooted and unified understanding of the Bible. Some have described the typical Catholics knowledge about the Bible as a pile of bones rather than a well-formed skeleton. Like a pile of bones, we’ve heard many of the stories of the Bible but aren’t sure how they fit together into a cohesive story, especially when we are talking about the Old Testament. Once a skeletal framework of the overarching story is in place, with a basic understanding of key people and events, the Bible and the story of salvation history begins to make sense to us.
2. Knowing the story of the Bible helps us to live in God’s story more fully: Why does knowing the story of the Bible matter and why is not knowing the story a problem? Because, simply stated, we all live in a story. By that I mean we live in a narrative of reality – a way of seeing and understanding the world. Knowing the story of the Bible helps us to see the world biblically, with the eyes of God. As we deepen our understanding of the story of salvation history through the Bible, we will experience the “renewing of our mind” that St. Paul wrote about. (Rom. 12:2) On the flip side, when we don’t know the story of the bible, we tend towards taking on the mind of the world, which is opposed to God and his ways. I think it’s safe to say that today too many Christians are worldly minded, having adopted a narrative for their lives that is not from God.
3. The Church encourages us to know the Word of God: I’ve encountered people who believe that the Church discourages the laity from reading and knowing the Bible. The Catechism, however, dispels this myth: “The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful… to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. (CCC 133) Learning more about the story of the Bible is the clear teaching of the Church, which leads us to a fourth reason.
4. Knowing the Bible helps us to know Jesus, who is the incarnate Word: St. John begins his Gospel with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn. 1:1) One of the main ways we come to understand the Word, who is Jesus himself, is through the written Word of God, the bible. It is St. Jerome who famously said that “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”

May we commit together as a parish community to dive into God’s great story, which is also our story. Let us pray: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).