Boom, the Bible

Learning to study the Bible in the Mass  

1 Corinthians 1:1-9  Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.   

          Catholics are sometimes accused of ignorance of Sacred Scripture. Have you ever felt that you didn’t know the Bible very well, or needed to study it more? That’s a common criticism of Catholics, and it is certainly true that we rarely can quote the Good Book by chapter and verse. But I would suggest to you that a Catholic knows the Bible better than you might believe, and our understanding of it, while not precise like a Protestant’s, is in many ways deeper and more divine. The Bible is to a Catholic like water is to a fish. We swim in it, we breathe it in, we play in it, we pray in it, but we hardly ever notice it and we sure as heck can’t quote it. It’s so close to us we miss it, like the nose on our face.   

          For example, have you ever heard the phrase, “The grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all”? Of course you have. I greet you that way at the beginning of the Mass.  But it’s also a Scripture verse, 1 Corinthians 1:3. Boom, the Bible. Or how about this little gem, “Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”? Heard that before? Of course, it’s the words we say before we drop to our knees for the Consecration, taken verbatim from Matthew 21:9. Boom, the Bible. How about, “Lord, I am not worthy for you to enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed”? Straight from Matthew 8:8. The Bible, boom. What about “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”? That’s not originally Fr. John who said that but St. John the Baptist, quoted in John 1:29. Okay, one last one. Scott Hahn has shown surprisingly, in his best-selling book, The Lamb’s Supper, that the whole book of Revelation is best interpreted as symbolic of the Mass. Revelation can roughly be divided into two parts like the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Boom, the Bible.   

          You see, the Scriptures surround us like the air we breathe. But how often do you stop to notice the air that fills your lungs even at this very moment?  You don’t.  That’s why Catholics rarely stop to study the Scriptures; we take it for granted. But a Catholic should fill his lungs with the “spiritual air” of the Bible and the Mass: always both and always together. Why? Well because the two are inseparable. You cannot understand the Bible without the Mass, and you cannot understand the Mass without the Bible; they are mutually illuminating. How much more you’d get out of the Mass, if you knew the scores of Scriptures the Mass is soaked in (like those I just mentioned)! How much more you’d get out of reading the Bible if you understood the miracle and the mystery of the Mass (like understanding the Book of Revelation)! My friends, the best Scripture study course in the whole world is the Mass, and you’re sitting in it right now. Welcome to Bible study!

          Praised be Jesus Christ!