Meat and Potatoes

Understanding why Scripture cannot be set aside

04/08/2022

Jn 10:31-42 The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.”

Jesus makes an off-handed remark in the gospel today that I want us to grab with both hands, sort of double-fisting. Once again Jesus is arguing with the Jews about being the Son of God, and states parenthetically: “And Scripture cannot be set aside.” Sadly, though, that is exactly what countless Catholics are guilty of: setting Scripture aside. For the longest time I believed (mistakenly) that Catholics pray the rosary while Protestants read the Bible.

I will stick to reading the popes and saints. But I never asked myself: what are the popes and saints reading? Their points and paragraphs and pages are packed with Scripture quotations. Their primary source of Catholic faith was the Sacred Scripture, and it should be so for us. In other words, they took Jesus seriously when he said, “Scripture cannot be set aside.”

Let me give you three strong reasons why we should not set Scripture aside. First, did you know that Bible reading has healing properties? Recently, a young girl who is 13 years old came to see me with her parents. She had been abused as a child and she had recently tried to take her own life. She was also cutting herself. But on her own initiative she picked up the Bible at home and started reading a few verses from the New Testament each day and started feeling peace.

When she spoke to me she looked me straight in the eyes, and a slight smile was visible on the edges of her lips. She was experiencing the healing effects of Bible reading because she knew that “Scripture cannot be set aside.” Abbot Jerome Kodell wrote insightfully: “This is why the Bible is worth reading. Its healing and transforming power is the revelation we all seek whether we recognize the fact or not.” In other words, we all need some healing, like that young girl with the subtle smile, and that is why “Scripture cannot be set aside.”

The second reason we sometimes set Scripture aside is because it sounds so strange, like listening to a foreign language. I remember when I was first learning to speak Spanish as a seminarian. The bishop sent me to Cuernavaca, Mexico for an immersion program. I spent the day in a class learning Spanish and I spent the evening living with a family that only spoke Spanish. It was embarrassing, my words were clumsy, and I felt like a small child learning to speak.

There is a pivotal point, however, when you are learning a language called “hitting the wall.” You feel like you have done everything you possibly can and just don’t have the gift of tongues to master a foreign language. At that point most people jump ship and give up. But if you take a leap of faith, and keep going through the wall, a miracle happens. You discover you know more than you thought and learning speeds up exponentially fast. I remember wanting to come home after six weeks (when I hit the wall), but I reluctantly stayed for 8 weeks, and then I asked to stay for two more weeks, and missed the seminarian retreat that year at Lake Catherine, boating and fishing.

Bible reading and study is like learning a new language. At first we feel awkward, ignorant, and like a little child. But if we take a leap of faith when we hit that wall and push on, we will see the Scriptures as not only inspired but also inspiring. It will become a second language we speak, and one day it may even become our native tongue. Sometimes people ask: what language do they speak in heaven: English, Spanish, Latin, Greek? No. The native language of heaven is the Sacred Scripture, and every Catholic should become fluent in that tongue. That is the second reason why “Scripture cannot be set aside.”

My friends, sometimes we look at the Bible as a little cilantro that we sprinkle on our food of faith to add a little flavor. Quoting a Bible verse occasionally makes us sound sophisticated or smart. But the Scripture is not cilantro; it is the main course, the meat and potatoes of the faith. Have you ever noticed how when we come to Mass, we do not read from the writings of Pope St. John Paul II, or St. Mother Teresa, or even St. Thomas Aquinas, or St. Augustine? Why not? Because holy Mother Church knows what food of faith will truly nourish her children. She gives us solid food in the Scriptures, but it is up to use to open our mouths and eat. Otherwise, we starve spiritually. And that is why “Scripture cannot be set aside.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!