I had been told by Protestant friends that reading the Bible was the best path to Jesus. Often they could quote scripture. In my defense, I told them I read the Bible since each Sunday at Mass, I would hear three readings and a psalm. I was trying to defend my Catholic faith. Truthfully, I thought they were exposing a problem with my personal faith foundation.
Reflecting back to those days, I really wasn’t doing well with my life. I struggled in several ways and prayed for help. I decided to attend the scripture study Wednesday morning at 8:30am. The first book I read was Exodus. As I read the Bible and attended the group meetings, I found that I was trying to prove to myself that the Bible was a true story. Did the entire world get flooded? Did someone really live to be 900 years old? I found myself doubting the Bible and finding a reason to doubt the entire Bible. At some point, JoAnn Tobin said, “A priest once told me that everything in the Bible is true and some of it actually happened. I laughed. Yet, I looked at the Bible differently after that. Instead of reading it as if it was a collection of history books, I read it as a book to learn about God and life. JoAnn also spoke about a Bible verse from First Kings 19: 9-13. It is a story of how Elijah experienced the presence of God. God didn’t show up as an earthquake or lightning or some other powerful event. God came to Elijah as a “tiny whispering sound.” As I reflected on this story, I realized God spoke to me in the same way. I hadn’t recognized it as God before that day.
Reading a total Gospel has helped me better understand the message that Jesus taught, who His disciples were, and how I needed to change my life. It has helped me put the readings at Mass in context with the whole Gospel.
The Bible studies have let me hear how others understood the Gospel. I feel like the people in those sessions have become my Christian friends, my Holy Rosary friends. I didn’t know very many people at church prior to my involvement in scripture study.
Currently, I facilitate a Bible study on Monday nights. We meet at the parish center at 7:00pm until 8:30pm. Finally, another meaningful verse to me is James 2:14-17. It is a challenge to all Christians. I hope you will dust off your Bible and read it. Doug Fiechtner