Parish of the Holy Savior

A friend of mine in high school was an evangelical Christian. He used to tell me, “God speaks to us in the Scriptures.” I thought he was speaking metaphorically. I can still remember the day I found out he was speaking the truth. God does indeed speak. And not just metaphorically. Honestly, the first time I experienced it, it kind of freaked me out. But it changed my life. St. Ambrose once remarked, “when we pray we speak to God, but when we read the Scriptures, God speaks to us.” I’ll often hear people say something like, “Why doesn’t God answer?” or “Why don’t I hear God?” And sometimes I ask them, “How often do you read the Bible?” Maybe God has answered you, but you need to check your messages. It can be a bit of challenge to start reading the Bible if it isn’t part of your practice right now. The Bible is unlike any other book. You can’t read it the way you might read a Louis L’Amour or Stephen King Novel. There are different genres even within the same book. The easiest to read are the narrative parts. Those are most similar to what we are probably used to reading. The Gospels are pretty much all narrative. So a good place to start reading the Bible is with the 4 Gospels. If you want to rediscover Jesus, the delve into the Gospels. They are the most comprehensive record of who Jesus was when he walked the earth, what he did, how he lived, and what he taught. Further, once you understand the Gospel, it will make it easier to understand the rest of the Bible. You’ll begin to appreciate how all of Scripture in some way is about Jesus. The more you understand Scripture the more you will understand Jesus. St. Jerome was famous for saying, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” If you want to know Jesus, read the Bible. If you aren’t familiar with the Bible, delve into the Gospels.