Ignorance of Scriptures is Ignorance of Christ

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

Today, the Church celebrates a relatively new feast which was instituted by Pope Francis in 2019. It is a feast dedicated to the Word of God and is celebrated each year on the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. The gospel readings for all three lectionary cycles focus on the beginning of the public ministry of Christ and we see how this very ministry is firmly rooted in the Word of God.

First, our Lord is revealed as the One who fulfils the prophecies in the Old Testament. In fact, the Fourth Gospel tells us that Jesus is not just a preacher of the Word, He is the Word of God enfleshed. Second, He begins His ministry by preaching repentance and calling His disciples to believe in the gospel. Third, He calls His first disciples who will be His close collaborators in the mission of evangelisation, in proclaiming the Word of God. So, Jesus is the Word of God. He calls people to repent and believe in Him, the Living Word of God, and then He commissions them to share Him who is the Word made flesh with others. This is why St Jerome, doctor of the Church who translated the scriptures from the original languages into Latin and who wrote volumes of biblical commentary made this strong equivalence: “ignorance of scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”

Just looking at this short description by the evangelist St Matthew of the beginning of the Lord’s public ministry, we may draw these conclusions about the benefit of studying and reading the Word of God.

First, the Word of God enlightens. To enlighten the world, God sent to us His Word as the sun of truth and justice shining upon mankind. The people who lived before the time of Christ lived in spiritual and moral darkness. But with the coming of Christ and His gospel, they have now “seen a great light.” This is because “the word of the Lord is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path” (Psalm 119:105).

Next, the Word of God calls us to conversion and repentance. No one who has read and studied the word with faith, will be untouched or unmoved. The Word of God is not just informative, it is deeply transformative. The Word of God stirs our hearts and moves us to change alliances and orientations. It compels us to turn away from the world and all its allures so that we may turn to God in loving submission.

Third, the Word of God calls us to discipleship, to be followers of Christ. The Word of God steers us in the direction of Christ, it inspires us to grow in our relationship with Him - to go where He goes, to do what He does, to be where He is.

And finally the Word of God calls us to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Word of God is not meant to be kept as some kind of esoteric secret by the few elite disciples of Christ. It is meant to be shared with others because by sharing the Word, we make more disciples.

And that is why mature Christians must know the Bible through both prayer and study, because ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. To recognise the Risen Lord in His incomparable gift of the Most Holy Eucharist, to recognise Him in the distressing disguise of the poor, and to recognise Him in the fellowship of other Christians gathered to sing the praises of God, it is first necessary to recognise Him in the pages of Sacred Scripture, to hear and heed the Word of God in the Bible because “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17)

If you aren’t familiar with your Bible, even if you’re a faithful, Mass-attending Catholic, let me encourage you to start reading it. If you do not know where to begin, start by using the Sunday and daily lectionary readings as your reading guide. Read scripture as how the Church reads it by weaving it into the liturgical seasons as we journey with Christ from His birth to His death and resurrection and as we await His return in glory. When we read scriptures with the Church as our guide, we will see how the Old Testament is to be read through the lenses of the New Testament, by seeing how the prophecies and figures in the Old Testament are perfectly fulfilled and explained in the gospel and in the New Testament, by using the Book of Psalms as our personal and liturgical book of prayer.

There simply is no substitute for one’s own direct and personal knowledge of Holy Scripture acquired over many years of study and prayer, and the more deeply one understands the Bible, the more deeply one can know and love the Lord Jesus Christ because “ignorance of scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”