Catechism of the Catholic Church
§104 In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, “but as what it really is, the word of God.” “In the Sacred Books, the Father who is in Heaven comes lovingly to meet His children, and talks with them.”
As we read the Holy Gospels and are captivated by what they tell us about the God-Man, the following exclamation has probably arisen within us at some point: “What immense grace it must have been to live with Our Lord! What we would give to be with Him, to contemplate His gaze, to hear His divine words… If recording devices had existed in those days, with what holy eagerness we would have recorded His discourses, never more to forget them.”
God, knowing how necessary it was for all humanity to hear His voice throughout history, did in fact “record” His Word on a “device” that would reproduce it forever and ever, and throughout the world: the Sacred Scriptures.
Indeed, when we open the Bible and read the inspired words of the Holy Spirit, something more happens than when we hear a sound captured by a mere recorder. We hear not only what God said in the past, but His voice echoes in the present and is relevant now. It is as if He Himself were standing before each one of us, communicating with us.
This is why we ought to so deeply venerate the Holy Scriptures and read their words with authentic love. For Jesus speaks to us now with the same love He showed His Apostles!
Neither day nor night should we allow the Word of God depart from our lips, and, as St. Athanasius ponders,1 we should even know some passages by heart, such as the Psalms. St. Jerome,2 in turn, recommends to St. Eustochia that she have the Scriptures in her hands when sleep finds her, so that her head would fall from fatigue upon the sacred page.
Our Lord affirmed in the Gospel: “Come to Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). And He repeats this invitation to us as well, calling us to rest our weary heads upon the Holy Books, just as we would upon His sacred breast!
Let us then cast our cares upon the Saviour (cf. 1 Pt 5:7) and lovingly study Divine Revelation for, as St. John Chrysostom ponders,3 whatever misfortune befalls us, in the Bible we will find the appropriate remedy, which puts all sorrow to flight. Then, however difficult and dark our situation may be, we can affirm with St. Therese:
“[When I take up Sacred Scripture,] everything seems luminous to me, a single word reveals infinite horizons to my soul, perfection seems easy to me, I see that it suffices to recognize one’s nothingness and to abandon oneself like a child in the arms of the Good Lord.”4 ◊
Notes
1 Cf. ST. ATHANASIUS. De virginitate, n.12: PG 28, 266.
2 Cf. ST. JEROME. Epistola XXII, n.17.
3 Cf. ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. Homilias sobre o Gêneses. Homilia XXIX, n.1.
4 ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX. Letter 226. To Fr. Roulland.
