Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Sick Pilgrim

Home
Catholic
Dark Devotional: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: Confessions of a Bible Hater

Dark Devotional: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: Confessions of a Bible Hater

Last updated on: January 22, 2016 at 11:15 am by Jonathan Ryan

Dark Devotional: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: Confessions of a Bible Hater 2016-01-22T11:15:10-05:00 Jonathan Ryan

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Click here for the complete Mass Readings for Sunday, January 24, 2016.

A reading from the Gospel According to Saint Luke.

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

My name is Jonathan and I’m a recovering Bible hater. It’s a stunning admission, I suppose, coming from a former conservative Presbyterian minister turned Catholic. I’m supposed to say how awesome the Bible is and how it led me to the Catholic Church. That’s the script for former conservative Protestants when they find themselves in Rome. I guess they think it adds a layer of credibility or justification.

And, that may very well be true for them. It wasn’t for me. When I crawled into the Catholic Church two years ago, I was beaten, broken, sick unto death, and hating the Bible. No, I really did hate it. I’d spent the last fourteen years making it my career, studying it, teaching it and preaching from it. I dissected every passage like it was a dead frog, looking for tiny veins that I could lift out and show my congregation. “Ah, this tendon of God’s word shows us that….”

If you’d asked me, I would have told you I wanted to feed the sheep under my care with God’s word. In reality, at first, I was pretending to be holy. That devolved into me trying to look smart. As ministry wore on, my bible studies corrupted into I didn’t want to say the wrong thing because I didn’t want another phone call or email telling me how wrong I was.

So, I blamed all this on the Bible and I stopped reading it. The very thought of it made me want to vomit. For a while, I thought I was demon possessed. Why? Well, demons hate God’s word, so I must be a demon. Sure, it’s absurd now, but the thought crossed my mind more than once.

But, I still loved Jesus. I clung to him with everything I had because I had nothing else. Everything I had, the image I had built had been stripped away. When I started going to mass, I just wanted to sit and wait for the Eucharist. I hoped it would make me well, because it was the Body of Lord.

And slowly, I realized something with every time I took communion. As I did, He reminded me of a fact I’d forgotten: The Catholic liturgy is full of scripture. It’s two scoops of raisins full. In fact, there are more scriptures in a single Catholic mass than I’ve ever heard in a Protestant church. Not bitter, it’s just the truth.

So, every Sunday, I look forward to the reading of the Gospels. The sacramental liturgy and the word blended. It’s designed to show that the Gospels, Christ, are the heart of the Christian story. Everything else, yes, even the letters of St. Paul, must bow the knee to the Four Evangelists. They wrote about THE WORD made flesh.

The Gospels are repairing my hatred of the Bible. I’ve realized I don’t have to torture meaning out of the text. I can let the Bible speak as it was intended, through the WORD Incarnate, Christ himself. As he says in the Gospel reading for Sunday, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” He was talking about a prophecy in the Book of Isaiah, but he might as well be talking bout the entire Bible. He is also talking to me, to you and everyone else. THE WORD is always fulfilling and He never stops. He does it when the priest says, “The Body of Christ” and I say, “Amen.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HTE0XjCQRI

Previous Post

January 18, 2016

I Hate Authority. That's Why I'm a Catholic.

Next Post

January 21, 2016 Keeping Christianity Weird: Nadia Bolz-Weber and Heather King

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Approaching Mystery art Book Reviews Catholic Ghost Story Catholicism community Confession Current Events Dark Devotional Deconstruction Deconstruction Fellow Travelers I Want To Believe Interview Laudato Si Lent Mary Matthew's Letters Movie Reviews Music Reviews Our Charism Personal Essay Pilgrims Pope Francis Popular Piety Prayer Publishing Richard Beck Saints Satan Sheed and Ward Sick Pilgrim Charism Sick Pilgrim Chats Sick Pilgrim Events Sick Pilgrim Travelin' Medicine Show Sick Pilgrimage to The West Sick Pilgrims Small Joys Spiritual Autobiography Spooky Files of Ave Maria Magazine Spooky October Spooky Pilgrim Spooky Pilgrimage Strange Journey The Inklings Things Keeping Us Going Trying to Say God TV Reviews Uncategorized women in the Catholic Church Wonder Podcast Write the Vision

Select a Month February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 October 2019 September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was killed for touching the Ark of the Covenant?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Abinadab Uzzah Shimei Ahio