Bible
Study: Jeremiah 2, 1 to 13 and Matthew 13, 10 to 17.
The
ability to understand God’s word is a gift. This is exactly what Jesus wanted
his disciples to know as he said: “To you it has been given to know the secrets
of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given…. blessed are your
eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many
prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
In other
words, there are many who read the bible but are not able to perceive the
secrets it contains. There are those for whom the bible is indeed a stumbling
block. You may ask, how is this possible? Recall the temptations of Jesus after
his forty days of fasting and prayer? Do you notice that Satan actually quoted
the Bible to Jesus to support the idea of Jesus throwing himself down from the
pinnacle of the temple? What this implies is that without proper guidance and
the light of the Holy Spirit, the Bible can actually mislead a person.
I recall
one of my teachers back then in the Seminary who taught us Scriptures. She
happened to be a reverend sister. She told us that the Bible should always be
read kneeling. The meaning of this is that we should never read the Bible just
like any other piece of literature. We must first ask for God to open our
hearts before we begin to flip through the pages of the Bible. That way, the
meaning becomes really clear to us. We see things that others cannot see and we
hear things that others will never hear.
A divine
revelation of God came to Jeremiah in our first reading today, to preach to the
people in a way they had not heard before. Jeremiah’s words were a total
reproach on the entire nation of Israel. He seemed to capture every one of
their sins. From the least person up to the leaders, the priests, those in
custody of the law and the rulers, Jeremiah fearlessly delivered the word,
telling them how they have all abandoned God, the fountain of living waters and
have tried to create cisterns for themselves; broken cisterns for that manner.
There were
so many holy people at the time of Jeremiah. The scripture did not change. It
was studied everyday by the lawyers and the Scribes at the temple. It was the
same scripture that the priests were using but it took a Jeremiah to tell
Israel as a nation that they were going out of track. The Bible is like a
picture, so many persons are looking at it but only very few actually see it.
Let us Pray:
Lord God, give us eyes that
see and ears that hear that our study of your word may bear the right fruits in
our lives. Amen
Good
morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless
you.
Fr. Abu.
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