Recently, the Church celebrated the feast of St. Jerome, the great Biblical scholar, and the patron saint of Scripture scholarship. He is famous for his statement that, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ,” making it clear how important it is for all of us to read and pray and study the Word of God.
St. Paul makes that same point in his Epistle to St. Timothy, which we hear in the second reading for Mass this weekend. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
God wants us to be “competent” Christians, so that we are useful to Him and so that we can be equipped to do good works. If you look at yourself honestly (as we should regularly), do you feel that you are competent to do the works that God wants you to do? I think most of us would have to say that we have work to do in that regard.
Scripture is useful for refutation. What does that mean? Being immersed in Scripture means that we can know what is true and what is false. When we encounter “false truths” in our world, we can recognize them because we know that Word of God. If we study Scripture, we will also come to see “false truths” that have taken root in us and see that we must reject those and embrace the Way of Christ.
Scripture is useful for correction. Who are we correcting? First, ourselves. If we read the Bible faithfully, we will see behaviors in ourselves, we will recognize attitudes in ourselves that need to be corrected.
Scripture is useful for training in righteousness. What is righteousness? It is right thinking, right believing, and right acting. It is holiness.
Believe what you read. Live what you believe.
— Fr. Mike Comer
