While writing down every single letter of the gospel every day, she often found unfamiliar words and phrases in the Bible that seemed unknown to her even though New Testament Studies were her major in graduate school. She was embarrassed by the new words that appeared. She would stay for a long time and reflect on the words as if she did not study properly in the past.
Looking back on the transcription of the Gospel was a time to listen to God's words to her. "When we pray, we speak to God. But when reading God speaks to us," words attributed to St. Jerome.
In the early 5th century, Bible scholar St. Jerome who translated the New Testament into popular Latin laid the foundation for the Bible we read today: "Not to know the Bible is not knowing Christ."
September 30, 2019, on the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome, Pope Francis published the Apostolic Letter: Open Their Hearts, establishing the third Sunday of the year as 'Word of God Sunday' to bring us closer to God's Word, the Bible.
The reason for choosing the 3rd Sunday of the year was to emphasize the unity among Christians who believe and follow the same word of God as it coincides with the 'Christian Unity Prayer Week'. It also feels like a subtle encouragement to us Catholics to imitate the passion for the Scriptures of our Protestant Sisters and Brothers.
While some Protestants are obsessed with "fundamentalist" reading and interpretation of the Bible, clinging to a literal meaning, there are many believers who seek to draw strength from the Word of God and live by it. According to the results of a survey conducted by Protestants recently, about 60% of the respondents answered that 'meditating on the Bible and praying' was the most helpful thing for Protestants to live their faith in the COVID-19 situation. In a situation where face-to-face worship and small groups are limited due to the pandemic, Protestants seem to maintain their faith through the words of the Bible.
On the other hand, perhaps because Catholics are more accustomed to catechesis organized by the teachings of the church, surprisingly few people read or study the Bible directly other than the readings and sermons they hear during the liturgy of Mass. If you look at the statistics of the total number of graduates who participated in Bible lectures and meetings in the church statistics released every year, it turns out that an average of 170,000 people participated in Bible education every year during the 10 years before the pandemic (2010-2019).
At the same time, the average number of believers is 5.5 million, which is only about 3%. Of course, some people participate in small community gatherings centered on sharing the gospel or reading the Bible individually, but according to various surveys within the church, about 40% of believers say that they do not read the Bible.
Looking at the pastoral notices of the dioceses announced by each parish in the new year, there are quite a few parishes that emphasize reading the Bible. The invitation to read the Bible and listen to God's Word is not just to increase our knowledge of the Bible, but rather to discern and know how to live as Christians.
"Listening to the Bible and practicing mercy is a great challenge in our lives. The Word of God has the power to open our eyes and lead us out of our suffocating and withered individualism and into new paths of sharing and solidarity" (Open Their Hearts #13).
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