Making Time

What did you have for dinner two nights ago? Unless it was a special occasion like a birthday or other celebration, you might be hard-pressed to remember.  But what about three nights ago? Or last week? Ten days ago?

Martin Luther said, “We need to hear the gospel every day because we forget it every day.” That makes a lot of sense to me. If we forget so easily what we ate a few days ago that gives us physical nourishment, how much easier is it to forget what gave us spiritual nourishment if it’s been days or even weeks since we last feasted on spiritual food in the Bible?

Jesus said, The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it (Matthew 13:45-46). And the cycle of Bible ignorance among the faithful will be broken only when the faithful decide to seek the Pearl as if He is unreservedly the most important thing in our life.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church encourages the faithful: (paragraph 133) The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”

St. Paul wrote: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NLT).

Did you know if you read an average of three chapters of the Old Testament every day and only two chapters of the New Testament every day, you will read the Old Testament ONCE every year and the New Testament THREE TIMES every year?  Reading three chapters of the Old Testament is not as arduous a task as some might think. Many chapters – for example, in the psalms – are less than a dozen verses long. Several of the New Testament epistles can easily be read in less than ten or fifteen minutes.

We all make time to do the things we think are important. If we think it is important that we know what God wants to tell us through His word, then we will make the time to consistently and prayerfully read it.