3rd Sunday of Easter

The Community at Prayer
Reflection by Father Paul M. Baca
April 6, 2008, 3rd Sunday of Easter

Since last week when I did my reflections, I have been wondering when I first became aware of the bible. Perhaps it was when my maternal grandfather came to live with us and I noticed that among his books that he had a bible in Spanish from Revista Catolica in El Paso. I noticed that he read from it quite often. Many books in his possession made me realize that he loved to read, but at first the bible that he had was just another book. Little by little I learned that there were many stories in the bible that were very interesting, but more than that, that this was a very special book unlike any other. At Sacred Heart School where I attended the first six grades, one of our textbooks was a book called Bible History. This was not the exact text, but for a youngster it was a nice introduction to the bible. After that the next significant step in appreciating the bible came when I went to the seminary and had a course in Christian Apologetics. This was a nice exercise in proving or disproving ideas about God and religion. I remember that at that time we had to memorize texts that were used to prove the veracity of some of the tenets of our faith.

It was not until I went into graduate school that I came in contact with the biblical scholarship such as it was then. I was fortunate to have as a professor a Father Kinneally who was ahead of his time and was forever helping us appreciate the scriptures and teaching us innovative ways of approaching our study of them. Pope Pius XII in the last years of his life had written an encyclical called Divino Afflante Spiritu permitting and promoting real biblical scholarship. Before this, the scholars had many restrictions in their approach to the study of scripture.

I had grown in my love for the scriptures and was really appreciative of that encyclical when I was introduced to it. As we approached the Second Vatican Council the study of the scriptures had grown by leaps and bounds. The Benedictines at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota had published a series of booklets on each of the books of the bible with the latest biblical scholarship. This made the teaching of the bible a real joy and a great incentive for people to learn more about the bible and all its complexities.

I am truly grateful for the work of all the biblical scholars, Catholic and non-Catholic, that brought so much real meaning to the reading and the study of scripture. All of this brought back memories of my grandfather and the wonderful lessons he drew from the scriptures and passed on to us. I am sure he would not have known what scriptural scholarship was, but yet to him it was the word of God teaching and guiding us on our journey of life.

In my lifetime I have read and studied many outstanding books by the scripture scholars and I truly appreciate biblical scholarship. But in reality, in my meditations I realize that even if I knew all that is to be known about the bible and just kept all that knowledge in my head, I would be missing the point. So as a practical approach to the bible I always try to draw lessons that are life enhancing which I can live in my everyday life. I am sure that there are people who would take exception to my applications to the bible in my life and rightly so, because life experience can be different for each one of us. I love to see people take exception to what I write because then I know they have read my reflections.

The gospel today is a great example. I have read different opinions on why the disciples did not recognize Jesus, but then I feel that Jesus speaks to us and to the world not only in the scholars but also in the words of our parents and those who really care about us and our future. How do we know it is Jesus talking to us? I would like to conclude with a single verse from the gospel for today from St. Luke. "So he went in to stay with them and it happened that while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them. With that, their eyes were opened and they recognized him."

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