On September 30, 2019, Pope Francis declared the third Sunday of Ordinary time as a special feast day in honor of the Bible whose official name is “The Sunday of the Word of God.” This is great news. This coming year, it will be on January 26, 2020. Pope Francis wrote a new Motu Proprio (Aperuit Illis) to go with this new feast day. It is a great read you can find at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/motu_proprio/documents/papa-francesco-motu-proprio-20190930_aperuit-illis.html.
Pope Francis wanted to stress some things that are particular to the Bible that we do not find in any other written text. The first is that the Bible is the word of God, and not just some words of men or wise sayings (1 Thess 2:13). The Bible is not something we can change or try to twist into what we want it to mean. It is something we should live by and consult every day. In the Bible, God instructs how we are to live, tells us who God is and how we can get to know Him, and strengthens us in times when life gets hard. But the desires of our Supreme Pontiff are marked best by the end of the second paragraph of the Motu Proprio, “It is fitting that the life of our people be constantly marked by this decisive relationship with the living word that the Lord never tires of speaking to His bride, that she may grow in love and faithful witness.” The Bible is a place where we can get to know our savior more. He even quotes the famous quote from St Jerome, “ignorance of scripture is Ignorance of Christ.” Without the Bible, we could hardly get to know Jesus. (more…)
