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It’s kind of interesting that in the Book of Wisdom, where this past Sunday’s 1st reading comes from (Wis 12:13, 16-19) we get some fancy schmancy words that you probably don’t understand – temerity, clemency, lenience, repentance, people…the list goes on. How are we supposed to understand the Word of God when we don’t understand the words?
Okay, so most of those words you know (probably—and if you don’t, that’s okay). But what about those of us who don’t know what every word means? The priest giving the homily is most likely not going to give an English lesson (nor should he need to spend his time doing so, unless he’s going to go into the root of the word or something). We need to take some of the responsibility for ourselves. The priest is there to help us break open the Word, but he’s not the only one who should be breaking it open. We need to do so as well. Catholics get a bad rap for not knowing the Bible well (and for good reason too—because we don’t). We need to change those stereotypes.
So, here’s your Summer Reading assignment:
Read the upcoming Sunday’s Mass readings at some point before that Mass. It can be a week ahead a time, a few days ahead a time, it can be on the day of. Heck, you can come to Mass 10ish minutes before Mass starts, sit down, and go through the readings. And what do you do if you come to a word you don’t understand? Look it up. Try it out—when you’re home, say “Hey Siri,” or “OK, Google,” or “Alexa,” and then ask…”What does temerity mean?” Boom, you’re a Scripture Scholar.
But Deepu, I can’t take a Breaking Bread book home, how am I supposed to read the readings?
How you accomplish this is so easy we should all be ashamed that we haven’t been doing this from day one (myself included).
– If you come to Mass early, boom, the book’s right there in the little book holder in front of your pew.
If it’s during the week, you have some options:
– Download a Catholic app that gives you the daily Mass readings (which will also include the Sunday readings).
– Go to usccb.org and click on the day you want to read.
I know I’ve said this before about reading Scripture ahead of time, but that’s only because it’s worth mentioning again and again and again until we’re all doing it. It doesn’t take long. Not only will you be doing what you’re supposed to be doing as a Christian, you’ll also get a lot more out of Mass (wait, I’m supposed to get something out of Mass?).
If you really want to make Papa proud, look for some notes or a study Bible that can give you insight and context on what you’re reading. There’s a whole lot of layers to the Word of God, and let’s face it, you ain’t no theologian. I don’t have the Wisdom of Solomon, but I do know that I don’t know a whole lot, so I rely on our Church and super smart Catholics to help me out.
