When 30% of our Mass is made up of readings or words and phrases from the Bible why do we need
to have a Bible study group? We are lucky in Portico to have a priest who does a great job of
breaking the Word of God with us at Mass, but others aren t so fortunate and someday we might
be the `others.` Pope Francis asks Catholics to read the Bible and has even personally distributed
copies of the New Testament to Catholics who came to hear him. St. Jerome said, Ignorance of Scripture
is ignorance of Christ. The writer Joyce Hugget said in her book, `Listening to God,`
I had turned from meditating on the shepherding of Jesus to contemplate the Transfiguration.
Embedded in Matthew s account of this unique revelation of Jesus glory, lay a command which
I had never bumped into before: `There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun,
and his clothes became a white as the light and a voice from the cloud said, `This is my Son,
whom I love; with him am I well pleased. Listen to him! `I looked at this verse long and hard and
found it difficult to believe that it does not say, `This is my dear Son, talk to him.
`Nor does it read, `This is my dear Son, ask him for things. ` Neither does it encourage,
`This is my dear Son, tell him your diagnosis when someone is sick. ` No. It reads,
`This is my Son Listen to him.`
To read the scriptures is one way that we can `Listen to him. `To study the scriptures is a
way that we can listen to him more attentively, especially if we approach this study with a
prayerful heart. When we do this together with others, then surely we can hope to listen to
him speak in our midst as he assured us that, ` For where two or three come together in my
name, there am I with them."