Making Scripture a Part of Us

I stumble a few songs on the radio upon that I know the words or the melody, and I can sing or hum along. You could almost say that the song was a part of me; it was so well known that it became part of who I am.

In our reading from Revelation, we hear St. John asked to eat the scroll that the angel is holding. He is being asked to make the scripture a part of him and to consume it into his life.

We are not challenged to do the same thing. We won’t have to eat our bibles or have to eat a scroll. But the challenge is we need to make scripture a part of our lives and a part of who we are as Catholics. How well do we know the scriptures? Are there specific scripture passages that we hear the first couple of words, and we can sing along with? The challenge is to read and meditate over the scriptures and make them a part of who we are.

A few other notes

I want to mention a few other things in this reading today, specifically for my blog. First, the prophet Ezekiel was asked to do the same thing with a scroll. He eats it, and it tastes like honey and caused his stomach to be upset. As I’ve mentioned before, Revelation is full of imagery from the Old Testament, and this isn’t lacking here.

You will also notice the lectionary skips are a large portion of Revelation. The Seven Seals, the 144,000 sealed, the great multitude from every nation, and other visions of heaven. In some ways, these readings show up elsewhere in the lectionary, but some we don’t hear. I don’t believe that the Church uses the lectionary to cover the entire bible word for word in two years or more. It could be done, but the Church has decided not to do that and stick with a two-year cycle for daily readings and a three-year cycle for Sunday readings. I’m staying with the lectionary for my reflections here. However, there is a lot more going on in the Book of Revelation. I encourage you to read it for yourself and use a study bible if you can. That is about it for now! God Bless!