“Scripture Says...”

“All this I will give you,” he said,
“if you will bow down and worship me.”
(Matt 4:9)

Last month, I was studying the Gospel of the day in the youth group I help to run for the young people of my parish. It was the first Sunday of Lent, and the Gospel that day was Matthew 4:1-11. You know the one. It’s the first one I think of when I think of Lent; Jesus fasting in the desert for 40 days and being tempted by the devil. So, we spoke for quite some time about what temptation means to us, particularly during this season of Lent.

We talked about how difficult or easy it was to keep our Lenten promises, and I asked them to suggest ways in which we can beat temptation. We had a few helpful suggestions, but I ultimately wanted to point them back to the gospel where Jesus quotes scripture at Satan to beat the temptation. Whilst I was talking about this I suddenly felt very challenged by it.

The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matt 4)
 

The importance of Jesus quoting scripture here is that it tells us that we too need to know our scriptures well enough to really beat any temptation we face, to be able to say in a situation, “I know what that the right thing to do here is, because ‘scripture says...’.

As Catholics, we sometimes get accused of being a bit rubbish with our scripture knowledge. I know that this is certainly a fair comment in my life! Sure, I know some scripture, but I know I should know more! This is about being able to speak God’s word into any situation you’re faced with and beat any temptation or confusion.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that The Church "...forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful...to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures." Then it quotes Saint Jerome who says something which challenges me even more... “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” Wow. that’s a really strong way of putting it isn’t it? 

My mum recently told me that when she was pregnant with my younger brother, she gave herself the project of sitting and reading the Bible from cover to cover.  This is something I keep telling myself I should do. Like her, I wouldn’t just be reading, but asking God to send his Holy Spirit to open the scriptures up to me. Ultimately, the bottom line is that I know God has spoken to me through the Bible, and yet there are parts of that book beside my bed that I have never read. Why am I letting them pass me by? What could God have to say to me through passages I am yet to read? And how can I afford not to find out!?

So, here is my Easter challenge, as much to myself as anyone else:  To read more of that book we say is so important to us.  To come to God in prayer and ask him to open up the scriptures to us, so that we too can say, “Get away Satan! For scripture says...”

Oh, and one final thought. I remember a priest once saying to me that even when we take the big steps in our faith lives, they’ll still be difficult and we have to keep taking them every day. Just as he one day decided to study for the priesthood, every morning he has to wake up and say “Today I will be a priest, and all that comes with it”, and the fact is we can only do that by the grace of God. 


Thinking about my new challenges this Lent, and in particular my decision to start reading more scripture,  I set the morning alarm on my phone to play the chorus from Ronan Johnson and Emmaus’ version of “Patrick’s Shield”. It’s an incredible prayer. Each morning I awake to those incredibly powerful words:

“I arise today with a mighty strength; in the power of the trinity, three in one guiding me. With the speed of light and the depth of the sea, God’s strength this day come and rescue me.”

Rick Brewin

Studying Popular Music and Recording at Salford University