Learning how to read from a 108-year-old monk: Scripture at Mass

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year B
Acts 4.8-12 Psalm 118 1 John 3.1-2 John 10.11-18

Early on Wednesday morning this past week, Fr. Theodore Heck slipped from this life into eternity. Fr. Theodore was a monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey, and at the time of his death on Wednesday he was the oldest living Benedictine monk in the world at 108. He had been a monk for 87 years, and in just three weeks would have celebrated the 80th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. Inevitably, over recent years countless people would ask Fr. Theodore the secret to his longevity. He first of all attributed it to prayer and the stability of monastic life. But I think there was something else that kept him active for so long – his love of reading. As a student at Saint Meinrad, I would often see Fr. Theodore wandering among the stacks of books in the library. He was a voracious reader, often reading a book a week. To help guide his reading, each year he would pick a particular subject to study. One year, he studied aviation, and read every book he could find that explains how airplanes fly. When he was 99, he decided to learn Spanish. And at 100, he studied computer technology; not just how to check e-mail – which he did daily – but the technology behind the computer screen. Fr. Theodore’s love of books and his love of reading kept his mind sharp throughout his long life, and probably helped add years to his lifespan. The written word can be a powerful thing.

But Fr. Theodore would also tell you that the books he read on a weekly basis to gain knowledge were never the most important books in his life. As a monk, his life was structured around prayer – especially prayer from the Book of Psalms. And as a priest, his life was structured around the whole of Scripture – the seventy-three books inspired by God and contained in the Bible. This Easter Season, as we have been exploring the Mass, we have recognized that the goal of our lives as Christians is to become more and more like Christ. The nourishment and grace of the Eucharist helps us to do that. But at an even more basic level, the only way we can become like Christ is to learn about Christ, to know what he is like and how he calls us to follow him. Like the sheep who know the voice of their shepherd, we must listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow him. And the primary way we listen to the voice of Christ is through reading and listening to the words of Scripture, both at Mass and in our own prayer and study.

The first half of the Mass is called the Liturgy of the Word. On Sundays, there are always three readings from the Bible, plus a sung response from the Book of Psalms. The first reading is generally from the Old Testament, although in the Easter Season it comes from the Acts of the Apostles. The second reading is from the New Testament writings of the apostles – generally from one of the letters or epistles. The third reading is always from one of the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. The particular readings that are used are set by the Church in what is called a Lectionary, the official order of readings for Mass. This way, no matter what Catholic church you go to anywhere in the world, you will hear the same Scripture readings proclaimed on the same Sunday. But it’s not just in Catholic churches – many mainstream Protestant churches have also adopted this Lectionary, including the Lutheran, Episcopal, and Methodist churches. The Lectionary is set up in a three-year cycle, with the gospel readings in each year taken from Matthew, Mark, or Luke; readings from the Gospel according to John are read in each of the three years during Lent and Easter. Right now, we are in Year B, or the Year of Mark – when the Easter Season is finished, we will resume a page-by-page reading from Mark’s gospel. The first reading is always chosen to complement the gospel reading. For example, if the gospel reading is the story of Jesus cleansing lepers, the Old Testament reading might also be a story of lepers being cleansed. The second reading, from the New Testament letters, does not necessarily correspond to any of the other readings – it is what is called a semi-continuous reading, so that we read from the same letter over the course of several weeks.

The goal of the Lectionary for Mass is to give us a wide selection of Scripture to help us hear how God has spoken to us over time. Before the most recent revision of the Lectionary, Catholics heard less than 1% of the Old Testament and only 14% of the New Testament if they went to Mass every year for their entire lives. In the current Lectionary, we hear 4% of the Old Testament and 40% of the New Testament every three years. We still don’t hear everything, but we do hear the most important and significant parts of the Bible. But if we are truly intent on listening for the voice of Christ, the Good Shepherd, then we need to do some work on our own. Ideally, each of us should be reading all of the Sunday scripture readings each week before coming to Mass – you can find the list of the next Sunday’s readings in the parish bulletin, in The Criterion, and on the internet. If we have read these readings beforehand, then we are in a much better position to listen to them here at the Mass with open ears and open hearts. But what about the 96% of the Old Testament and the 60% of the New Testament that we don’t hear at Mass? That is a great source for our own reading and prayer. Perhaps, like Fr. Theodore, we could take a book or two of the Bible each year, reading some each day or each week, and over time, we would have read through all of Scripture. The more we read the Bible faithfully, the better we will hear the voice of God, and the easier it will be to let the voice of God guide our lives. And the more we are formed by the Word of God at Mass, the more we will become like Christ.