Transcript of Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story unfolds and how we fit into that story today.

Today is day 366 because this year is a leap year. And so we have a little bonus episode. You were like, Wait a second, I got done with the Bible in the air yesterday. What is happening today? Well, as I said, today is day 366. We're still another day left in this year. If you are on your own reading plan, it might not be December 31st right now for you, but it could be any time of the year. And praise God for that because we have, again, Day 366. It's been a number of years since we first recorded the Bible in a year. It's remarkable the ways we've seen this podcast change people's lives. The first question people asked, How has it changed your life, I realized, well, I'm going to read some things today. And today, as I'm reading things, I need to put on some readers. So there's a little change there. But in other ways, I'm just so grateful for... Because I go back and I listen. I listen on a regular basis to this podcast. I have to listen at two times speed, and I know people think that's crazy, but I listen at two times speed for at least two reasons.

One is that when you listen to your own voice, you just are like, oh, my goodness, that's what I sound like. If I I go at two times speed, I can't hear myself. Then secondly, if I do listen at the normal speed, I am sitting there the entire time thinking, Bro, you got to talk faster. You're going so slow, which I know is maybe news for some people. But the deeper reality of how has this podcast changed my life is the more and more I come into contact with God's word as a whole, because, of course, as a priest, we read the Bible multiple times a day, every single Sunday. But there's something about coming into contact with God's word as a whole that just roots me even more deeply in the heart of the Father. I don't know what I mean by that, other than there's something about here as Catholic, we have liturgical seasons. We have the same readings on Sundays, over the course of a three-year plan, and when it comes to weekday masses, over the course of a two-year plan. We have the same readings regularly, which is fantastic and really, really good.

But there's something about those readings that we seldom encounter. That is just so good for me. I love the fact that even when we get to the names, we get to just, Here is a bunch of names that could strike us as very random. There's something about those less read parts of scripture that are just really, really good for me. Beyond that, it's changed the lives of many, many people, and I'm so grateful for that. The number of times I hear families saying that they have done the Bible in the Year podcast, or we even have freshmen who show up on campus and they say, Hey, my parents and I, we did the Bible in the Year podcast, or I did this as a senior, I did this as a junior in high school. I think that is amazing and so remarkable, and it just impacts my heart every time. But today for this bonus episode, one of the things that I thought I wanted to reflect on was I wanted to read three excerpts from three different saints going back to the first centuries of Christianity. They're all about why Bible reading is essential.

That what you have done in concluding this Bible in your podcast, and maybe even starting next tomorrow, starting again tomorrow, is so essential. The first reading is from a man named St. John Chrisistam. St. John Chrisistam lived in the IVth century, lived briefly into the fifth century, died in the year 407. But St. John Chris system has important words to say how lay people, people who aren't just preachers or not just priests or religious sisters or brothers, must read scripture more regularly than monks. Here's the St. John Christmas instead. I'm always encouraging you to pay attention not only to what is said here in church, but also when you are at home, to continue constantly in the practice of reading the divine scriptures. For let not anyone say to me those silly, contemplable words. I'm stuck at the courthouse all day. I'm tied up in political affairs. I'm in an apprentice program. I've got a wife. I'm raising kids. I'm responsible for a household. I'm a business man. Reading the Bible isn't my thing. That's for those who are set apart, for those who have made the mountaintops their homes, who have a way of life without interruption.

What are you saying, man? It's not your business to pay attention to the Bible because you are distracted by thousands of concerns? Then Bible reading belongs more to you than to the monks. For they do not make as much use of the help of the divine scriptures as those who always have a great many things to do, but you are always standing in the line of battle and are constantly being hit, so you need more medicine. For not only does your spouse irritate you, but your son annoys you. Your servant makes you lose your temper. An enemy schemes against you. A friend envies you, a neighbor insults you. A colleague trips you up. Often, a lawsuit impends. Poverty distresses. Loss of possessions brings sorrow. At one moment, success puffs you up. At another, failure deflates you. New numerous powerful inducements to anger and anxiety, to discouragements and grief, to vanity and loss of sense, surround us on every side. A thousand missiles rain down from every direction. And so we constantly need the whole range of equipment supplied by scripture. Since many things of this kind beseech our soul, we need the divine medicines so that we might treat the wounds we already have, and so that we might check beforehand the wounds that are not yet, but are going to be, from afar, extinguishing the missiles of the devil and repelling them through the constant reading of the divine scriptures.

For it is not possible, not possible, for anyone to be saved who does not constantly have the benefit of spiritual reading. That's a reading again from St. John Chrisistam, and just that remarkable sense that he has about the fact is, the more busy I am, the more you are on the front lines. Yes, Bible reading is for the monks, but actually Bible reading is for those of us who who find ourselves on the front lines, those who find ourselves in the midst of a battle. The next little excerpt is from a man named St. Jerome. Now, you probably know St. Jerome as the one who translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin. So he's the translator of the Latin, what they call the vulgate translation or the translation that was in the tongue of the people. Now, St. Jerome, here, again, once again, in the fourth century, died in the early fifth century. St. Jerome talks about how we need a guide to the Bible. In order to interpret scripture correctly, we need to have a guide. Here's what St. Jerome says about needing a guide to the Bible. In the Apocalypse, a book is shown, Sealed with Seven Seals, which, if you hand to an educated person saying, Read this, he will answer, I can't because it's sealed.

Today, many people claim to be educated, yet the scriptures are a sealed book to them, one which they cannot open through him who has the key of David, he that opens and no one and shuts, and no one opens. See Revelation 3:7. In the Acts of the Apostles, Philip asked the Holy eunuch who was reading Isaiah, 'Do you understand what you're reading? He answered, 'How could I unless I have someone to guide me? Yet, although he had the book in his hand and took the words of the Lord into his mind and even had them on his tongue and pronounced them with his lips, he still did not know the one he unknowingly worshiped in the book. Then Philip came and showed him Jesus, who was concealed beneath the letter. What a wonderful teacher. In the same hour, the eunuch both believed and was baptized. He became one of the faithful and a saint. He was no longer a pupil, but a master. I have touched on this instance to convince you that you can make no progress in the Holy scriptures unless you have a guide to show you the way. Once again, that was from Saint Jerome.

Again, just remarkable. This reality, of course, is that we have a guide. It's called the Magisterium with the Church. If you have not yet read the catechism of the Catholic Church, if you have not yet been a part of the catechism in a year, my invitation is, tomorrow, you might pick up Bible in a year again. Also, you might consider picking up the catechism in a year. Now, there's one last quote that I'd like to read to you. It's once again from a man who died roughly somewhere in the fifth century. His name is St. Vincent of Leran, and he talks about how scripture and tradition are necessary ministry. Both of them are needed. It's one of the reasons why we not only have the Bible in a year podcast, we have the catechism in a year podcast, because both scripture and tradition are absolutely essential. Here's what St. Vincent said back in the fifth century. I have often inquired, most earnestly and attentively, from very many experts in sanctity and learning, how and by what definite and universal rule I might distinguish the truth of the Catholic faith from the falsity of heredical perversion.

And I have always received an answer of this kind from almost all of them, that whether I or anyone else wish to detect the frauds of newly rising heretics to avoid their snares and to remain secure and whole in the sound faith, one ought with the Lord's help to fortify one's faith in a two-fold manner, first, by the authority of the divine law, and secondly, by the tradition of the Catholic Church. Here, perhaps someone will ask, since the canon of scripture is complete and is in itself sufficient and more than sufficient on all points, what need is there to join to it the authority of ecclesiastical interpretation? The answer, of course, is that, owing to the very depth of holy scripture itself, all do not receive it in one and the same sense, but in one way and another, in another, interpret the declarations of the same writer so that it seems possible to elicit from it as many opinions as there are men. For novation expounds it in one way, Donatus, another, and quite lately, Nestorius, another. So it is most necessary, on account of the great intricacies of such various errors, that the rule for the interpretation of the prophets and apostels should be laid down in accordance with the standard of the ecclesiastical and Catholic understanding of them.

Also, in the Catholic church itself, we take great care that we hold that which has been believed everywhere, always by all. For that is truly and properly Catholic, as the very force and meaning of the word show, which comprehends everything almost universally. And we shall observe this rule if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole church throughout the world confesses. Antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is plain that our ancestors and fathers claimed, consent, if in antiquity itself, we eagerly follow the definitions and beliefs of all, or certainly, nearly all, priests and doctors alike. That was St. Vincent of Laren, back in the year, and the year 450, he died around the year 450. But all of these teachers, from St. Jerome, to St. John Chrysostome to St. Vincent, all of them pointing back to not only the need to know scripture, but the reality, of course, is we need to continue to defend ourselves against the onslaughts of the evil one, of the world, and even of our own broken hearts. That's my prayer, my prayer for everyone who's joining us today on this day, 366.

My invitation, how about this? How about let's not let this be the last day. Let's just let this be day 366, but not the final day. Let it maybe be the final time around the sun. Let it be the final time through this podcast. But let tomorrow be day 367. If you want to call it day one, that would be fantastic. But my invitation is, keep going. There's no need to stop, and there's no reason to stop. You guys, it has been an incredible honor, an incredible joy, and incredible grace to be able to be with you every single day. This has been a gift to me. I hope that it has been a gift to you. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.