Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
2 Timothy 3:10–17
My Bible was printed in 1975.
Five years later,
it found its way into my hands.
Since then,
it has stayed with me.
It has travelled with me.
It has aged with me.
It has carried my notes,
my questions,
my underlinings,
my silences.
It is only a book.
And yet,
not only a book.
Today Paul says to Timothy:
“All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful for teaching.”
When Paul said this,
he was thinking first of the Scriptures of Israel,
what we now call the Old Testament.
Today, when we hear
“all Scripture,”
we think of the Bible.
But what is the Bible?
It is not a novel
with one simple storyline.
It is more like
a great library.
Seventy-three books.
Many voices.
Many places.
Many centuries.
History.
Poetry.
Wisdom.
Prayer.
Prophecy.
Letters.
Stories of real people
with real wounds,
real failures,
real faith.
So we must read it with care.
Poetry is not science.
A parable is not a newspaper report.
Prophecy is not weather forecasting.
A psalm of pain
is not the same as a command of God.
If we read every page
in the same way,
we will soon be confused.
The Bible is not a manual
dropped from heaven.
It is the story
of God walking with His people
through history.
Slowly.
Patiently.
Faithfully.
God speaks
through real people,
in real situations,
using human words,
human images,
human struggles.
He speaks through Abraham’s journey,
Moses’ fear,
David’s sin,
Jeremiah’s tears,
Mary’s yes,
Peter’s weakness,
Paul’s fire.
The Bible shows us
not only what God says,
but how patiently God teaches.
Like a father with a child.
Like a teacher with slow students.
Like a shepherd
who keeps walking
even when the sheep wander.
And all this movement
leads to Christ.
He is the living Word
hidden in the written word.
He is the light
by which we read everything.
That is why Scripture is useful.
Not because it gives us
easy answers to every question.
But because it forms us.
It teaches.
It corrects.
It trains.
It heals our vision.
It opens our heart.
Slowly,
the Bible opens our eyes.
To see God
where we saw only silence.
To see others
where we saw only strangers.
To see ourselves
where we preferred to hide.
To see Christ
walking through every page,
until He begins to walk
through our own life.
A Bible on the shelf
is only paper.
A Bible opened with faith
becomes a road.
And on that road,
God still walks with us.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Content License
© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).