By David Coe
Yeshua Institute Facilitator
There is a popular TV show where two brothers have been engineering, searching and digging for a lost treasure. Over the last seven years they have spent millions of dollars looking for this treasure – with only limited results.
I see the show as a metaphor for life and our search for guidance, truth, direction –most of all, for certainty for ourselves and our loved ones. “I need to know!”
Is there a hidden treasure? And if there is, how can it be found?
The answer is “No,” there is no hidden treasure. But that’s good news. Because there is a treasure – it’s just not hidden. The answers to life’s questions can be discovered in God’s Word -- the Bible.
According to the Guinness Book Of World Records “..., there is little doubt that the Bible is the world’s best-selling and most widely distributed book.”
And there’s a reason for that: The Bible contains God’s own words.
God, working through humans, is the real Author in the Bible. He is the one pointing the way -- a sure path to a relationship with Jesus and His Father, thus revealing His plan of loving goodness for our lives. His message is for you -- no matter who you are.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “… the Church has always venerated the scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s Body” (103).
What a Treasure!
St. Origen encourages all of us to read scripture. When writing to St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (known as the Wonder Worker), Origen said: “Apply yourself to studying the things of God starting with assumptions that are pleasing to God. Then knock on His door and the gatekeeper will open it. As Jesus says: ‘To him the gatekeeper opens’”(Jn. 10:3).
This Christmas give yourself, a loved one, a co-worker, anyone, the greatest treasure of all, the best-selling book of all time, The Bible -- all 73 books of it.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Coe’s reference to “73 books” is a reference to Catholic editions of the Bible, which contain seven books and longer versions of two books from the Old Testament that are not found in Protestant versions.)
- For a list of Bible translations approved by the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, click here.
- For a short video on Lectio Divina, one way to understand and apply the Bible to your life, click here.
- For a brief video from Bishop Robert Barron about how to read and understand the Bible, click here.
- For a brief video from Bishop Barron describing a new edition of the Bible published by his Word on Fire ministry, click here.