Approach Scripture with humility; Church Fathers: Day 170

St. Augustine discovered the Scriptures when he was a young man. He didn’t like them. He had been studying the elegant works of the great Latin writers. Much later he realized that you have to approach Scripture with humility, and only then does it reveal its most sublime truths.

So I resolved to turn my mind to the Holy Scriptures, to see what they were all about.

There I saw something not comprehended by the proud, not revealed to chil­dren, but humble as you approach, sublime as you go on, and veiled in mysteries.

I wasn’t one of those who could enter into it, or bend my neck to follow its steps. I didn’t feel the way I do now when I turned to those Scriptures. They seemed to me to be unworthy of comparison with the dignity of Cicero. My puffed-up pride shunned their style, and my wit wasn’t sharp enough to pierce their inner meaning.

They were writings that would develop in little ones—but I scorned to be a little one, and, swollen with pride, I considered myself a great one.

–St. Augustine, Confessions, 2.5

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

When I read the Bible, do I begin with a humble and open mind?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, open the hidden things of your law when I knock. Perfect me, and let me understand the obscure things in your Word.

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