How to Read the Good Book: Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

The first reading this Sunday offers us the opportunity to learn at least one way in which we can making our reading of the Bible richer. Now reading the Bible is an excellent way of getting to know Our Lord. But we need to remember that we are not required to read the Bible only as we might a good book. Rather, given that it is the Good Book, we are also required to meditate on what we read. This reading and meditation will be made easier if we utilise a technique which I would like to share with you. 

When reading the Old Testament, we need to bear in mind that this portion of the Bible is filled with what are called types, and these types prefigure Christ, or are signs that point to Christ. These types prepare people for Christ, and are completed by Our Lord, who gives them a fullness they don’t otherwise contain. Further, these types are useful only to the extent that they point to Christ.

Let us take the example of the encounter between the prophet Elijah and the widow. Elijah asks the widow for some bread, and she responds that she does not have anything to spare, since she will make something for herself and her son with the flour and oil that remains, and then, with their stock of food exhausted, will await death. 

Elijah’s response is an assurance that if she gave him bread, not only would she have some bread left over for herself and her son, but the oil and flour would not run out until the rain came and ended the drought! She believed, did as requested, and as a result, the flour and oil lasted for an entire year.

Now let us look at this scenario again. What does the prophet Elijah need and ask for? Bread! We can already see that this is type, a prefiguring of the Eucharist, which is also – supernatural – bread. And what is the cost of the bread? If the widow takes the flour and oil that she has and uses it to make bread that she will give to the prophet, she, and her son, will die! Meaning, this gift of bread will cost her her life! And what else does she use to prepare the bread? The two pieces of wood that she was collecting when she met Elijah. The wood, as we should see already, and as St. Augustine points out, is a prefiguring, or a type, of the Cross, the wood on which the Christ, in obedience and charity like the widow, gave up His life, so that He might become for us the Bread of Life.

If the preparation of this bread allowed the widow to have food for a year, then the Eucharist allows us to live for eternal life. So, we can see how this is a type, it points to Christ, but whereas Christ offers us life eternal, this bread offers life for a limited period.

And then there are also the multiple times the feeding of the multitude is prefigured (Mt 14:20; Mk 6: 43; Lk 9:12–17; Jn 6:13; Mt 15:37; Mk 8: 8). Elijah assures the widow that if she gives him bread then she will be able to “prepare something for yourself and your son.” 

We should also remember that this encounter between the prophet and the widow can be read in the context of the exodus of the Israelites and their journey in the desert. If the desert is a place without water, then the prophet Elijah, the widow and her son, are suffering the effects of drought, when there is no water available. In other words, they are in a desert like situation, and just as God sent manna in the desert to feed the Israelites through the entire period of the exodus, so too, he provides for them through the period of the drought. We too are provided with the Eucharist to get through the desert, which is this world, and to the promised land, our home in heaven.

Indeed, the widow in this encounter could well be a prefiguring of ourselves, the Church, which was preached to the Gentiles, who did not know the God of Israel, but listened, believed, added their sufferings to those of Christ, and were rewarded with Bread from Heaven.

I must add that this is acquired only after we have been reading the Bible, or at least the lectionary, regularly. But I assure you, my dear brothers and sisters, that as you persist at reading the Good Book, this skill will – with the Grace of God – develop. The next step, after recognising the signs and prefigurings, is to pause when we see that there are so many meanings associated with the words we are reading. Collect all these associations and let the words we are reading become heavy with these associations. Pause, and meditate, and then let the Holy Spirit do the job of revealing their message to you. In this step, we must be like our heavenly mother, who as the Gospel of Luke tells us; “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).

May the Holy Spirit and Our Heavenly Mother always guide your reading of the Good Book.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful on 9 Nov 2024 at the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fatorda.
Image reference: “Virgin Annunciate”, Antonello da Messina, c.1475, Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, Palermo, via wikipedia.)