The Mysterious Unity of Catholic Literature

In recent years, there has been a great interest and fervor in the reading of Holy Scriptures and meditation on the Word of God. Some people have become so fanatical in their zeal for this Sacred Book that they think it to be the only one worth reading. Any other spiritual literature seems to have no importance compared to this one. What human writer could ever come close to pronouncing the words that the Son of God Himself declared to us? What human wisdom and knowledge could possibly exist like the revelations made by Jesus, the very Image of the Father? So people conclude that it is a waste of time to read anything else but the Bible itself.

They forget, though, that Jesus told us two very important things in the Scriptures itself: "There are many things I have yet to tell you" and "Where there are two or more of you gathered in my Name, I am in your midst ". In other words, Jesus, on earth, did not have sufficient time to tell us many more beautiful things about Himself, heaven, the Father, the love of the Holy Spirit, etc. This task would be left for the Church to accomplish.

To read the Bible everyday is a wonderful thing. The Church even encourages the practice and grants a plenary indulgence to all those who read it for 15 minutes a day. Now to read the Bible with one or more people gathered together is even better. This could be done in one of two ways: with a discussion group, where each one shares what they read, or with an "expert". The expert in this case, could be someone living or dead. The living expert could be a priest, Bible scholar or pastor. The dead (but alive in Christ) could be a Church father or saint who wrote things about the Bible in the 4th, 5th, 7th, 12th, 16th, 18th or whatever century.

We will learn many things from reading the Word of God alone. We could learn even many more things from reading the commentaries of the saints on the Word of God, because "where two or three are meditating together" Jesus will be in their midst to impart His love and knowledge. The wish of Jesus is that we be one (since He loves unity so much) not only in our charity, but also in our thinking. The greatest joy of Jesus is to see everyone united in His word, and not divided by it. The writings of the saints do exactly that: they bring us all together in the love of Jesus and to a more deeper understanding of His word.

"The collected writings of the diverse saints of history is one more proof of the existence of God. If you gather the writings and manuals of doctors, lawyers, philosophers, religious thinkers, artists, scientists, politicians, etc. that have been written in history, you will notice that very few of them agree on anything. Most of them are extremely opposed in their views. There is no uniform thinking or development in their thoughts. Many are tied down by cultural, historical and ethnic prejudices and human limitations. Not so the saints.

If you take a work of a Greek or Latin father, 5th century monk, Franciscan or Dominican scholar, 14th century mystic, Byzantine patriarch of the 9th century, 16th century carmelite, 18th century devotional writer, 20th century convert, etc. you will notice a mysterious harmony, unity and oneness of thought present in all them (like the seamless robe of Christ), despite all their historical distances, cultural differences, diverse mentalities, character formation and psychological make-ups. There is nothing like this present in any other group of writers in society. The elements that are unique and common only to the saints manifest a mysterious, but very real and dynamic presence and marvelous working of the Holy Spirit in His Church. It is not sufficiently human alone to produce what the saints have accomplished without some supernatural help and inspiration from above.

You may now ask: "But there are so many saints, which ones am I supposed to read? I do not have time to go page through such a quantity of writings." Do we read everything that is out on the market? No, it is impossible (there are millions and millions of titles put out every year). We normally choose the ones recommended by others, especially literary critics, or books that are selling well and that everyone is reading. It is the same with the saints. They, too, have had their best-sellers.

Anhtony Mellace