Update: 2021 New Year Resolution - Bible in a Year (and a Half)

Hello Everyone!  Hope you are all enjoying a relatively COVID free summer!  My writing seems to come in waves and the past year definitely has been a trough.  Hopefully, I will make it a priority to do some more blogging this latter part of the year.

As a quick update to my 2021 New Year Resolution of following the Bible in a Year Podcast, I have finished it in pretty much exactly a year and a half (early July)!  I first read through the entire bible when I was in my teenage years.  As you can guess, this second time around was a much different experience.  As a person, I have matured (or at least hopefully), going from a son to a father of six!  I have had much more exposure to the teachings of the Faith and the many challenges our Church is facing today.

Father Mike Schmitz, the host of the podcast, not only reads the Scripture to you, he also spends an equal amount of time commentating on it, which is very valuable, as there is so much richness in Scripture that one often glosses over many important points.  Sometimes, maybe even more importantly, one can hear the passion in his voice (and at times, he even chokes up with emotion), which clearly demonstrates the realness of his relationship with God.  I would definitely recommend any adult Christian (Protestant friends absolutely encouraged) to do this podcast.  It's about 20 to 25 minutes a day and totally do-able if you incorporate it into your daily commute or other routine.  As I had incorrectly assumed initially, the podcast actually does go through the entire Bible!

3 Lessons from Bible in a Year

Of course, I can't really write a blog post without giving my thoughts on listening to the Bible in its entirety.  Here are 3 lessons that I learned.

1. Pre-requisite for All Christians - This isn't really a lesson, but I thought I'd throw it out there.  How many Christians are there who have not read the bible in its entirety?  Can we really be serious in our faith if we haven't read the most important book ever written on the faith?  It's like saying that I really like Malcolm Gladwell but have not read his books (Gladwell is great, by the way.  Would recommend Outliers and David and Goliath).  With this podcast, it has become so accessible that we really don't have a good excuse not to read it.
   
   
2. Humanity is Broken - if you thought reading the bible would give you the warm and fuzzies, then I'm sorry to report that you may get the opposite, especially if you're reading the Old Testament.  Don't believe me?  These are the things you will encounter after reading the first half of Genesis, the first book in the bible: fratricide, countless cases of polygamy, wiping out of the entire human race save one family, sexual abuse, lying to steal another's birthright, incest, and many accounts of deceit and violence.  More surprisingly, a number of these sins were committed by the patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith.
   
   Knowing this perhaps gives us a different perspective into the challenges we see today.  Our faith did not originate from a line of righteous and perfect people.  In fact, most of them were pretty horrible.  Take King David, for example; he is perhaps the greatest figure in Israelite history.  However, what is he best remembered for?  It would be his great sin of killing of Uriah so that he can take his wife, Bathsheba, to be his own.  Sin, therefore, is the rule and not the exception.  However, this just doesn't seem right...how are we to make sense of this?  Read on.
   
   
3. Christ is the Fulfilment - Another thing that I realized after reading the Old Testament is that there is no conclusion in and of itself.  The nation of Israel never really recovers its prior glory after it was invaded by the Babylonians.  There is a great sense that there should be some sequel to the Old Testament, like a movie with a dissatisfying ending.
   
   As with point #2 above, it seems incredibly sad and pointless if our faith doesn't answer these most basic questions in life.  What is the point?  Why do people suffer?  Why is there so much evil in this world?  Why do good things happen to bad people?
   
   Fortunately for us, God does give us an answer.  Although sometimes it is difficult to really understand, especially when the circumstances in our lives give us moments to pause, the answer is plainly there in the Gospels.  John the Evangelist tells us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  In Christian theology, we understand God to be love itself.  If God is love, why could he not create a world where there was no pain and suffering?  Why does God permit evil to exist?  He does so such that a greater good can come from it.  He allows evil to exist in the world so that He himself can be betrayed, tried, scourged, and finally crucified and killed, in order to reconcile Himself with us.
   
   Imagine you are an athlete training for the 100m dash and you end up winning the track meet.  Would you rather have won because you were naturally gifted with superior genes and really did not need to train very hard, or because you had given up sleep and woke up everyday at 5am to train for the meet?  Which scenario would be the one that has greater meaning and satisfaction?  I'm sure most of us would say the latter.  And so it is with life itself.  It is not meaningful despite the brokenness and disappointments, but because of them and the redemption Christ offers us.
   
   It is easy for me to say this, but fully comprehending this is not only difficult, but may seem impossible at times.  With this, I leave you with a final quote from the Gospel of Matthew, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).  One cannot only use one's mind to understand this great mystery, but must open one's heart.  Will you start by trying the Bible in a Year podcast?
   
   

Now What?

So, just as I was breathing a sigh of relief knowing there's no looming podcast with which I need to keep up, Father Schmitz goes and decides he will do another "in a year" podcast.  Starting January 2023, he will be starting a Catechism in a Year podcast.  Oh boy!  Not many Catholics have read through the entire Bible, but I am sure even less have even picked up and read the Catechism.  What is the Catechism, you may even ask...in short, it's a summary of the teachings of our Faith.  It's a great reference when you have questions, which is what I've used it for mostly.  I definitely see great value in reading through it in its entirety.  In a world where Christian beliefs are at odds with a lot of secular society's beliefs, it is essential to any practicing Catholic to know why we believe what we believe.  Whether it's to ensure you are not shaken in your faith or to help you defend that faith, it will be invaluable.  As you can guess, I will be, maybe a little begrudgingly, following this podcast when it starts next year.  See you there!