Catholics Need Scripture for the Holy Eucharist – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; April 19, 2026

The Gospel recounts for us the story of the two disciples who meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus but only recognize him in the breaking of the bread. First of all, they are disciples, which means they are “students”; Jesus Christ is their teacher, who teaches the way of right living. The account also shows that once Jesus started explaining the Scriptures to them, they were hungry for instruction, such that their hearts began to burn within them. They asked him to stay and so came to recognize him in the breaking of the bread, not just as a gesture of hospitality, but because of a desire to receive even more from his great wisdom. Now, if we see in the breaking of the bread a sign of the Holy Eucharist, then the Gospel teaches us that being nourished by the word of God in sacred Scripture is a vital preparation for holy communion.

Of course, someone might point out that the Mass is composed of two parts, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, precisely for the purpose of preparing for communion with the reading of the word.

Well and good, but I want to exhort everyone today to seek a broader and deeper familiarity with the word of God in Scripture. The weekly selection at Sunday Mass is not enough.

Now, from time to time, I have heard someone from an older generation speak of how, when they were growing up, the Church used to discourage the laity from reading the Bible. It may well be that these statements accurately reflected their personal experience, but, if that is the case, the message from Rome was not getting through.

In 1920, Pope Benedict XV wrote in an encyclical letter commemorating St. Jerome, “Our one desire for all the Church’s children is that, being saturated with the Bible, they may arrive at the all-surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ.” (Benedict XV, Spiritus Paraclitus 20; emphasis added)  He made reference to St. Jerome’s famous statement, “To be ignorant of Scripture is to be ignorant of Christ.” (St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah, Prologue )

In the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council picked up on this theme, teaching: “In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life. Consequently these words are perfectly applicable to Sacred Scripture: ‘For the word of God is living and active’ and ‘it has power to build you up and give you your heritage among all those who are sanctified’.” (DV 21)

Alas, to this day, it still seems rare for a Catholic to be deeply familiar with sacred Scripture. Do not feel bad, do not feel overwhelmed. This is not the work of a day, but the work of a lifetime. It is important, at least, to desire to become familiar with Scripture and to seek, each one, according to his ability, slowly to acquire what he can.

Now, I like to insist that the word of God comes to us through both Scripture and Tradition, but the words through which we immerse ourselves in sacred Tradition, whether the words of the sacred Liturgy, the words of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, or the words of the Magisterium of the Church, are finally witnesses to the word of God in Tradition, rather than the very word of God.

The words of Scripture, however, are most special and irreplaceable. They were written down indeed by human authors who made use of their powers and abilities in doing so, yet they wrote under divine inspiration such that “with [the Holy Spirit] acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted. Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation.” (Vatican II, Dei Verbum 11)

This means that the words of Scripture are divine conceptions expressed in human words, containing therefore a richness and depth of meaning beyond what even their human authors could have conceived. They are the very word of God in human words. Again, the Council taught, “the words of God, expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as the word of the eternal Father, when He took to Himself the flesh of human weakness, was in every way made like men.” (Ibid.)

We would do well to apply to our reading of Scripture the words of the prophet Jeremiah, When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart. (Jer 15:16)

The first step is to become familiar with the whole, which cannot be accomplished simply by reading the Bible once through; the Bible must be read and reread, with humility, docility, and prayer, not presuming on our own understanding. We should become familiar with the basic narrative and the chief persons referred to in the narrative.

St. Augustine tells us that “In all these books those who fear God and are of a meek and pious disposition seek the will of God. And in pursuing this search the first rule to be observed is … to know these books, if not yet with understanding, still to read them so as to commit them to memory, or at least so as not to remain wholly ignorant of them. Next, those matters that are plainly laid down in them, whether rules of life or rules of faith, are to be searched into more carefully and more diligently; and the more of these a man discovers, the more capacious does his understanding become.” (On Christian Doctrine, Bk II.9) Only then is someone ready to understand also the more obscure parts of Scripture, which should be understood in light of the clear rules of life and of faith.

Now, St. Paul instructs St. Timothy, saying, the end of the commandment is charity, from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith. (1 Tim 1:5) Consequently, St. Augustine points out that those who have attained to perfection in faith, hope, and charity no longer need the words of Scripture, except to instruct others. (On Christian Doctrine 1.39) Well, none of us is so perfect, so we must continue to seek the instruction of sacred Scripture.

The Psalmist says: Blessed is the man … whose delight is in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. (Ps 1:1,2) We should be then like the “clean animals,” the sheep and the cattle, that the Israelites of old were allowed to eat, that divide the hoof and chew the cud. We divide the hoof by discerning the difference between good and evil, doing the good and avoiding the evil; we chew the cud by not just reading the words of Scripture, but by bringing them frequently to mind and pondering them during the day. (Cf. Mt 7:24-27)

When someone praised the mother of Jesus for the simple fact of having given birth to him, Jesus responded, showing the true greatness of his mother in a way that we can all share. He said, Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. (Lk 11:28) The Blessed Virgin Mary dwelt with Jesus, the very Word of God made flesh, and witnessed his life and heard his words, treasuring everything he did and said, pondering everything in her heart. (cf. Lk 2:19)

The Acts of the Apostles records an incident in which the Deacon Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch, who is reading a copy of Isaiah. He asks the eunuch if he understands what he is reading, to which the eunuch replied, How can I, unless someone instructs me. (Acts 8:31)

Like the Ethiopian eunuch and like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we need guides, and the greatest guides are the Fathers and Doctors of the Church and also the teachings of the Magisterium, or at least those lesser guides who have themselves been guided by and are faithful to the greater guides.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a wonderful gift in which we find a synthesis of the teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, abundant in its citation of the Magisterium, rich in its reference to Scripture. Indeed, I would say that three books that a Catholic needs, three books which mutually illumine one another, are the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and a daily Missal.

If we seek the needed guidance to help us understand the word of God, we might find that Jesus comes to meet us through them and sets our hearts burning within us, as he did with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Now, if we consider today’s Gospel passage, we can observe two things. First, Cleophas, acting as the spokesman for the two disciples, correctly states the basic events of the life of Jesus, even the report of his resurrection, though he does not yet understand them. The events narrated by Cleophas are, we could say, the kernel of the New Testament. Jesus then explains to the disciples the meaning of those events, making use of the Old Testament, which evidently the two disciples had not yet understood. What we learn from this is that the whole of Scripture, Old Testament and New, refers in the first place to Jesus Christ, about whom it was written that it was necessary for him to suffer so as to enter into his glory. So also we must follow him. (cf. Acts 14:22)  

“The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.” (CCC 129)

So, in today’s 1^st reading, St. Peter, speaking to the crowds on the day of Pentecost, explains the resurrection of Jesus in light of one of the Psalms of David, referring in turn to God’s promise to David and the fulfillment of that promise in the person of Jesus Christ, descended from David. While there is certainly much in the New Testament that can be understood without great familiarity with the Old Testament, there is scarcely a page of the New Testament that does not refer to the Old. As I pointed out on Easter Sunday, the proper, traditional Christian name for Easter is “Pascha,” which means “Passover”, which means the very heart of Christian faith and worship can scarcely be understood apart from understanding the Old Testament Passover. Jesus himself is spoken of as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, which means that his life and work can scarcely be understood apart from the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament, described in detail in what for Christians might be the least-read book of the Old Testament, the Book of Leviticus.

Solomon, speaking of divine wisdom, which is contained in the word of God, says, When I go into my house, I shall repose myself with her: for her conversation has no bitterness, or her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness. (Wis 8:16) The more we become familiar with sacred Scripture, the more it begins to “come alive” within us, such that we begin to hear, as it were, a conversation as different parts of Scripture speak to each other, and as God speaks to us through his inspired word.

The book of Proverbs refers to the importance of being faithful to paternal teaching: My son, keep the commandment of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother; bind them continually upon your heart, tie them about you neck; when you walk, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall watch over you; and when you awake, it shall talk with you. (Pr 6:20-22)

If we reflect on our own lives, for good or ill, we can consider how deeply embedded in us is the instruction and guidance we received from our human parents. The words of Scripture are the instruction given us by our heavenly Father and should become even more a part of us than parental teaching.

Now, there is a certain problem in human life with which we are all deeply familiar: we can know very well what we are supposed to do, but have very little desire to do it. I would dare say that when the words of Scripture become so much a part of us that we can even hear in them the voice of Jesus, speaking to us here and now, when our hearts begin to burn within us, then we will indeed desire very much to do whatever he tells us (cf. Jn 2:5).

All of Scripture finally refers to Christ, the Word made flesh, and it is the same Jesus Christ, whom we receive in holy communion. Indeed, we could say that Jesus Christ, hidden in the Holy Eucharist, is also the hidden heart of sacred Scripture. Scripture teaches us to recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Once we have heard him speaking to us in Scripture, once we have put his teaching into practice, then in holy communion he begins to teach us in the depth of our hearts, with a wisdom and power beyond anything that words can express.