Hosea 14:2-10 / Mark 12:28-34
It has been said that the Bible is the most widely read religious book. That may be because of the number of Bibles that are printed and sold each year.
So having a Bible does not mean that one is reading it fervently or regularly. Furthermore Bible knowledge among Christians can be quite questionable and at time quite appalling!
Yet, it won't be too naive to say that by and large, the Bible can be quite simple to understand.
Let us take for example, the two readings of today. There is no real need to go into an exegesis of the texts or the need to read up other commentaries about the text.
As they stand, the texts and the message is clear even if we just browse through them, and there are no difficult words that will make us have a recourse to dictionaries.
But as the 1st reading puts it: Let the wise man understand these words. Let the intelligent man grasp their meaning.
And that is where we enter into the spiritual dimension in reading the Bible.
The Bible is the Word of God. So in order to understand the Word of God we need to understand the mind and the heart of God.
We need to know and understand what God thinks about us, how He feels for us and who we are to Him.
Hence meditating upon the Word of God in prayer is necessary so as to attain the wisdom and intelligence to understand the Word of God.
And then we will be able to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength.