Zoom Bible study

PARSIPPANY  Throughout the liturgical year, the faithful hear and learn about the life of Jesus every Sunday at Mass. Addi­tionally, it is through the synoptic Gospels that the faithful receive a more complete picture of who Jesus is and of his earthly ministry.

Father Cesar Jaramillo, parochial vicar at St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Parsippany, who also serves as Defender of the Bond in the Diocesan Tribunal, is leading a Bible study on Monday evenings for the Spanish-speaking community focusing on these Gospels written by Mark, Luke and Matthew also known as the Synoptic Gospels. The sessions are done on Zoom and participants come from all around the Diocese, including parishioners from St. Peter’s, St. Mary Help of Christians in Paterson, St. Michael in Netcong, Sacred Heart in Dover and some all the way from Peru, Puerto Rico and Colombia.

“I decided to focus on the synoptic Gospels because I have found that they are the Gospels the people are more often exposed throughout the liturgical year,” said Father Jaramillo.

He became interested in doing Bible study to give the people an opportunity to truly understand and study the Bible. “To quote the great St. Jerome, ‘Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ’ and that is exactly what I encountered when I entered parish ministry,” he said. “I saw a great void in this specific area of ministry. People were hungry for formation and desirous of learning more about the Word of God in a serious and committed way. The Hispanic community has a deep affinity and love for Sacred Scripture. There is a palpable and beautiful reverence with which they engage the Bible and I saw that as an opportunity to help them delve deeper into it.”

The Bible study on the synoptic Gospels will run until the end of June and Father Jaramillo, who was born in Colombia and ordained to the priesthood in 2017, leads the sessions similar to the university courses that he teaches. Through a PowerPoint presentation, he offers his students historical background of the Gospel, summaries, important points and questions. He started the sessions in September, since it is the month dedicated to the Bible, with the feast day of St. Jerome, on Sept. 30.

Father Jaramillo, whose field is Canon Law, said, “I am not a Bible scholar by any stretch of the imagination. However, as seminarians, we all take Scripture courses throughout our seminary formation and are taught how to read and pray with the Bible. It is an integral part of our priestly identity. The Word of God nurtures our vocation and strengthens our priestly identity.”

The Gospels of Mark, Luke and Matthew each convey Jesus’ life on the same kerygma to different audiences, according to Father Jaramillo. “Very much like a priest seeks to convey the message of the Gospel efficaciously by knowing who his audience is, so too the evangelists had to take into consideration the specifics and particularities of the culture which they were addressing in order to bring about the work of evangelization,” he said.

Out of the four Gospels, the Gospel of John stands in contrast to the synoptic Gospels. It is considered the theological or spiritual Gospel. The synoptic Gospels organize historical events into a chronology. Synoptic is a Greek word that means, “to see together” and the three Gospels present the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus in a similar narrative.

Father Jaramillo said, “The response has been extremely positive and people are really enjoying the classes. My only hope is that whatever they learn from the sessions, they are able to apply it to their own spiritual lives and that they themselves will help others break open the jewel that is the Word of God. For in the words of the great Father of the Church, St. Athanasius, ‘The Holy and Inspired Scriptures are sufficient of themselves for the preaching of the truth.’ ”