Scott Hahn to give presentations
in Indianapolis at St. Simon Parish

By Sean Gallagher

Scott Hahn, professor of theology and Scripture at Franciscan University of Steubenville, in Steubenville, Ohio, and author of several books on the Catholic faith, will offer a series of three presentations, which are free and open to the public, on Feb. 26 at St. Simon the Apostle Parish in Indianapolis.

The day will begin with Mass at 10 a.m. Hahn’s first presentation, “The Lamb’s Supper,” will follow at 11 a.m.

The second presentation, “Hail Holy Queen,” will begin at 1:15 p.m. The third presentation, “Swear to God,” will start at 2:45 p.m., with the day concluding at 3:45 p.m.

In a telephone interview, Hahn discussed how the presentations are occurring during the Year of the Eucharist, for which he noted Pope John Paul II prepared the Church in his 2003 encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (“The Church and the Eucharist”).

“The only [place] in that encyclical where he specifically states, ‘This calls for much closer attention,’ ” he said, “was the way in which in the Mass we enter the heavenly liturgy celebrated by the angels and the saints. That is really the specific focus of ‘The Lamb’s Supper’ as well.”

In speaking about his second presentation, “Hail Holy Queen,” Hahn noted how the Year of the Rosary, from October 2002 to October 2003, led well into the current Year of the Eucharist in that we can come to know Jesus in the Eucharist better by coming closer to his mother.

“I think it is so right for us to get closer to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” he said, “precisely to enable ourselves to come know her Son as she does… and to love him more and more like she does, because no one loves him more, no one loves him better, and no one wants us to know and love him more than the Blessed Virgin.”

In discussing his last presentation, “Swear to God,” Hahn spoke about how the sacraments are more about “what God does for us, not what we are doing for God,” and how they are embodiments of the covenantal relationship that we have with God.

But in considering all of the presentations together, Hahn spoke about how he hopes to help his listeners see the close connection between the Bible and the Church’s liturgical life.

“The emphasis in all three talks is going to be on how to read the Bible from the heart of the Church,” he said, “how the Church reads the Bible in the Mass. Because I’m convinced from years of working with Catholics, especially cradle Catholics, that they know the Bible much better than they think they do, although perhaps not as well as they ought.

“They don’t think that they know it well because they have not memorized lots of ... chapters and verses like lots of non-Catholics do. But they’ve heard the stories for years, and years and more of the Bible is read in the Catholic Mass than in any Protestant denomination.”

(For more information, call Diane Kellett at 317-513-1124 or Beth Leonard at 317-826-0660.) †