Nick Lebish knows he sounds like his old evangelical Christian self when he talks about the importance of Catholics having a “personal relationship with Christ,” but he really means it.
“In order to be a Catholic Christian, it’s all about being in a personal relationship with Jesus,” said Lebish, who launched the popular Catholic Biblical School at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Winchester in 2020. “Our faith is all about relationship. You can’t be in a relationship with God if you don’t have a conversation with him, and to be in conversation with God takes various forms in prayer, but we listen to God primarily through reading the Scriptures.”
Lebish entered into full communion with the Catholic Church in 2000 as a student at San Diego State University and quickly made his way to Rome where he earned degrees in philosophy and theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. His convert zeal eventually brought him to Denver, where he oversaw an explosion of growth teaching the four-year CBS course and the enthusiasm has continued in Virginia. In the first graduating class this spring, 215 students earned certificates in biblical studies.
“It’s a wonderful time to be Catholic. No one has an excuse to not study the Scriptures,” he said. “Maybe you could say that before Vatican II Catholics didn’t have many resources, but today we have many resources and if you want to grow in your relationship with God you have to be reading the Scriptures.”
With gifted teachers such as Scott Hahn and Father Mike Schmitz bringing Bible study mainstream, lay Catholics have more options than ever to deepen and defend the faith. CBS offers the same kind of rigorous study. Students of the program are passionate believers.
“Having God’s word opened before you is life changing,” said Patty Taylor, who just completed the course. “The opportunity to gather in person with other Catholics to study the word of God has been the best adventure of my retirement years.”
CBS is a journey through every book of the Bible. No prerequisites are required, and it is for anyone 18 and over. Registration is open for the first-year class, which meets on Tuesdays at 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6:30 p.m., beginning Sept. 10, at Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“You begin to understand the church’s teaching through God preparing for Christ in the mystery of salvation in the Old Testament,” said Lebish. “Typology is the study of types. Any person, place, thing, or event in the Old Testament prefigures and foreshadows Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of all things.”
Understanding typology, and the connectedness of the Old and New Testament is a crucial factor in many evangelicals converting to Catholicism. “This is the problem non-Catholics have. I would say respectfully that they don’t have the big picture of Scripture,” said Lebish. “They don’t understand how the covenants flow together, how the stages of salvation history flow together, how they build off one another, and that’s what this program does for so many students.”
“Now I’m so much better at seeing the linkages between the three readings at Mass,” said Cryril Barch, who just completed the entire course and liked it so much that he’s signed up to do it all again. “The Eucharist has so much more meaning for me. I understand how the blood of the sacrificial lamb slain on that first Passover saved the Jews from being killed by the Egyptians and how Jesus’ body and blood does the same for us today.”
“It has profoundly changed my life,” said Jim Solomon, who is going into his fourth year of study. “In just about every class, I learn something new about our faith. This allows me to share with my Protestant friends to help them understand. This is world-class education. Dr. Nick is unbelievable.”
Lebish likens the outpouring of enthusiasm amongst Catholics for Bible study, and the ensuing transformation, to what happens in the Easter Vigil Mass.
“It begins and everything is dark, then you have the lumen Christi, the light of Christ,” he said. “You’ve got one candle coming in, the paschal candle, and that light spreads from person to person and the whole church is lit up. That’s how I imagine all of us. When you’re passing on the light of Christ, the world gets a little bit brighter and that’s what we’re supposed to keep doing.”
Find out more
Go to catholicbiblicalschoolva.org to register for classes. Courses are offered online at scriptureandtradition.com.
