THIS is the challenge all of us have
to face and tackle.
How do we turn the written word of God into the living word that it is
and should be?
For sure, the word of God is not just a set of letters,
nor an idea, nor a stream of thought, no matter how brilliant they
are. It is nothing less than the Son of God, the second person of the
Blessed Trinity who is the self-knowledge of God himself, perfect,
alive and consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit, all of
whom form one God.
This truth of our Christian faith may still be confined
and languishing in some ivory tower, but we have to understand that it
is meant for all of us, and not just to priests, nuns, monks and other
consecrated persons. God’s Word (this time with a capital W) is, in
fact, the very pattern of our creation, through whom everything is
made.
In our case, that is, the case of man, since we have been
made in God’s image and likeness and therefore somehow aware and
responsible for our own continuing creation, he is sent by the Father
to perfect and complete our creation with us cooperating in it.
This perfecting and completing of our creation in Christ
involves the re-doing or retreading of our nature wounded by the mess
we have made with the abuse of our freedom. Christ is the Word who
became man to save us, to bring us back to where we really belong, to
offer us the way to recover our lost dignity and reunite us with God.
Christ did this ultimately through his passion, death and
resurrection that summarized all that he said and did to save us, and
now made alive and always available to us through the Spirit.
This Spirit is now what animates the Church that Christ
established. The Spirit makes Christ alive and transmits him vitally
to the people of God that is the Church mainly through the sacraments,
especially the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
But the Spirit also transmits the living Christ through
the one faith that is authoritatively taught by the hierarchy headed
by the Pope and the bishops, successors of Peter and the apostles who
were made by Christ as the rock and the pillars of the Church.
This is where the written word of God, or the Sacred
Scripture or the Bible, comes to the picture. Together with the living
tradition and the power of the Magisterium or teaching office of the
Church occupied by the Pope and the bishops, the Sacred Scripture is
where we have this faith articulated.
But we have to understand that the Bible, especially the
gospel part, is not just a written record of the past. Since it
involves Jesus, who is God and man, who is forever alive and
redemptive and perfective of us, the Bible just cannot be considered
like another book that has a shelf life or expiration date.
The Bible will always be relevant to us as can be gleaned
in these words of the Letter to the Hebrews: “The word of God is
living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edge sword, and
reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints
also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart.” (4,12)
Our attitude toward the Bible, especially the gospel part,
should be that it is not just a written word, but a living word.
Reading it is listening to Christ in real time. That happens when we
read it properly.
Through the ages, saints and holy men and women have
developed the techniques of converting the written word into the
living word of God. One such method is called the “lectio divina,”
that involves several stages.
There’s the “lectio,” which means reading, so we know what
the biblical text say in itself. Then “mediatio,” which asks: what
does the text say to me? Then comes “oratio,” or prayer, which is what
we say to God in response to his word.
As consequences, we have “contemplatio,” which involves a
conversion to conform our outlook to God’s vision of reality. Then
lastly, “actio,” which should move us to make our life a gift for
others in charity.
The “lectio divina” is just one method among many other
possibilities for making the written word the living word of God. It
also has to be done within the context of the Church’s faith, liturgy
and life itself.
How do we turn the written word of God into the living word that it is
and should be?
For sure, the word of God is not just a set of letters,
nor an idea, nor a stream of thought, no matter how brilliant they
are. It is nothing less than the Son of God, the second person of the
Blessed Trinity who is the self-knowledge of God himself, perfect,
alive and consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit, all of
whom form one God.
This truth of our Christian faith may still be confined
and languishing in some ivory tower, but we have to understand that it
is meant for all of us, and not just to priests, nuns, monks and other
consecrated persons. God’s Word (this time with a capital W) is, in
fact, the very pattern of our creation, through whom everything is
made.
In our case, that is, the case of man, since we have been
made in God’s image and likeness and therefore somehow aware and
responsible for our own continuing creation, he is sent by the Father
to perfect and complete our creation with us cooperating in it.
This perfecting and completing of our creation in Christ
involves the re-doing or retreading of our nature wounded by the mess
we have made with the abuse of our freedom. Christ is the Word who
became man to save us, to bring us back to where we really belong, to
offer us the way to recover our lost dignity and reunite us with God.
Christ did this ultimately through his passion, death and
resurrection that summarized all that he said and did to save us, and
now made alive and always available to us through the Spirit.
This Spirit is now what animates the Church that Christ
established. The Spirit makes Christ alive and transmits him vitally
to the people of God that is the Church mainly through the sacraments,
especially the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
But the Spirit also transmits the living Christ through
the one faith that is authoritatively taught by the hierarchy headed
by the Pope and the bishops, successors of Peter and the apostles who
were made by Christ as the rock and the pillars of the Church.
This is where the written word of God, or the Sacred
Scripture or the Bible, comes to the picture. Together with the living
tradition and the power of the Magisterium or teaching office of the
Church occupied by the Pope and the bishops, the Sacred Scripture is
where we have this faith articulated.
But we have to understand that the Bible, especially the
gospel part, is not just a written record of the past. Since it
involves Jesus, who is God and man, who is forever alive and
redemptive and perfective of us, the Bible just cannot be considered
like another book that has a shelf life or expiration date.
The Bible will always be relevant to us as can be gleaned
in these words of the Letter to the Hebrews: “The word of God is
living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edge sword, and
reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints
also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart.” (4,12)
Our attitude toward the Bible, especially the gospel part,
should be that it is not just a written word, but a living word.
Reading it is listening to Christ in real time. That happens when we
read it properly.
Through the ages, saints and holy men and women have
developed the techniques of converting the written word into the
living word of God. One such method is called the “lectio divina,”
that involves several stages.
There’s the “lectio,” which means reading, so we know what
the biblical text say in itself. Then “mediatio,” which asks: what
does the text say to me? Then comes “oratio,” or prayer, which is what
we say to God in response to his word.
As consequences, we have “contemplatio,” which involves a
conversion to conform our outlook to God’s vision of reality. Then
lastly, “actio,” which should move us to make our life a gift for
others in charity.
The “lectio divina” is just one method among many other
possibilities for making the written word the living word of God. It
also has to be done within the context of the Church’s faith, liturgy
and life itself.
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