Scripture is our Word from God

This month the World Synod of Bishops will be held in Rome from Oct. 5-26. The theme of this year's celebration is, "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church."

At the synod, over 200 bishops representing the Episcopal conferences from throughout the world review the Second Vatican Council's document, the Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum), and discuss the role that sacred Scripture plays in the Church's life and mission. Among the issues to be discussed are:

* how the work of Scripture scholars is shaping Catholic attitudes and understanding of the Bible;

* how the Bible is being used for prayer, worship and study in the daily lives of the people of God; and

* which efforts from around the world are proving most effective in making the study of the Bible central to Catholic living and spirituality.

I must confess I get frustrated when I talk with people from other Christian denominations, and even some Catholics, who question why we in the Roman Catholic community don't emphasize the Word of God. We do!

Bible our base 

The Word of God is central to everything in the life of the Church, from our reading of Scripture in the Eucharist; to our private reflection upon the Scriptures in the Liturgy of the Hours; to our focus on the word made flesh, Jesus Christ, both in our liturgical and personal prayer.

Let me outline some of the various meanings the Word of God has for us in our Catholic Christian tradition.

1. There is the Pre-Existent Word. In John's Gospel we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

The Word is "Pre-Existent," because the Word existed from all eternity, before anything or anyone existed. John's teaching that the Word existed before creation is central to our understanding of our trinitarian God: Father, Son and Spirit, three persons but one God. The Pre-Existent Word, then, is Jesus, the Son of God; the second person of the Trinity.

Creates and incarnates

2. The Word of God is Creative. The book of Genesis begins with the story about the creation of all that exist. In the Genesis account God creates everything through speaking the Word. "God said, let there be light and there was light...then, God said, let there be a dome in the middle of the waters."

God created each day by speaking the Word. On the sixth day, "God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Once again the Word spoke and we, male and female, were made in God's own image.

John alludes to the Genesis narration to show the relation of this account to his Gospel and to underscore that this creative work through which all that exists came into being is the Word of God, who is present from before time. He was in the beginning with God.
"All things came to be through Him, and without Him, nothing came to be."

3. There is the Word Made Flesh. The Pre-Existent Word became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and dwelt among us. We proclaim this core truth of our faith in the liturgy each weekend in our recitation of the Nicene Creed. Further, this Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ, still dwells among us and is present to us through His body and blood which we receive at the sacrificial meal of the Eucharist. 

Lives among us

4. The sacred Scripture is God's living and inspired Word. We believe that Scripture is the inspired Word of God, and that God speaks to us through the Scriptures. In this sense, God is the author of the Scriptures. 

However, when we claim God is the author of the Scriptures we are not claiming that God physically wrote the Bible. 

Originally, God chose to reveal the divine plan through events, not through the written word. In terms of the salvation history recorded in the Scripture, these events began with our Father in faith, Abraham; continued through the patriarchs, prophets, kings, priests, psalmists and the people of Israel's journey through the Egyptian exile to the promised land; and culminated in Jesus Christ who made known the fullness of God's revelation through His passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension: the paschal mystery. 

Over the centuries, people told stories about those events in which they experienced God as powerful and present. These stories were passed on to the believing community, were edited in light of subsequent events and finally became canonical: that is, they became accepted as inspired words that teach us what we need to know for our salvation. This Word of God, received by the Church and called the Bible, is made up of the Old Testament and New Testament.

Although we refer to the Bible as the Old Testament and the New Testament, we have only one Bible. The Bible is one story, the story of God's people. The ultimate revelation of the Word of God is Jesus Christ, who became one of us, rose from the dead, offers us eternal life and continues to dwell with us. One of the specific ways the Risen Christ continues dwelling in our midst is through the Scriptures. 

Word of liturgy

5. The Word of God present in the Scriptures is central to the worship life of the Church. That is why we proclaim God's Word at every Eucharistic gathering, at every celebration of the sacraments and during the Liturgy of the Hours. 

We proclaim passages from the Old Testament, which foreshadowed the coming of Jesus, and from the New Testament, which teaches us how God's plan of salvation has been fulfilled in Jesus. We believe that the Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us, is present in the Word proclaimed. For God's Word is a living Word that does what it says and brings about what it proclaims. It is a Word that has the power to touch lives and to change hearts.

Further, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs us, we believe that the Church "feeds the faithful the bread of life taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's body." Therefore, through both Eucharist and Scripture, we come into an intimate relationship with the Risen Jesus in our midst.

6. The Word of God is handed down in the life of the Church through teaching by bishops, preachers and catechists. That is why the role of the teacher is so critically important in the Church. 

For the teacher, whether through papal encyclicals or Episcopal pastoral letters, in the pulpit or in the classroom, seeks not to force an ancient story or a stale document taken from the sterile archives of the past upon a modern community. Rather the teacher seeks to make the Word of God present to today's generation as ferment within the community.

Each generation receives the Word of God in different social context than did previous generations. The Church, then, through its bishops, priests, deacons, religious and lay leaders, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, must interpret authentically and apply faithfully the Word of God to each new setting.

So, as our teachers proclaim the Word of God in our Catholic schools and faith formation programs during this academic year, and as the Synod of the Bishops seeks to reflect upon, “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church,” let us pray for them as they fulfill their challenging roles as heralds and bearers of the good news.

And unto us

7. The Word of God is present in our own personal life. Through the Scriptures the loving Word of God comes to us, and speaks to us individually and personally. God's word helps us to cope with the joys and sorrows, the hopes and disappointments, the pleasures and pain of daily living and strengthens us to become more like Christ: persons for others.

Let us, then, recommit ourselves to make the Word of God in its many meanings the center and focus of our lives. In so doing, we will fulfill our baptismal responsibility to witness God in every aspect of our lives, and we will have a sure guide to enlighten the path on our pilgrim journey to the God who created us, redeemed us, and sanctifies us, both now and forever.

(10/2/08)