THE LIVING WORD
How Does the Word
Come Alive?
Reading Scripture from
the Heart of the Church
Dr. Mary Healy
F
rom the beginning of salvation history, God has
sent his word to human beings not as isolated
individuals but as members of a people. When
God’s word is heard and obeyed, it has divine
power to form a people who experience the fullness
of life in covenant relationship with him.
What this means for us is that Scripture,
the written word of God, accomplishes its
purpose only when it is read from the heart
of the Church. “No prophecy of Scripture
is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy
Spirit spoke from God” (2 Pt 1:20-21). The
same Holy Spirit who inspired the biblical
authors has been alive and at work in the
Church for the last two thousand years,
raising up countless bishops, saints, and
scholars who commented on the word and
lived it out. We read surrounded by this
cloud of witnesses, learning from them.
The Holy Spirit also guides the Magisterium of the Church, its divinely protected
teaching authority, whose task it is to ensure
that Scripture is interpreted authentically.
This is why St. Paul exhorts Christians to hold
fast to both Scripture and Tradition, God’s
word handed down in writing and orally.
“So then, brethren, stand firm and hold
to the traditions which you were taught
by us, either by word of mouth or by letter” (2 Thes 2:15).
The Magisterium does not confine biblical interpretation, but gives it free reign
by protecting it from error. It has done so
in relatively few instances—for instance,
by ruling out the idea that in John 6 Jesus
spoke of eating his flesh and blood in a
merely symbolic sense. The word of God
is an inexhaustible fountain of life, and
no matter how well we think we understand a biblical passage—for instance,
the parable of the prodigal son—there is
always more to comprehend.
Scripture is most fully at home in the
Church’s liturgy, where the word is proclaimed, heard, and explained. In the
liturgy, the Holy Spirit makes the word
come alive in the hearts of the faithful. As
Pope Benedict wrote,
We find a witness to this in the ancient
prayers which in the form of an epiclesis
invoke the Spirit before the proclamation
of the readings: “Send your Paraclete Spirit
into our hearts and make us understand the
Scriptures which he has inspired; and grant
that I may interpret them worthily, so that the
faithful assembled here may profit thereby.”
We also find prayers which, at the end of the
homily, again ask God to send the gift of the
Spirit upon the faithful: “God our Savior . . .
we implore you for this people: send upon
them the Holy Spirit; may the Lord Jesus
come to visit them, speak to the minds of
all, dispose their hearts to faith and lead our
souls to you, God of mercies.” (Verbum Domini, no. 16)
In the liturgy, Scripture becomes a loaf
of bread in Christ’s hands, broken and distributed to nourish the hearts of his people.
In Israel’s prophesies, promises, and
prayers, we come to recognize Christ hidden in the old covenant.
In the Gospels, as St. Ignatius of Antioch said, we touch his flesh and hear
his living voice.
How do we read Scripture from the
heart of the Church, practically speaking?
We read it daily, listening to the voice of
our heavenly Father. We also become familiar with the Catechism of the Catholic
Church to learn to think with the mind of
the Church. And we listen with deep attention as the word is proclaimed and explained in the liturgy.
Dr. Mary Healy is associate professor of Sacred
Scripture at Sacred Heart.
shms.edu
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