M
mdgspencer
Guest
–This appeared in “Catholic Sentinel”
What Catholics say about the Bible
Tuesday, May 1, 2018 11:22 AM
Catholics believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus is the Word of God. Therefore, the Bible is Jesus speaking to us through the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures.
The Bible is a place where we encounter God.
In the Catholic Church at the start of Mass, the book of the Gospels is brought into the church as part of the procession to the altar. And where do we place the book of the Gospels? Not on a stand or off to the side. Instead, it is placed directly on the altar, at the very center of the altar. The Word is tied together with the Sacrifice of the Mass — the Eucharist — in a deeply intimate way.
A sentence from “ Dei Verbum ” (a document of the Second Vatican Council freely available on the web) describes this symbolic union of word and sacrament: “The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body.”
The words in the Bible are not just words. They are the Word.
In every other kind of writing, words represent the things they describe. But in the Bible, the words become the Word and Jesus is present to us as they are read.
We, too, are changed as a result of this encounter with the Word. God speaks his Word to us that we may believe. And as we believe, we hope, and by hoping, love, says St. Augustine in his fifth-century work “Instructing Beginners in Faith.”
The whole of our faith points to love as both the origin of our lives and our destination. We are being trained in love as we take Jesus in — Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity — as well as in his Word.
“We are said to drink the blood of Christ not only in the rite of the sacraments, but also when we receive his words, in which are life,” wrote Origen of Alexandria. He was commenting on the words of Jesus in John 6:63: “My words are life.”
— John Shepherd is a member of St. Cecilia Parish in Beaverton, Oregon
What Catholics say about the Bible
Tuesday, May 1, 2018 11:22 AM
Catholics believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus is the Word of God. Therefore, the Bible is Jesus speaking to us through the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures.
The Bible is a place where we encounter God.
In the Catholic Church at the start of Mass, the book of the Gospels is brought into the church as part of the procession to the altar. And where do we place the book of the Gospels? Not on a stand or off to the side. Instead, it is placed directly on the altar, at the very center of the altar. The Word is tied together with the Sacrifice of the Mass — the Eucharist — in a deeply intimate way.
A sentence from “ Dei Verbum ” (a document of the Second Vatican Council freely available on the web) describes this symbolic union of word and sacrament: “The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body.”
The words in the Bible are not just words. They are the Word.
In every other kind of writing, words represent the things they describe. But in the Bible, the words become the Word and Jesus is present to us as they are read.
We, too, are changed as a result of this encounter with the Word. God speaks his Word to us that we may believe. And as we believe, we hope, and by hoping, love, says St. Augustine in his fifth-century work “Instructing Beginners in Faith.”
The whole of our faith points to love as both the origin of our lives and our destination. We are being trained in love as we take Jesus in — Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity — as well as in his Word.
“We are said to drink the blood of Christ not only in the rite of the sacraments, but also when we receive his words, in which are life,” wrote Origen of Alexandria. He was commenting on the words of Jesus in John 6:63: “My words are life.”
— John Shepherd is a member of St. Cecilia Parish in Beaverton, Oregon
Last edited: