Issued
November 11th, 2010, Verbum Domini is an Apostolic Exhortation to the
faithful to reaffirm their faith and belief in the understanding of the Word
becoming flesh and the deeper meaning of the Holy Scriptures.
Editorial
Scripture document reveals Benedict XVI's top
priority
What
is Benedict XVI's top priority? Is it the clerical abuse scandal or perhaps
reforming the liturgy? Might it be fighting the "dictatorship of
relativism" or seeking Christian unity? These are all major concerns of
this pontificate. Yet there is another priority which Pope Benedict considers
even more pressing. He explains what it is in the Apostolic Exhortation Verbum
Domini, released last Thursday. "There is no greater priority,"
he writes, "than this: to enable the people of our time once more to
encounter God, the God who speaks to us and shares his love so that we might
have life in abundance." Benediet XVI has written this new document to
inspire each of us bishops, clergy, consecrated persons, lay faithful and
seekers - to meet the God who speaks in the Bible.
It is sometimes said
that the liturgy is for Catholics and the Bible is for Protestants. This could
not be further from Pope Benedict's vision in Verbum Domini. He quotes
with approval the words of St Jerome,
patron of Scripture scholars, who taught that we should approach the word of
God with the same attention that we receive the Eucharist. "If a crumb
falls to the ground we are troubled," the saint wrote. "Yet we are
listening to the word of God, and God's Word and Christ's flesh and blood are
being poured into our ears yet we pay no heed, what great peril should we not
feel?"
St Jerome's words indicate that the struggle to appreciate the word of God is not
a new feature of Catholic history. Benedict XVI wants us to grow in
understanding of the Bible, for our own sake but also for the sake of others. It is the Pope's intuition that we will
not succeed in leading the people of our own day to God if we have not first
encountered Him in Scripture.
After the first reading in our parishes we hear the phrase: "The
word of the Lord." In Latin this is, of course, "Verbum Domini".
We respond: "Thanks be to God." There may be few better ways of
expressing this gratitude than by reading the new Apostolic Exhortation.
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