Pope Bible study top priority

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.

THE CATHOLIC HERALD

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.