The Sacramentality of the Word

Ave Maria! In his just-released apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini, Pope Benedict XVI often refers to St. Jerome, the patron of Biblical scholars. Stressing "the sacramentality of the word," the Holy Father quotes St. Jerome on how we should approach both the Eucharist and the word of God.

“We are reading the sacred Scriptures. For me, the Gospel is the Body of Christ; for me, the holy Scriptures are his teaching. And when he says: whoever does not eat my flesh and drink my blood (Jn 6:53), even though these words can also be understood of the [Eucharistic] Mystery, Christ’s body and blood are really the word of Scripture, God’s teaching. When we approach the [Eucharistic] Mystery, if a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled. Yet when 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?”

We learn from our Blessed Mother how to cherish the Scriptures, even and especially every single crumb. Our Lady devoted her entire life and being to the Word of God. Even before the Holy Spirit conceived the Incarnate Word in her womb, Mary was the servant of God's Holy Word, reading and praying the Scriptures in keeping with her Jewish faith and allowing herself to be informed, formed and transformed by them. In Verbum Domini, the Holy Father speaks of Mary's familiarity with the Word of God, which, he says, "is clearly evident in the Magnificat…[which] is entirely woven from threads of Holy Scripture, threads drawn from the word of God." These threads included all the many crumbs she had gathered over the years – and which she continued to gather as her Beloved Child Jesus grew in wisdom and age, tottering from His crib to the carpenter shop, the Son of God wending the streets of Nazareth and journeying up to Jerusalem, and then, slowly, ever so slowly, climbing to Mount Calvary, until He breathed His last and was laid in His Mother's arms, the silent Word still pleading. And on the third day, He rose from the dead. Jesus lives who once was dead! Now His Word runs swiftly (Ps 147:15). Let us run to Him! Like Mary, Christ's mother and ours, let us ponder the Word made flesh and treasure Him in our hearts. Let His Gospel be for us His Body, the Scriptures His teaching. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, let us become His living words!

O Mother of the Incarnate Word, pray for us!