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!

Verbum Domini! The Word of the Lord!

Ave Maria! At the moment, I feel like a child on Christmas morning who has stumbled upon an enormous gorgeously decorated tree surrounded by a multitude of totteringly high piles of beautifully wrapped presents of every size and shape imaginable. Wow! For me? All for me? OH, WOW! Where do I start? Why, at the threshold, of course! And that would be:

“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God…
and the Word became flesh ”
( Jn 1:1, 14)

For it is the Word Himself that is the subject of Pope Benedict XVI's second and newest apostolic exhortation, "Verbum Domini (The Word of the Lord)," released yesterday and dated September 30, feast of St. Jerome, the patron of Biblical scholars. This document is his reflection upon the 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, held October 5-26, 2008. The theme of this assembly was "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church." The Holy Father explains that he wrote Verbum Domini because "I would like the work of the synod to have a real effect on the life of the church: on our personal relationship with the sacred Scriptures, on their interpretation in the liturgy and catechesis, and in scientific research so that the Bible may not be simply a word from the past, but a living and timely word." WOW!

More than a few Catholic Web sites provide commentaries on "Verbum Domini, such as what is written here, here, here, here and here. Zenit includes selected excerpts here. To whet your appetite, I close with Pope Benedict's concluding words from his exhortation. Dear Lord, thank you so very much for our Holy Father! Please bless him richly and abundantly and keep him ever joyful in Your life-giving Word. Amen!

I remind all Christians that our personal and communal relationship with God depends on our growing familiarity with the word of God.... May every day of our lives thus be shaped by a renewed encounter with Christ, the Word of the Father made flesh: he stands at the beginning and the end, and “in him all things hold together ” (Col 1:17). Let us be silent in order to hear the Lord’s word and to meditate upon it, so that by the working of the Holy Spirit it may remain in our hearts and speak to us all the days of our lives. In this way the Church will always be renewed and rejuvenated, thanks to the word of the Lord which remains for ever (cf. 1 Pet 1:25; Is 40:8). Thus we too will enter into the great nuptial dialogue which concludes sacred Scripture: “ The Spirit and the bride say: ‘Come’. And let everyone who hears say: ‘Come!’ ” The one who testifies to these things, says: ‘Surely I am coming soon!’. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! ”. (Rev 22:17, 20).