Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI presented the church with a new Apostolic Exhortation on the Scriptures aptly named, Verbum Domini. Its significance has been somewhat understated, but it will have lasting impact on the world of the Church. Although I have not read the whole document, a few things have hit me.
The concept of the Word of God, the Logos, in the prologue of St. John's gospel (to which he in passing acknowledges as the author of the gospel of John), seems to be the guiding light of understanding, relating to, reading, studying, and worshiping with Scripture. The Scripture, the Word of God, is intimately connected with the Logos, the eternal word spoken by the Father. "The Christian faith is not a 'religion of the book': Christianity is the 'religion of the word of God.'" Reading Scripture, we encounter Christ. It becomes immediately apparent St. Jerome's oft-quoted statement, "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ."
The Holy Father said, "With the Synod Fathers I express my heartfelt hope for the flowering of 'a new season of greater love for sacred Scripture on the part of every member of the People of God, so that their prayerful and faith-filled reading of the Bible will, with time, deepen their personal relationship with Jesus.'"
He is attempting to foster a deeper encounter with Christ in each person of his flock. Listen should we?
1 comment:
Yo Kyle I have a few posts on my new blog about Verbum Domini. I'll probably be adding some more since I read through the whole document and nobody reads my blog anyways. Lol.
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