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Pope Francis’ Cycle of Catechesis. The Spirit and the Bride. 3
The Holy Spirit guides the people of God towards Jesus our hope. 3
Saint Peter’s Square – Wednesday, 12 June 2024
Cycle of Catechesis. The Spirit and the Bride. The Holy Spirit guides the people of God towards Jesus our hope. 3. “All Scripture is inspired by God”. Knowing God’s love through God’s words.
Scripture Reading (2 Peter 1:20-21)
First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God
Dear brothers and sisters,
Let us continue our catechesis on the Holy Spirit who leads the Church towards Christ our hope.
He is the guide. Last time we looked at the work of the Spirit in creation; today we will look at it in revelation, in which the Sacred Scripture is a divinely inspired and authoritative witness.
St. Paul’ second letter to Timothy contains this statement: “All Scripture is inspired by God” (3:16).
And another passage in the New Testament says: “Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Pt 1:21 – above).
This is the doctrine of the divine inspiration of the Scripture, that which we proclaim as an article of faith in the Creed, when we say that the Holy Spirit “spoke through the prophets”.
The Divine Inspiration of the Bible.
The Holy Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures, is also the One who explains and makes them them and makes them ever alive and active.
From inspired, He makes them inspiring.
The Second Vatican Council says “Sacred Scripture, inspired by God and committed to writing once and for all … communicates the word of God himself without change and makes the voice of the Holy Spirit resound in the words of the prophets and apostles” (21).
In this way the Holy Spirit continues, in the Church, the action of the risen Jesus who, after Easter, “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Lk 24:45).
Indeed, it can happen that in a certain passage of Scripture, which we have read many times without any particular emotion, one day we read it in an atmosphere of faith and prayer, and then that text is unexpectedly illuminated. It speaks to us, it sheds light on a problem we are living, it reveals God’s will for us in a certain situation.
To what is this change due, if not to an enlightenment of the Holy Spirit?
The words of the Scripture become luminous, under the action of the Spirit; and in these cases, we touch with our own hands how true the statement in the Letter to the Hebrews is: “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12).
Brothers and sisters, the Church is nourished by the spiritual reading of the Sacred Scripture, that is, by reading under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who inspired it.
At its center, like a beacon that illuminates everything, there is the event of the death and resurrection of Christ, which fulfils the plan of salvation, realizes all the figures and the prophecies, unveils all the hidden mysteries and offers the true key to reading the entire Bible.
The death and resurrection of Christ is the beacon that illuminates the whole Bible, and it also illuminates out life.
Revelation describes all of this with the image of the Lamb breaking the seals of the book “written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals” that is, the Old Testament Scriptures (Revelation 5:1-9 – see footnote below).
The Church, Bride of Christ, is the authorized interpreter of the inspired text of the Scripture; the Church is the mediator of its authentic proclamation.
Because the Church is endowed with the Holy Spirit – that is why she is the interpreter – she is the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tm 3:15). Why is this? Because she is inspired, sustained by the Holy Spirit. And the Church’s task is to help the faithful and those who seek the truth to interpret the biblical texts correctly.
One way of doing the spiritual reading of the Word of God is what is called the lectio divina (i.e, divine reading), a word whose meaning we may do not understand. It consists of devoting a time of the day to the personal and meditative reading of a passage of the Scripture. And this is very important: to take the time each day to listen to, to contemplate, to read a passage of Scripture.
And that is why I recommend that you always to have a pocket edition of the Gospel and keep it in your bag, in your pocket… So, when you are travelling, or when you have a little free time, take it and read it. This is very important for life. Get a pocket gospel and read it once or twice during the day when you have a chance.
But the quintessential spiritual reading of Scripture is the community reading in the Liturgy in the Mass. There, we see how an event or a teaching from the Old Testament finds its full expression in the Gospel of Christ. And the homily, the celebrant’s commentary, must help to bring the Word of God from the book to life. To do this, the homily must be brief: an image, a thought, a feeling. The sermon must not last more than eight minutes, because after that time attention is lost and the people fall asleep, and they are right. A sermon must be like that. And I say this to priests who talk a lot, very often, and no one understands what they are talking about. A short sermon: a thought, a feeling and an indication of what to do.
No more than eight minutes. Because the homily must help to bring the Word of God from the book to life. And among the many words of God that we listen to every day in Mass or in the Liturgy of the Hours, there is always one that is specially meant for us. Something that touches the heart. Welcomed into the heart, it can enlighten our day and inspire our prayer. It is a question of not letting it fall on deaf ears!
Let us conclude with a thought that can help us to fall in love with the Word of God.
Like certain pieces of music, the Sacred Scripture too has a fundamental note that accompanies it from the beginning to the end, and this note is the love of God.
Saint Augustine says: ‘The whole Bible does nothing but speak of God’s love”.
And Saint Gregory the Great defines the Scripture as “a letter from God Almighty to his creature”, like a letter from a bridegroom to his bride, and exhorts us to “learn and know the heart of God in the words of God”.
Vatican Council II says again “Through this revelation, the invisible God, out of the fullness of his love, speaks to men as friends and dwells among them in order to invite them to communion with himself and to take them into himself” ( Dei Verbum, 2).
Dear brothers and sisters, continue to read the Bible!
But do not forget the pocket gospel: carry it in your bag, in your pocket, and read a passage some time during the day.
And this will bring you very close to the Holy Spirit, who is in the Word of God.
May the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures and now breathes from them, help us to grasp this love of God in the concrete situations of life. Thank you.
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Summary of the Holy Father’s words
Today, in our continuing catechesis on the Holy Spirit and the Bride, we reflect on the action of the Holy Spirit in divine revelation, especially in Sacred Scripture.
God, who inspired Sacred Scripture, in turn inspires the Church, the Bride of Christ, through his Sacred Word, making of her its authoritative interpreter.
The Spirit also communicates with us personally within this ecclesial reality, whether through lectio divina, which isa meditative reading of a passage of Scripture, or above all, in the Liturgy.
Whatever the setting, there is always a word that is meant especially for us.
Like a musical composition, Sacred Scripture carries throughout an underlying theme, which Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory the Great call God’s love.
May we “learn to know the heart of God through the words of God” and allow them to breathe that love into our daily lives.
Footnote:
Revelation 5:1-9 And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll[a] written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals; 2 and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I wept much that no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes,[b]which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth; 7 and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints; 9 and they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
