A "different vocabulary"” “” “

Europe was constructed in the 9th century, with the help of Latin and the Bible; St. Francis too learnt to read and write with the help of the Psalms. So the link between the Bible and the Christian identity of Europe has been essential ever since the dawn of its history. Today, too, it is difficult to understand our times without reference to the biblical text, tradition and images: beginning with the structure and construction of our cities, and the contents of our museums, our monuments and treasures of art and of history, we would be unable to decipher these languages without our knowledge of the Bible. The memories and testimonies of the past are interwoven with symbols that always have a need of interpretation, to be able to re-elaborate them through present-day cultural codes, and the Bible remains the fundamental text to give substance to this work of interpretation. The Bible also gives value and depth to words: to peace, which needs to be conducted from the mere absence of war to the search for communion among people; to solidarity; to the “anthropology of the gift” as antidote to the now dominant culture of self-realization. A “different vocabulary” would be a good thing for our society. In particular for European Catholics the invitation that comes from the Scriptures is that of a language capable of telling the truth about man and the world. For the Christians of Europe, the Bible also contains a powerful invitation to return to the roots of our faith: the consciousness that the act of Christ’s coming, unique in the history of mankind, has profoundly changed us, has deeply marked our history, individual and collective, not only in a cognitive sense, but also in the affections, in the relationship between persons. The “heart”, another central word of the Bible, is a constant appeal to interiority, to the role of the conscience which is also the root of acting, against the hypocrisy that surrounds us. Returning to our roots also means, for the believers of our continent, rediscovering the role of religions for a “culture of memory”: the Bible is a story about our own family, about the people of God, and each story also presents models of acting, possible choices, far-reaching in effect; it offers us the chance to travel either in one direction or in the other. In the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16, St. Paul arrives in Europe, because Macedonia has a need for him. The Bible is therefore fundamental not only for a Christian Europe, but also for safeguarding forms of human conduct that are being lost: it’s enough to think of the defence of life, respect for persons, forgiveness, all essential values even for those who don’t believe. As Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini recently said, the Bible is “a wisdom book that expresses the human condition in its truth in so effective, so appealing, so incisive a form that each human person, of whatever continent or culture, may feel himself at least in part reflected in it”. That’s why even a partial knowledge of the Bible ought to form part of the cultural heritage of anyone who lives in Europe. And that knowledge should be fostered also through general educational programmes (and not just by the teaching of Catholic religion).