In the forge of the Bible

The Synod of Bishops, now happily concluded, has encouraged and appealed to members of the Catholic Church, to whom it was directly addressed, and indirectly all readers of the Bible, not to lose contact with the Word of God. Yet the media have especially given coverage to the Synod’s appeals and pronouncements more directly linked to current situations in the world today: the appeal to religious freedom, peace, and the cessation of violence against Christians in Iraq and in India, the “emancipation” of women who are declared eligible to read the Word of God to church congregations, dialogue with Muslims, and the natural law. All these messages go in the direction of the concord and unity of the Church and of the human family. The nature and structure itself of the Synod go in this same direction, since it is aimed, as Paul VI declared at the end of Vatican Council II, at “favouring the union and collaboration of bishops throughout the world with the Apostolic See” in the performance of the Church’s mission. It is a structure that by its very existence indicates a way and a model for ecclesial communion.The Propositiones presented to the Pope as the basis for the Post-Synodal Exhortation which it is the Holy Father’s office to write, express the concerns of the Synodal Fathers about the dangers of a fundamentalist reading of the Bible, and the exploitation of the Word of God by the sects. There is a danger, they say, of passages or verses of the Bible being exploited to support interpretations and groups outside the Church. It’s a concern that is widely shared in the ecumenical field. Legitimate pluralism in interpretations, if it is radicalized and deprived of an ecclesial criterion of community reading, runs the risk of placing the Bible in conflict with itself.It has been said and written that the Synod on the Word of God is of prime ecumenical value. It may seem an obvious point. But it isn’t. For the Bible has been a battlefield. The divisions between the Churches and Christian communities originated, and have been sustained, on the basis of the canon and especially the diverse interpretation of Sacred Scriptures. By the grace of God, ever since the beginning of the ecumenical movement, the situation has been reversed and the study of the Bible has become a salutary field of convergence between scholars of the various confessions. One of the first results achieved in this dialogue was the translation of the Interconfessional Bible, realized jointly by Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants. It can be said that a forge of endeavour has been opened and is constantly being fuelled in the study of the Word of God, thanks to the cooperation of scholars of the various confessional traditions. In an even more explicit way, the Synod’s Message to the People of God affirms that the Church is the house of the Word and within this house our baptized brothers, even if not yet in full communion, can meet together. The Message, like the preparatory document (the Lineamenta ), cites in this regard Vatican II’s Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis redintegratio (UR), where it is affirmed that “some, even very many, of the most significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written Word of God” is one of these (UR 3). Christian sisters and brothers of the various confessions, albeit in the separations between them that still exist, can thus meet together in the veneration and love of the Word of God, “principle and source of a first and real unity, even if not full”. The same Message also makes an appeal to reinforce this bond, indicating the various opportunities for doing so: namely, “common biblical translations, the diffusion of Scripture, ecumenical biblical prayer, exegetic dialogue, study and dialogue between the various interpretations of Holy Scriptures, the exchange of values that belong to the various spiritual traditions, and the common preaching and witness of the Word of God in a secularized world” (no. III at the end). A real programme for the future! Cardinal Walter Kasper reiterated the point in a written intervention: “The Bible is the basis of ecumenical dialogue and the main instrument of this dialogue at the doctrinal, spiritual and pastoral levels”. He added: “The Bible is truly the ecumenical link par excellence. In spite of all the sad divisions in the history of the Church, the Word of God, especially testified in Holy Scripture, has remained our common heritage. Nothing else unites the Churches and the Christian communities so much as the Bible”. He proposed, in particular, “the common Lectio Divina” in the ecumenical field as a method that can foster rapprochement and understanding between Christians in the pursuit of their ever fuller communion. It’s a method based not on what the Churches think of the Bible, but on listening to what the Spirit is saying to the Churches today, through the Bible.