Scripture is meant to speak directly to believers in today’s world, emphasising that the Bible is the word of God expressed through human authors, Pope Leo XIV said during his weekly general audience yesterday. Source: CNS.
“In every age, the Church is called to re-propose the Word of God in a language capable of being embodied in history and reaching hearts,” he said.
He warned that when Scripture “loses touch with reality, with human hopes and sufferings,” or is proclaimed in language that is “incomprehensible, uncommunicative or anachronistic,” it becomes “ineffective.”
Continuing his catechesis series on Vatican II, the Pope said the Bible is not a relic of the past but a living dialogue meant to lead people to know and love God. God chose to communicate through his people, demonstrating his mercy and desire to be close to humanity, the Pope said.
Citing the Second Vatican Council’s document Dei Verbum, the Pope said, “the words of God, expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as the word of the eternal Father, when he took to himself the flesh of human weakness, was in every way made like men.”
It is important to note, he said, that while God is the principal author of Scripture, human beings were also “true authors,” not simply passive “scribes” sharing God’s words. “God never mortifies human beings and their potential!”
The Pope also warned against reading Scripture as though it had no divine origin and were only a relic of the past.
“While Scripture is a text rooted in historical truth, it also contains a limitless spiritual depth that speaks to people of all times and places, communicating above all God’s love and his desire to save us,” the Pope said.
Pope Leo said that God, “in his goodness, ensures our lives do not lack the essential nourishment of his word, and let us pray that our words, and even more so our lives, do not obscure the love of God that is narrated in them”.
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Scripture is intended to speak to believers ‘in every age,’ Pope says (By Josephine Peterson, CNS)
