By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Pope Benedict has issued a post-synodal apostolic exhortation entitled, Verbum Domini [The Word of the Lord], which is considered to be the most important Church document devoted to Sacred Scripture since the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum), which was promulgated in 1965.
The document was released on Nov. 11 and is the fruit of the Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which was held in Rome on Oct. 5-26, 2008. Published in multiple languages, it was issued on September 30, the feast of St. Jerome, and is made up of an introduction, three parts and a conclusion.
During a press conference last Thursday, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, said the Pope highlights both the “fundamental role of God the Father, source and origin of the Word,” as well as the “Trinitarian dimension of revelation” in the document.
The first chapter explores the relationship between the Eucharist and revelation as well as man’s response to God’s revelation through prayer. This chapter also deals with interpretation of Scripture, the role of the Church in guiding that interpretation, and the need to avoid the dangers of fundamentalist or secularist approaches.
The second section of the document explains how the Word of God remains alive and active in the ministry of the Church. The Pope points out how heavily the Liturgy relies on Scripture and highlights the importance of the Lectionary and ministry of the reader.
Part three of the document, which is titled “Verbum Mundo”, draws attention to “the duty of Christians to announce the Word of God in the world in which they live and work,” Bishop Eterovic explained. This section explains how the Church “is oriented towards the announcement ‘ad gentes’, to people who do not yet know the Word … but also to those who have already been baptized … but need new evangelization in order to rediscover the Word of God.”
This section also expresses the hope “that the Bible may become better known in schools and universities and that better use may be made of the social communications media, exploiting all the modern possibilities of technology,” said Archbishop Eterovic.
“The Word of God and Inter-religious Dialogue” is also discussed in the last section of the document. “Having established the value and topicality of inter-religious dialogue, ‘Verbum Domini’ … supplies some important guidelines concerning dialogue between Christians and Muslims, and with members of other non-Christian religions, within the framework of a religious liberty which involves not only the freedom to profess one’s faith in private and in public, but also freedom of conscience; in other words, of choosing one’s religion,” the Archbishop said.
The Holy Father concludes the document by calling for all Christians “to become increasingly familiar with Sacred Scripture.”
The full document is available here.
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