Reflection: Synod on the Bible and Collapse of the Markets

May the sons and daughters of the Catholic Church be filled with the wisdom which comes from God by building our lives first on the true foundation.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - "Therefore, like the Christian religion itself, all the preaching of the Church must be nourished and regulated by sacred Scripture. For in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life" (Dei Verbum, 21)

These words were written by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council in their wonderful document on the Word of God. They came back to mind today as Bishops from around the world gathered in Rome to begin their Synod on the Word of God. I am convinced that it is not accidental that the financial markets in the United States and throughout the world tumbled as the Bishops gathered to study the Bible. It is prophetic. Pope Benedict XVI selected the first session of the Synod to deliver one of his increasingly frequent, spontaneous pastoral teachings. The Holy Father told the Synod fathers, and a nervous world watching the various financial indicators plunge: "We now see in the collapse of the great banks: money disappears, turns to nothing...And all these things, which seem like the true reality on which we can count, are realities of a second order.Those who build their lives on these realities, on the material, on success, on all that which is visible, build on the sand."

The Pope then drew from the imagery used by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount contrasting those who build their house on sand and those who build on rock saying "Only the Word of God is the foundation of every reality, fixed as the heavens and more than the heavens, is the reality. So we must change our concept of realism. The realist is the one who recognizes in the Word of God, this reality apparently so weak, the foundation of everything. The realist is the one who builds his life on this foundation that remains permanently." As Europe's leaders scrambled to stem the plunge in their own markets and nervous Americans panicked, the Vicar of Christ cut to the heart, calling us to the source of true security, the unchanging Word of God.

Among the participants at the Synod is Marc Cardinal Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec. He was chosen by Pope Benedict XVI to Chair this Synod and is known to have a special love for the scriptures. He is a proponent of an approach to Bible study which, though recognizing the value scholarship, encourages a relational approach to the Bible. One which is grounded in prayer and based on the conviction that the Lord Jesus is the Living Word who communicates Himself to us.In 1997 the Cardinal led a symposium at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the study of Scripture which called for a "kneeling exegesis", an approach which combined academic investigation with real living faith.

This approach to the Bible in contemporary theological circles is much more akin to that of the early fathers of the unified Christian Church. The Bible lies at the very heart of the Churches worship, faith and life because it puts a praying reader and hearer in relationship with Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, and through Him into communion with the Trinitarian God. All baptized Christians are called into an ever deepening encounter with God through falling in love with the Sacred Scriptures.

The Bible is the "Book of the Church".Christianity is never about simply "me and Jesus". If anything, it is about me in Jesus. We live our lives now as a part of His Body. To belong to Jesus is to belong to His Church. When God chose to intervene in human history, He did not throw a book out of heaven. Rather, the Word became Flesh. Through the Incarnation, life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ- and through the working of the Holy Spirit - a new creation has begun in Him. The Resurrected Lord lives now in the Church. The Church is not an organizational afterthought that we all put together so that we have a place to study the Bible together and worship, rather it is the seed of the kingdom that is coming, the plan of God revealed, a new family into which we are reborn through the womb of the Baptismal font.

The Lord gave the Bible to those who are His own, His Church. The Church is the new people of God, born from the water and blood that flowed from the wounded side of Jesus Christ. At first this Word was received by the early Church in the form of the Old Testament books. Then, the Gospels and the letters of the apostles were "circulated" (that is what the word "encyclical" means) among the early Christian communities. Later, what we have now call the "Bible" was compiled in the "Canon" (the word means "measuring stick"), by an early Church meeting in Council, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This complete text, discerned as to its final content within the Church, is given to and for the Church. It is meant to govern her life and worship and guide her mission to carry forward the redemptive work of Jesus on earth until He comes again. The Bible is an invitation into an ever deepening encounter with a living God. In the words of St. Paul to his disciple Timothy, (2 Timothy 3:15-16) Scripture is "inspired", which in the Greek literally means "God-breathed".It imparts God's Life.

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This kind of a relational approach to the Sacred Scripture is an antidote to the despair that so often accompanies difficulties such as the collapse of financial markets. Thank God for a Pope who reminds us all of these eternal truths in such troubled times; a Pastor who reminds the world in times of shaking what is truly unshakeable.May the sons and daughters of the Catholic Church, indeed all Christians,be filled with the wisdom which comes from God by building our lives first on the sure and true foundation of God's Word. Only then will we be able to offer hope and stability to this unstable age.

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