On September 30, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI issued an Apostolic Exhortation entitled, Verbum Domini: The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church, to serve as a deep study on how Sacred Scripture is at the heart of the Church’s life and mission. The exhortation is quite an extensive document and a thorough analysis of various aspects of Scripture, such as how it reveals each of the three persons of the Trinity, how it should be interpreted and studied, its role in the life of the Church, its use for proper evangelization and catechesis, and so on. For my purposes here, I will focus on the pope’s explanation of the relationship between Sacred Scripture and the Sacred Liturgy.

Before jumping into the context of the liturgy, we should lay the foundation that Pope Benedict does quite thoroughly early in the document. In its entirety (Old and New Testaments), Sacred Scripture is the Word of God in which he reveals himself to us. Rather than viewing it as a historical or dormant book, we should view it as a living dialog God is having with us in the here and now. Further, the person of Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh, and the New Testament is the revelation of that person, so the link between Sacred Scripture and Jesus is inseparable. Finally, since we are fallible human beings, subject to error, we need the Holy Mother Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, to help us interpret Sacred Scripture. Hence, the link between Sacred Scripture and the Church is also inseparable. So, with these fundamental points in mind, we can now see what Pope Benedict has to say about the connection between Sacred Scripture and Sacred Liturgy.

While Catholics are invited and encouraged to read and study Scripture every day and in many settings –  such as in personal prayer, lectio divina, adoration, and bible studies – the pope states that “the liturgy is the privileged setting in which God speaks to us in the midst of our lives; he speaks today to his people who hear and respond” (#52). In the Mass, we celebrate two liturgies, the Liturgy of the Word, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. During a typical Sunday Liturgy of the Word, we hear a reading from the Old Testament, a Psalm, an epistle (usually from St. Paul), and then a reading from a Gospel. So, we are generally aware that considerable time is devoted to Sacred Scripture. However, Pope Benedict explains the entire Mass is, in fact, permeated with Sacred Scripture. The Word of God taken directly from Scripture can be heard in the hymns we sing, the spoken prayers, the homilies, the prayers of the faithful, and the Eucharistic prayers. Even the priest's liturgical actions and signs draw from Sacred Scripture. Moreover, Jesus, the Word himself, is present on the altar during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. So, while reading Scripture in other settings is a wonderful thing to do, the only place you can be fully immersed in Scripture, even bodily, using all five senses, is in the Sacred Liturgy.

Pope Benedict goes on to explain the deep connection between the Word of God and the Eucharist. The pope explains that in the Bread of Life Discourse (cf Jn 6:22-69) Jesus connects himself as the Bread of Life to the Gift of Manna which God gave to Moses and his people in the desert (cf Ex 33:11). So, as he is teaching his disciples about the coming Sacrament of the Eucharist, he is showing it to be the fulfillment of the life-giving Word of God from the Torah, made present in a person. Now, he himself, the living Word of God, is also the life-giving Bread from Heaven. When you consume the Eucharist, you consume Jesus, the Word of God made flesh.

In Luke’s account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Pope Benedict explains the link between hearing the Word and the breaking of the bread (cf Lk 24:23-35). As any good Jewish man of the time would, these disciples certainly knew Scripture well, but they still did not understand the events that had occurred with Jesus in the days prior. They were sad and disheartened by his passion and death and felt like it had all been a colossal failure because they did not recognize him as a fulfillment of Scripture. Then this stranger joins them on their journey and “interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Lk 24:27), and “the two disciples began to look at the Scriptures in a new way in the company of this traveler who seemed so surprisingly familiar with their lives” (#54). However, it wasn't until the breaking of the bread that their eyes were opened. They could recognize and fully appreciate Jesus in a new way as a fulfillment of the Word of God.

Drawing from the Bread of Life Discourse and the Road to Emmaus, the pope says, “From these accounts it is clear that Scripture itself points us towards an appreciation of its own unbreakable bond with the Eucharist” (#55). Only together can you have a full understanding of Scripture and the Eucharist. “The Eucharist opens us to an understanding of Scripture, just as Scripture for its part illumines and explains the mystery of the Eucharist” (#55). Benedict further asserts, “Unless we acknowledge the Lord’s real presence in the Eucharist, our understanding of Scripture remains imperfect” (#55). Thus, while the Church does not treat the Word and the Eucharist with the same worship, she always has and always will treat Scripture and Eucharist with the same reverence. You can witness this at Mass in how the readings are read with reverence, the Gospels are elevated during the procession and walked to the ambo, the standing posture the faithful assume for the Gospel, etc.

Finally, Pope Benedict concludes his section on the link between Scripture and liturgy by explaining the sacramentality of the Word. A sacrament is an outward sign through which we receive God’s grace. Since we are human beings, we use our five senses to communicate, so God uses an outward sign to convey the thing it signifies so that we have some chance of grasping the mystery, at least in part. Therefore, the sacramentality of the Word is the Incarnation itself. Jesus becoming flesh is the outward sign of the Word of God. Then, at the celebration of the Eucharist, when Jesus is truly present under the appearance of consecrated bread and wine, “The proclamation of God’s word at the celebration entails an acknowledgment that Christ himself is present, that he speaks to us, and that he wishes to be heard” (#56). Pope Benedict concludes this portion with a quote from St. Jerome regarding how we ought to approach both the Eucharist and Scripture:

For me, the Gospel is the Body of Christ; for me, the holy Scriptures are his teaching. And when he says: whoever does not eat my flesh and drink my blood (Jn 6:53), even though these words can also be understood of the [Eucharistic] Mystery, Christ's body and blood are really the Word of Scripture, God's teaching. When we approach the [Eucharistic] Mystery, if a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled. Yet when we are listening to the Word of God, and God's Word and Christ's flesh and blood are being poured into our ears yet we pay no heed, what great peril should we not feel?

Now that you have a deeper understanding of the connection between Sacred Scripture and Sacred Liturgy, try to be more aware of it. Listen for Scripture in the various songs and words spoken at Mass. The next time you receive the Eucharist, think not only about how you are receiving Jesus as you typically do, but how you are receiving the Word of God made flesh.

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