Verbum Domini §3

From “Dei Verbum” to the Synod on the Word of God

3. With the Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God, we were conscious of dealing in a certain sense with the very heart of the Christian life, in continuity with the previous synodal assembly on The Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church’s Life and Mission. Indeed, the Church is built upon the word of God; she is born from and lives by that word.[2] Throughout its history, the People of God has always found strength in the word of God, and today too the ecclesial community grows by hearing, celebrating and studying that word. It must be acknowledged that in recent decades ecclesial life has grown more sensitive to this theme, particularly with reference to Christian revelation, the living Tradition and sacred Scripture. Beginning with the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII, we can say that there has been a crescendo of interventions aimed at an increased awareness of the importance of the word of God and the study of the Bible in the life of the Church,[3] culminating in the Second Vatican Council and specifically in the promulgation of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum. The latter represented a milestone in the Church’s history: “The Synod Fathers … acknowledge with gratitude the great benefits which this document brought to the life of the Church, on the exegetical, theological, spiritual, pastoral and ecumenical plane”.[4] The intervening years have also witnessed a growing awareness of the “trinitarian and salvation-historical horizon of revelation”[5] against which Jesus Christ is to be acknowledged as “mediator and fullness of all revelation”.[6] To each generation the Church unceasingly proclaims that Christ “completed and perfected revelation. Everything to do with his presence and his self-manifestation was involved in achieving this: his words and works, signs and miracles, but above all his death and resurrection from the dead, and finally his sending of the Spirit of truth”.[7]

Everyone is aware of the great impulse which the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum gave to the revival of interest in the word of God in the life of the Church, to theological reflection on divine revelation and to the study of sacred Scripture. In the last forty years, the Church’s magisterium has also issued numerous statements on these questions.[8] By celebrating this Synod, the Church, conscious of her continuing journey under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, felt called to further reflection on the theme of God’s word, in order to review the implementation of the Council’s directives, and to confront the new challenges which the present time sets before Christian believers.

[2] Cf. Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Instrumentum Laboris, 27.

[3] Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Providentissimus Deus (18 November 1893): ASS 26 (1893-94), 269-292; Benedict XV, Encyclical Letter Spiritus Paraclitus (15 September 1920): AAS 12 (1920), 385-422; PIUS XII, Encyclical Letter Divino Afflante Spiritu (30 September 1943): AAS 35 (1943), 297-325.

[4] Propositio 2.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 2.

[7] Ibid., 4

[8] Noteworthy among various kinds of interventions are: Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Summi Dei Verbum (4 November 1963): AAS 55 (1963), 979-995; Motu Proprio Sedula Cura (27 June 1971): AAS 63 (1971), 665-669; John Paul II, General Audience (1 May 1985): L’Osservatore Romano, 2-3 May 1985, p. 6; Address on the Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (23 April 1993): AAS 86 (1994), 232-243; Benedict XVI, Address to the International Congress held on the Fortieth Anniversary of “Dei Verbum” (16 September 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 957; Angelus (6 November 2005): Insegnamenti I (2005), 759-760. Also worthy of mention are the interventions of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, De Sacra Scriptura et Christologia (1984): Enchiridion Vaticanum 9, Nos. 1208-1339; Unity and Diversity in the Church (11 April 1988): Enchiridion Vaticanum 11, Nos. 544-643; The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (15 April 1993): Enchiridion Vaticanum 13, Nos. 2846-3150; The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible (24 May 2001): Enchiridion Vaticanum 20, Nos. 733-1150; The Bible and Morality. Biblical Roots of Christian Conduct (11 May 2008): Vatican City, 2008.