Reflections 2006
The Word of God

“A pure heart create for me, O God; put a steadfast spirit within me.” So runs the prayer for a pure heart and new spirit in Psalm 51, which we sang on Ash Wednesday. Pope Benedict called for just such a double purification in his Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est. There, he wrote of the purification of love (that is, a purification of our hearts) and the purification of reason (that is, a purification of our minds).

Natural human love, says Benedict, needs to be “disciplined and purified” if it is to give us more than just a fleeting pleasure. More is necessary than a simple “submission to instinct”: “purification and growth in maturity are called for, and these also pass through the path of renunciation.” So that our love might become a reflection of the infinite love of God we need to walk the “path of ascent, renunciation, purification and healing.” This path represents our Lenten pilgrimage. We are not to follow the path of natural human instinct. We are not called to ‘go with the flow,’ but to fight against the floodwaters that threaten to sweep us off our path.

The ‘purification of love’ requires a growth in maturity, as written by St Paul in his great Hymn to Love in 1 Cor 13: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”

But our minds are also in need of purification. Pope Benedict writes that “if reason is to be exercised properly, it must undergo constant purification, since it can never be completely free of the danger of a certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effect of power and special interests.”

We must not underestimate our ability for self-deception. We are experts at convincing ourselves that what we want is what God wants. Some have incorrectly understood ‘conscience’ to mean nothing other than ‘what I want.’ When we make this selfish thinking the arbiter of all that is right and good, we have elevated our own will above that of the will of God.

God’s will is made known to us in His Word. The psalmist who prayed, “A pure heart create for me, O God,” also knew that “God created the universe and keeps it in existence by His Word.” (Catechism §320) If God created the universe by His Word, he will also create a pure heart and mind in us by his Word.

But what is God’s Word and where do we have access to it? The doctrine of the Church is quite unambivalent on this matter. In the first place, Christians do not identify ‘the Word of God’ with either an audible or written word, but with a person – the second person of the Trinity in fact – Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary. However, of necessity this Word does not remain silent or unseen – it is present and accessible to us today. So, in the second place, the Christian Church acknowledges the written and preserved words of the Scriptures (that is, the Bible) as ‘the Word of God.’

The written Scriptures contain the Word of God. But the Second Vatican Council went one step beyond this affirmation and declared that “since they are inspired [they] really are the word of God.” (DV 24). In making this affirmation, the Church does not lose sight of the foremost fact that Christ is the Word through whom God speaks to us today. It is precisely through the Scriptures that Christ speaks to us. This is why, in the liturgy, the reading of Scripture (followed always by the declaration: ‘This is the Word of the Lord’) holds such a prominent place in the celebration of the Eucharist.

The Scriptures therefore are the central, supreme and most privileged source of the Word of God for our world today. And just as we affirm that Christ is present “especially in the Eucharistic species” (even though He is present in many other ways), so too do we affirm that “it is He Himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church.” (Catechism §1088)

Of course, this Word does not exist in isolation. Surrounding, accompanying and preserving the deposit of God’s Word that we have in the Scriptures is called ‘Sacred Tradition.’ The Second Vatican Council reasserted and confirmed the teaching of the Council of Trent when it declared that “Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the Word of God.” (DV 10) “Sacred Tradition takes the Word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this Word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known.” (DV 9)

If we wish our hearts and minds to be purified, we must submit them to the rigorous examination of God’s Word. We must listen to Christ speaking to us through the written words of Scripture and the voice of Sacred Tradition, and we are to heed the interpretation of the Word by the living teaching authority of the bishops.

We may hear God’s voice speaking to us through other means as well – through family members, through friends, through our community – but this may happen only to the extent that these have also heard and absorbed the Word of God as it comes to us through the Scriptures, handed down by Sacred Tradition and taught by the Shepherds of the Church.

During Lent, we clearly hear Christ addressing God’s Word to us, and saying: “Repent, and believe the Good News.” (Mark 1:15) The Greek word for ‘repent’ in this announcement (metanoeite) literally means ‘get a new mind’ or ‘change your thinking.’ We cannot therefore be content if our thinking dissents from the thinking of Christ as we have it in Scripture, in Tradition, and in the Church.

Our life long task is to conform our thinking with the Word of God, and this, by definition, is a process of conversion. It is my prayer that as we listen to the creative Word of God we may receive the purification of heart and spirit urged by Pope Benedict, prayed for by the psalmist, and promised by Christ.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.