UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF VATICAN II:  SCRIPTURE

 

When I was a child, if I saw someone walking down the street with a bible under his/her arm, I presumed that person was Protestant; Catholics did not walk around with bibles.  Prayer books perhaps, bibles no.  

 

In my own home which was VERY Catholic—holy pictures on the walls of every room; statues in places of honor; holy water fonts in each bedroom and at the front and back door—we had no bible!  We did have a large volume of Catholic teaching on the bookshelf and, once we had reached the age of nine or ten, my three brothers and I had to read a set number of pages every Sunday (before reading the Sunday funnies!) and report to my father what we read.

 

Besides the bible stories that we were probably taught in early elementary grades, my first real exposure to anything biblical was learning “Bible History” in sixth grade.  Even in the convent novitiate in the 50’s we did not study scripture.  I obtained my first bible in the late 60’s (after Vatican II) but it was not until the mid 70’s when I studied theology at Berkeley that I actually had courses in scripture.  What a treasure I found them to be!  And I have relished reading and studying scripture ever since.

 

I just read (in my favorite magazine, America) that the Vatican has called a synod of the world’s bishops this October to finish “one of the great unfinished works of the Council—namely, how Catholics can make the Word of God their own.”  The article goes on to say “More than 40 years after the Second Vatican Council, the Bible still does not figure at the center of Catholic life the way the Eucharist does.  Even though the Catholic Lectionary for Sundays was re-designed in 1969 to use a three-year cycle of readings in order to promote greater familiarity with the whole of Scripture, Catholics do not yet own the Scriptures the way many Protestants do.”

 

When Vatican II convened in 1962, the reform of our Catholic liturgy was one of its first concerns.  In addition to the changes we know so well—prayers in English, priest facing the people, laypeople proclaiming the scripture and distributing the Eucharist—the Council gave equal billing to both the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  It saddens me when people arrive just in time for the gospel and miss—besides the meaningful Penitential Rite—the scripture reading from the Old Testament (the Jewish scriptures) and from one of the letters of Paul or other leaders in the early Christian communities. 

 

St. Joseph’s has made scripture study available for parishioners through a Wednesday morning group--now in its 15th year--that reads and discusses the next Sunday’s scripture readings (you can just show up any Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. in the Mary Room!) as well as Susan Mahan’s periodic series on specific books of the bible.

 

I have been teaching scripture for about thirty years but feel that I am still just a “novice” as there is so much more to learn and I continue to change.  How a particular scripture passage touched me three years ago may not be the same today or tomorrow. Our perceptions of God, of life, of ourselves are never static.  With the help of the scriptures, we can continue to grow in our understanding of God’s relationship with humanity in general and with each of us in particular.  By reflecting on God’s Word we can, hopefully, find clearer answers to the ultimate questions of our lives:  Why am I here?  What is God asking of me?  How should I live my life?  

 

The next time we hear the Word of God proclaimed to us with the lector’s conclusion of “The Word of the Lord,” may we respond enthusiastically with “Thanks be to God!”

 

Sister Marie, O.P.

 

P.S. In a future column, I’ll take up the question of how Catholics—and other mainline churches—interpret the bible as well as hints for reading God’s Word.