Read “a passage of the Gospel every day to learn more about Jesus, to open your hearts wide to Jesus. And make Him known to others.” Pope Francis has said it on many occasions: the daily reading of the Gospel, “to be kept in your pockets or bags”, helps us “overcome our selfishness and follow the footsteps of our Teacher.” How should it be read? “Keeping our gaze fixed” on the Lord, to “picture ourselves there and speak with Him.” Since he became “bishop of Rome” as he likes to describe himself, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has reiterated this message many times, during the Angelus prayer of January 3rd, and several times throughout the course of 2015 from the pulpit of Saint Marta (notably the beautiful meditation on the Gospel in Hand, of February 3 2015), during the general audiences and even on Twitter. What is the reason for such emphases? “The Word of the Holy Scriptures is alive and effective. If read with a predisposition of faith it leads us to a contemplative encounter with living God, delivering fruits into our lives – claimed Rita Pellegrini, biblical scholar, Professor of Theology at the Catholic University of Milan -. In particular, the Gospel is the Word of the Father through the mouth of the Son and those who listen and receive it have a luminous experience of God.” As a faithful of the diocese of Milan, professor Pellegrini was raised “at the school of Cardinal Martini”, who was a Jesuit like Pope Francis, and he too was “in love with the Word.” “The archbishop has taught us to love it – the Biblical scholar pointed out – through the lectio divina, which is a spiritual reading, that is, it is guided by the force of the Holy Spirit that involves all human faculties: heart, feelings, affection and intellect. Reading the Scriptures, and the Gospels in particular, enables us to have a spiritual experience, encountering God while He is speaking to us.”
On several occasions the Pope called upon the faithful to read a passage from the Gospel every day. But lay Catholics – workers, mothers or fathers, students or those committed at social level – often seem to be lacking even ten minutes’ a day to pray …
The Pope is aware of this. He is a shepherd with a long experience with people. He knows the pace of everyday life. At the same time
He intuits that mankind nurtures a great longing for God,
whence stems his powerful exhortation to the men and women of today, to lay faithful, to experience the fruitfulness, richness and strength of the Gospel. It’s a living word capable of sustaining us, consoling us, guiding us and it makes us capable of making it thrive in our life.
Does a conscious reading of the Bible require specific preparation?
There are many tools that enable us to correctly understand the holy text, and most of all it’s important that the Holy Scriptures be approached with the same predisposition of faith that we have towards the Eucharist, since in them is present the mystery of God revealed to mankind. In fact,
the Second Vatican Council, in the Dei Verbum, states that the Church venerates the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord.
It’s an experience of contemplation that everyone can have access to. Through the beautiful pages of the Gospel Jesus speaks to each one of us. In Him, God speaks to us! Indeed, they should be read with a spiritual approach. The time we manage to dedicate to silence or prayer gradually leads us to fall in love with the Word. After which we will seek it and feel the need to draw near it, to learn it, cherish it and gently treasure it in our heart so it may deliver its fruits into us.
Are they pages that become life?
The Scriptures don’t simply “speak” to us, they don’t only have an informative function: they deliver concrete tokens, they realize, implement. They are both truth and power. They are not content with teaching; they operate and make us capable of operating. In my opinion there is a “circularity” in the Word that is read, understood, prayed and lived. The Word of God is designed to transform our lives. Its fruits are the transformation of our hearts. I believe that this is the message conveyed by Pope Francis.
Bergoglio is a “popular” Pontiff that “makes himself understood”, as many people say…
Pope Francis is a great preacher of the Word to the people. Sometimes his message is simplified. In reality, behind his public figure, that is justly loved, there is great spiritual calibre, a fundamental prophetic dimension. The prophet is the one who manages to read into our hearts: the Pope understands us and teaches us that we all need to be loved, forgiven, and that we have an enormous need for mercy. The Holy Year follows this direction of listening, of reception, understanding and benevolence.
From Francis comes a specific indication, an invitation to become familiar with the Gospel. Do the communities help the faithful to undertake this path?
Those who experience this closeness to the Gospel, this attitude of contemplative prayer, transmit it through their own life. This is true also in the case of our parishes.
For example, there is a way of celebrating the Eucharist, of proclaiming the sacred texts, of alternating orating silence with the outburst of chants, which expresses prayer and joy. The community perceives it, people become aware of it. Then the Word, accompanied by the liturgy, must become flesh, it must be experienced, witnessed. Christian communities must let themselves be illuminated by these gifts, transforming them into experiences of charity, of welcome, of everyday commitment. Pope Francis tells us that the reading of the Word and contemplative prayer “help us have hope. Living in substance the Gospel.”
