THE BIBLE IN THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE MODERN WORLD – La Civilta Cattolica in English

“Sacred Scripture is the source of evangelization”. This is how Pope Francis ends the section ofEvangelii gaudium (EG) dedicated to the proclamation of the Word^[1]. It is a page that is both simple and complex: simple, because there is no true evangelism without the Scriptures; complex, because it is necessary to explain why the Church, in the course of its history, “lost” the Bible. The pope says: “It is not only the homily that must be nourished by the Word of God. All evangelization is based on it, listened to, meditated on, lived, celebrated and witnessed to. […] Therefore, we must continually form ourselves to listen to the Word. The Church does not evangelize if she does not allow herself to be continually evangelized. It is essential that the Word of God “become more and more the heart of all ecclesial activity”^[2]. […] The study of Sacred Scripture should be an open door to all believers. […] We do not grope in the dark, nor do we have to wait for God to speak to us, because really “God has spoken, he is no longer the great unknown but he has shown himself^[3]”” (EG 174-175).

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[1] Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudiumno. 174, Vatican City, LEV, 2013.

[2] Benedict XVI, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini (September 30, 2010), No. 1: AAS 102 (2010) 682.

[3] Id., Meditation at the First General Congregation of the XII General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 8, 2012): AAS 104 (2012) 896

[4] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbumnot^bone 21-22.

[5] See EG 127; 132, about culture.

[6] Cf. EG 137. Pope Francis affirms this in the context of the Eucharist. Cf. also EG 139-140: the Church as mother who teaches her children the mother tongue.

[7] See 2 Kings 22.3 – 23.30; Jr 11 also alludes to Josiah’s reform.

[8] See Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi, No. 15; E.Bianchi, Nuovi stili di evangelizzazioneCinisello Balsamo (Mi), San Paolo, 2012.

[9] See B. Marconcini, Il libro di Isaia (40-66)Rome, Citta Nuova, 1996, 139-161.

[10] Traditionally, in this regard, it is difficult to reconcile faith – that only God can save man – with a serious interest in man and a positive appreciation of his efforts to grow, which implies a self-affirmation apparently incompatible with the absolute heteronomy of a created consciousness. Both terms can only be achieved in practice by experiencing what the Bible calls “poverty”: only by accepting and living his own radical insufficiency does man succeed in being what he is. he is called to be and attains the fullness which effectively belongs to him, according to the words of Jesus: “whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Lk 9,24; cf. Mt 16,25; Mk 8,35). See JB Metz, Povertà nello spiritoBrescia, Queriniana, 1966.

[11] On this subject, cf. S.Corradino, Chi e l’uomo?, Palermo, Vittorietti, 2012; J. Danielou, In principle, Brescia, Morcelliana, 1965; ed. franc. In the Beginning: Genesis 1-11, Paris, Ed. of the Threshold, 1963.

[12] Note, for example, the pictorial representation of Lot’s decision in Gn 13,10-11 or the anguish of Abraham and Isaac in Gn 22,3-10.

[13] For example, we are in the habit, as soon as we possess the keys of the apocalyptic language, of transcribing into a pure conceptual discourse what the Apocalypse states with a vital entanglement of images, as if the language of “vision” were precisely destined for this work of decoding, and there its meaning is exhausted, while its novelty and its effectiveness consist precisely in the tension between the visible image and the theological concept.

[14] It is therefore not surprising that Protestants, precisely as men of the “Reformation” and of the “protestation of faith”, speak of it as their own property. But the Bible is also the book of communion, and therefore a protest and a reformation which breaks the unity of the faith does not suit it at all.

[15] See Plato, Phaedrus, § 275-276; ID., Tutti gli scritti, edit. by G. Reale, Milan, Bompiani, 2001, 579-581.

[16] Francois, Evangelii gaudium (EG), No. 174

[17] EG 149-159. The term “personalization” comes from Pope Francis, who uses it to talk about how priests should prepare to proclaim the Word.

[18] See Francis, Homily during the pastoral visit to Campobasso, July 5, 2014: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/fr/homilies/2014/documents/papa-francesco_20140705_molise-omelia.html.

[19] EG 174; see 135-139.

[20] See EG 166.