This is a chapter summary of Catalino C. Arevalo's “Reflections on the Word of God: A Synthesis” in A Fiery Flame: Encountering God's Word, originally submitted to Prof. Mike Lapid, for Pentateuch class, at Divine Word Seminary, S.Y. 2013-2014.
The context of Catalino Arevalo's reflections is the Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops held in Rome last October 5 to 26, 2008 with the theme: “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.” The Synod produced over twenty pages of a Nuntius or “Message to the People of God,” consisting of four aspects of logos: the voice (revelation), the face (Jesus Christ), the house (Church), and the roads (mission) of the word of God. Arevalo discusses a few points from this Nuntius, particularly the face of the word of God. He also speaks on previous reflections by Luis Antonio Tagle and Pablo Virgilio David on different aspects of the Nuntius, and makes a passing mention of Teodoro Bacani's reflection. All of these bishops' reflections were made during the Josefino Forum: Verbum Dei held on October 4, 2009.
From Tagle's talk, Arevalo picks up the point that the word of God “is a voice spoken and an event done” (p. 79), like the Hebrew word, dabar, which means both word and action. And spoken words reveal the heart, soul and identity of the person speaking. “God speaks His heart and the world begins to be.”1
Thus, the word of God is more than the actual book. For Catholics, the word of God also comprises the salvation events in history, ultimately culminating in Jesus Christ.2 The person of Jesus Christ is the crux of the face of the word of God—the incarnation of the divine, the logos made flesh. Precisely because divinity has taken on humanity, scripture cannot be stripped of its humanity, which includes the human authorship, the human language utilized by God to reveal himself. Likewise, the Bible cannot be read as a purely human book without the Holy Spirit. Just as Christ is fully human and fully divine, the written word of God is a product of human and divine collaboration. God did not dictate but the Holy Spirit inspired the human author to write God's truth. Thus, a study of scripture requires a balance between science and faith, mind and spirit: biblical exegesis is needed to understand the human culture, context, language and limitations of the scripture's human author; the Holy Spirit is essential to grasp the divine revelation hidden in what would otherwise be just another ancient human book—no more relevant to the people of today than the mythologies of the ANE. To do away with science is a rejection of Christ's humanity and reduce us to fundamentalists who believe the world was created in six days. To do away with the Holy Spirit would reduce us to analysts of literature, dissecting scripture into parts written by J and written by P but devoid of spiritual meaning for our own lives.
The Bible as the word of God is not meant to be a solitary affair—interpreted by a lone individual relying on his or her own intellectual capacity. Just as the text itself was preserved and transmitted through community, its interpretation is meant to be made within community. God's self-revelation in scripture was, is, and continues to be transmitted through the apostolic community, the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Catholic magisterium and living tradition ensure the faithful transmission of the Gospel from the time of the first Christian community until today.
This Church is built on four pillars (as encapsulated in Acts 2:42): apostolic teaching (didache), the breaking of bread (the Eucharist), prayers (e.g., Liturgy of the Hours), and communal life or fellowship (koinonia). Take away authoritative apostolic teaching and you could have 30,000 Christian communities break away from one another to do or interpret scripture in their own way. Prayer is so basic, a church might as well stop breathing without it. Take away the Eucharist and our most intimate way of encountering Jesus disappears. And this encounter culminates in bringing Christ and encountering him in our fellow men.
Arevalo concludes by presenting Mary as a model of one who receives the word and does the word. The word of God is the source of meaning for our lives and the source of God's will in action.
1 Tagle, “The Voice of the Word of God: Revelation” in A Fiery Flame: Encountering God's Word, ed. James H. Kroeger and Joseph D. Zaldivar (Quezon City: Insta Publications, 2010), p. 57.
2 “Therefore, the word of God precedes and goes beyond the Bible which itself is 'inspired by God' and contains the efficacious divine word (cf. 2 Tim 3:16). This is why our faith is not only centered on a book, but on a history of salvation and, as we will see, on a person, Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, man and history.”
World Synod of Bishops,
“Message to the People of God,” in A Fiery Flame: Encountering
God's Word, ed. James H. Kroeger and Joseph D. Zaldivar (Quezon
City: Insta Publications, 2010), p. 5.
