During Pope Leo XIV’s Feb. 11 Wednesday audience, part of his catechesis series on the documents of Vatican II, the Holy Father explained that the Church and Sacred Scripture are inseparable.
“The Church is the rightful home of Sacred Scripture,” Pope Leo said in his audience on chapter six of Dei Verbum, the Church’s dogmatic constitution on the subject. “Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Bible arose from the people of God, and is destined for the people of God. In the Christian community it has, so to speak, its habitat: indeed, in the life and the faith of the Church it finds the space where it can reveal its meaning and manifest its power.”
The Pontiff quoted Dei Verbum to explain that the Church venerates Jesus’ body and scripture in the same way, offering both to the faithful at Mass.
He also drew on Pope Benedict XVI’s post-synodal exhortation Verbum Domini, explaining that the authentic interpretation of Scripture, which is modeled on Our Lady’s reception of Christ in her fiat, can only occur within the Church’s Catholic faith.
The Holy Father said that the purpose of Scripture is to allow people to know Christ and to have open dialogue with God.
“Indeed, ‘ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ,’” he said. “This well-known expression of Saint Jerome reminds us of the ultimate purpose of reading and meditating on the Scriptures: to get to know Christ and, through Him, to enter into a relationship with God, a relationship that can be understood as a conversation, a dialogue.”
Pope Leo explained that all the faithful are called to listen carefully to the words of Scripture, especially in the Mass. Knowledge of and love for scripture must also guide bishops, priests, deacons, and catechists, he said.
“The Church ardently desires that the Word of God may reach every one of her members and nurture their journey of faith,” he said. “But the Word of God also propels the Church beyond herself; it opens her continually to the mission towards everyone.”
Pope Leo said that Sacred Scripture is “totally relative to Jesus Christ.”
“All the Scriptures proclaim his Person and his saving presence, for each one of us and for all humanity,” he said. “Let us therefore open our hearts and minds in order to receive this gift, following the example of Mary, Mother of the Church.”