Aperuit Illis: Apostolic Letter Instituting the Sunday Word of God by Pope Francis

(New Jersey: Catholic Book Publishing, 2020), 48

Christ Jesus is knocking at our door in the words of Sacred Scripture (8)

  • Lk-24: "He opened their minds to understand the scriptures"
  • "Without the Lord Who opens our minds to them, it is impossible to understand the Scriptures in depth. Yet the contrary is equally true: without the Scriptures, the events of the mission of Jesus and of His Church in this world would remain incomprehensible." (1)
  • St. Ephrem: "He has hidden in his word all treasures" (2)
  • "I hereby declare that the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study, and dissemination of the Word of God." (3)
    • "This has ecumenical value, since the Scriptures point out, for those who listen, the path to authentic and firm unity"
  • "Pastors can also find ways of giving a Bible, or one of its books, to the entire assembly as a way of showing the importance of learning how to read, appreciate, and pray daily with Sacred Scripture, especially through the practice of lectio divina." (3)
    • ☐ Bible for everyone at St. Pats for 3rd Sunday in OT?
  • Nehemiah: Israel returns to their homeland from exile and publicly reads the book of the Law (Neh-08) → The Word of God unites believers and makes them one people (4)
  • Pastors are primarily responsible for explaining Sacred Scripture and helping everyone to understand it. (5)
  • Emmaus: Christ is the first exegete! (6) The whole of Scripture speaks of Christ (7)
    • "Since faith comes from hearing, and what is heard is based on the Word of Christ (cf. Rom-10), believers are bound to listen attentively to the Word of the Lord, both in the celebration of the liturgy and in their personal prayer and reflection." (7)
    • Emmaus ended with a meal, demonstrating the unbreakable bond between Sacred Scripture and the Eucharist (8)
    • Christ Jesus is knocking at our door in the words of Sacred Scripture (8)
  • Against sola scriptura: "We can say that the Incarnation of the eternal Word give shape and meaning to the relationship between God's Word and our human language, in all its historical and cultural contingency. This event gives rise to Tradition, which is also God's Word (cf. DV 9). We frequently risk separating Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, without understanding that together they are the one source of Revelation. The written character of the former takes nothing away from its being fully a living Word; in the same way, the Church's living Tradition, which continually hands that Word down over the centuries from one generation to the next, possesses that sacred book as the 'supreme rule of her faith' (ibid., 21). Moreover, before becoming a written text, the Word of God was handed down orally and kept alive by the faith of a people who, in the midst of many others, acknowledged it as their own history and the source of their identity. Biblical faith, then, is based on the living Word, not on a book." (11)
  • "To listen to Sacred Scripture and then to practice mercy: this is the great challenge before us in life." (13)

Topic: Encyclical

Source

Created: 2024-01-13-Sat
Updated: 2024-11-16-Sat