Learning to love the bible

Today, every day around the country, Catholics are engaging scripture in their communities, homes, parishes and education centres — and it is supposed to be fun! “The fact that the Church venerates the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord underlines the importance of Catholics engaging with Scripture,” says Margaret Mollett, former rector of Catholic Bible College.

Ms Mollett, who also holds a doctorate in Biblical Studies from the University of South Africa, referred to 2 Timothy 3:16 to explain: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for very good work.”

Bible study is not a preserve of tertiary institutions, but is becoming more accessible to the average person. The Catholic Bible College, for example, offers a popular correspondence course, says Christian Brother Mike Chalmers, who has long been engaged in promoting the study of Scripture in the Southern African Church. “Whether we work in schools or with adults, our aim is to give all a good experience of Scripture. Scripture is fun.”  The Catholic Bible Foundation offers programmes that will give people effective methods which “will enable them to enter into a deeper understanding of the Word”, says Br Chalmers.

The bishops of Southern Africa are encouraging the engagement with Scripture through Small Christian Communities (SCC), and in specific adult catechetical programmes such as Ecclesia in Cape Town, Renew Africa in Port Elizabeth and Gospel sharing in Durban.

Evelyn Siyoko of St Mark’s parish in Bloemfontein attended her first SCC cell group in 2007. She admits she was initially drawn to the group by the company she would enjoy each week. But soon there was more to it than just socialising: reading the Scripture and talking about it turned into living it. “There was a great sense of humour, love, care, openness, respect and dedication to live up to the word of God,” she recalls.

Ms Siyoko attends an Oblate parish and believes she has grown thanks to her engagement with the Scriptures. “I know more about God and I have lived like an Oblate—by catering for our communities,” she says. Ms Siyoko’s cell group today has 35 young people interacting weekly.

Oblate Father Raymond Mwangala, dean of studies at St Joseph’s Theological Institute in Cedara, KwaZulu-Natal, believes that today’s Catholics should welcome Scripture interaction.

“It must be acknowledged that some of the prevailing negative attitudes towards Scripture among Catholics have their origins in bygone eras when lay Catholics were forbidden to read the Bible in private and when the Church condemned vernacular translations of the Bible.” The Mass and other liturgical ceremonies and rituals became more important than Bible-reading and study.

“But the Bible, the written record of God’s communication with humanity, should be at the heart of the Mass and all Christian devotions,” Fr Mwangala says. “The Bible is the written record of God’s communication with human beings. In the Bible we encounter God revealing the divine self and human beings responding to this revelation.” The Bible, he says, is the source of Christian life and spirituality and as such should be embraced in every opportunity.

Ms Mollett says it was thanks to Vatican II that the transformation happened. “Responding to the go-ahead given by Pius XII’s encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu in 1943, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, declared in 1965: ‘Easy access to Sacred Scripture should be provided for all the Christian faithful’, and to ensure the accessibility of the Word of God at all times the Church would see to it that suitable and correct translations are made into different languages, especially from the original texts of the sacred books,” the academic explains.

She says organisations, dioceses, bishops’ conferences, Bible centres, colleges, schools, institutes, associations; missionary and religious orders “are all, according to their individual capacities, agents in this — not only by encouraging study of the Scriptures, but in literally putting the Bible into the hands of Catholics”. Ms Mollett says all Catholics should be given the opportunity to engage in the Bible.

Fr Mwangala agrees, citing St Jerome, the great biblical scholar who in the 4th century translated the Bible into Latin: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”

“Together, the written record of God’s self revelation [Scripture] and Christian tradition forms the one source of Christian life and faith,” says Fr Mwangala.

However, while Fr Mwangala believes every Christian should be familiar with Scripture, “not everyone is expected to engage in academic or formal biblical studies”. He says that the aim of Bible study is never simply to acquire intellectual knowledge but rather to come to know the God revealed in the Scriptures—something which can be achieved in many different forms of interaction.

Oblate Brother Lehlohonolo Molete works in youth ministry in Bloemfontein. “We encourage all our young people to participate and engage in cell groups to the best of their capabilities.” Br Molete says he has witnessed emotional encounters in these Small Christian Communities (SCC). He says the groups become an opportunity to vent whatever one is experiencing without fear of being judged or marginalised and an opportunity to draw closer to God. “The atmosphere transcends prayer and scriptural sharing,” he says.

“In a cell group, young people start with a prayer, then share the Word of God, then they reiterate the words that touched them in the Scripture in they own words. This is followed by their understanding of the gospel.” He says the young Catholics then discuss how they will live the Scripture in their lives.

For those who want to start engaging further in the Word, Ms Mollett suggests first following the Sunday and daily readings in the lectionary. Remember that the lectionary does not include all Scripture, but “by joining a Bible-sharing group, a workshop or enrolling in a study programme you will find all the smaller parts of the landscape gradually falling into place. When so inclined, move to a higher level, and in so doing encourage others who are also wanting to engage more with Scripture,” she recommends.

From academic courses available countrywide to intimate small group sessions, the way in which Catholics are encouraged to engage in the Bible is vast — whichever direction you choose is up to you, but do indeed choose to engage.

“We only have to read the psalms to see how joy is present in the many expressions of thanksgiving and acknowledgment of God’s love, protection, mercy, forgiveness, bounty — even his stern decrees, as these are for one’s own good,” says Ms Mollett adding that there is plenty to gain from a deeper relationship with Scripture.

In his apostolic exhortation on the Bible, Verbum Domini (2010), Pope Benedict wrote that the joy reflected in the Scriptures also becomes our own joy.

“By proclaiming God’s word in the power of the Holy Spirit, we also wish to share the source of true joy, not a superficial and fleeting joy, but the joy born of the awareness that the Lord Jesus alone has words of everlasting life,” the pope wrote.

For Fr Mwangala, Scripture is indeed the source of great joy primarily because “God speaks to men and women in and through Scripture; what great joy, that our God speaks to us in human signs and symbols!”

The study of Scripture is also a source of joy for those who give themselves to it in faith, he says. “In studying Scripture we come more and more to realise that God continues to communicate with human beings — that even in our day God is very close.”