Day 14: The Eternal Word of God

Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely... For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God". "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them." CCC 102-104

Today's reading is about the divine inspiration and sanctity of Sacred Scripture. Catholics and other Christians would affirm how much we receive in the Faith from the Scriptures given to us by God. We don't necessarily agree on what texts belong in Scripture, but do cherish what we've been given. It does reflect a humanness of sorts in the mix of types in Scripture: poetry, narratives, letters, etc. but the overall truth these texts contain nourishes us in our walk with Christ. Yet, not a nourishment in isolation from our brothers and sisters in Christ within the Church. Not a "just me, Jesus, and the Bible" approach, for this almost makes an idol of the Scriptures. We need the Church to help us with Scripture and to know that these texts alone are insufficient without Christ. I rather like how the Catechism puts it:

[T]he Christian faith is not a "religion of the book". Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, "not a written and mute word, but incarnate and living". If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open (our) minds to understand the Scriptures." CCC 108

A nice summation of what Christianity has taught about the Scriptures in today's reading. Everyone has their favorite parts of Scripture and one of mine is an amazing prophecy of Christ's Passion found in Wisdom 2:12-20:

“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,

because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;

he reproaches us for sins against the law,

and accuses us of sins against our training. 

He professes to have knowledge of God,

and calls himself a child of the Lord.

He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;

the very sight of him is a burden to us,

because his manner of life is unlike that of others,

and his ways are strange.

We are considered by him as something base,

and he avoids our ways as unclean;

he calls the last end of the righteous happy,

and boasts that God is his father.

Let us see if his words are true,

and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;

for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,

and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.

Let us test him with insult and torture,

so that we may find out how gentle he is,

and make trial of his forbearance.

Let us condemn him to a shameful death,

for, according to what he says, he will be protected.”