Friday, January 05, 2007 Cimagala: Living the Bible By Fr. Roy Cimagala
THE Bible should always by our side. If we still think we are Christian believers and really know what the Bible is, then we should realize it's something indispensable in our life.
It should not be considered just like any book. It's not merely some religious literature, or a scholar's material, or an object of social curiosity, etc. No, no, the Bible is much more than these. Its relevance has not expired.
For Christian believers, it is "the" book. It is where one meets Christ, the living Christ, no less. It is not only a human document. In spite of its human limitations, it is foremost a divine document, needing a living faith for its use.
Sad to say, to many Catholics today, the Bible suffers a painfully reduced status. That it's an inspired book, written in some mysteriously harmonious way by God and man, and thus, in some way, a living book, is lost in the minds of people.
In fact, the very concept of inspiration today is painfully devalued. Its original religious meaning is now replaced by poor, cheap if glittering imitations, geared more to petty romances and other expressions of mundane creativity.
Modern man's concept of inspiration is actually an empty shell, a gravy without the meat, stuck with the accidentals but missing the substance. It has become a soulless creature, emasculated and castrated, a victim of the prevailing crisis in religion.
Forgotten is the fact that being an inspired book, it contains God's self-revelation to us, made full in Christ. With faith, the divine self-revelation takes the leap from written word to living word.
Reading it, again with the proper dispositions, is entering into a vital dialogue with God, bringing us to a deeper level of reality. That's when what is described in the Letter to the Hebrews becomes a beautiful event:
"For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart.
"Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight but all things are naked and open to his eyes, to whom our speech is." (4,12-13)
I know there are some people who get upset when talks like this are made. They say that faith and religion are at best purely private, personal affairs that have no place in public, because these can't be "scientifically" accounted for and verified.
The idea of God revealing himself to us in a dynamic way can taste like poison to them. They consider it a gratuitous and extravagant claim, completely baseless and bereft of any convincing reasons.
That's the problem we have. The deepest yearning we have in our hearts is made to stay down deep there, not allowed to show itself externally. There are people who get an indigestion when any talk of God is made.
But in spite of the supernatural character of the Christian faith, we have more than enough reasons to justify why the faith can and even should be a public affair.
In the case of the Bible, there are strong reasons to discuss its validity and relevance not only in our personal lives, but also in our social life. In fact, it always has something to say in every aspect of our life.
The need, for example, of how to read and interpret it demands that it be discussed in public. These points just cannot be left to purely personal and individualistic interpretations. There are principles, derived from faith, that need to be followed.
Being both a human and divine document, it requires also both human and supernatural means to savor its juice, so to speak, and to make it alive.
To know the precise literal meaning of its text, to discern its spiritual sense, to learn how to relate it to our present circumstances, etc. (Email: roycimagala@hotmail.com)
