Have You Heard? The Word is Love

Catholics get criticized very often for “not reading the Bible” and “not focusing on scripture enough” and “using quotation marks too much” (maybe that last one’s just for me).  However, the extreme majority of our Catholic Faith is taken directly from the Bible.  The argument is made by Protestants, though, that the Catholic Church discourages people from reading the Bible on their own.  This is not even remotely true.  The Bible is the primary source of our faith, and ALL Christians should be intimately familiar with it. Now, as I noted in the comment section of my June 19, 2011 post, there is a potential “danger” from reading on your own and trying to interpret it for yourself with absolutely no direction from any other source wiser than your own brain.  Here’s an excerpt from my comment on the matter (from my July 19, 2011 post):

We…have to remember that we do not read the Bible.  We read man's best attempt at a TRANSLATION of the Bible (remembering that Jesus didn't speak English), and so we have to take into account not only the general message portrayed in the English translation, but also the original meaning of the Greek and Hebrew words used, and how the society they were being written to would've understood them. This is where the danger comes in for an individual with little to no knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew languages to sit down with a limited English translation of the Bible and try to establish a belief system that will shape ethical decisions (which is EXACTLY the faulty system many Protestant churches today use as a way of establishing their belief systems).  People like to insult the "hierarchy" of the Catholic Church and say that we shouldn't trust in what the Church "tells" us the Bible says, but we should read it for ourselves and figure it out for ourselves.  Well, I trust that God would not lead the Church He, Himself founded (Matthew 16:18) astray, and that the holy men of the various Vatican offices, who for centuries have dedicated themselves to praying about the scriptures, studying their history and original meanings of the words used, and discussing that compilation of prayer and research both amongst themselves and with scholars of other faiths can teach me far more than I can figure out in my short 28 years with my incredibly limited knowledge of ancient languages.

The second part of the Mass is the Liturgy of the Word.  The Liturgy of the Word is, as its title would lead you to believe, the part of the Mass where we explore the Word of God (the bible) and look at how it relates to our lives today.  Again, some categorize the Mass into 4 parts—the Introductory Rites, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and the Concluding Rites—while others group the Introductory Rites under the Liturgy of the Word, and the Concluding Rites under the Liturgy of the Eucharist, making the Mass into 2 parts rather than 4, but for our purposes here, we’ll stick with the 4.  The Liturgy of the Word has 4 parts to it:

1. The Biblical Readings
2. The Homily
3. The Profession of Faith
4. The Prayer of the Faithful

We’ll go into detail about each of these in the next few posts, but for now, we’ll just explain that the Biblical Readings are selected from 4 sources: the First Reading is taken from the Old Testament (other than the Book of Psalms); the Responsorial Psalm is taken from the Book of Psalms; the Second Reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, one of the New Testament Letters, or the Book of Revelation; and the Gospel is taken from one of the four Gospels (go figure).  After the readings, the deacon or priest will give a Homily, or a brief reflection on how the readings of the day apply to our present-day lives.  Then we all stand and profess the beliefs of our Catholic Faith.  After that, we conclude the Liturgy of the Word with the prayers for the Church, public authorities, those burdened by difficulty, and the local community.

Interestingly enough, many Protestant churches you might visit today conduct their services as one big (non-Catholic) version of the Liturgy of the Word.  The people gather together in the building, then the preacher (who may or may not have received a formal education in Scriptural Theology & Biblical History) reads from the Bible (often using the same readings that have been selected by the Catholic Church for that day), and gives a sermon (which is similar to the homily given by the deacon or priest at Mass).  Funny how Catholics are criticized for “The Church” telling you what to believe about the Bible, and anytime you turn on a televangelist, all he does is stand at a microphone and tell his audience what HE thinks you should believe.  Well, just refer to my thoughts I posted above on THAT subject. 

Anyhow, there’s a brief synopsis of the Liturgy of the Word.  Our next few posts will explain these 4 parts a little more fully.

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Peace.