From left to right: Bishop Ermenegildo Manicardi, Juan Chapa and Jaime Sancho. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Professors and students, priests, monks, religious and lay people participated in the academic workshop 'The God who speaks', organized by the School of Theology of the University of Navarra on the occasion of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini. After the words of presentation, at position of the Dean of the School, Juan Chapa, intervened Mons. Ermenegildo Manicardi, President of the Almo Collegio Capranica and professor of Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome).

Bishop Manicardi, who gave a talk at lecture entitled 'Verbum Domini: Current Theological Perspectives', focused on the concept of 'analogia Verbi': "The category of analogy runs through the entire Exhortation and allows us to see the meaning of the Word of God in its full breadth. By making use of this analogy as a unit, one grasps well how God's speaking effectively fills the whole of creation and history".

The speaker highlighted some of the main theological profiles present in Verbum Domini: the Trinitarian rootedness of the Word of God, the Christological centrality of the Word, the essential levels of the unfolding of the Word of God, the universes formed by the Logos, and the Spirit in the history of Revelation and Salvation.

The Roman biblical scholar expanded on the various hermeneutical perspectives of the Sacred Scripture, of the historical-critical method and of its proper understanding. He pointed out the possibility of a secularized hermeneutics and postulated a better acceptance of the biblical interpretation renewed by Dei Verbum. In approaching the Bible, he described as "dramatic and liberating" the act of "transcending the letter in order to pass to the spirit". He also underlined the advantages of a deeper understanding of the unity of Scripture, the dialogue between Christians and Hebrews, and the relationship between pastoral and theological magisterium.

Professor Manicardi expressed his hope that "the reflection of Christians and people of good will in the coming years will lead to fruitful developments of communion, peace and religious depth for the Church and for the world".

The Reader's Ministry, core topic for update the Word

Professors and students, priests, monks, religious and lay people participated in the academic workshop 'The God Who Speaks'.

Photo: Manuel Castells

Professor Jaime Sancho Andreu, Full Professor of Sacred Liturgy of the School of Theology San Vicente Ferrer (Valencia), spoke on 'The Word of God in the Sacred Liturgy (Verbum Domini 52-71)'. In his lecture he addressed points of liturgical theology around the Word as sacramentality, actuality, performativity, "new event" and contemporaneity.

He recalled the mutual dependence between the Word of God and the Eucharist: "They are theological realities that belong so intimately together that one cannot be understood without the other".

On the other hand, in exposing his thesis on the sacramentality of the Word, he affirmed that "the proclamation of the Word of God in the celebration entails recognizing that it is Christ himself who is present and addresses himself to us to be received. Christ, truly present in the species of bread and wine, is present in an analogous way also in the Word proclaimed in the liturgy". For him, it is up to liturgical theology to clarify the outlines of this analogy.

Professor Sancho then discussed the Lectionary of the Roman Missal. He began by alluding to its genetic process in both the Christian East and West. He then broke down some criteria for the selection of the readings, showing with pedagogical examples the internal dynamics of this liturgical book. Referring to the ministry of the lector, he explained how, through his mediation, "the Word of the past becomes the Word of today. Through proclamation, the word of that time, distant in time and in the place where it was generated by divine inspiration, becomes the Word of God today and here, with the power of the Holy Spirit, under his shadow, as a new revelatory event, a place where the Word is reborn: in the lector Christ speaks today to his people".

Finally, he referred to the convenience that the homilies have Christ as their center, that they not be abstract or generic and that they be pronounced "by ministers endowed with a good and updated training in biblical and liturgical theology". He stressed that these "should come from the prayer and Christological contemplation of the ministers who deliver them as authentic and qualified diakonia to the People of God".

Gonzalo Aranda, Full Professor of Old Testament at the University of Navarra, also participated in the workshop . His talk was on 'The biblical word, the way from God to man, from man to God'. In it he presented the vision of the Sacred Scripture that comes from the first chapter of the Exhortation dedicated to the God who speaks. More specifically, he referred to the insertion of the Bible in the Trinitarian and historical dimension of Revelation, in the living Tradition of the Church -as the place of origin of Scripture-, and in its understanding in the light of the analogy with the Incarnate Word.