Many Catholics do not think or read anything to do with their faith. Indeed, we are almost illiterate when it comes to matters of faith. We are inclined to leave it to other people to do our thinking spiritually.
Collectivist thinking is a common substitute for personal growth and mature conscience. But each of us must think and read and pray to find meaning for his/her life. It doesn't come naturally.
Cardinal Martini of Milan has a vision for the church's future. "The Bible should become the book of the future for the European continent," he has said. "The Bible appeals to the modern conscience because it speaks through stories and narrative."
He also speaks about the cathechism. "I would not entrust myself to the formula that the cathechism is the instrument of a new evangelisation. The instrument is the Bible," he said. A catechism is necessary but it gives all the answers. Pat answers. Its problem is that it kills the discussion so necessary for learning.
Most people relate to Jesus outside of history. He dispenses messages from his heavenly throne where he sits at the right hand of the Father. This leads to a false image of Jesus as someone unreal.
He was a historical person. We are in danger of forgetting that. In recent years, his message has been reduced to the private world of the interior life and one-to-one relationships. Unlike him, his modern-day followers do not feel called to influence history. They are not confronting the evils of this time. Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.
Jesus didn't come to give answers to all our problems. He asked more questions than he gave answers. He taught by stories and parables.
The Gospels are the experience of the first Christians and Jesus's work with them. They are not at all concerned about being true to the historical Jesus. They were written from the perspective of people who had experienced Jesus as the Risen Christ.
Lectio Divina (Sacred Reading) fosters a double awareness. In Lectio we are like the first Christian communities, meditating on the life and teaching of Jesus. Through it he becomes a real presence among us.
The Bible stories haven't got one meaning but many, depending on the context. Jean Luis Secundo, the South American theologian, said: "God shows up in a different light when his people find themselves in different historical settings." To speak of God and his creation is to speak the language of imagery and metaphor.
There is no other way. It is better to live with unanswered questions than questionable answers. We, as a church, have been giving questionable answers for far too long. We are inclined to make absolute what is relative.
Archbishop Oscar Romero said: "I study the Word of God to be read on Sunday . . . I look around me, at my people. We use the Word to shed light in my sermons. Naturally, the idols and idolatries of the earth are irritated at this Word and they would like very much to remove it, to silence it, to kill it. Let happen what God wills, but God's Word, as St Paul said, is not tied down."
THOSE and similar words cost Archbishop Romero his life. Before he died he said: "People are my prophet. Each of you has to be a microphone of God. Everyone of you a messenger, prophet." He had named the grace of preaching as belonging by right of baptism to the people of God.
For the first 1,000 years of the church, Lectio was the common way of reading the Bible. It is a dialogue between the written biblical Word and our experience. Our encounter with the text is personal. To "do" good Lectio we must trust our feelings.
On the other hand, we must listen to the insights of others. The Bible may not speak to each of us in the same way. It is the Spirit who is the guiding force of Lectio, who leads us to unity with Christ. Lectio is a theology that is deeply subversive of all sorts of oppression. It brings spirituality and theology together.
In Lectio we do not learn theology, we "do" theology. Theology is a praxis in the sense that the kind of question asked can only be answered by the transformation of the person asking. We do not think ourselves into a new way of living. We live ourselves into a new way of thinking.
Theology in the last 400 to 500 years has suffered greatly by entering the schools and universities, thus becoming abstract, elitist, and divided against itself. "Where is the wisdom that we have lost by knowledge?" asked T. S. Eliot.
School theology appeals only to the intellect. Community theology (Lectio Divina) appeals to the intellect, emotions, imagination. In that way it is superior.
At present, we have in our seminaries a compartmentalised faith which no longer addresses the pressing concerns of humanity. Community theology or Lectio is the way forward.
It teaches us the meaning of our lives by questions and stories. We ask the questions Jesus asked. "Who do you say I am? What do you want? Why do you not believe? Why are you anxious about clothes? Are you envious because I am generous? Do you think I have come to abolish the law and the prophets? How many loaves have you? What did you go out to the desert to see?"
Jesus taught by asking questions, telling stories and parables and by leaving it to us to find the answers. It being the case that the shortest distance between a human being and the truth is a story.
Father James O'Connell SMA lives in Cork