Introduction

The eternal and uncreated Word became human words to nourish us with his divine Life. Like a beautiful stained glass window, the words of the Bible let the Light of God shine through and illuminate us.

The Bible is like a sacrament; a visible sign of an invisible grace, it has a human aspect, the words and the divine life within it. The sacramental reality of the Bible tells us that through its words we are able:

1.      to receive God himself

God is an uncreated being, which is beyond the grasp of our understanding. Through the human words of the Bible we are able to receive his divine life.

2.      to understand his words through our senses and intellect

We use our senses, vision and hearing, to grasp the human cover of the words we read, and our intellect and will work together to gain the necessary understanding of a text.

3.      to be nourished by his words in our hearts

The words of the Bible are carrying a divine life which nourishes primarily our heart or spirit. The words transcend our senses and intellect to reach this highest region of our being and transform it into God himself.

Without being aware of it, we may have a sterile attitude in the face of a text. The aim of the text is to transform us, however, we may remain at a level of reception that seems to nurture our intellect but does not lead to true conversion. The Word then does not attain its goal because of our distorted approach, we are no longer receiving a Sacrament but looking at a text. And, considering only the text, we are no longer in touch with the untreated incarnate Word, Jesus. Instead of listening, we stay on the level of a good explanation of the text or, even worse, that of simply projecting our own subjective feelings — i.e. our problems and desires — onto it. If Scripture is to nurture us, in both soul and spirit, we must be determined to let ourselves be disturbed, converted, jostled, and enlightened by what we read, instead of looking for what may comfort us.

There is a big difference between, on the one hand, "understanding" the Word of God and, on the other hand, "knowing" it. Understanding the Word leads to what Saint Paul said3: I know what I should do, but I do not do it; the Word is unable to incarnate itself in my acts and in my life.

Inversely, we can say we truly know the Word when, through an authentic and miraculous daily conversion, it really is incarnated in our lives. This is "miraculous" because it is an operation that touches the will and heals it. The will truly is ill in the sense that there exists a chasm between our intellect and our will, we know what we should do, but the will does not follow through. Saint Paul noted this when he said:

I do not do what I think is right.

When approaching the Bible, two levels must be distinguished:

1.    the level of understanding

2.    the level of listening

In order to understand a text, one must make use of all the tools the intellect has to offer, for example diverse methods of exegesis. However, this is far from a true Lectio Divina, we need to listen to what the Lord says to us through the text. The first step leads us to understand the meaning(s) of the text. In the second step, its task is to be the instrument of the One who wants to speak to me today and nurture me. The text is destined to become a Sacrament. The Untreated Word became flesh; it became a human word, not in the sense of being diminished or diluted, but in the sense that the Uncreated Word used the human word as a Sacrament to come to us and bond himself to us. We can analyze the material dimension of this sacrament (the literal, created human aspect of the text), but this will never give us God! It will give us an understanding of the text, a widening of the icon which constitutes its material dimension, but it will not give us the Untreated Light. Both levels need to be maintained simultaneously. The aim is not to submit to what is irrational but "sacramentalise" what is rational, to make it transparent so that the Uncreated Light may come through. Although we can make an excellent and bright analysis of a text, we are called to do something quite different. We have not yet gone into the process of simple Lectio Divina!

We can base all of Lectio Divina and its necessity on the words of the Lord: "apart from me you are not able to do anything" (Jn 15:5) and on the inner attitude of the Son of man described in Jn 5:19a-20: "Verily, verily, I say to you, The Son is not able to do anything of himself, if he does not see the Father doing it for whatever He does, these things the Son also does in a like manner; for the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing". These words are said in reference to the Son of man, and consequently they refer to all men. We must "see the Father doing"; Lectio Divina allows this. The essential point is for us to introduce all our conscious activity into this movement, to slowly submit it to God's influence and to his action. This is the very basis of Christian life and of Lectio Divina. If we do not do this, we are simply self-constructing our own personal being, our activities, our daily programme, our Christianity, and doing so in vain. We should meditate for a long time on the seriousness of Christ's words: "apart from me you are not able to do anything" (Jn 15:5). And, as a consequence: "I will show you my will each day and will give you what you need for putting it into practice". Anyone wanting to build Christian life or prayer life without these foundations is fooling himself, he is running away and straying.