The Bible in the Liturgy

by Matthew G. Hysell

The first of the 16 documents released during the Second Vatican Council was the Dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), which mandated a restoration of the Roman Liturgy. Among the changes to the sacred liturgy in general was making the Liturgy of the Word more accessible to the People of God—by allowing the proclamation of the Scriptures in the vernacular and by allowing a wider selection of passages to be heard.

The primary use of the Scriptures has always been liturgical. The Sacred Scriptures were composed primarily for hearing: In Exodus we read how Moses had the Law he received on Horeb read aloud to the children of Israel. When King Josiah re-discovered the Deuteronomic Code in the Temple, he had it proclaimed to the citizens of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 22:8–23:3; 2 Chron. 34:14–33).

In Jesus’ day, the various scrolls of what is now the Old Testament were read in liturgical assemblies gathered in a synagogue. Luke 4:16–20 records Jesus proclaiming a text from the prophecy of Isaiah. St. Paul the Apostle expected his letters to be circulated and read in the liturgical meetings of Christians around the Mediterranean Sea basin. His letters were usually addressed to groups of people: "To the church of God which is at Corinth" (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1), "To the churches of Galatia" (Gal. 1:2), "I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers" (1 Thess. 5:27).

By the time the deutero-Pauline writings were composed, it was expected that they would be read not just to the believers, but during the assemblies: "And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea" (4:16). Already in the beginning of the second century, there was a pattern for the Liturgy of the Word, at least in Rome. St. Justin explains in his First Apology that the "memoirs of the Apostles" and the "writings of the prophets" were read to the Eucharistic assembly, after which the presider gave a homily or sermon. By the end of the second century, the pairing of the Liturgy of the Word with the Liturgy of the Eucharist was almost universal.

The Second Vatican Council placed renewed emphasis on the Liturgy of the Word and restored its place in terms of greatest importance. The Council Fathers taught that

It is significant here to note the distinction that constitutes "liturgy" and "sacrament" properly speaking. Whereas a sacrament is a sign instituted by Christ, the liturgy is the context in which that sacrament is administered. With the revision of the Roman Ritual, every rite, especially of the sacraments, is prefaced by its own Liturgy of the Word. The proclamation of the Scriptures has been restored to its rightful place by the Second Vatican Council as a constitutive and necessary condition of licit sacred liturgy.

In the context of restoring the Liturgy of the Word, the Second Vatican Council mandated a thorough revision of the Lectionary so that "a richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s word." Sacrosanctum Concilium goes on to say: "In this way a more representative part of the sacred Scriptures will be read to the people in the course of a prescribed number of years" (no. 51).

The reform of the Lectionary has yielded our present text in four volumes, whereas in the past the Liturgy of the Word was read from the Missale Romanum. The current Lectionary contains three readings: The First Reading is taken from the Old Testament except during Paschal Tide, when this reading is always from the Acts of the Apostles. The Second Reading is always taken from the New Testament and is followed by the Gospel. Between the First and Second Reading is the Responsorial Psalm, which is not a "reading," properly speaking, but the assembly’s response to the Word of God.

The Sunday cycle of Lectionary readings moves through a three-year period. Each year—A, B, and C—is assigned to one of the synoptic Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, or Luke, respectively. The Gospel according to John is spread out over these three years since the author does not share the Synoptists’ chronological pattern of Jesus’ public ministry. The weekday cycle, on the other hand, follows a two-year cycle—I and II—both having a First Reading and a Responsorial Psalm. The Gospel of the day, however, is identical for both years I and II.

The Ordinary of the Mass was not the only liturgy affected by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Other liturgies were revised as well, including the Liturgy of the Hours.

We know that the Apostles were accustomed to praying at various times throughout the day. Peter and John, for instance, went "up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour" (Acts 3:1). Later, Peter "went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour" (10:9). Resulting from Peter’s prayer, Cornelius is said to have prayed at the ninth hour and received a vision (10:30).

In keeping with the Jewish tradition of praying at the different "hours" of the day, the Church developed her own liturgy of praying the Psalms and other portions of Scripture throughout the day in the "Liturgy of the Hours." Divided over six "hours" or times of prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours are celebrated at morning (Lauds), mid-morning (Terce), noon (Sext), evening (Vespers), and nightfall (Compline), with an additional liturgy devoted to the reading of Scripture and the writings of the Fathers and saints (Matins). The Benedictine Order inherited its founder’s name for the Liturgy of the Hours: the "work of God" because it was "the better part" of the Christian’s life, the other "part" being manual work (cf. Luke 10:38-42). The "work of God" (in Latin, opus Dei) was translated into English as "the Divine Office." Even after the reforms of Vatican II, this older appellation is probably still more familiar than the newer "Liturgy of the Hours" (in Latin, Liturgia Horarum).

Later, the Church developed the custom of distributing the hours evenly throughout the day, in three-hour intervals, to commemorate the various moments in Jesus’ Passion. Mark records that Jesus was crucified at "the third hour" (15:25), and the whole region around Jerusalem darkened as Jesus was hanging on the cross at "the sixth hour" (15:33). It was finally at "the ninth hour" that our Lord expired (15:34).

Today, the third, sixth, and ninth hours correspond to the offices of Terce, Sext, and Nones. The so-called "major hours"— Matins, Lauds, and Vespers—constitute the framework for the celebration of the Divine Office. Lauds and Vespers, the "double hinge of the daily Office" (SC, no. 89a), formally open and close the day with psalms, canticles, and readings from the Bible. Matins is a much simpler but longer office in which three psalms are prayed and two readings follow, one from Scripture, and the next from one of the saints.

The "minor hours" of Terce, Sext, and Nones are the shortest (strictly speaking called "the daytime hours") and close with a collect immediately after the Scripture reading. Compline is similar to Lauds and Vespers, except there are shorter and fewer psalms, and the office closes with a Marian antiphon, usually the Salve Regina.

Besides keeping our attention fixed upon God, the Liturgy of the Hours is a remarkable way to be "attuned" to the Scriptures. The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours has this to say about reading of the Bible in the Divine Office:

The goal of Christian life, of course, is to become more like Christ himself. As the Risen Lord often said, the Scriptures were a testimony to His Paschal Mystery. The Catholic doctrine of the sensus plenior of the Scriptures says that in Jesus Christ the inner coherence and common thread are realized: Scripture is seen in its "fuller sense." By struggling and praying through obscure passages from the Old Testament, for instance, a person slowly learns to discern Christ who is prefigured. In the praying of the psalms especially, we come to assume the "consciousness" of Christ who inspired them, forming us into an alter Christus.

As the Fathers often said, the Old Testament prefigured what the New Testament reveals. It is in our conversation with Christ that He reveals to us the ways that Scripture point to Him, as if on a perpetual journey to Emmaus (see Luke 24:13–27).

The sacred liturgy is the "work of the people" who receive the Word of God, both verbal and sacramental. The goal of familiarity with the Bible is not—as Fundamentalists insist—to know "about" God and the things of God, but to know God revealed in Jesus Christ. The liturgy is thus "the Gospel worshipfully perceived," making the most appropriate context for Bible reading not the desk of the believer, but in the assembly of believers, in "full, conscious, and active participation" (SC, no. 14) of the sacred liturgy.

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