Reflecting on the “Liturgy of the Word” Wednesday, Pope Francis insisted that good readers must be found to proclaim the biblical readings in order for the faithful to get the most out of the experience.
“We must look for good readers,” Francis said in his weekly General Audience in Saint Peter’s Square, “those who know how to read, not those who read ‘nyanyanyanya’ and you can’t understand anything. And so, good readers. You have to prepare and practice before Mass to read well.”
The Pope insisted over and over on the importance of reading and meditating on God’s Word, where “we gather together to listen to what God has done and still intends to do for us.”
“When the Scriptures are read in the Church, it is God who speaks to his people and Christ, present in the Word, announces the Gospel,” he said.
Francis also warned against distractions, which rob listeners of the fruit of the biblical readings.
So many times, he said, we can say to one another “look at him, look at her, look at that ridiculous hat she is wearing…”
“If you are talking to other people then you are not listening to God’s Word,” he said.
“We need to listen and open our hearts,” he said, “because it is God himself who speaks to us, rather than thinking about other things or talking about other things.”
“The pages of the Bible cease to be just a text to become a living word, pronounced by God. It is God who, through the person who reads, speaks to us and challenges us who we hear with faith,” he said.
The Spirit who spoke through the prophets and inspired the sacred authors, “makes God’s Word truly bring about in the heart what is resounding in the ears,” he said.
“God speaks and we listen to him, and then put into practice what we have heard,” he said. “It is very important to listen. Sometimes we may not understand well because there are some readings that are difficult. But God will speak to us in another way.”
The pontiff also decried omitting or swapping the approved biblical texts with some other reading material during Mass, recounting that he heard of one church where they were reading the newspaper rather than the Bible.
“No! The Word of God is the Word of God!”, he said. “We can read the newspaper later. But there we read the Word of God. It is the Lord who speaks to us. Replacing that Word with other things impoverishes and compromises the dialogue between God and his people in prayer.”
The word of the Lord is an indispensable help not to get lost, he said, recalling the words of the Psalmist who proclaims to the Lord, “Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
“How could we face our earthly pilgrimage, with its labors and its trials, without being regularly nourished and enlightened by the Word of God that resounds in the liturgy?” he asked.
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