To conclude
1. Is lectio divina the solution to all problems at this difficult time? No: lectio does
not solve our practical problems. But it is the sine qua non condition for a Gospel solution to them. The Gospel solution (which is neither obvious nor easy even for consecrated persons) comes from discernment, with which we try here and now to approach as far as possible the holy will of the Lord.
Now of the three elements of discernment (spiritual competence, professional competence, personal detachment) the lectio divina helps to acquire surely the first (evangelical and spiritual sensitivity), and as it familiarizes with God’s ways, it refines the supernatural instinct for divine things and for God’s ways of action in the world. In addition, it helps powerfully to acquire the third element, that is personal detachment, which is continually required of a disciple by the Lord, and is continually endangered by “the old man”.
There remains human competence, needed in the management of human things, and which no one is dispensed from acquiring as long as they live. When we have to manage works or treat earthly realities, then rationality and reasoning enter the field, for the simple fact that a Christian is not exempt from using and cultivating the great gift of reason which produces competence, which in turn requires commitment, dedication, honesty and toil. But this is altogether another topic. The contribution given by lectio divina, for a Gospel solution to various knotty problems posed by life yesterday and today, is still simply unique and not easily reached with other means.
2. A not secondary consequence: from a daily frequenting of the Word, one can
expect of consecrated persons the task of keeping a taste for the Word alive in the Church as Word of life, Word that nourishes, sustains and transforms life.
Fortunately today the Bible is being rediscovered as one of the great cultural codes of humanity; also non-believing laity are approaching this document with renewed interest, as it is one of the foundations of the West. And that is a good, also because new readings cannot fail to shed light on the extraordinary potentialities of the text.
But we should not forget that the Bible is not only a source of learning or basis of a civilization, but is above all the word of God which gives life, calls, provokes, sustains, encourages: it is a lamp for our steps and support to our heart, often lost and hesitant.
This interpretative river is kept alive by those who approach it with “religious listening”, with “praying familiarity”, with those who intend to make contact, heart to heart, with the heart of God. It is thus that the Word introduces us into a history of salvation, the fascinating and incomparable story of the building of a definitive world, through the happenings of a transitory world, a world which can appear quite impenetrable to the action of the Word itself, but which in reality is rescued and led to its goal by the presence of the Word, for the simple fact that this Word is living, is a Person, Christ the Lord, who sits at the right of the Father, defeated and victorious, humble and glorious, slain lamb and triumphant lion of Judah.
3. And now we leave the conclusion to a great, very active and very busy Father of
the Western Church, Saint Ambrose, who, having founded his basic formation on Scripture, stated one day as he was commenting on Ps 119:50,“This has been my comfort in my suffering: that your promise gives me life”: “This Word is the vital substance of our soul, it nourishes it, makes it grow, directs it... There is no other thing that can make a rational soul live as does the word of God”.
Will we, consecrated persons, be sufficiently rational to search for what makes us live also in our time and for our time?
Fr. Pier Giordano Cabra, fn
P. Pier Giordano Cabra, FN, giordano@cabra.it