The Eucharist is shaped by the Scriptures. The various prayers, and especially the Eucharistic prayers, constantly allude to the Bible. In the First Eucharistic Prayer it is assumed that the Christian is familiar with the significance of Abel, of Melchizedek, and of Abraham, our father in faith. One reason for encouraging a deeper understanding of the Scriptures is to help Christians appreciate the Eucharistic texts. The most important way in which Christians encounter the Bible at the Eucharist is in the Liturgy of the Word, when portions of the sacred text are read from the lectionary.
When the first Christians developed a Liturgy of the Word to precede the celebration of the Eucharist, they were influenced by the practice of the Jewish synagogue, where the main liturgical event was a series of scriptural readings. The five books of Moses - the Torah - were read systematically, section by section. Other passages, from the prophets were also read. It took time for the New Testament writings to be accepted as “Scripture” by the first Christians: when they thought of Scripture they normally meant what we call the Old Testament. But gradually, as we see in the quote from Justin (November Newsletter), they came to read out passages not only from the ancient Hebrew Scriptures, but also from writings concerning Christ.
In early centuries the various Christian communities had different ways of arranging the readings. A common pattern was to have one or more Old Testament readings (The Prophet), New Testament readings (The Apostle), and a Gospel. As the various Christian communities developed their systems, the appropriate passages were marked in the biblical text to guide the reader. Later, the texts were copied out into special books, the first lectionaries.
The most obvious plan for selecting texts is to read the Bible continuously, section by section. That was how the Torah was read in the Jewish tradition. The advantage of this approach is that it is thorough, and respects the structure of the texts; the believer is able to follow the development of the biblical writer’s thought.
But the principle of continuous reading has its drawbacks. It could, if relentlessly followed, disconnect the reading from the present experience of the Church, whose situation might call out for a particular passage. Or the community might be celebrating a feast for which a specific reading would be appropriate. A mechanically continuous reading would also be tedious; it would not reflect the priority which needs to be given to certain portions of the Scriptures (such as the Gospels), and it could mean plodding through page after page of obscure texts.
The second principle for choosing texts overcomes these problems: passages are chosen because they are appropriate to the feast or the liturgical season of the present situation of the local community. In the first part of the fifth century, Egeria, a pilgrim to the Holy Land, noted approvingly that in Jerusalem at Easter the scriptural passages proclaimed in the liturgy matched the feast. This suggests that in the part of the Church from which she came such a custom was not practiced.
The problem with choosing portions from here and there in the Bible to suit the local situation is that much of the Bible may not be read. What is read may simply reflect what the local congregation wants to hear, or what the local preacher wants to preach on. Christians may get an unbalanced scriptural diet, and may never hear the hard sayings which will spur them to growth in Christ.
Most Christian lectionaries combine both these approaches, the continuous and the topical, as does the Roman Lectionary currently in use by the Church. In the Sunday lectionary there is a semi-continuous reading of the Gospels during ordinary time (with a year for Matthew, Mark and Luke, and with John read on the remaining Sundays of the year of Mark and in special seasons). But in the major seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, and on the major feasts, the Gospel is chosen to fit the season of feast. For the second reading on Sunday the New Testament letters are read in a continuous pattern. The first reading, from the Old Testament, is chosen to prepare the way for the Gospel of the day.
The use of the lectionary forces us to confront certain difficult issues, no matter what principle of organization it follows. A lectionary is necessarily selective; not all the Scripture can be read. The question arises: Who will do the selecting? Use of the lectionary reminds us that the Bible is meant to be read in the context of the community of faith. It is the bishops and the pope who have apostolic responsibility for guiding the Church, who approve the selection of texts, and so signal the priority the Church gives to the proclamations of various sections of the Bible.
How long should the lectionary texts be? The individual passages tend to be short, although longer versions are sometimes supplied. Unfortunately, the passage proclaimed at the Eucharist is a small portion clipped out of its biblical context, and to understand it properly the Christian must rely upon a personal knowledge of its original setting within the Bible. A good reason for encouraging Christians to read the Bible at home is to help them recognize the context of the excerpts they hear at Mass. In the present Roman Lectionary the ancient (but not universal) practice of having three readings at Sunday Mass was adopted: an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, and a Gospel. Although this allows for a broad exposure to the Scriptures, it also means that the individual readings will be shorter than they would be if there were only two. Longer passages might better convey the substance of the sacred text.
A lectionary not only determines the selection of Scriptures which will be proclaimed to the people, but also the wording. This is important, since most people’s main encounter with the Scriptures is in the liturgy. It is important that the translation accurately convey the word of God. And this must be done in circumstances in which the hearer is not able to check other translations, or study the nuances of the text.
For the new Canadian lectionary, the bishops chose the New Revised Standard Version, an excellent translation. But still, difficulties can arise with any text proclaimed in the liturgy. The sound of the translation must be considered: what causes no difficulty in private reading may sound strange when proclaimed aloud. In private reading one can always check the notes at the bottom of the page to discover the meaning of unusual terms; in public proclamation such terms need to be clarified in the translation itself. And a few words often must be added at the start of a reading to make the context clear.
In addition, some passages of Scripture can cause negative reactions among the people of God. If these arise from a refusal to hear the word of God, then they can be ignored. The word must be proclaimed, whether it pleases us or not. But sometimes other things are at issue. In John’s Gospel, the evangelist often refers disparagingly to “the Jews.” He is reacting to negative experiences of unbelief among his Jewish contemporaries, at a time when Jewish Christians were in conflict with the synagogue authorities. This affects his description of those among the Jewish people who opposed Jesus, particularly the Jerusalem leadership. In the context of centuries of Christian persecution of the Jews, these references could be taken to support continued anti-semitism, something not foreseen by the author.
Another issue is that of inclusive language. In principle, a translator should try to express faithfully the meaning of the original text, and not make it say what modern hearers wish it had said. A faithful rendering of the original Greek or Hebrew often results in expressions which are masculine in form, and which reflect accurately the human context within which the divine revelation took place. The best approach is to deal at the level of interpretation, not of translation, with any questions that modern Christians might have about these passages. But in our present situation these expressions may raise a barrier which reduces the ability of many Christians to hear the message of the Scriptures. Sometimes it is possible to phrase the translation in such a way that it responds to this concern but does not alter the meaning of the scriptural text. Sometimes it is not.
The use throughout the Church of an established set of readings at the Eucharist is a great blessing. Those who go to Mass every Sunday, and certainly those who do so every day, are exposed to an abundant selection from the Scriptures. The Sunday and weekday lectionaries fulfil the mandate of the Constitution on the Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council, that “in order that believers can be provided with a richer diet of God’s word, the rich heritage of the Bible is to be opened more widely” (Sacrosanctum concilium, 51). The lectionary is also a sign of the unity of the Church: each Sunday throughout the world the same passages of Scripture are proclaimed. The effect of this is magnified by the fact that many other Christian communities, not in union with the Catholic Church, have modelled their lectionaries on the Roman Lectionary. And the lectionary forces both believer and preacher to get beyond an individualistic approach to Scripture. We do not pick and choose the passages we would like to hear at the liturgy. They come uninvited, and then we ask ourselves what God is saying to us in portions of the Bible which we might not choose to read.
The lectionary is the principal means through which we encounter the Bible in the Eucharistic liturgy. Over the centuries many different systems for selecting the lectionary texts have been tried, and each approach has its limits. But we have a real treasure in the lectionary, a means by which, if we are attentive, we may fruitfully hear the word of God.
(Permission to copy granted by Cardinal Thomas Collins on October 12, 2016)