WORDS NOT CHATTER
- Feb 17
- 1 min read
200 Words: Echoes Becoming Encounters
Every Wednesday the pope gives a catechesis, meaning ‘to echo.’
The teaching of Jesus echoes down the centuries, enlightening hearts and minds, helping to answer the two questions St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) put to God during the night:
God, who are you?
God, who am I?
Pope Leo XIV has begun a year of catechesis on the documents of Vatican Council II (1962-1965). This major gathering of bishops helped the Church to present her 4,000-year spiritual tradition in language accessible to the modern mind.
Leo has chosen to start with Dei Verbum, meaning the ‘Word of God.’
What teaching is contained in this document?
God speaks to us as friends (DV 2).
But God is God. We are creatures. How can we be friends with God?
Because Jesus has become one of us and has called us his friends (John 15:15).
This is a remarkable truth. Just as remarkable as the fact that God speaks to us:
It is words, not chatter. Chatter is superficial, just information and news.
Words create authentic relationships, revealing who we are to one-another (Leo XIV).
God revealing himself to me. God revealing me to me.
We best listen attentively.
AMEN.
