A dictionary is, by definition, a reference book listing terms important to a particular subject along with a discussion of their meanings and applications.
If the Bible is what Christians say it is, can there be any task more daunting than the compiling of a Bible dictionary? For we believe that the Bible is the written Word of God.
We believe it is “inspired by God” (2 Tim 3:16). We believe it is not a dead letter, but “living and active” (Heb 4:12). We believe it “must be fulfilled” (Luke 22:37) and “cannot be broken” (John 10:35).
What’s more, it is not subject merely to private interpretation (2 Pet 1:20), but to the discernment of the Church. For people can easily “twist” Scripture “to their own destruction” (2 Pet 3:16).
The Bible is as sharp as any two-edged sword (Heb 4:12), and thus it should be handled with care.
Yet it should indeed be handled. The Bible itself exhorts us to attend to its study (1 Tim 4:13) and praises those who “examine the Scriptures daily” (Acts 17:11).
We live in a time of unprecedented opportunities for Bible study. In the 1970s the Catholic Church revised its lectionary—the order of scriptural readings for the Mass. The readings now unfold in a three-year cycle and include all the books of both testaments of the Bible.
The schema proved so effective in communicating the Word of God that it has been adopted and adapted by many Protestant bodies as well. Historians may one day judge the new lectionary to be the most significant ecumenical advance of the twentieth century.
The Mass is the one thing that Catholics experience on a weekly basis all their lives, and the Bible is the one book that they will hear at every Mass.
Since Masses on Sundays and holy days usually include three readings from the two testaments, plus a fourth from the book of Psalms, the average faithful Catholic spends about fifteen hours a year in focused Bible study.
If you include the other overtly biblical parts of the Mass (the “Holy, Holy, Holy,” the “Lamb of God,” the “Lord, Have Mercy,” and so on), the average time per annum doubles or triples. For the Catholic who goes to daily Mass, the times are quite impressive, rivaling even the hours spent by some scholars.
What does the lectionary mean, practically speaking? It means that Catholics who keep to their minimum obligations—attendance at Mass on Sundays and holy days—are immersed in the Bible.
What’s more, since the lectionary itself is held in common by a growing number of Christians, we find that Catholics and Protestants may find, more and more, that they are “on the same page,” so to speak.
