Safeguards against misreading a Bible text.
Allowing personal experience to influence our interpretation of the bible seems to go against the objectivity of divine revelation – a fundamental tenet of our faith. As a catholic church we are wary of anything that smacks of private interpretation.
God has chosen to reveal himself in dramatic narrative complemented by parables, proverbs, saying etc. This is the teaching method which could chose – out of respect for humanity, out of a desire to dialogue with humanity, in his hope that humanity would freely enter into collaboration with him in the building up of his kingdom. The father believes in us, he trusts us to work it out for ourselves. Nothing delights him more than when we discover the truth for ourselves.
God does not communicate by passing on information which we can take or leave – he invites us to enter into conversation with him. In choosing this teaching method we are not passive recipients, our input in needed for interpreting the text. It is not an academic conversation – it is one that speaks to our imagination, stirring up memories, evoking feelings, eliciting responses. The feeling responses are not an optional extra – they are integral to the teaching method.
Of course there is risk involved – that people might come to the wrong conclusions, as has sometimes happened in the history of the church – apartheid in S.Africa, religious wars, colonialism, slavery etc – people believed that what they were doing was in obedience to the bible. Today bible reading has been used to justify intolerance, racism, extreme nationalism, prejudice and bigotry.
Inevitably, there are potential pitfalls and Lectio Divina has a number of safeguards in place to avoid them or at least to minimize the risks.
God has chosen to trust us and who are we not to trust ourselves or one another. Who are we to say it is too risky. We trust that he knows what his is doing.
God is the author of Sacred scripture and he is the creator of humankind – another word of God. The spirit of God is at work in both. We are made for each other. There is a kinship, a compatibility, an attraction for each other. Ultimately, neither can contradict the other.
Sacred scripture speaks to our life experience in the sense of what is best in us, to what is best in humanity – noblest, deepest, truest – to the core goodness at the heart, made as we are in the image and likeness of the creator. We have a built in orientation to the good. We are flawed, yes, but still fundamentally good, at least in potential. It also speaks to what is evil in us, to the obstacles that stand in the way of the love of God becoming manifest in us.
If we are faithful to the movement of goodness and the movement of sin in the text, there is less chance us going astray. The text itself is a touchstone of the truth of our interpretations. We need to be able to show where it is in the text.
Reading the passage in community is an essential element of Lectio Divina – in offering our meditation and listening to the meditations of others we get a real sense fo whether we are on the same track, whether our interpretations resonate with that of each other. This is not a private interpretation but a community one. We can trust the community – where tow or three are gathered in my name..
Along with the local community we also listen to the wider church community – the teaching authority of the church, the magesterium which speaks on doctrinal and moral matters. If we find our interpretation contradicts this then we need to look again.
And then of course our interpretation must be in accord with what is best in our tradition.
From experience I would have to say that not once in my 20 years of practicing Lectio have I witnessed anyone interpreting a passage in a way that contradicts the teaching of the church on moral or doctrinal matters. At the same time, I have experienced people doing Lectio who are not afraid to respectfully challenge the church to look again at some aspects of its unfolding tradition as it seeks to manifest more fully the presence of God in the world today. And that can only be a good thing for the life of the church.