Lectio divina is, in a sense, always theophany – it is always the divine self-revelation, which is of course what Christ is – who sees Christ, and we could say, hears him and tastes him, sees and hears and tastes the Father. This is why the events of the Burning Bush in Exodus 3 and the Synoptic Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration become so important for the person who would make lectio divina their way of prayer. God’s self-showing in both is about self-communication and about redemption. In the case of Moses before the Bush the God who saves reveals himself by name and in this very moment begins the deliverance proper of the people whom he has chosen to be his own, because it is on the authority and with the authority of that name that Moses will go and approach Pharaoh – this is the Pharaoh who, by the way, wanted to kill Moses in the first place! And also with the moment of the Transfiguration. It is not that the contemplative should sit on the mountain gazing at this revelation – if the three disciples are not given that privilege we can hardly count it as ours, and in any case, the moment passes, and rightly, since Jesus must make his passing on up to Jerusalem, literally, his own exodus, if we follow the Greek term at this point. So, the Transfiguration and the theophany which occurs there completes the theophany of the Bush – now it happens within the context of the newly and about to be newly liberated Israel, which has acquired its new characteristic – community formed around Christ, the well-Beloved, who brings all previous revelations into completion. And this is, for us, the beautiful fulfilment of Martin Buber’s well-known phrase:
“we expect a theophany of which we know nothing but the place, and the place is called community”.
This theophany happens for us within the community called together as Church around Christ, a community which is brought into being by the Word and is sustained by the Spirit of the Word, breathed forth both from the Cross and in the Pentecost experience, at least in Chapter 20 of St John’s Gospel. And it finds a context in all the other faith groupings of which we have part and which contribute to the life-giving trinity which we all seek, of identity and belonging and community. It is, therefore, sacramental set within a necessary sacramental context: the Word cannot be brought forth except that it is conceived in this sacramental womb of the baptised person in the Church, and this really pregnant aspect of conceiving, expecting and birthing is essential – it is, after all, Mary’s experience!
Thus it is that Dom André Louf, the well-known Cistercian author, confirms the profound realisation for us about the Word in Sacred Scripture being already sacramental:
“The Spirit is enclosed within the Word of Sacred Scripture. That is why it is “sacrament”.
It continues to journey along with its people; and to the degree that this people makes progress, to the extent that holy history continues, in that measure the Word becomes more full, I dare to say…. the mystical experience cannot be detached from the Word of God. The strength of the mystical experience is found only in the context of the Word, within the Church.” And of course if it is sacrament it is Christ, who never fails to make himself presence in the reality of sacred mystery. This is central to our lectio divina in faith – it is, as we have said, an incarnational experience. We cannot ever, after the moment of the event of the Incarnation, separate Christ Jesus out into constituent elements (as if, indeed, it was ever possible anyway), because the realities of Word and Flesh have no false dichotomy, a point which is established in the Johannine Prologue and never loses its force after that. Thus, the Word is the complete Christ who communicates himself to us, joins with us, makes his home within us. Now we, who open ourselves to enter into this encounter-event, must do so with the awareness that it is this sacramental Jesus who communicates himself to us, and so provides us with a new moment of communion.
-Part of our ‘Lectio Divina’ series-
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Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey, Portglenone 