The present article is a re-post of the one that used to be housed in the old articles' section of AgustinongPinoy. This was subsequently reprinted as part of a longer article on the reading of the Scriptures in the Order of St. Augustine in Augustinian Legacy, vol. 1, number 1, pp. 20-37.
Fr. Agostino Trape, OSA describes the way Augustine reads Scriptures in these words:
(I)t is not only reading which could be called a superficial activity, it is not only that study which is only an intellectual activity, not only that meditation which can be reduced to simple internal introspection...but also and above all, it is a combination of listening and dialogue. It involves listening in faith and docile obedience to Him who is present in man and speaks to him, and reveals his love to him and invites him to respond in love...In this listening-dialogue, which is the most beautiful and fruitful form of meditation, prayer takes on, equally spontaneously, the highest forms of contemplation which are, ... wonder, admiration, gratitude, adoration, praise, expectation that faith will be replaced by vision and that the divine word of the Scripture, which sounds in time, will give way to the Word which sounds in eternity; which sounds, not through the mediation of signs and creatures, but by itself, immediately. (1)
From this description, three qualities of the Augustinian �lectio� stands out: (a) it is affective as opposed to intellectual; (b) it is personally engaging as opposed to a detached reading; and lastly (c) it is ordered towards a personal encounter with God as opposed to a reading for the sake of information.
It is an �Affective� reading of Scriptures. In the �Lectio� one reads with the �heart� understood as that place within man where he is most himself -- the �I� of Augustinian interiority. It is not a sentimental reading of scriptures, but one that is intelligent and aware that in Scriptures, God the Father reveals to us His heart. Augustine himself gives us the motive: Scriptures, he tells the faithful, are like many letters sent to us by the Father in order to awaken in us the desire to leave Babylon (where we are now) and to go back home to where He is, the Heavenly Jerusalem. In the �lectio� one reads as one reading a love-letter. Augustine would say: �Scriptures tells us nothing except love.� And so, as one repeatedly reads the beloved�s love-letter, one should not get tired reading and re-reading the Scriptures. Augustine admonishes his listeners not to get bored of things from Scriptures that they have already heard. The ideal way of reading Scriptures, he says, should be like that of a ruminant.
By rumination, ... this means that everyone should put in his heart whatever he hears (from Scriptures) so that afterwards he would not be lazy in thinking about them; when he listens, let him be like one who chews. When he memorizes (in memoriam revocat) what has been heard and by meditation he recalls their sweetness, he becomes like a ruminant. (2)
This, and other similar texts -- both from Augustine and others -- gave rise to the practice of memorizing passages of Scriptures so that the religious may be continually immersed in God�s Word.
It is a reading that engages one personally.
Father Trape, OSA beautifully expresses this idea when he says that the "lectio" is a listening-dialogue. By this phrase, he reminds us of the Augustinian principle which states: �Your prayer is a conversation with God: when you read, God speaks to you, when you pray you speak to God .� The �lectio� engages the whole person in a dialogue with the One who makes His Word resound in the many words of men found in Scriptures. One reads the Scriptures differently from the way a novel or a newspaper is read.Scriptures engage its reader in two ways: (a) they reveal the reader to himself; and (b) they serve as a sure guide to what every man longs for: happiness.
The Scriptures as a Mirror. "In the (Scriptures)", Augustine used to say, "we see ourselves 'tamquam in speculo.'�as in a mirror." All of Augustine�s efforts in explaining the psalms to his flock comes from the conviction that Scriptures does not inform us merely of things past. On the contrary, Scriptures reveal to man the life he already lives. Augustine explains Roman 2:14 � 15a ( For when the Gentiles who do not have the law bynature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts) thus:
Even if the Law (of Moses) was not yet given then, no one was allowed to ignore it so that there was a basis on which one can be judged even if they have not received the Law. But lest men seek what was not there, what they would not read in their hearts was even written on tablets. It was not because the writing was not there; it was because they refused to read the writing! It was placed before the eyes of those who try to examine their conscience; moved by the voice of God, man -- like one outside of himself -- was compelled to go within himself, as Scripture says In (their) thoughts, the impious shall be interrogated. Where there is �interrogation�, there is the Law. But because men go after those which are outside of himself, they rendered themselves exiles from their very selves, even when the Law having been formulated, was given. It was not because the Law was not written in their hearts, but because you have become a fugitive from your own heart, and so you are recalled back to yourself by him who envelops you on every side. Because of this the law was written. And what does it say to them who desert the law written in their hearts? Return, O backsliders to your hearts!(4)
The Scriptures were first written in human hearts, but because man ignores them, the same Scriptures were given to him in the form of tablets so that by reading them, man is recalled to himself. Here, one finds the first step of Augustinian interiority: the return to the �I�. The second step is �transcendence�, for in the �I�, one discovers an �imago� � image -- which points one to God. It is at this point where one begins to discover that �our hearts were made for Thee, and they remain restless until they rest in Thee.�
The Scriptures and happiness. It is to Luc Verheijen that we owe the insight that the first book of the De doctrina christiana (On Teaching Christianity) -- Augustine�s treatise on the interpretation of Scriptures -- shows how, for Augustine, Scriptures guide man in his search for happiness(4) Indeed, the whole of Book I of the De Doctrina Christiana explains that �the end ... of all Scriptures is love� -- a love that respects the right order of things. It is by that right loving which Scriptures teaches that man journeys to that �thing� which alone can be enjoyed -- the Triune God -- in whom true blessedness is found. He, therefore, who wishes to give others a Christian formation must take this into consideration. Hence, Augustine�s first principle for discovering in Scriptures what is to be taught is stated thus:
If it seems to you that you have understood the divine scriptures or any part of them, in such a way that by this understanding you do not build up this twin love of God and neighbor, then you have not yet understood them. If, on the other hand, you have made judgments about them that are helpful for building up this love, but for all that, have not said what the author you have been reading actually meant in that place, then your mistake is not pernicious, and you certainly cannot be accused of lying. (5)
The reading of Scriptures must lead to the building-up of the love of God and neighbor. For only in thus rightly loving can one attain to the happiness longed for, since
(F)aith gives way to sight, which we shall see, and hope gives way to bliss itself, which we are going to arrive at, while charity will actually grow when these other two fade out......That is why there abide ... faith, hope, charity, but the greatest of these is charity (1 Cor. 13:13), because when anyone attains to the things of eternity, while the first two fade away, charity will abide, more vigorous and certain than ever. (6)
Reading Scriptures as an Encounter with God. The first two characteristics of the Augustinian �lectio� becomes more precise in the third characteristic: reading Scriptures is a privileged way of encountering God. The God whom Augustine and his sons after him knew, experienced and delighted in, was not the God of the philosophers, but the God who makes himself known as �Salvation.� Tell me, who am I that you should want me to praise you...Say to my heart�s ears: �I am your salvation.�(7)
For Augustine, the Scriptures is almost like a �sacrament.� The sacraments, as you know, are pregnant signs of God�s love. In approaching the sacraments, one approaches the God who is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. The same thing happens in the reading of Scriptures -- given the proper disposition. �For in the Scriptures,� Augustine tells us, �the One Word of God is echoed in many words of men�. Or as St. Augustine would write to Hippolytus, they are like the heart of Christ Commenting on the line: �My heart became like wax melting in the midst of my womb.� Augustine writes: �Indeed, it is certain that by �heart� he means us to understand a profound secret: �the heart� means his Scriptures, where his counsels are hidden which then was opened when, after having suffered, he fulfilled those things which had been prophesied...If the �womb� refers to the more interior parts of the body, then it is shown that the Scriptures, his heart, belong to them who are more perfect. -- �in their midst�, that is, in their thoughts; �like wax which melts�, that is, opened, discussed and explained in spiritual fervor.�(
(1) Agostino Trape, OSA "The Search for God in Contemplation" in Searching for God, 18. (2) Enn. in psa. xlvi, 1." (3) See "Prayer" in "Ten Augustinian Values for Students" (4) Luc Verheijen, "The Spirituality of St. Augustine and Ours" in Sharing a Common Legacy, pp. 16. 18 (5) I, 36, 40-41. Edmund Hill, OP (Trans.) Augustine's Teaching Christianity (New City Press: NY), 1996, p. 124. This does not mean total disregard of the intentio auctoris for charity's sake, since immediately he adds: "... They are mistaken in the same sort of way as people who go astray off the road, but still proceed by rough paths to the same place as the road was taking them to. Still, they must be put right, and shown how much more useful it is not to leave the road, in case they get into the habit of deviating from it, and are eventually driven to take the wrong direction altogether." (6) I, 42.43. Ibid. p. 125.. (7) Conf. I, 5. Maria Boulding, OSB (trans.) Augustine's Confessions. (New City Press: NY), 1997, p. 42 (
The quotation from St. Thomas Aquinas in the Catechism of the Catholic Church par. 112 (Expos. In Ps. 21, 11) is based on this text of Augustine.
