"Lest They Become Empty Preachers": Rayburn, the Catholic Church and the Word of God

“Ignorance of the scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”  Thus affirmed St. Jerome, fourth century theologian and second most voluminous writer in Christian antiquity (after Augustine).  We know Jesus Christ because we have read, and reflected upon and prayed over the scriptures.  In the modern age, the Catholic Church likewise asserted at the Second Vatican Council that the study of the Bible is “the very soul of theology.”[1] 

In the mission of Young Life we follow in the footsteps of our founder, Jim Rayburn, who considered it the greatest job in the world “to thumb the pages of the New Testament, which was written to make Jesus Christ known, and to do it in the presence of a group of people who are listening, who know you care about them.”[2]  Rayburn loved the scriptures.  His diaries are littered with biblical references which inspired the winsome ways he was able to speak to teenagers about Jesus.  His spirited preaching issued forth from the fount of deep, personal intimacy he had with his Savior through the sacred pages of God’s Word.

The Catholic Church promotes a constant and diligent study of the scriptures, particularly those who are engaged in ministry.  Borrowing from the words of St. Augustine, the Council exhorted, “For it must not happen that any of them become ‘empty preachers of the word of God to others, not being hearers of the word in their own hearts.’”[3]  This phrase, “lest they become empty preachers of the word, not being hearers of the word in their own hearts,” is one worth pondering again and again.  Rayburn was fond of proclaiming Christ as the “strongest, grandest, most attractive personality ever to grace the earth.”[4]  But he also warned, " a careless messenger can reduce all this magnificence to the level of boredom.” 

Lectio divina is a practice of reading, reflecting and praying the scriptures that has blessed the church from its earliest days.  Its power is unleashed in the careful listening to God in the biblical texts, a practice that both Rayburn and Augustine embodied in their lives and ministries.  “Our communication with our Divine Friend needs to be a two-way street,” notes Basil Pennington, Trappist monk and retreat master.  “And if we are smart, we let God get the first word in.  For he surely has a lot more that is worth saying.”[5]

Let us go to the scriptures today and every day with an attentive ear, letting God get the first word in, being hearers of the word in our hearts.  Lest we become empty preachers, let us listen, really listen, to our God who, “in the sacred books, comes lovingly to meet his children and talk to them.”[6]

Father, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  God our Savior desires all men and women to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved than the name of JESUS.

*For a deeper understanding about the way the Catholic Church studies and understands the Bible, see The Pontifical Biblical Commission’s The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church at  http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/pbcinter.htm

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[1]             Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation), 24.

[2]             Kit Sublett (editor), The Diaries of Jim Rayburn, Colorado Springs, CO:  Morningstar Press, 2008, xv.

[3]             Dei Verbum, 25; St. Augustine, Sermon 179: PL 38, 966.

[4]             Kit Sublett (editor), The Diaries of Jim Rayburn, Colorado Springs, CO:  Morningstar Press, 2008, xviii.

[5]             M. Basil Pennington, Lectio Divina: Renewing the Ancient Practice of Praying the Scriptures, NY: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1998, xi.

[6]             Dei Verbum, 21.