Last week I made my annual pilgrimage to the national meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association, held this year at Chicago’s Loyola University. Some 360 scholars gathered, men and women from across the country, mostly Catholic and all dedicated to exploring the Word of God in a context of faith. With doctoral level educations they teach at seminaries and universities everywhere.

Many are old friends (after all, I’ve been attending the sessions for more than 40 years!), but there were also a large number of younger faces as well, which is good sign for the future!

The social hours are opportunities to catch up on gossip, but the real work of the meeting consists in the continuing seminars which meet each morning to study some specific Biblical issue of interest … such as the intricacies of Hebrew poetry, the background to the Gospel of Mark, the new assessment of the Pharisees, the original social context of the Gospels, or the use of typology in discovering the patterns of God’s dealings with Israel.

For the past seven years I have been a member of a group dedicated to the study of Biblical issues for Jewish/Christian relations; in that mix there are even two Jewish scholars who come because they find the discussions so stimulating, fruitful and enjoyable.

It is still very much a part of the Catholic approach to the Scriptures to seek the original historical context when a particular Word was first spoken. We call that approach the “historical critical method.” The more we know about the kind of human situation first addressed by God’s word, the more easily we can find similar modern circumstances which would equally benefit from the same teaching.

The Jesus Seminar folks don’t seem to capture much attention these days, at least not in that crowd, and the “The Da Vinci Code” didn’t even merit so much as a mention.

The presidential address attempted to explore the special focus of the Books of Chronicles, namely a persistent encouragement to joyful worship by the entire commu-nity of Israel. Another plenary session brought new light to the words of the Risen Lord to the disciples gathered in the Upper Room, and argued rather persuasively (with much positive approval from even the more crusty members present) that the reference to “holding fast” was not to sin in that context but rather to the members of the community whose sins had been forgiven by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 20:23)!

I was re-elected to my third term as chair of the board of trustees … a minor task which simply requires a five-minute stand up report on the health of the investments of the society. We have a substantial nest egg, generated from royalties to the association because of the generous work of our members in producing and revising the New American Bible. The interest from those funds is then distributed to support two archaeological expeditions in the Middle East (Tell Mozan / Urkesh and Tell Qarqur in northern Syria), scholarships for young students, archaeological stipends to members seeking that unique experience (which both Fr. Tom Suriano and I had at some point in our teaching careers), subsidized periodical subscriptions for our members and money for the support of visiting professors to Rome and Jerusalem.

Some 40 years ago, several of the major documents of the Second Vatican Council called the church back to our Biblical roots. We were reminded by the fathers of that Council that the language of Scripture should be used in preaching (Revelation §21) and in Catholic theology and catechetics (§24) as well as in praying (Liturgy §24). We were told very pointedly that the teaching office of the church “is not above the word of God, but serves it, teaching only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully …” (Revelation §10).

For that reason, the work of these scholars is very important for the entire life of the church. Returning to the actual expressions and mentality of the First and Second Covenants (Old and New) also lays the foundation for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue as well.

It’s solidly Catholic to embrace the Scriptures totally, but without being held captive by those early centuries. We are not fundamentalists or narrow literalists. Our understanding of the mysteries of God’s love and the impact of God’s mighty deeds deepens and grows over the years, to a great extend as a result of the prayer and religious experience of the laity (as the Constitution on Divine Revelation points out, §8).

Undoubtedly I have my own prejudices in the matter, but I went to the meeting out of a conviction that this type of learning is part of my service to the archdiocese. It was also a great deal of fun!