Embodying the Word
Reflections on the Theology of Proclamation
The scriptures remain dormant until brought to life in the liturgy: unless and until the words of scripture are proclaimed, the Word remains silent.
Anyone who has proclaimed the scriptures, as well as everyone in the assembly who listens to the readings Sunday after Sunday, is aware that the lector’s role requires special abilities, knowledge and skills. Since there are numerous resources that adequately deal with the more technical aspects of this liturgical ministry—correct breathing, voice control, eye contact, etc.—there is no need to discuss them here. Helpful as they are, such articles and books tend to leave unaddressed the theological dimension of lectoring. What, theologically speaking, is this liturgical function which demands special abilities, knowledge, and skills? An appreciation of the theological significance of the role will perhaps incite those who have been designated to proclaim the word further to hone the skills and to develop the expertise necessary in fulfilling the task.To this end, the following reflections explore aspects of what can be called a theology of proclamation.
A Theology of Proclamation
The revision of the lectionary, perhaps the most important and far-reaching aspect of the Vatican II liturgical renewal, was immensely instrumental in reinstating the scriptures to the prominence they had enjoyed in the early church. In addition to the lectionary itself, the ritual reading of the bible, now done in the vernacular and facing the assembly, lends a high profile to the liturgical act of proclamation.
Because these reforms are relatively new, a theology of proclamation is only recently beginning to emerge.[1] The basis for such reflection appears in the Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. Wishing to show how the liturgy is intimately linked with God’s activity of saving the world through Christ, paragraph 7 of the document states:
To accomplish so great a work [i.e., the salvation of humankind], Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, (…) but especially under the Eucharistic species. (…) He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the church. He is present, finally, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised: “Where two or three are gathered together for my sake, there I am in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20).
According to this statement, the expression of God’s redemption of humankind is most fully realized through Christ’s presence in the liturgy. This presence comes about in four distinct yet interrelated ways: in the assembly, in the presider, in the liturgy of the word, and in the eucharist. In each instance this presence of Christ is a real presence, for his presence in the eucharist is not presence by exclusion but par excellence. That is so say, his real presence in the eucharist does not preclude his real presence in other aspects of the celebration. Thus the document states that when the scriptures are read in the liturgy, it is Christ Himself who is speaks. It is important to note that this avails not only for the gospel, but for the entire liturgy of the word. Implied here is nothing less than that the lector, in fulfilling the task of reading the scriptures in the liturgical assembly, is a mode of the real presence of Christ. Why and how is this so?
Succinctly put, the lector embodies the Word. The Word of God cannot be reduced to or identified with the alphabetic signs printed on the page—these are lifeless signs, letters devoid of spirit. The printed letters and words and sentences imprison a “voice” which, to be released, must once again take body in sound. No word, whether human or divine, can exist without a body. To allow the Word of God to become present once again, the one who proclaims lends his or her bodied self to the voice of the text; he or she speaks the voice of the text in his or her own voice.
The role of lector requires self-emptying. The lector gives the gift of his or her person so that the voice of the text might come to life. The text cannot speak itself; thus, the Word of God in scripture is vulnerable, for God needs a human voice through which and in which to become present. The word that becomes flesh is not the lector’s word; it is, according to the ritual formula said at the end of the reading, “the Word of the Lord.” The proclaimer embodies the word in order to bear witness to it, for in the proclamation the lector makes present to the worshipping assembly a God-suffused vision of the world offered via the scriptural text.
Through the lector the voice of the text becomes a living presence, the written words are transformed into an event in the assembly’s here and now. Above all, this is made possible through of sound, the home of language. Sound indicates presence. Speaking forth a text orally before an assembly makes the text alive and present, filling acoustic space within the flow of irreversible time. Thus, the lector is an incarnation of the Word; through and in the lector the Word becomes flesh.
The very act of reading aloud not only embodies the Word and testifies to it; the oral performance of the Word also constitutes the listening assembly. Oral performance demands an audience which is called to listen, for there is no need to read aloud if no one is there to attend. Oral proclamation creates a presence in the midst of the assembly, a presence which the assembly receives by listening. By listening, by letting the sounds of the words penetrate into its mind and heart as meaning, the assembly itself becomes an essential dimension of the Word’s liturgical incarnation.
That is why in liturgy the scriptures are read aloud. Although today, with the proliferation of missalettes and with widespread literacy, it would be possible to have the members of the assembly each read the selected passages individually and silently in their pews, the result would not be liturgy. Without oral proclamation there would be no embodying of the Word. Without embodying there can be no real presence of the Word, and, as the document cited above attests, liturgy by definition means the presence of the Lord. The here and now of the embodied word of scripture addresses the here and now of the assembly, the assembly is called to respond so that through it this world might be transformed.
Hear, then, the Word of the Lord
Gail Ramshaw-Schmidt describes the task of the lector in this way: “Your goal as readers is to read the lessons so well, to proclaim the word with such authority, that all the people lay down their folders [or missalettes] and listen to the reading of scripture, and, listening, understand. This experience is a corporate one, and one which you as readers have the power to create or to destroy.”[2] How, then, does the lector go about the task of embodying the word in the liturgy?
The most important quality the lector must possess is imagination. Through imagination the reader enters into the text. Imagination allows the reader to transform the written words into sense experience, that is, the lector must see, hear, smell, taste, feel what the text is describing. Only when the reader becomes lost in the text can the text be free enough to find its voice again.
The task demands great familiarity with the bible as a whole, with its various books, with the different literary genres they contain, with the historical context of the events recounted. Bible study, therefore, is essential. The lector also must be attentive not only to the voice in the text, but also to the voices of the different characters, to the rhythm and cadence of the sentences, to the sound and weight of each word.
It is important not to read too rapidly. The words, phrases, and sentences must be clear the first time, and although the transmission of sound is practically instantaneous, it still takes some time for the listeners to transform the sounds into images and tastes and smells and textures, to transform words into meaning. The voice of the text must be given all the sounding and resounding time it needs to be adequately embodied, both in the lector and in the assembly. Biblical passages usually contain much feeling and emotion. It is especially this aspect of the voice in the text that needs to be embodied. The lector’s task is not to emote or to make the assembly emote, but to make present the passion in the text. Finally, lectors are to proclaim with authority, in a strong, self-assured voice. The scriptures, after all, are good news, the word of the Lord which brings salvation to the world.
Faith, says Paul, comes through hearing (Rom 10:14). It is the lector’s privilege and responsibility to assure that the Word’s words are heard.
[1]See, for example, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, The Word’s Body: An Incarnational Aesthetic of Interpretation (University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1979); Adrien Nocent, “La Parole de Dieu et Vatican II,” in Pierre Jounel et al (eds)., Liturgia, opera divina e umana: studi sulla riforma liturgica offerti a S. E. Mons. Annibale Bugnini in occasione del sue 70e compleanno (Bibliotheteca Ephemerides Liturgicae, Subsida 26; Roma, CLV: Edizione liturgiche, 1982), pp. 133-149; Isabelle Renaud-Chamska, “La lettre et la voix,” La Maison-Dieu 190 (1992), pp. 25-49.
[2]Gail Ramshaw-Schmidt, “Dimensions of a Parish Program,” in Horace T. Allen, Jr. (ed.), The Reader as Minister (Washington, D.C.: The Liturgical Conference, 1990), p. 57.
By Normand Bonneau, OMI
