At his Wednesday General Audience on January 28, Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to rediscover the Word of God as a living guide for daily life, emphasizing that Sacred Scripture cannot be separated from the Church’s living Tradition.
Continuing his catechetical reflections on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the Pope returned to the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, which addresses Divine Revelation. According to Vatican News, Pope Leo stressed that the Word of God entrusted to the Church must be carefully preserved and faithfully handed on amid the challenges of modern history.
“The ‘deposit’ of the Word of God is still in the hands of the Church,” the Pope said, calling it a “lodestar for our journey through the complexity of history and existence,” according to Vatican News.
Pope Leo explained that Scripture and Tradition are not competing sources of truth but flow from the same divine origin. Drawing on the Gospel, he recalled Christ’s promise to send the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles “into all the truth,” as well as the risen Lord’s command to teach all nations what He had handed on. These moments, he said, show how Christ’s words continue to be transmitted across generations through the Church.
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Quoting Dei Verbum, the Pope noted that Sacred Scripture and Tradition “flow from the same divine wellspring” and “merge into a unity,” according to Vatican News. He explained that Tradition allows the Word of God to remain alive, growing and unfolding under the guidance of the Holy Spirit rather than becoming fixed or outdated.
“The Word of God is not fossilized,” Pope Leo said. Instead, it is “a living and organic reality that develops and grows in Tradition,” according to Vatican News.
The Pope also highlighted the Church’s role as the guardian and interpreter of this sacred deposit. Citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he reminded the faithful that “Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart rather than in documents and records,” underscoring the communal and spiritual nature of Revelation.
According to Vatican News, Pope Leo explained that Tradition deepens through prayerful reflection, lived experience, and the authoritative preaching of bishops who succeed the apostles and have received “the sure gift of truth.”
To further illustrate this living reality, the Pope turned to St. John Henry Newman, who described Christianity as a dynamic reality that grows like a seed, animated by an inner life given by Christ Himself.
Pope Leo concluded by reaffirming Dei Verbum’s teaching that “Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church,” according to Vatican News. This deposit, he said, must be preserved intact and faithfully transmitted so that, under the action of the Holy Spirit, it may continue to lead souls to salvation.
In a time of uncertainty and rapid change, the Pope’s message offered a clear reminder: the Word of God remains alive in the Church, guiding believers not only through written texts, but through the living faith handed down from the apostles to today.
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