During his General Audience on February 11, 2026, in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, Pope Leo XIV reflected on the power of Sacred Scripture to answer the deepest longings of the human heart, emphasizing that the Word of God draws believers into a living relationship with Christ.
According to Vatican News, the Holy Father told the faithful that “The Word of God responds to our thirst for meaning, for the truth about our life.” In a world filled with constant noise and countless messages, he warned that many words ultimately leave people empty. “We live surrounded by so many words, but how many of these are empty!” the Pope observed. Even when people hear wisdom, he noted, it does not always “affect our ultimate destiny.”
Continuing his catechesis on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the Pope returned to the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, highlighting what Vatican News described as the “profound and vital link” between the Word of God and the Church. He recalled that the Church “has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord” and “never ceases to reflect on the value” of the Word of God.
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At the heart of Scripture’s power, the Pope explained, is its unity with Christ Himself. “Christ is the living Word of the Father, the Word of God made man,” he said. All of Sacred Scripture, he added, “proclaim his Person and his saving presence, for each one of us and for all humanity.”
Because of this intimate connection, the Bible finds its true home within the Church. According to Vatican News, the Pope described Sacred Scripture as having its “rightful home” in the ecclesial community, since “under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Bible arose from the people of God, and is destined for the people of God.” Within the Church’s life and faith, he said, Scripture “finds the space where it can reveal its meaning and manifest its power.”
Pope Leo XIV stressed that the Church ardently desires that every member be nourished by the Word of God, which strengthens believers in their journey of faith and also sends the Church outward in mission.
Quoting St. Jerome’s well-known teaching that “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ,” the Holy Father explained that the ultimate aim of reading and meditating on the Bible is not merely study, but encounter. “The ultimate purpose of reading and meditating” on Scripture, he said, is “to get to know Christ and, through Him, to enter into a relationship with God, a relationship that can be understood as a conversation, a dialogue.”
According to Vatican News, Pope Leo further pointed to Dei Verbum’s presentation of Revelation “as a dialogue, in which God speaks to humans as though to friends.” This dialogue becomes real, he said, when believers approach the Bible with “an inner attitude of prayer.”
The Pope also underscored the essential role Scripture plays in the Church’s sacramental life. Sacred Scripture, “entrusted to the Church and preserved and explained by her,” he said, “sustains and invigorates the Christian community,” particularly in the celebration of the Mass and the Sacraments.
He called for special love and familiarity with the Bible among bishops, priests, deacons, and catechists, noting that “The work of exegetes and those who practise biblical sciences is invaluable, and Scriptures have a central place in theology, which finds its foundation and soul in the Word of God.”
In his catechesis, Pope Leo XIV offered a clear reminder to Catholics everywhere: Sacred Scripture is not a relic of the past, but the living Word that reveals Christ, nourishes the Church, and invites every believer into a personal dialogue with the living God.
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