Even though he’s a great scholar and everything he says is brilliant…

…I just have to point out some of the specific things Pope Benedict says sometimes. Like comments this week at the Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s. As I read the Vatican Information Service daily news release on it, a few things caught my attention that are otherwise nice passing thoughts to people who sort of hear the whole message but don’t zero in on particular words or phrases.

Which is one of the points of Benedict’s message. It was contained within an ongoing catechesis on the early Church Fathers, and this one was about Ambrose of Milan.

It was Ambrose, the Pope explained, who “brought meditation upon the Scriptures into the Latin world, … introducing the practice of ‘lectio divina’ to the West.” This practice “guided all his own preaching and writing which flow, in fact, from his listening … to the Word of God.”

This grabbed my attention, because it has been changing the way I not only read Scripture, but hear it at the Mass. Loosely translated, Lectio divina is the practice of reading Scripture until one word or phrase or passage speaks clearly to you, and you stop there and meditate on the deeper meaning that is speaking to you.

For instance, the other day the Gospel was Luke 11:5-13, and the preist was reading…”And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you…” I’ve heard that passage all my life. But for the first time I was startled by the clarity of the statement….not that you may receive, or you can or just might receive. But that “you will receive, you will find, the door will be opened to you.” I was still absorbed in the clear promise of that statement by Christ to his disciples, when I heard the ending of this passage: “If you then who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

When Scripture speaks to you in that way, prompting discernment and meditation….that’s lectio divina. It’s hearing the word of God and incorporating it into your life.

“It is evident,” the Pope added, “that the preacher’s personal witness and the exemplary nature of the Christian community influence the effectiveness of preaching. … From this point of view, one decisive factor is life context, the reality of how the Word is lived.”

In other words, speaking or listening to the words are only one part of preaching. Their intention is to effect a change in behavior that acts out what the words of Scripture teach. And acting according to the Gospel is a life-changing witness.

Benedict XVI recalled the fact that St. Augustine in his Confessions recounts how his own conversion was not due “chiefly to the beautiful homilies” of Ambrose, whom he knew in Milan, but above all “to the witness of the bishop and of his Milanese Church, who sang and prayed together like one single body.” Augustine also tells of his surprise at seeing how Ambrose, when he was alone, would read the Scriptures without moving his lips, because at that time reading was considered as something to be proclaimed out loud in order to facilitate its comprehension.

It is “in such reading, … when the heart seeks to achieve an understanding of the Word of God, that we catch a glimpse of Ambrosian catechesis,” said the Holy Father. “Scripture intimately assimilated suggests what must be announced to convert people’s hearts. … Thus catechesis is inseparable from life witness.”

Smooth transition into teaching what catechesis should be — not something taught from books and lectured from lesson plans.

“Who educates in the faith,” he continued, “cannot run to the risk of appearing like a clown who plays a role, … rather he must be like the beloved disciple who rested his head on the Master’s heart and there learnt how to think, speak and act.”

That was a very keenly shaped conduct code aimed at cathecists. Think about the two images Benedict presents here, and the behavior of both ‘educators of faith.’ There are clowns, and there are disciples. The beauty of it is that in so few words, he says so much.