Ashley Noronha joined John Morales on Morning Air to reflect on Pope Leo XIV’s Wednesday General Audience from January 28, continuing the Holy Father’s catechetical series on Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on Divine Revelation. The discussion focused on the Pope’s teaching regarding the living relationship between Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, a theme that remains central to the Church’s understanding of how God continues to reveal Himself to His people.
Pope Leo emphasized that divine revelation was never intended to be confined to a written text alone. Christ entrusted His saving truth to a living Church, one that would faithfully receive, preserve, and proclaim the Word of God across generations. Scripture, while inspired and authoritative, was given within the life of the Church and remains inseparable from Sacred Tradition. Together, Scripture and Tradition form a single sacred deposit of faith, safeguarded and interpreted under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
During the audience, the Pope underscored that the Church does not merely study Scripture as a historical document. Rather, the Word of God is encountered within the Church’s prayer, liturgy, teaching, and witness.
To illustrate this living dynamic, the Pope turned to the witness of the saints, who throughout history have shown how Scripture deepens when it is received with faith. He recalled how Pope Saint Gregory the Great taught that, “Scripture grows with one who reads it.”
Saint Augustine likewise recognized that Scripture unfolds most clearly when lived, as the holiness of the saints reveals the Word at work in real human lives. “The Word of God unfolds through the lives of the saints.”
Pope Leo also drew from the theological vision of Saint John Henry Newman, who described the Church as a living reality that develops organically over time. Under the care of the Holy Spirit, the Church grows in understanding without altering the truth she has received.
In closing, the Pope urged the faithful to safeguard the deposit of faith with reverence and responsibility. He urged Catholics to preserve it with fidelity, while still allowing it to speak anew in every age and in every life. Noronha and Morales reflected that this call is especially timely, reminding Catholics that fidelity and vitality are not opposing forces. When Scripture and Tradition are held together within the life of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, the Word of God continues to form disciples who are rooted in truth and alive in faith.