Everyone, both inside and outside the Church, is aware of this has brought and will continue to bring. Not always, however, are we aware of the major source of the renewal, that is, where the real seeds of renewal are to be found.

Long before the Second Vatican Council was even thought of, a momentous renewal was happening in the area of Scripture. Scholars were working on newly discovered texts. Some of these were early pieces of biblical fragments; others were related texts from biblical times, but which gave new insight into the traditional texts. In addition to this, scholars were also learning to read the traditional texts in new ways.

And all of this was being done with a new attitude and a new methodology-one that can only now be recognized as a unique inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Are you old enough to remember the days when it was our custom to go to the Scriptures to find a few verses to back up what we wanted to believe? (Some people still do!) Today we are much more apt to go first to the Scriptures and there discover what we must believe. This reverse approach led to new insights about many areas of our faith. One of the richest of these was to understand Church as community, a people of God. Vatican II used this insight as the cornerstone of its teaching about the Church. Rarely and maybe never before had ordinary people been asked to think of the Church, actually themselves, as a people.

What a marvelous discovery rooted in a renewal that was taking place long before any of us ever thought about renewal in the Church.

© Harcourt Religion Publishers/BROWN-ROA