Continuing the cycle of General Audiences dedicated to a close reading of the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Leo XIV returned once more to Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. In this latest catechesis, the Holy Father focused on one of the Constitution’s central themes: the living relationship between Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition in the life of the Church.

Addressing the faithful gathered in the square, the Pope grounded his reflection in two Gospel scenes that illuminate how Christ’s word is preserved and handed on through time. The first takes place in the Upper Room, where Jesus, in his final discourse to the disciples, promises the gift of the Holy Spirit: “The Counsellor, the Holy Spirit… will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you… When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 14:25–26; 16:13).

The second scene leads to the hills of Galilee, where the risen Lord entrusts the apostles with their mission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19–20). As Pope Leo XIV explained, these two moments reveal the inseparable bond between Christ’s spoken word and its transmission across generations.

This is precisely the vision articulated by Vatican II. Dei Verbum teaches that “there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end” (DV, 9). Scripture and Tradition are not competing sources, the Pope emphasized, but form a single, living reality entrusted to the Church.

Ecclesial Tradition unfolds through history as the Church preserves, interprets, and embodies the Word of God. Quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Pope recalled an ancient patristic insight: Sacred Scripture is written not only on parchment, but “in the Church’s heart.” In this way, the Word of God is safeguarded not as a static text, but as a living inheritance.

The Council affirms that this Tradition “develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit” (DV, 8). According to Pope Leo XIV, this development occurs through prayerful contemplation and study by believers, through lived spiritual experience, and above all through the preaching of the successors of the apostles, who have received the sure gift of truth. As Dei Verbum teaches, the Church hands on to every generation not only what she believes, but what she herself is.

Here, the Pope recalled a well-known phrase of Saint Gregory the Great: “Sacred Scripture grows with the one who reads it.” Saint Augustine had already observed that the one Word of God resounds through many voices across time. The Word of God, therefore, is not fossilized; it is living, organic, and continually deepened within Tradition under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Pope Leo XIV also pointed to the insight of Saint John Henry Newman, who described Christian doctrine as a living reality that develops from within, like the seed in Christ’s parables. Authentic development, the Pope noted, does not distort the faith but allows its inner vitality to unfold within changing historical contexts.

Finally, the Holy Father turned to Saint Paul’s exhortation to Timothy: “Guard what has been entrusted to you” (1 Tm 6:20). Echoing this call, Dei Verbum teaches that Sacred Scripture and Tradition together form “one sacred deposit of the word of God” entrusted to the Church and authentically interpreted by her living teaching office. This “deposit,” Pope Leo XIV explained, carries with it the responsibility to preserve the faith intact and to transmit it faithfully.

Concluding his catechesis, the Pope invited the faithful to hear once more the Council’s affirmation that Scripture and Tradition are so closely united that one cannot stand without the other. Together, under the action of the Holy Spirit, they contribute to the salvation of souls—guiding the Church as she journeys through history, faithful to the Word entrusted to her.

I forgot to write about last week’s audience. Last Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV focused his catechesis on Dei Verbum by reflecting on divine revelation as a personal and relational encounter fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Drawing on Vatican II, the Pope emphasized that God does not merely communicate ideas but gives Himself, inviting humanity into communion as friends and children. In Christ—the mediator and fullness of revelation—we come to know the Father by sharing in the Son’s own relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit. Jesus reveals God not only through his words and deeds, but through the totality of his incarnate life, death, and resurrection. By embracing Christ’s full humanity, the Pope concluded, we discover both the truth of God’s love and our own identity as beloved sons and daughters, confident that nothing can separate us from the Father who knows us and cares for us.