Ratzinger on Holiness and Interpreting the Bible

"The Saints are the true interpreters of Holy Scripture.  The meaning of a given passage of the Bible becomes most indelible in those human beings who have been totally transfixed by it and have lived it out. Interpretation of Scripture can never be a purely academic affair, and it cannot be relegated to purely historical.  Scripture is full of potential for the future, a potential that can only be opened up when someone 'lives through' and 'suffered through' the sacred text."

Joseph Ratzinger