In this morning's post, we spoke of Divine Revelation. We mentioned Revelation is transmitted, from one source, but in two distinct modes, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. In this post, and in the next, we will speak of Scripture in a bit more detail.
Before we go on, popular language typically refers to the Scriptures as the Bible. Scriptures literally means "the writings". "Bible" is adapted from the Greek word "ta biblia" which means "the books". They are pretty much synonyms. The Catechism uses the collective word "Scripture" instead of "Scriptures".
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines Sacred Scripture as "the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit." (paragraph 81). The word "speech" here is important. Revelation is indeed God speaking to us; it is not just showing us, or demonstrating something, but more than that, desiring a connection with us . In order for God to communicate with us, and establish that connection, it would make sense that He would choose to speak human words.
However, God did not choose to just open the skies and speak from the heavens. He chose, rather, to speak through human beings like you and me, in the pages of Sacred Scripture.
Why did He chose to do it this way, and not more openly? This is only my speculation, but I think that it has something to do with the reality that we are more open to hearing something, and comprehending it better, especially when it comes to Divine realities, if it comes in the course of everyday speech, rather than if it was thunderous and loud. We would not be "afraid" of what was said. Furthermore, I think only a select few people, saints, would be able to understand if God spoke as He would normally communicate. By communicating in human words, He can reach more people, who may not be in as tune with heavenly realities. God speaking in human words, the Catechism says beautifully, is the "condescension of his goodness" (p.101).
So Scripture is God speaking in human words. What is he speaking? He is speaking His Word, Jesus. As the Catechism says in paragraph 181, "Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely." Ultimately, everything in Scripture points to Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
But what about the Holy Spirit? Well, we can only be led to Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the inspiration and interpreter of Sacred Scripture.
In order to understand Scripture in accordance with the Spirit, three criteria must be followed:
1) There are different forms of literature in the Bible, from different time periods, but they all form one unity. Any understanding of one particular passage must take into account the unity of the entire book.
2) The Scriptures must be read within the Tradition of the Church. The Church came before the Bible. Yes, some of the books were written before the Church began, but they were not declared to be part of the Canon of Scripture until after the Church was founded by Our Lord. "Canon" means "list of books". In this case, it was which books were inspired, and which were not. (We will speak more about the contents of the Canon in the next post.)
3) When reading Scriptures, we must be attentive to the analogy of the faith. This means we must read the Scriptures in light of what the Church teaches about faith and morals.
The Church teaches there are two "senses" of Scripture, the literal and the spiritual. The literal refers to the literal words on the page. The spiritual sense refers not to the literal text, but to the spiritual realities they point to.
The spiritual sense can be further subdivided into three more types. The first is allegorical. Something can be a figure of something else. Most of the time, when speaking of this sense of Scripture, it means something being a figure of Christ and the Church . For example, the bronze serpent tied to the pole (Numbers 21:8-9) is a symbol of Christ on the Cross. The second is moral. The words in Scripture should lead us to act a certain way. For example, in giving the Ten Commandments to Moses to give to the Israelites, or Paul waxing lyrical on love to the Corinthians, God is also inspiring us to live in moral ways. Finally, there is the anagogical sense. The word means "leading"; Catholic theology takes that to mean here "leading to heaven". Some things in the Scriptures point directly toward heavenly realties; for example, Jerusalem can be viewed as a symbol of the Church triumphant.
Joseph, one could say, has different "senses". There was a literal, historical figure. Anagogically, one could say he was an earthly figure of the heavenly Father. What he taught Our Lord by word and deed can indeed be received by us in the moral sense as instructions for us, too. Like Sacred Scripture, Joseph is a gift to us that can be understood in different ways, but all of them true, and beneficial, for our salvation.
Thank God for His gift of Divine Revelation. Thank God for Sacred Scripture. Thank God for Saint Joseph.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
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