Catholic Analysis

As I follow some of the accounts of the bishops' Synod on the Bible in Rome, I cannot help but note the comments by various bishops on the urgent need to bridge the gap between ivory tower biblical scholarship and the daily Christian life of often very simple Catholics. As an intellectual and a student, I know that there is something in us that loves to overcomplicate matters, sometimes unnecessarily and pedantically. The scholarly tendency cannot be allowed to erase the unassailable fact that the Bible is a word of salvation for all people, whether educated or not, whether intellectual or not. Understanding and acting upon the Good News does not require an advanced degree. Our intellectual labors should, in the end, aim to present the Bible in as coherent and clear a manner as possible and not to isolate it from the common man and woman. Otherwise, we are not carrying out the mission of Jesus and are merely building a new Tower of Babel where we boast to God about our own skills. Here is a news link in which the Cardinal from Honduras seems to make a similar point in his own words.

One of the most exciting things you will ever experience in life is reading beyond and below the surface of the Scriptures. Of course, I am assuming that you are Christian and that you have freely and sincerely asked God at some point for the full release of the Holy Spirit in your life. When the Spirit opens the Scriptures for you, the circuits light up, to the point that the experience can at times be overwhelming as you see how all parts of the canon illuminate each other. Or, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, citing St. Augustine: "the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New" (CCC 129). The outpouring of the Holy Spirit also opens up the personal sense of Scripture: how the living Word of God addresses your very own, very personal life circumstances. When the Scriptures are so read in these various rich senses, within the Catholic tradition and in accord with the teaching authority (magisterium) of the Catholic Church, we are, in a sense, in heaven on earth. The teaching authority of the Church protects us from shipwreck and from running aground. As one priest-professor said in class, the magisterium provides the buoys that keep us from running aground in our interpretations.

Prof. Robert Wilken helps us recover this rich reading of Scripture in a very basic but very useful plea, a cri de coeur, for the allegorical tradition of the Church. Wilken is a Catholic and a well-known patristics scholar at the University of Virginia. Here is the link to his article "How to Read the Bible" in the March 2008 issue of First Things (available to subscribers only at this time; eventually available to all as time passes). His article specifically focuses on allegory. Here is an excerpt describing the impact of looking for allegory in our Bible reading:

The Bible becomes a vast field of interrelated words, all speaking about the same reality: the one God revealed in Christ, whose work was confirmed by the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.

The task of an interpreter is to help the faithful look beyond the surface, to highlight a word here, an image there, to find Christ unexpectedly, to drink at the bountiful spring whose water is ever fresh. Though early Christian exegesis may on first reading appear idiosyncratic and arbitrary, it arose within the life of the Church and was practiced within a tradition of shared beliefs and practices, guided by the Church’s faith as expressed in the creed. Exegesis was not about novelty but about finding the triune God in new and surprising places within the Scriptures.

Wilken, "How to Read the Bible," March 2008, First Things (emphasis added).

Here is the link. Explore and enjoy this Christmas gift from the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy! (For those interested in also getting the Hebrew and Greek texts, you need to download the program. Most users will likely have no interest in the original languages and so can use the program without downloading.)

ST. JEROME: COHERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND THE DIVINE WORD
(Emphasis added by blogger)

VATICAN CITY, NOV 14, 2007 (VIS) - At today's general audience, Benedict XVI continued the catechesis on St. Jerome which he had begun last week. Addressing the thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square, the Pope explained how the saint was "enamoured of the Word of God," and "an eminent doctor in the interpretation of Sacred Scripture."

For St. Jerome, said the Holy Father, the Bible was "the stimulus and the source of Christian life for all situations and for all people. To read Scripture is to converse with God."

"For Jerome, a fundamental criterion for interpreting Scripture was that it should harmonize with the Magisterium of the Church," said the Pope, going on to observe that "we cannot interpret Scripture alone because we come across too many closed doors and fall into error. The Bible was written by the People of God and for the People of God. ... Only in this communion of the People of God can we enter 'with ourselves' into the heart of the truth that God Himself wishes to tell us." In this context, Benedict XVI recalled a phrase of St. Jerome: "He who clings to the chair of Peter is accepted by me."

The Pope went on to indicate how Jerome "did not overlook ethical aspects and often recalled the duty of living in accordance with the divine Word. Such coherence is indispensable for all Christians, and especially for preachers" whose actions must be "in keeping with their words."

On the subject of coherence the saint affirmed that "the Gospel must be translated into attitudes of true charity because the Person of Christ is present in every human being. ... And Jerome makes it clear that 'it is yours to clothe Christ in the poor, to visit Him in the sick, to feed Him in the hungry, to shelter Him in the homeless'."

The saint "also left us a rich and varied teaching on Christian asceticism," said the Holy Father. "He recalls the fact that courageous commitment to perfection requires constant vigilance, frequent mortification (with moderation and prudence), assiduous intellectual or manual work to avoid idleness and, above all, obedience to God."

"Among Jerome's main achievements as a pedagogue we must highlight the importance he attributed to healthy and complete education from earliest infancy, ... and the need for study in order to achieve a more complete human formation. Moreover, a question somewhat overlooked in antiquity but considered vital by our author was the promotion of women, whom he recognizes as having the right to a full education."

The Holy Father concluded his catechesis by emphasizing "the effective contribution" made by St. Jerome "in safeguarding the positive and important elements of the ancient Hebrew, Greek and Roman cultures in nascent Christian civilization."

AG/JEROME/... VIS 071114 (470)

Fr. Cantalamessa, the papal preacher, presents his commentary on Sunday's readings at this Zenit link. The Gospel reading is the familiar story about the dishonest steward who acts "prudently" by using his position to gain favor with the debtors of his employers. Jesus praises that resourcefulness, not the dishonesty. As Fr. Cantalamessa says in his short commentary, Jesus calls us to act quickly, to be resourceful, to be clever in order to save ourselves and others. That is the virtue of prudence in action. A good definition of prudence, that I have read elsewhere, goes something like this: prudence is the ability to act quickly and appropriately in a given situation. Most of us will respond to this definition by saying--"I only wish I could do that." You are right: we alone can't do it. Wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit that we received in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. We have to "fan" that gift by asking for more and more of the reality and release of that wisdom and discernment everyday of our lives. If we ask, God always hears and God always responds in the wisest and best manner possible since, of course, He knows all that we really need. He has already given us wisdom through the sacraments: we simply have to ask again and again to have that wisdom released in the different circumstances of our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Then we will be able to act resourcefully with a wise cleverness that "saves" the circumstances in which we and others find ourselves. We have been given the gift. Now, we have to be clever enough to unwrap it and use it and not leave it in the closet.

In the side margin of this blog, I have a featured quote of the day. Today's quote is aptly enough the famous Socratic statement that wisdom consists in knowing that I do not know. As a virtuous pagan, Socrates prepared the way for the Christian gospel which eventually would reach Europe through St. Paul. Let's start first with the wisdom of Socrates and stop believing the fantasy that we really are, on our own, so wise and so resourceful. Once we get over that self-delusion, we can abandon ourselves to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom, and really start living wisely. It is the same initial recommendation you will find in various "Twelve Step Programs."

Today's N.Y. Times has a personal profile of an ex-rich man who "had it all" according to what American culture considers worth having ("Life Changes, with a Latte to Go," by Joyce Wadler, Sept. 13, 2007, "Home and Garden" section). He lost it all, and ended up working as a senior citizen at the local Starbucks so he could get health insurance. He now lives in a sparsely furnished apartment. My sense of the article is that he is happier now than when he was hobnobbing with the rich and famous elites. Here 's the link and judge for yourself. It's a modern parable of losing your life in order to find it. Sure sounds familiar.

What is missing is an explicit faith in Jesus as assumed in Luke 9:24 (ESV): "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it" (emphasis added). Also consider John 12:24-25 (ESV): "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." Yet, often we need to hit bottom before we can even dare to become open to that explicit faith in Jesus. I urge you to view and hear the video interview of the ex-rich man at the N.Y. Times website. He emphasizes again and again how happy he is now--now that he has lost it all and gained everything. The Scriptures foreshadow the reality of our lives--another reason to read them again and again.

Beginning next summer, Benedict XVI has declared a Year of St. Paul to commemorate the birth of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, who is also a martyr of the Church in Rome. Here is an excerpt on St. Paul from a very good biblical scholar, Richard B. Hays, who teaches New Testament at Duke University. The excerpt is from a commentary on 1 Corinthians and describes the type of churches founded by St. Paul:

The church is a charismatic community. As we have noted, Paul pictures the church as a community in which the Holy Spirit operates in powerful and palpable ways through gifts of healing, miracles, and revelatory speech, including tongues and prophecy. Churches in the Pentecostal tradition and communities that have experienced charismatic renewal have recovered such gifts as an integral part of Christian worship and ministry; these manifestations of the Spirit have particularly characterized the rapidly expanding churches of the Third World. In many churches, however--perhaps most churches in the historic Protestant traditions--such phenomena are unknown and may be perceived as threatening. For such churches, 1 Corinthians 12 will indeed look like somebody else's mail. While Paul is aware that the workings of the Holy Spirit are not limited to the more spectacular manifestations that we now characterize as "charismatic," we should not domesticate his conception of the Spirit's power by excluding such gifts from our field of vision--as though he had been talking only about serving on the finance committee or planning the Sunday school curriculum. Teachers working through this text [1 Corinthians 12] with a class unfamiliar with the manifestations of the Spirit that Paul describes in verses 8-10 might plan to take the group to visit a contemporary community where tongues and prophecy are manifested in the worship service. Such communities should not be hard to find, for in our time the Spirit has chosen to distribute these gifts in churches all around the world. Any community committed to taking Paul's vision for the church as a model for its life will have to ask seriously whether 1 Corinthians 12 does not summon us to open ourselves more radically to the possibility of such manifestations of the Spirit in our midst.

Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians, in the series Intepretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1997), p. 219 (only red emphasis added).

Let's focus on several things in this rich excerpt. Prof. Hays is a Protestant who, in this excerpt, is addressing the failure of "most churches in the historic Protestant tradition" to take the charisms seriously. That angle will be a surprise to those misinformed Catholics who view the charismatic renewal as being allegedly "too Protestant." Many Protestants want nothing to do with the charisms. In fact, not long ago, I recall that the Southern Baptists forbade their missionaries from praying in tongues! I can assure you that no such absurd prohibition will ever arise in the Catholic Church. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly mentions the present, continuing reality of the charisms, including miracles and tongues [see Section 2003 at this link (scroll down); see also Sections 799-801].

Also, notice that those Protestants identified as Pentecostals do embrace the charisms. Yet, some, like me, think that the Pentecostals are in a distinct category from Protestants and that we should make that distinction clear. In my opinion, it is most accurate to treat the labels "Protestant" and "Pentecostal" as separate categories. In any event, the Pentecostal embrace of charisms does not make the charisms any less Catholic at all. Virtually all Protestants and most Pentecostals practice the Sacrament of Baptism in a manner (use of water along with invocation of the Trinity, to put it concisely) recognized as valid by the Catholic Church. That Protestant and Pentecostal reality obviously does not make the Sacrament of Baptism any less Catholic. So it is an illogical non sequitur (something that does not logically follow) to say that charisms, because embraced by Pentecostals, are not Catholic. And not only that--to reject the charisms, even the more spectacular ones such as miracles, healing, tongues, and prophecy, as somehow non-Catholic, is plainly heretical because such a rejection contradicts the divine revelation of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition as clearly taught by the papal magisterium, most authoritatively reconfirmed in Vatican II and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We can even go further in subverting flawed labels by saying that Catholics are indeed the most authentic "Pentecostals" because Catholics maintain the fullness of truth to which the Holy Spirit leads us, as Jesus said in John 16:13 (look it up!).

So, when someone says that the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is "too Protestant," you have a strong basis to point out--kindly, patiently, gently, and lovingly--that most Protestants reject any charismatic renewal (in fact, apparently many Protestants seem to believe that charisms such as tongues ceased with the apostolic age) and that, in contrast, the Catholic Church clearly embraces the continuing and present reality of the charisms described in 1 Corinthians. But make your fraternal correction with a smile on your face, manifesting the joy which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and exhibit the other fruits of the Holy Spirit in your life (see the list in Galatians 5:22-23), so that your witness will lead to a deeper conversion by your friend and not to division, alienation, unnecessary offense, and scandal.

The next title of Jesus to consider is "Son of God." Benedict summarizes the subversive import of this title:

Because of the title "Son of God," then, the fundamentally apolitical Christian faith, which does not demand political power but acknowledges the legitimate authorities (cf. Rom 13:1-7), inevitably collides with the total claim made by the imperial political power. Indeed, it will always come into conflict with totalitarian political regimes and will be driven into the situation of martyrdom--into communion with the Crucified, who reigns solely from the wood of the Cross.

Benedict, p. 339.

The Roman emperors also styled themselves as "sons of God" and even accepted pagan "deification." So for the early Christian to pledge allegiance to only one Lord and to only one Son of God was subversive and deviant. The early Christians were not model citizens of Rome in the sense of conforming to the wild claims of imperial propaganda and self-aggrandizement.

We too, today, even in the blessedly democratic West are also subversive if we really claim and confess Jesus as the only Son of God, as therefore the ultimate Sovereign, the only Lord. When we claim Jesus as the only Son of God, we reject the power of a bankrupt culture that incites us to our basest instincts, whether it is avarice, gluttony, lust, or even violence. So we should not be surprised if our lives include conflict, turmoil, and at times great awkwardness. We live in a culture that rejects the ultimate sovereignty of Jesus and instead sets up other, well-known idols, especially consumerism and the debilitating intoxication of escapist, superficial pleasure that is really joyless and that leads nowhere.

Benedict also points to the intimacy of Jesus as Son with the Father, the Father whom Jesus calls "Abba" in the Gospel of Mark (p. 344)--today, Jewish children in Israel refer to their own fathers as "Abba," pronounced, as I am informed, in the very same way as this word is written in our Bibles. For the Pope, the following passage, the "Joyful Shout" or, in German, Jubelruf, of Jesus encompasses "the entire Johannine theology of the Son":

At that time Jesus declared, 'I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes [to little ones]; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son wills to reveal him.

Matthew 11:25-27; Luke 10:21-22, as quoted at Benedict, pp. 339-40.

Benedict points out how God chose the simple, the foolish, as those to whom he reveals Himself. Again, we have here a divine subversiveness which defies our arrogant and imagined prerogatives as those in the know, as the learned, as the clever. Today, as in every age, we see how the so-called conventionally clever and conventionally shrewd end up destroying their own souls, so to speak, in a cleverness that ends in meaninglessness and dishonor. Look around you, and you will see an abundance of examples that I do not need to specify. Yet, our society covers it all up in a conspiracy of denial and silence which entices others onto the same dead end path to nowhere. The theme of God's choosing the foolish to shame the wise is also a theme of St. Paul (see 1 Cor. 1:18f, 26-29; 1 Cor. 3:18, quoted at Benedict, p. 342). These passages are among my favorite expressions of Pauline eloquence.

So do not think that the real Christian, the one who dares to affirm Jesus as the ultimate Sovereign who is supreme over all other political or cultural authorities and over all the authorities that our imaginative vanity will deify, is a slavish social conformist. A real Christian is a subversive.

Recently, the Pope declared a year dedicated to St. Paul from June 2008 to June 2009 to celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle to the Gentiles (here is a Zenit link with more details). Catholic author Steve Ray has made available a time line of St. Paul's epistles and journeys at this PDF link for anyone interested. As Steve Ray notes on the time line, there is much scholarly debate about all of these dates; but we do need some approximations from which to get our bearings as we study St. Paul's writings.