Good day to each of you! Well now that we have reached Eastertide We will be celebrating Easter for the next 50 days! So I thought we could continue our meandering through the Catechism. That really has been what I started doing last week and While the book itself can look very intimidating at over 800 pages, by breaking it down into bite sized chunks it is much easier. Now there is nothing scary in here, but it allows for us to delve deeper into our Christian Faith and allows us perhaps new ways to see our faith and even when we read Scripture.
Tradition of the Bible
So the other day I spoke of Scripture and tradition when it comes to our faith lives… It really is unwise to try and walk a faith life with just one of these. There are a number of people who will call out Scripture only, but the reality is that there are traditions that flow through Scripture… and in reality Scripture itself is part of the tradition of the Church. If you are from one of the traditions that claim Bible only or from a tradition that claims Only Faith or from a more traditional view of faith stick with me.
What you are probably going to see is that so much of what is believed by Christianity is shared and these walls that have been put up over the years should really be knocked down. There are some very distinct differences within our faith traditions, but where we can agree… let’s agree.
So putting my hand out on the table, let’s take a few minutes to get a handle on the Scriptures themselves. We went over the other day a bit of the history… There are much smarter people than I that have done marvelous historical works. Unfortunately, this usually gets worked up into the faith tradition. Taking the history and making it into this faith or that faith. It skews the information so look for a history that rings true to a history and not polemics… It might make you feel comfortable, but the goal here is Truth. I hear Jesus said something about truth Right?
Canon of Scripture
We talked last time about the Canon of Scripture again don’t really want to get into that argument. If you want to read all of Daniel great… if not, you will be missing some great teachings of God… but okay. Same with Wisdom, Judith and Tobit. If you want to and they are in the main body or in Apocrypha good. If not find them online. There are other books from the Orthodox traditions that I have read and they are very edifying…
We all have the same New Testament and that is very good. I am going to do another quote from Dei Verbum talking about the 4 Gospels…and I think each of you will agree with this
The Gospels are the heart of all the Scripture “because they are our principal source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, our Savior.”
Dei Verbum 18
We can all agree that the Gospels hold a central place in Christianity. All of the books of the Bible are part of the Word of God. The New Testament hands on the ultimate Truth of God’s Revelation, and its central topic is Jesus…the 4 Gospels speak directly of His teachings and actions.
Stages of the Gospel
I think though it is important to recognize there are the stages that the Gospel books went through. Jesus did not come to Earth and sit down and write the Gospels. But our humble God did come down to Earth. So the first stage of the Gospels are the actual life and teachings of Jesus. He came down and taught for our eternal salvation.
So we can start off there and for some time all of these teachings and practices were seen and done by his disciples and followers. We know though Jesus was Killed, was brought back to life and then Ascended into Heaven. At some point the Apostles and Disciples could no longer actually see Jesus any longer giving the teachings.
Oral Stage
We had to move into an oral tradition. Passing along all of the stories and actions which Jesus taught. We figure Jesus was killed around 30 to 35 AD… the first letters that were written was probably by Paul around 56. And the Bible speaks of the twelve and others preaching the Gospel and the Good news of Jesus Christ. So before any of this was written into what would eventually become the New Testament, there was an oral teaching.
This oral tradition handed on the things which Jesus said and his actions, but now were able to have a fuller understanding since the people teaching now knew that Jesus had risen from the dead and had ascended into Heaven.
All of the things Jesus said would have fallen into place with the Apostles and they would now have been able to speak of certain events such as the Transfiguration (remember Jesus said not to talk about this until after he had been raised from the dead). Once the Resurrection actually had happened all of the Apostles would have recognized it and could start to teach and praise God.
Written Stage
Now at some point obviously these events and practices began to be written down. The Sacred authors began writing them down as we talked about in the last episode. Now I tend to think how important this is. If Jesus had come down to write a book… he would have and not given too much thought about any of us… But the fact that He did come down from Heaven, was held in Mary’s womb and born and going through everything he did (that we do).
Then, Jesus made sure that He taught and showed examples to his students. He really did us the greatest service ever (On top of being our Savior) He loved us so much he allowed us to write the New Testament ourselves… The Holy Spirit aided them in this project as well as guide The Apostles and their successors making the needed clarifications and showing how Jesus actually fulfilled all of the Old Testament Prophecies. This is just incredible.
Summary
So remember first there were the words and actions of Jesus Himself…. Then we taught it orally to one another passing the faith on to the next person. Where clarification was needed they went to the Apostles who were there and saw Jesus actions and heard his speech. Finally, it was written down and eventually became the Bible as we have it now.
Now tomorrow I will try to explain the 3 criteria for interpreting Scripture and the 4 senses in which we read the Bible. It will open up for us a brand new way of looking and thinking about the Scriptures, I hope you are reading everyday!
Until then I will be praying for you… I ask also for your prayers for me.
Be good Play Nice Think God !
For additional Information…Please see the Catechism of the Catholic Church ¶124 through 126