Pope Benedict XVI Asks Catholics to Read the Bible as the Church Reads the Bible
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A recent priority of the Holy Father has been to motivate more Catholics to read the Bible as the Church reads the Bible—in other words, authentically. Pope Benedict XVI chose the Sacred Scriptures as the topic of the fall Synod of Bishops. There has been a healthy interest in reading the Bible since the Second Vatican Council, but all-too-often there hasn’t been proper instruction and direction for the lay faithful in this area.
One of the most important major documents that came out of the Second Vatican Council is the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, or “Dei Verbum,”—“Word of God.” This is the Church’s most important contemporary document on how to read and interpret Sacred Scripture, indeed on Divine Revelation as a whole.
The Holy Father expressed concern recently that there is a real danger in some modern biblical interpretation that he believes can diminish the meaning of Sacred Scripture and erode the bond between the Bible and the Church. The substance of the Pope’s concerns are pastoral in nature, more than academic, although the two certainly converge. He wants Catholics to be enriched on a daily basis by the proper and authentic reading of the written Word of God. The Church has given us the “road map”, if you will, of just how to do this in “Dei Verbum.”
Several years ago we presented a series entitled “Word of God,” seeking to do exactly what the Holy Father has now called for. This six-part seminar synthesizes in a clear and easy way the six chapters of this landmark Church document. It will help you to better read and interpret the written Word of God as the Catholic Church reads and interprets it.
Surely one of the most important teachings we have ever produced, I know “Word of God” will help you greatly in reading and understanding the Bible as the Catholic Church does, and as the Holy Father has recently asked us to do. |
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Divine Revelation
By Father John Corapi, STD
(Written in 2006)
One of the most important elements of Catholic-Christian faith is divine revelation. A proper understanding of divine revelation is indispensable, for without it constant errors are made in both faith and morals.
Put very simply, divine revelation is God our Father revealing himself to us in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ. As the great Doctor or the Church, St. John of the Cross, says, paraphrasing: “God our Father spoke but one word in the eternal silences of the Trinity, his eternal Word: Jesus. He has no more to say.”
Jesus Christ is the Word of God. All of the words found in the Bible, all of the words in the Church's official teaching…all of it can be distilled, condensed, and synthesized into one word: the Word who is Jesus. This is the substance of our faith. “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus asserts. |
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This revelation of God the Father to us in the Person of his only Son is divine revelation simply and accurately put. This revelation is transmitted to us in a Trinitarian way. There is one God. There is one Word of God. However, we know that God, although One is three divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Wherever one Person of the most holy Trinity is there the other two must be due to the absolute unity of the Trinity. This is what we refer to in theology as the divine perichoresis or circumincession. Simply put, wherever one Person of the Trinity is, there the other two must be.
Drawing an analogy from this Trinitarian theology, God's revelation to us is one and three. There is but one Word transmitted, but it comes to us in three essential, integral, and compenetrated modes. The Word of God is transmitted to us in an oral way and a written way, however, when you have any word or words there must be an authentic and authoritative translator of the word(s), otherwise there is only personal opinions and ultimate chaos.
Jesus Christ, while on the earth as the “Son of Man”, taught orally. He said and did many things, and as St. John says that he doubted that the world could contain enough books to write it all. Jesus did not write a book, although the Bible surely has God as its primary Author. Hence there are two main wellsprings of revelation: an oral one and a written one. The oral teaching of Jesus Christ given to the Apostles and handed on by them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—the apostolic kerygma—has equal weight in the Catholic Church with the written word of God, the Bible. This oral mode of transmitting God's revelation is called “Sacred Tradition.” Either the written word or the oral must be authentically and authoritatively interpreted. This is done by the Magisterium of the Church. The Magisterium of the Church, or “teaching office”, is the Holy Father and all of the bishops united to him in teaching the substance of the faith given to us by the Father through his only Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hence, God our Father reveals himself to us in the Person of his only Son. This revelation is transmitted in an oral way, Sacred Tradition (the Apostolic Kerygma) and a written way, the Bible. Both are interpreted authentically and authoritatively only by the Magisterium of the Church.
So, Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture (the Bible), and the Magisterium of the Church are so intimately integral and compenetrated that no one of them can subsist without the other two. Just as God in fact would not be God if He were only Father, or only Son, so too God's revelation to us is not authentic unless it is in fact the revelation of the one God transmitted to us in a Trinitarian way: through Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and authentically and authoritatively interpreted by the Magisterium of the Church.
The substance of this teaching is found in the Catholic Church's pre-eminent document on divine revelation, “The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation,” or “Dei Verbum” (Word of God), one of the sixteen major documents of the Second Vatican Council. Although it is without question that this is a document of monumental importance in Catholic doctrine you will rarely find a Catholic who has ever heard of either the document or its teaching.
My series, “Word of God” teaches in a simple way the substance of this absolutely essential material. There are six one hour lectures which synthesize the six chapters of “Dei Verbum.” I strongly urge all Catholics and people of good will to read the Church's document “Dei Verbum” and use my series “Word of God” to help to understand the substance of this magnificent teaching from God's holy Church.
God bless you,
Fr. John Corapi, SOLT, STD
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