We began last week by discussing the content of revelation. I used the metaphor of a drama as a way of describing the relationship between the different elements in this complex picture. To summarize, we have God who acts throughout world history to reveal himself to humanity. God is the central actor, the world is the stage, and God’s primary role in the drama takes the form of Jesus Christ who is the Word of God made flesh. Christ is the definitive revelation of God.
Today we are looking at Scripture and Tradition as the means instituted by God to communicate God’s revelation to future generations. We will then discuss the nature of faith as the climax of this section before we discuss the creeds.
1. The Transmission of Revelation
1.1. What is apostolic tradition?
Christ passed on his teachings to his apostles in order that they might pass them on to others. The word “apostle” comes from a Greek word meaning “messenger” or “one who is sent forth.” Christ, in that sense, is the one, true Apostle who was sent forth from God. Before Christ, the prophets of the Old Testament were apostles in their own way. We, too, are apostles in that God sends us forth into the world as his messengers, the bearers of God’s good news. But we do not bear our own news, but rather the gospel that was authoritatively handed on by Christ’s apostles and is preserved in the Church. The apostolic Tradition thus includes not only the content of the faith—the “sacred deposit” of the faith (¶84)—but also the authority to interpret the faith, which we call the “teaching office” of the Church or the Magisterium.
1.2. What is the relation between tradition and Scripture?
Scripture is the written testimony to God’s revelation. Tradition is the living or liturgical testimony to God’s revelation (¶78). Both exist in and for the Church, since it is God who “remains present and active in the Church” (¶79). Both have the same origin in the triune God and both “move towards the same goal” (¶80). Scripture and Tradition thus form an indissoluble unity, rooted in the singularity of revelation in Jesus Christ. In other words, because the content of revelation is the same, the forms of revelation can be multiple without resulting in contradiction and confusion.
1.3. What is the relation between faith and the Church?
Faith not only depends upon the work of the Spirit, but it is also strengthened and matured through the influence of biblical study, theological research, spiritual experience, and the preaching of the Word (¶94).
1.4. What is the role of the Holy Spirit?
The Spirit is the operative agent within the community of believers. In dramatic terms, we might say that the Spirit is the bond that ties the drama together; the Spirit is the actor who pushes the drama forward toward its proper conclusion. The Spirit gives unity to the story and keeps the story going. We see the Spirit’s role in the story through the Catechism. In this section alone, the Spirit has a central role: teaches and inspires the apostles (¶76, 83), part of triune self-communication (¶79), leads the Church to the full truth (¶79), breathed out Holy Scripture as the speech of God (¶81), enlightens the apostles of the Church (¶81), enables the teaching of the Magisterium (¶86), anoints the faithful (¶91), arouses and sustains faith (¶93), assists in understanding the faith (¶94), unites and empowers the different modes of transmission in order that they might be effective for salvation (¶95):
“It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls” (Dei Verbum)The Spirit, therefore, is the one who enables the being and life of the Church. The Spirit is the agent who establishes, sustains, and perfects the Church. Without the Spirit, there would be no Scripture, no tradition, and no faith.
2. Holy Scripture
2.1. The Word of God and the words of Scripture
Through Holy Scripture, God speaks “only one single Word” (¶102), and that Word is Jesus Christ: “All Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ” (¶134). The words of Scripture are thus grounded in and determined by the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, God’s Son in the flesh. The Word of God is thus the heart and center of the words of Scripture; or, to be more accurate, the Word of God incarnate is the heart and center of the Word of God written. According to the Catechism, Holy Scripture is a unity because “Christ Jesus is the center and heart” of the Scriptures (¶112).
Moreover, the Church views Holy Scripture as a kind of sacrament: “the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body” (¶103). In Scripture, “the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength” (¶104), not unlike the way the Church receives nourishment from the Sacrament of Communion. The Catechism thus says that “God’s Word and Christ’s Body” form “one table,” from which the Christian faithful receive “the bread of life” (¶103).
2.2. Scripture and the truth
The basis for Scripture’s truthfulness is found in its divine authorship (¶105). The Holy Spirit divinely inspired the text of Holy Scripture by working through the human authors to compose a text that faithfully attests to God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. We can thus speak of the Bible as infallible or inerrant: the books of Scripture teach the truth about God “without error” (¶107).
Consequently, Christianity is a religion of the Word, not a “religion of the book” (¶108). The missiologist Andrew Walls makes the astute point that Jesus Christ is to Christianity what the Koran is to Islam. Just as the Koran is viewed by Muslims as the divine Word come down from heaven, so too Christianity sees Christ himself as the divine Word from heaven. Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, is the center of the Christian faith, not the text of Scripture. We worship a person, not a book. Our faith is grounded in the Word made flesh, not the Word written. As a result, our faith need not be shaken by historical research into the text of the Bible, because our faith is grounded in the person of Jesus Christ himself to whom the words of Holy Scripture faithfully witness by virtue of the Spirit’s inspiration.
2.3. Scripture and the Spirit
The Spirit is the true author and interpreter of Holy Scripture, which does not override or nullify human authorship and interpretation (¶111). On the contrary, the Spirit grounds and establishes the proper place of human involvement in the writing and interpreting of Scripture. All of this simply means that humans are not independent from God in their involvement in the composition and interpretation of Holy Scripture. The Spirit is involved prior to, during, and after both the composition of Scripture and its interpretation.
2.4. How to read Holy Scripture
We must read with a kind of threefold hermeneutic: (1) first, we interpret Holy Scripture by reading the text in light of Jesus Christ, the “center and heart” of Scripture; (2) second, we read within the living Tradition of the Church; (3) third, we read canonically, which means we read each passage in light of the whole text; and (4) we must read prayerfully in the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit who guides the faithful into the truth of Scripture (¶112-14).
In addition to reading in the light of Christ, the Church’s Tradition, and the Holy Spirit, we must also keep in mind the two “senses” of Scripture: the literal and spiritual. By the literal sense, the Catechism means those events and actions which the Bible describes and which we accept as true; in other words, we don’t search for any hidden meaning beyond the words on the page. The spiritual sense, on the other hand, refers to a way of reading which investigates the text for meanings that go beyond the literal words on the page. Within the spiritual, there are three subdivisions: allegorical, moral, and anagogical (¶115-17).
2.5. Diversity and unity in the canon
The use of typology is an ancient practice of reading the Old Testament in light of its fulfillment in the New Testament. “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New” (¶129). Typology rests on the conviction that Holy Scripture is one book (¶134) that witnesses to one single plan of God for salvation, a plan that changes shape and form throughout history but finds its unity and fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ.
2.6. Scripture and discipleship
We are called to read Scripture faithfully and regularly, as well as to hear and receive the ministry of the Word faithfully and regularly. As Jesus himself said, “One does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).
3. I Believe – We Believe
3.1. What is faith?
God’s revelation in the Word of God demands an obedient human response, and this response is faith. Faith is the free submission to the Word of truth. Faith obeys the God who encounters us in the Word of revelation (¶144). According to letter to the Hebrews, faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1; ¶146).
3.2. Who has faith?
Throughout the history of God’s people, from Abraham until today, God has granted faith to those least likely. The story of Scripture is a story of people graced by God for faith against all odds. Faith is not a sign of intelligence or special ability; it is not an indicator of any human capacity. It is rather a mark of God’s special grace given to unworthy human persons. Faith is thus a gift given to us by God, who seeks out the least of all people—those who are neglected, ignored, oppressed, poor, and weak—and grants them faith. St. Paul writes the following in his first letter to the Corinthians:
For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. . . . God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. (1 Cor. 1:25, 27-29)3.3. Where do we place our faith?
We place our faith in God alone, which means we place our faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—revealed to us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. It is common to hear today people speak about belief in God, without specifying what they mean by this. To believe in God is, for many people, to believe in the God of all religions, a kind of abstract deity who includes all religious faith. But the Christian faith declares that to believe in God means “believing in the One he sent,” Jesus Christ (¶151). Faith in God means faith in Jesus Christ as God incarnate. It also means faith in the Holy Spirit as the one sent by Christ after his ascension, and the one by whom we participate in God (¶152).
3.4. What are the characteristics of faith? (¶153-65)
(1) Faith is a grace, which means it is wholly a gift of God (¶153); (2) faith is a free human act in cooperation with the power of the Holy Spirit (¶154, 160); (3) faith is reasonable—i.e., not irrational (¶156, 159); faith is certain because it is founded on the trustworthy and true Word of God (¶157); faith pursues knowledge and understanding, not in a rationalistic sense but in a relational one, like a person who seeks to know his or her friend (¶158); faith is necessary for salvation (¶161); faith is a gift that can be lost if we do not persevere in our faith (¶162); and faith is a foretaste of the future enjoyment of God (¶163).
3.5. What is the relation between faith and the Church?
Faith is first and foremost a communal reality in the body of the Church and only then is it an individual reality. The Church “believes first, and so bears, nourishes, and sustains my faith” (¶168). There is only one faith because there is only one Church—and there is only one Church because there is only one Lord. But while there is only one faith, there are infinitely many ways to articulate and describe this faith in theology, liturgy, and practice (¶170).
