Pious Reflection #1
I have had the privilege of meeting many people who have survived Communism. Their stories are very moving. Some are Christians, others are not.
Often times English is their second language. When we start to discuss Communism, and they start to share their wisdom with me, it’s obvious I would gain so much more if I knew their first language the way they know English as a second.
This is what it is like reading the Bible. It is pregnant with wisdom, but it is from another time, culture, and people that is thousands of years “ahead” of our own in terms of wisdom. This is why scripture is still effective, but not perspicuous (clear). Like my friends who have survived Communism and are willing to share, I lack both the experience AND the linguistic tools to understand fully what they went through.
It is the same when we approach the scriptures. We must remember that these authors were writing from a totally different culture (e.g., Jewish Tribes, Queen Mothers, Roman Oppression, etc., ) as well as being witnesses to God’s power and might (e.g., The Parting of the Red Sea, The Virgin Birth, Jesus walking on water, Transfiguration, etc).
This does not mean that we can’t know some things from scripture. For example, “Do not be afraid,” has an obvious meaning. But, “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood...you do not have eternal life” is not. This leads to two different questions:
For the Protestant, “Where does doctrine come from?”
For the Catholic, “Why don’t you read the scriptures more?”
Can we really understand by scripture alone how to describe the Trinity? Why even accept the formulation of the Trinity or the Incarnation, especially if its possible the Church got this wrong?
If Mass is boring, is it possible it’s because you lack an understanding of the scriptures? The rubric for how the Church wants you to live and worship is contained in these pages, but you do not study them?
In the end, I think its a lot like speaking with my friends who endured Communism. I need to keep going back to them and learning from them, but I also need to keep learning about the cultures that Communism oppressed, and the ideas that people adopted that made it possible. This is what makes for a substantive dialog, and I benefit from what my friends are trying to help me understand.
Similarly, we need to do the same thing with the Bible. We need the Church to help us understand how the doctrines we are obligated to believe are affirmed by scripture, and by reason, other wise we will error and error greatly. Similarly, if we do not love the scriptures, then we will not love their mother, the Church, who gave them to us for our benefit.
As St. Paul said, the “Church is the foundation of the truth.”
God bless.