Franciscan at Home

How can we help people to understand the Bible?

Bible study is undertaken for many reasons: as part of a theological course, for apologetic purposes, for personal comfort and guidance, as historical evidence, for the beauty of the literature; even, sadly, in order to use as a tool against other Christians. The Church does not expect everyone to be Scripture scholars, but to everyone who wishes to study the word of God, she offers clear criteria. Study carried out in isolation without reference to the Church’s teaching on how to read Scripture may sometimes lead to an individualistic and subjective reading of the texts – one that may conflict with the interpretations of others and with those of the Church.

In this series of articles on the parables we have been seeking to implement the principles of interpretation of the Scriptures outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 109-119). The Catechism itself is a summary of the living tradition of the Church, and as such, represents the Church's interpretation of Scripture.

We have chosen for this issue of The Sower the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. The Jerusalem Bible offers two cross-references in the Old Testament: Proverbs 21:2 "A man's conduct may strike him as upright, Yahweh, however, weighs the heart", and Proverbs 28:13 "He who conceals his faults will not prosper, he who confesses and renounces them will find mercy". The Catechism also picks up the same two themes in reference to this parable - paragraph 2559 speaks of the virtue of humility in prayer, while paragraph 2613 focuses on the basic attitude of prayer for God's mercy.

Early in my priestly ministry I was working with a number of small groups in the parish and we came to the question of the Second Coming of Christ. One group was made up of young married couples, while another consisted of older, retired people in the parish. I asked both groups whether they were looking forward to this event. After all, after the prayer at Mass which concludes ‘and we wait with joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ’, everyone replies ‘for the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.’

But both groups admitted that they couldn’t honestly say that they would be glad if they knew that the Lord was coming again very soon – say, next week. I was interested in the reasons each group gave for being less than excited about the prospect of the Lord’s return. The young married couples said that they wanted to experience more of their married life, to see their children grow up, and to fulfil some of their hopes and dreams. This is understandable. Only after we have drunk deeply of the joys of this life do we feel that we might look forward to the life to come. However, the group that was now entering the twilight period had a rather different perspective. The thought of the Lord coming again created a sense of fear. Perhaps it was hearing Dies Irae (‘Day of wrath, Day of vengeance …’) at funerals that schooled us into thinking that it would be better to be dead than alive when the last trump is blown!

It was clear that the vision of these groups needed some expanding, that some new light was required to convert hearts beyond the narrow confines of usual ways of thinking. I have found that the parable of the ten bridesmaids can help with this.

The New Testament reports Jesus and the apostles performing many miracles of healing and exercising extraordinary powers over nature. There are similar claims about healing made by Christians today. What can an apologetics regarding miracles look like?
Things in the natural world behave in general in regular and predictable ways. If you throw a book out of a window it will fall to the ground; if you set light to a tree, and it burns away, it will become black and charred; if a man's heart stops beating for a few hours and he is by other normal criteria dead, he will not suddenly come to life again. And so on. For the last five hundred years, scientists have expressed this evident truth by saying that the world is governed by laws of nature which determine how things in it behave.

The Christian believes that the laws of nature operate because God makes them operate. (The reasons for believing this will be discussed later in the series). God has good reasons for making things behave like this, in regular and predictable ways. He is generous and wishes us to have substantial control of our own destiny, and substantial control over the natural world, to make it the way we want. Only if things behave in accord with natural laws can we make a difference to the world at other times and places by moving our bodies at this time and place. And only if laws operate in simple enough ways for us to understand can we utilize their operation.

For example, it is because natural laws make planted seeds grow into vegetables that we can grow vegetables by planting seeds, and so choose whether or not to grow vegetables. If the world was chaotic or operated on principles too difficult for us to understand, we could not control it.

No miracles of Jesus? No effective apologetic for the divinity of Christ. No apologetic for the divinity of Christ? A seriously weakened catechesis. We cannot have an effective apologetic for the divinity of Christ unless we defend the historical truth of his miracles as recounted in the Gospels.

The formation of catechists should enable them seriously to address the historicity of Jesus’ miracles.

Dr Linnig explores both common pitfalls in using the Scriptures in catechesis and how we can foster an authentically Catholic use.

‘[T]he ministry of the word… (should be) healthily nourished and (should) thrive in holiness through the word of Sacred Scripture’ [Catechesi Tradendae 27, citing Dei Verbum 10 and 24.]

Pope John Paul II asserts in Catechesi Tradendae (CT) 27 that the Word of God is the living source for catechesis. How, then, can we use the Bible and transmit this ‘Word of Scripture’ so that it may be a life-long source of strength and nourishment for those we catechize?

Before embarking upon a discussion of this question, it may be useful to consider a few preliminary difficulties that many catechists confront as they use Sacred Scripture in their catechesis.

In this series we have been following, initially at least, the approach to miracles adopted by C.S. Lewis in his classic book, Miracles. His was an attempt to show the rationality of miracles. It is a rationality based on the truth that what we know as Nature cannot be the whole of reality. As we have seen in previous articles, Lewis categorised the miracles of Christ into Old Creation and New Creation miracles. This time we want to consider the healing of the man born blind in the Gospel of John, chapter 9.

Fr. Paul Watson discovers treasures old and new in teaching the parables. Two of the shortest parables are to be found in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. The parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl of great price. In this chapter in Matthew there are several other parables in which Jesus says ‘the kingdom of heaven is like …’. This article will explore two of these parables.