This morning, I listened to a very long talk about the "necessity" of Catholic laity personally reading Sacred Scripture. Let's be clear: personally reading Sacred Scripture is not necessary for our salvation. The Church has never taught that. Instead, proper belief and participation in the Sacraments are necessary for our salvation. That is a beautiful gift from God because if reading scripture was necessary for salvation, the first 1,650 years of Christianity would have been all for naught for many of the lay faithful!
Anyway, there is a benefit to reading Sacred Scripture. That is the same benefit we derive from every sacramental and every prayer - the gift of grace. In terms of our salvation, we want to obtain the grace to die a happy death, in the State of Grace. We want to merit the gift of final perseverance. The way to do so is to imitate our Blessed Lord. And, in order to do that, we must know Him in an intimate and personal way.
That does not mean that we are awaiting private revelation in Scripture. In fact, we believe the opposite and strive to avoid the temptation to see Scripture that way. As the Tridentine Creed says:
I also admit the Holy Scripture according to that sense which our Holy Mother the Church has held, and does hold, to which it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretations of the Scriptures. Neither will I ever take and interpret them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers.
So, far from trying to obtain some gnostic idea of Christ, when Catholics read Sacred Scripture, we do so in an attempt to know Christ as the Church knows Him. This is not about secret knowledge or answers to life questions: it is about meditating on the Life of our Blessed Lord and those around Him, particularly His Blessed Mother. It is about becoming part of the Holy Family. Why? Because children are able to imitate their parents and relatives much better than they are able to imitate strangers.
2 comments:
Marc, I think you make a very important point. The mere reading of Scripture is of little use if it is not read properly and in a spirit of humility and obedience. The Catholic Church wisely understands that people need to be taught how to read and understand Scripture because there are many pitfalls therein, one being what you mentioned about seeking "private revelation" from the reading of Scripture. My experience has been that this is the way in which many Protestants read Scripture...which, of course, is a form of Gnosticism and even Pelagianism depending on the conclusions they draw from their reading. This congregationalist, privatistic reading of Scripture is tantamount to worshipping the Bible instead of God.
Now, that being said, I do believe all Catholics and Christians should read Scripture regularly, but for just the reasons you enumerate. I view Scripture reading as a form of prayer and worship and am continually awed and humbled by the history of faith, trust, obedience, and sacrifice recounted there.
I agree completely, Gene. Many Protestants, and this Catholic giving this talk, have turned the Bible into an idol. They worship the book in isolation instead of seeing it as a tool of prayer and grace. That can have dangerous consequences and confuses the True Faith.
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