Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius June 18, 2017 Spiritual Ponderings Sacred Scripture
St. Gregory the Great wrote the following about the Bible: “The Bible is a letter from Almighty God to His creatures.”
6. Typology Catholics believe the Old Testament is fulfilled in the present and the New Testament is prefigured in the Old Testament. We believe that the Old Testament helps us unlock the meaning of the New Testament (and vice versa). The story of Jacob’s son Joseph in the Old Testament in many ways mirror’s the story of Jesus in the New Testament. For example Joseph was for all purposes dead as he sat in the bottom of the well that his brothers threw him in. Jesus was thrown into a tomb and assumed dead for three days. Joseph was given over to slavery and Jesus was given over to sin. Both were raised, Joseph to Pharaoh’s right hand and Jesus to the Father’s right hand. Both suffered what the suffered because God the Father allowed it and both were able to save lives because of their experience.
When we refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God we should go back and read the Exodus and the history of the Passover lambs. Referring to Jesus as the new law giver, invites us to learn more about Moses in order to better understand what the author meant by that. In order to understand Jesus’ “I am” statement we need to go back and study the first “I am” statement in the Bible in Exodus where God is speaking to Moses through the burning bush.
7. Separate Theory from Dogma Most Scripture scholars believe that Mark was the first Gospel written because it is the shortest. Matthew and Luke soon followed Mark in writing their Gospel often quoting Mark and unnamed source that scholars call “Q” according to this theory and finally the Gospel of John was written. Recently I read a new theory that stated that Mark was the last of the Gospels to be written because it was an edited and shortened version of the others that was designed to be chanted during the Easter Vigil. This is a scholarly debate that in the end does not matter. What matters is the dogma’s that we gain from the Sacred Scripture for example that Jesus Christ is true God and true man is nonnegotiable. Which Gospel came first can be argued all we want. While it is interesting to theorize don’t let yourself get to caught up in that you miss what God is trying to say to us in the passage.
8. Get to Know More than the Sunday Readings If I were to say to you: “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father! Prepare to die!” or “Inconceivable! - You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means,” or “As you wish.” You might look at me like I was an idiot unless you had seen the movie the Princess Bride. If on the other hand you had seen the movie, the words that I just spoke would invoke in you images of pirates, sword fights, giants, six fingered men, a cowardly prince and a beautiful princess. Knowing the whole story helps us understand the parts that make it up.
The Catholic Church has created three sets readings to be read at Sunday Mass. They then with great imagination named them Year A, Year B, and Year C. At the same time they created two sets of readings for weekday Masses and named them Year I and Year II. If one were to read all the Scripture Readings at Mass, you would have read most of the Bible but not all. The other problem would be the stories in the Bible are sliced up in a way that sometimes prevents us from seeing how they all connect to the bigger picture.
For example in (MNNN) Gospel Jesus and his disciples encounter a man possessed by a group of demons who call themselves Legion. Jesus drives the demons out of the man and into a herd of swine and the swine all go up a hill and commit suicide by jumping into the lake below. The people of the town come and ask Jesus to leave. The man who was once possessed by Jesus is told by Jesus to go home and help his family. Later Jesus returns to the same area and instead of driving him away they welcome him this time. We are left to assume it is because of the testimony of the man who had once been possessed. If you are not careful you can miss this detail because (((((( does not draw much at
If you want to understand the Scriptures better take the time to take a Bible Class or pick up a book on the Sacred Scriptures.