March 23, 2025 - Pastor Message
April 25, 2025JUBILEE 2025
JUBILEE 2025
DEI VERBUM (conclusion)
“Seeing that, in Sacred Scripture, God speaks through human beings in human fashion, it follows that the interpreters of Sacred Scripture, if they are to ascertain what God wished to communicate to us, should carefully search out the meaning which the sacred writers really had in mind, that meaning which God had thought well to manifest through the medium of their words” (Dei Verbum 12, Vatican Council II, in Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils II [1990], trans. Norman Tanner).
Concluding our reflection on Vatican Council II’s Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, we recall our doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture, namely that, in matters necessary for our salvation, Scripture reveals what God wishes to reveal to us “firmly, faithfully, and without error” (Dei Verbum 11). But how does God reveal this necessary truth? “Through human beings in human fashion.” The Holy Spirit inspired human beings to envision, in a human way, the divine truth that God wished to reveal, and then to commit that vision to writing using human words and human literary skills. The same Spirit then moves the teaching authority of the Church to recognize in those human writings that divine truth and to faithfully pass it down and interpret it for all people of all times and places. Like Jesus, who is fully human in every way but sin, so God’s inspired Word is fully human in every way but error.
The humanity of God’s Word makes it necessary to interpret it because, as fully human, it is limited by its time, place, and culture. To find the timeless, divine truth within the temporally and culturally bound human words, we need to peel back the layers, to understand how the time, place, author, and audience shaped the human words to see what they meant in their original context, which is the original, and therefore true, meaning God conveyed to and through the human authors. Think, for example, of the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). If we do not know the history and cultural context of the parable, we will completely miss the controversial nature of the fact that Jesus makes a hated Samaritan the hero of the story and the radical call to self-giving service and communion that comes from that. The human reality expressed through the words reveals the divine truth, but only if we have the eyes to see it.
The faithful interpretation of Scripture is entrusted first of all to the teaching authority of the Church, the magisterium - the bishops in communion with the pope. But they themselves rely upon the assistance and ministry of Scripture scholars, who are well trained in the languages, history, and culture of the biblical authors and original audiences. But the interpretation of Scripture is not limited to official and scholarly texts. One of the greatest contributions of Vatican Council II was the rebirth of widespread Catholic interest in the Bible. Dei Verbum encourages all Catholics to engage the Scriptures as an integral part of Christian life: in the liturgy, with a fuller celebration of God’s Word and a greater emphasis on Biblical preaching; in the study of Scripture and the promotion of Biblical scholarship; and in the daily lives of the people, encouraging widespread distribution of translations of the Bible and regular reading and prayer. This personal interpretation of the Bible, nourished and safeguarded by the official and scholarly interpretations, has breathed new life into our Church and continues to do so today. So let us thank God for the Catholic renewal of understanding God’s revelation promoted by Dei Verbum and Vatican Council II, and let us continue to grow ourselves in our relationship with the God who reveals himself to us for our salvation through his actions and his Word in Sacred Scripture, passed down and interpreted for us in Sacred Tradition.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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