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We are kind of getting towards the end of this little mini-section talking about God’s Plan of Sheer Goodness
THE REVELATION OF GOD
Yesterday we talked about the CANON OF SCRIPTURE
We talked about how God reveals Himself in the Old Testament and the New Testament specifically speaking in the Gospels
Today we are going to cover something we heard yesterday
The Church is REALLY ADAMANT about this
THE UNITY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
There are SO MANY PEOPLE who think that because of the New Covenant, the New Testament, and what Jesus revealed, then the Old Testament is DEFUNCT
VOID
USELESS
PURPOSELESS
And the Church REALLY REALLY WANTS TO DO AWAY with any of that temptation to think that way
IN FACT…
The Church highlights today the UNITY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
The common temptation is to feel like there are “2 types of God”
The God of the Old Testament
The God of the New Testament
As Dwight Schrute would say…FALSE!!! (Man I love Fr. Mike even more!! I didn’t know he was a fan of The Office!!! Bears…Beets…Battlestar Galactica!!! 😉)
THAT IS NOT TRUE!!
IN FACT…
The more and more we DIVE DEEPLY into Scripture, both Old and New Covenants and Old and New Testaments, the more and more we see there is a VITAL UNITY BETWEEN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
WE ABSOLUTELY NEED THEM BOTH!!
We will also talk about Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church
Sacred Scripture is DEATHLY IMPORTANT for US
FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BE ABLE TO FOLLOW AFTER JESUS WITH THEIR WHOLE HEART AND THEIR WHOLE LIFE!!
Let's say prayers as we get started
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in heaven, we give you praise. And we thank you on this day. We thank you for revealing yourself to us. We thank you for all of the years, the countless generations that it took for you to reveal yourself in time to us. We thank you for the fullness of time when you revealed yourself to us in the person of your son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Thank you for the Holy Spirit that you sent upon the Church who continues to lead us, who continues to guide us, who continues to teach us. Give us a love not only just to know more about you, give us a love for Scripture. Put in our hearts a desire to seek after you, a desire to read your Word, a desire to hear your Word proclaimed, and a desire to share your Word with everyone in our lives, with everyone we love, and everyone on this planet, especially for those who've never heard your Word, Lord. Or those who have, they thought they heard your Word, they think they hear your Word, but they're mistaken. We ask that you please correct our mistakes, correct our errors, and bring all of us into the light of your Truth. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”
Ok there we are!!
Let’s highlight a couple of things
THE UNITY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
The Sacred Author aka the human author of the Scriptures is a REAL AUTHOR
The Divine Author of the Scriptures is a REAL AUTHOR
So the Holy Spirit has GUIDED the human author
The Holy Spirit has INSPIRED the Sacred Author
That means that ALL OF SCRIPTURE HAS A UNITY
So the Old Covenant/Old Testament and the New Covenant/New Testament has a VITAL UNITY
What is that unity?
Not only is it part of God teaching us
God is taking this raw group of humanity and is revealing Himself to them bit by bit
BUT ALSO…
There is TYPOLOGY!!
Typology is that PREFIGUREMENT of Christ
In the Old Testament here is God REVEALING something that gets FULFILLED in the New Testament
We have King David
When it came to The Bible in a Year, we talked A LOT about King David
Fr. Mike LOVES King David
Even though he is a VERY VERY FLAWED human being
He is a TYPE of Jesus being the King of the Universe
David as King of Israel is a TYPE of Jesus
He is FULFILLED in the person of Jesus
Another way to say it is with the Ark of the Covenant
In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant contained the manna from the desert (baklava!!!! 😁), the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s Staff
The manna symbolizes THE BREAD COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN
The Ten Commandments symbolizes THE WORD OF GOD
The Staff of Aaron symbolizes THE PRIESTHOOD
TYPOLOGY!!
The TYPE of the Ark of the Covenant is FULFILLED in the New Testament in MARY!!!
Mary is referred to the Ark of the New Covenant
Mary is also referred to as the New Ark of the New Covenant
Why?
Because in HER was the WORD MADE FLESH JESUS CHRIST
In HER was the BREAD FROM HEAVEN AKA THE EUCHARIST AKA JESUS
In HER was JESUS THE HIGH PRIEST
So the TYPE in the Old Covenant which is FULFILLED in the New Covenant
We see this AGAIN AND AGAIN in Scripture
It is a REALLY REALLY FUN WAY to read Scripture
IT IS INEXHAUSTIBLE!!
IN FACT…
Paragraph 129 says, “Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament…”
AT THE SAME TIME…
“It must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation…”
THAT IS SO SO IMPORTANT!!
The Old is REVEALED in the New
The New is HIDDEN in the Old
BUT…
THE OLD IS STILL GOOD!!
The Old Testament STILL TELLS US THE TRUTH ABOUT WHO GOD IS!!
THAT IS SO SO IMPORTANT
Paragraph 130 says, “Nor do the calling of the patriarchs and the exodus from Egypt, for example, lose their own value in God’s plan, from the mere fact that they were intermediate stages.”
Just because…(squirrel!! 😀)
Here is the calling of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Here is God setting His people free from slavery in Egypt in the Exodus
It’s not as if those are no longer of value because we have seen the FULFILLMENT IN JESUS CHRIST
They have INCREDIBLE VALUE even if they were INTERMEDIATE STAGES
Paragraphs 131-133 cover SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
These three paragraphs are all about HOW VITALLY IMPORTANT IT IS that we as children of God, as disciples of Jesus, MUST HAVE ACCESS TO SCRIPTURE
There are some stories back in the day where some people who were anti-Catholic and pro-Scripture (which is good since we also want to be pro-Scripture) they denounced TRADITION and said “SCRIPTURE ALONE!”
There was a rumor or myth or legend or gossip or NEGATIVE MYTH that said that the Catholic Church kept Bibles locked up and you couldn’t actually have a Bible
THAT IS NOT TRUE!!
It would be more accurate that certain Churches had a Bible that would be locked up
BUT…
It would be locked up in a way like how telephone books in phonebooths were locked up
Why?
Not so that you couldn’t USE the phone book
BUT…
So that no one would STEAL IT
So there were times when the Church made the Scriptures available but had to lock them up
For a village parish to have their own Bible would be the total income of EVERY PERSON IN THAT VILLAGE because it was HANDWRITTEN
All the materials were VERY EXPENSIVE
The production of the Bible was VERY EXPENSIVE
All of this changed with the invention of the PRINTING PRESS
THANKS BE TO GOD!!
THAT’S AMAZING!!
But then people would even say, “Yeah but then the Church was very very adamant about not allowing people to have Bibles in their homes.”
THAT ISN’T ACCURATE EITHER!!
What the Church WAS concerned with was TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE
We want to make sure that translations are as ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE TO THE ORIGINAL
It is not a matter of whether it was a CATHOLIC TRANSLATION
It had to be an ACCURATE TRANSLATION
So during various times of history, the Church did say not to read “that Bible” or “that other Bible”
NOT BECAUSE WE DO NOT WANT PEOPLE TO READ THE BIBLE!!
BUT…
BECAUSE WE DO NOT WANT PEOPLE TO READ A MISTRANSLATED VERSION OF THE BIBLE THAT COULD MISLEAD PEOPLE
IT IS SO IMPORTANT!!
IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND!!
Paragraph 131 says, “Access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful.”
ABSOLUTELY!!
WE SHOULD HAVE ACCESS TO THIS!!
Moving on…
Paragraph 132 says, “Therefore, the ‘study of the sacred page’ should be the very soul of theology.”
Yes there is Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and The Magisterium of the Church
The very SOUL of Sacred Theology should be the study of Sacred Scripture
THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE DENY SACRED TRADITION!!
THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE IGNORE THE MAGISTERIUM!!
BUT…
It DOES mean that ALL of our teaching
ALL of our preaching
ALL of our instruction
ALL OF IT
Paragraph 132, “...healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture.”
This isn’t just for priests
This isn’t just for theologians
THIS IS FOR EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US!!
IN FACT…
Paragraph 133 says, “The Church ‘forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful…to learn ‘the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ,’ by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.”
Yesterday we talked about so many Saints who carried copies of the Gospels with them all the time
THAT IS GOOD FOR US!!
Why?
Because we need to be NOURISHED by the Word of God
Because we need to be NOURISHED by Scripture
St. Jerome’s quote at the end is SO POWERFUL AND SO CONVICTING for so many of us
Back in the day people would say, “I’m Catholic so I don’t need to know the Bible.” (When I was going through my protestant phase years ago, I tried to evangelize my parents by quoting the Bible and my dad replied, “We’re Catholic! We don’t read the Bible!” 🤣)
Hopefully they were saying that tongue-in-cheek
There’s the stereotype about Catholics not being overly familiar with the Bible
So in that case we need to bring up St. Jerome, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”
So if someone says, “I don’t need to know the Bible” then what they are REALLY saying is, “I don’t need to know Jesus.”
St. Jerome says we NEED to know the Scriptures
Why?
Because it is IN THE SCRIPTURES that we encounter our Lord Jesus Christ
YES IN THE CHURCH
YES IN THE SACRAMENTS
OF COURSE!!
BUT…
IGNORANCE OF SCRIPTURE IS IGNORANCE OF CHRIST
That is why we all did The Bible in a Year
That is why we are all doing The Catechism in a Year
Have you noticed that virtually ALL of these paragraphs have SOME KIND OF SCRIPTURAL REFERENCE?
IT IS ENTIRELY BASED OFF OF SACRED TRADITION AND SACRED SCRIPTURE!!
Hopefully that’s been something you have noticed
THIS IS SO EXCITING!!
Fr. Mike cannot convey enough how GREAT it has been to walk with us for the last 18 days
The first few days were kind of a battle for Fr. Mike
The fact that we have gotten to Day 18 is a RELIEF
BUT…
It also marks something in Fr. Mike’s heart
It’s a new challenge
As we are walking through The Catechism in a Year Fr. Mike is SO GRATEFUL for YOU!!
Because of that, Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!
Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!
I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!
Scripture References & Reflections
- compiled by Andrew Adamany
Bible Translation - RSVCE
CCC 128 "The Church, as early as apostolic times, and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God's works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son."
1 Corinthians 10:6–11
"Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.” We must not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents; nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come."
Hebrews 10:1
"For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near."
1 Peter 3:20–21
"when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ"
CCC 129 "Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself…"
Deuteronomy 6:4–5
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might"
Leviticus 19:18
"You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."
Mark 12:28–31
"And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Besides, the New Testament has to be read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament. As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New."
Genesis 22:2
"He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
Genesis 22:7–8
"And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."
John 1:29
"The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
CCC 130 "Typology indicates the dynamic movement toward the fulfillment of the divine plan when "God [will] be everything to everyone." Nor do the calling of the patriarchs and the exodus from Egypt, for example, lose their own value in God's plan, from the mere fact that they were intermediate stages."
1 Corinthians 15:20–28
"But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. “For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection under him,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to every one."
CCC 131 "And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigor, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life." Hence "access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful."
Hebrews 4:11–12
"Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
CCC 132 "Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology. The ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching, catechetics and all forms of Christian instruction, among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place - is healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture."
1 Timothy 4:13
"Till I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching."
CCC 133 "The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ."
Acts 18:27–28
"When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully confuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus."
1 Corinthians 15:3–4
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures"
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