Pat Arensberg: God is the true author of Scripture

“The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”  -Dei Verbum 11

We say that God is the true author of Sacred Scripture, but what does this mean?  Does it mean that God put pen to paper (or papyrus)?  Certainly not!  He used human authors.  But, how does that teamwork function?  In the middle-ages they thought of it as dictation.  In fact, there are several famous works of art depicting an angel dictating the Gospel to a human author.  This is not the accepted view.  The Church teaches that the human authors of Scripture, “made use of their powers and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted.”  Dei Verbum #11  In other words they received the inspiration from God and then wrote as true authors, using their own way of speaking, their own judgment as to how to tell the story.

So it is very useful to study the history and language of the time.  It is vital to understand any idioms that the human authors might use.  However, it is also important to remember that the Holy Spirit guided the entire process.  The human authors did not inject anything the Holy Spirit did not want included.  They included everything the Holy Spirit wanted included and nothing more.  
In a few days we will cover ways to interpret or understand Scripture, but for now let us at least say that not all the Bible is written as a historical book, or as a scientific book.  We must understand the genre of the particular book in order to understand the truth that the Holy Spirit is wishing to communicate.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Pat Arensberg: Scripture and Tradition

“Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other.  For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal.”  Dei Verbum #9

God’s Word is one.  In fact it is a person, Christ Jesus.  This unique word is not just transmitted or communicated through Sacred Scripture.  In fact, if you think about it the Word was communicated to humanity long before any Scripture was written.  Obviously, the Word can be communicated other than through the written Scriptures.  And certainly after Jesus’ ascension to the Father there was no Scripture for quite a while.  Even after some of the books were written there was no consensus on which books should be considered inspired.  For an at least an entire generation the “gospel” was communicated through the preaching of the Apostles and their successors.  We call this Sacred Tradition.  As Catholics we believe that the Word has been and is communicated through these two vessels (Sripture and Tradition).

Scripture itself attests to this.  In 1 Thessalonians 2:15 Paul says, “Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.”  Paul understands that the Gospel he preached is authoritative and an authentic passing on of the Gospel.  At the end of John’s Gospel (21:25) he makes it very clear that what he wrote is not the entirety of the Gospel.

As we look at the history of the early Church we see many cases of people who misunderstood the written Word.  Arius, a priest from Alexandria at the end of the 3rd century, argued from Scripture that Jesus was super-human, but not equal to God the Father.  The early Church addressed this error by reflecting on the living message as handed on from the Apostles (and by looking at the whole of Scripture).    

The teaching authority left by Jesus to his Apostles and their successors (bishops) interprets the Word of God found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.  (And, of course by Sacred Tradition we are not referring to traditions that we have developed as Catholics, but rather the living transmission of the Word of God within the Church)

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Todd Sylvester: The Big Ones

My six year old was organizing the change in her tiny purse as we settled in the pew for Sunday Mass. I tried to help her to lessen the jingling noises. “Do you need help?” I asked.

“No thank you, Daddy,” she responded.

As she continued to take longer than my patience could handle, I asked again. “Are you sure you don’t need help counting?”
   
“I’m not counting,” she responded with that look of ‘Daddy, you’re so silly.’
  
“Then what are doing?” I asked.
   
“I’m getting all the BIG ONES- THOSE ARE THE ONES I GIVE TO GOD.”
   
I immediately asked myself if that was true in my life. Are my greatest treasures the ones I give to God? Are my greatest gifts the ones I give to God. Are the most important things to me, those things that I give to God. Or do I save the dull pennies for Him?
   
Let’s look again at our lives and be sure we are giving to God the ‘BIG ONES.’

About Todd Sylvester Todd Sylvester has worked in Church Ministry for almost 20 years. His love for Christ in the Eucharist is evident as he strives to lead his wife and ten children to the heavenly banquet. Todd is a writer, singer/songwriter, radio show host, teacher, and above all else, Lover of God. His child-like perspective is not only poignant, but helps reveal the reality of God in our everyday living.

Pat Arensberg: Personal God

“The human person: With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness…In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul.”  CCC #33


All of Aquinas’ proofs are good, but one other compelling argument for the existence of God can be found in our very nature as humans.  This argument is a bit like Aquinas’ proof from gradation, but much more personal.  We long for truth and beauty.  We seek moral goodness and nobility.  These sentiments are echoes of our eternal souls.  The presence of an eternal soul is, in a certain sense, a proof for God’s existence.  

However, I would like to add a bit of a caution with regards to trying to prove God’s existence:  You can’t.  We can demonstrate that it is reasonable to believe.  Our greatest way of knowing the God exists is to live in a loving relationship with him.  I know God exists because I have experienced his love.  In fact, isn’t it a bit insulting to spend a great deal of time trying to prove that God exists?  I mean, what do you think my wife’s reaction would be if I spent a great deal of time and energy trying to prove to myself that she exists?  To paraphrase Pope Benedict (by paraphrasing I don’t have to look up the exact quote!), much of the problem with modern relationships is our constant search for “proof” of the other’s love.  By seeking that proof we end up destroying the relationship.  We can do that with God too.

Tomorrow we will begin to look at how God reveals himself.  This revelation is necessary since “man cannot possibly arrive at [some knowledge of God] by his own powers;”  CCC #50.  God reveals himself to us so that we may know and love him better.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Our God is Holy, Holy, Holy

BY DAVID O’BRIEN

God is holy. In fact, according to the bible, God is holy, holy, holy (Is 6, Rev 4). We repeat these scriptures every week at Sunday Mass when we pray the Sanctus.

To describe God as thrice holy is the biblical way of saying God is super holy, mega holy, muchisimo holy; that no one or no thing is as holy as God.

But precisely what is the holiness of God? Simply put, it is the description of the Lord’s otherness. God is not like anything else. Even humanity, made in the image and likeness of God, is far from being God.

The Lord himself says in Hosea 11:9-"For I am God and not a man, the Holy One present among you."

On a practical level, scripture invokes God’s holiness to distinguish the God of Israel from the false gods of other nations. Yahweh is not like the gods of Israel’s neighbors or the pagan idols of Egypt. God’s thoughts are different. God’s ways are different. God’s expectations of humanity are different.

In fact, God tells us: "You shall be holy; for I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be my own." (Lv 20:26)

In other words, God’s people are meant to be holy, holy, holy-different, different, different--set apart, a city on a hill, a light to the nations. The people of God have been chosen to mirror God’s distinctive ways in the world through faithfulness to God’s unique plan.

Throughout the scriptures, the Lord teaches us what it means to be holy in every aspect of life.

We see this beginning with the covenant between God and Israel. After 400 years of suffering under the unjust systems of the Egyptians, God outlines in the covenant how Israel is to avoid repeating the sins of Egypt but rather structure their new nation in the Promised Land to reflect God’s design.

The covenant describes a society based on the holiness of God, a society where every person matters, political power is shared and economic resources are meant for all. In God’s society, the vulnerable have a right to special care, especially the widow, the orphan and the immigrant. (Ex 22:20-3; Dt 10:17-19; Zech 7:10)

The Fourth Commandment illustrates this radical call to be God’s holy (different) people. It states: "Keep holy the Sabbath day" (Ex 20:8-11; Dt 5:12-15). Most of us were taught that the Sabbath is a day for religious observance- Saturday for Jews, Sunday for Christians. But the Ten Commandments never mention that.

Instead, the Fourth commandment brings up the fact that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt (Dt 5). And how many days do slaves get off from work to rest? None! So God orders Israel to not be like Egypt, or the other nations that exploit people. They are to be holy, different, because God is holy. And God cares for all people, especially the weak and oppressed. Therefore, in Israel everyone gets a day off including the children, the resident aliens (immigrants), slaves and even the animals.

As disciples of Christ and children of the New Covenant, we are expected to reflect the attitudes and priorities of the Lord in our personal lives and our communal lives, in our political, economic and religious decisions. Our behavior and our choices should differ dramatically from the ways of the world.

To conform to society’s values, which are often subtle forms of idol worship, is to violate the holiness of God, in whose image we are created.

We do well, then, to consider the awesome and fearful duties that come with being sons and daughters of a holy God. If we dare stand before the Lord in all honesty, we might fall on our face and cry out with the prophet Isaiah: "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips". (Is 6:5)

About David O’Brien David O’Brien is the Associate Director of Religious Education for Lay Ministry for the Archdiocese of Mobile. His column, Everyday Faith, appears regularly in the archdiocesan newspaper, the Catholic Week. Email David at dobrien@mobilearchdiocese.org.

Abp. Dolan addresses "Jesus is all we need, not religion" nonsense

Archbishop Dolan writes in today's Catholic New York:

Jesus Christ and His Church are one.
Now, that’s a revealed truth that needs repeating today.
What we’ve got now, if the scholarly research is accurate—and I’m afraid it is—is a growing tendency to split Christ from His Church. More and more seem to be claiming such things as:
“Oh, I’ve got faith. I just don’t need the Church.”
“Faith is great; religion stinks.”
“I believe. I just don’t want to belong.”
“I got Jesus. Why bother with the Church?”
“I pray how and when I want. What’s the big deal about the Mass and Church on Sunday?”
St. Paul would take exception. So would Jesus.

When God chose Israel he selected not a person but a people. Faith in God is communal by its very nature.

Like our Jewish neighbors, we Catholics have always believed that God chooses us and gives us the supernatural gift of faith. It’s not that we decide our faith. You bet, we freely decide how firmly and generously we will live out our faith, but we are “born into” a Church. Faith is a gift from God given us on the day of our baptism into His Church.

Just like we’re “born into” a natural family. We are a member of a human family. That family is often flawed and imperfect. In fact, there are times when we’re angry at it and might even drift away from family events. But, family membership is in our blood. 

Read Archbishop Dolan's entire column

Catechism 101: Review divine revelation

BY PAT ARENSBERG

Thank you so much for reading so far.  I thought I would use today’s blog to review and summarize the Catholic view of divine revelation.
The most important principles with regard to divine revelation are these:

1. God takes the initiative, not us
2. He does so because he loves us and longs to be as close to us as possible
3. We can know something about God through natural reason, but the knowledge is very limited, fallible and certainly impersonal.
4. God wanted more for us, so he introduced himself
5. Using natural reason, St. Thomas Aquinas demonstrated that God must exist in five ways (from motion, from efficient cause, from possibility and necessity, from gradation and finally from governance)

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.