Tag: Bible

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Insights From Psalm 23 – Are you Smarter than a Sheep??

Sometimes a text gets so familiar we lose sight of its meaning. Consider a two thoughts from Psalm 23:

The Lord is my Shepherd – Sheep only recognize one shepherd. If another shepherd calls to them they flee in fear because they do not recognize his voice. (see John 10:5) Are you as smart as a sheep? Too often when false shepherds call to us we do not run. We listen to their voices, even though they do not sound like the Lord. These false shepherds tell us to indulge our greed and passions, to give way to lust and vent our anger. Hardly the voice of Jesus. But we listen and often follow them! Sheep have brains enough to run but what about us?

He [the Lord] has prepared a table for me in the sight of my foes, my cup is over flowing. Have you ever thought that the Mass, the holy Eucharist, the altar and table of the Lord are a great sign to you of the victory the Lord has in store for you? Did he not say in John 6: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I will raise him on the last day.”  An old Latin hymn (O Sacrum Convivium) says that in the Eucharist, “a pledge of future glory is given to us.”  Our ancient enemy the devil must cringe with disappointment as he sees us approach the table, the altar of the Lord to be fed with the Body of the Lord.  The Lord has indeed prepared a table for us in the sight of our foe the devil and the devil isn’t happy! Our cup overflows because the Lord’s grace in this sacrament is super abundant for us. It is never lacking and the more we grow the more we can receive. With this promise attached to the altar, why would you or I ever stay away?

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Ark of the Covenant to be Unveiled?

The latest issue of Gloria TV news contains two very interesting archaeological notes. First the Pope confirmed today that scientific testing on the bones of St. Paul confirm that they are of antiquity, most certainly from the first or second century. This would tend to confirm the Churches claim that they are in fact the Bones of St Paul.

The final item on this newscast is cause for some alarm if you ask me:

“The Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, Abuna Pauolos, has announced last Friday the unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant, the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses. According to the Patriarch it has been hidden away in a church in his country for millennia. Now, the is supposed to be shown in a museum.”

What?! A Museum?! It is debatable if this really is the Ark of the Covenant but many, even millions, think  it is. For a religious leader of the Church that has reverently kept this reputed treasure and venerated its status as a holy receptacle of the Presence of God, to put this in a museum is reprehensible! For the Jewish people of old the Ark was so sacred that no one could look upon it, except the High Priest and he, only once a year. The Ark carried the presence of God in Israel. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has venerated this Ark for centuries and limited its exposure to the world much as did the ancient Jews. It is astonishing to me that the Ethiopian Patriarch would every consider such a move. It would almost be like a Catholic Bishop taking a tabernacle, fully loaded with the Blessed Sacrament and putting it on display in a museum. Unthinkable! It is so crazy that I think this must be a hoax. There are others who claim that the Patriarch was misquoted (cf  HERE and HERE) . At any rate, I hope the matter proves to be what I suspect, a hoax. So here is the latest Gloria TV News

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You Know You Should…

.…confess your sins. I have posted on the Biblical roots of this sacrament before. Here is a printable PDF in case you have any doubts about:

  1. Why you should confess your sins to a priest.
  2. Why confession is required of a Bible-believing Christian
  3. Why Confession just makes sense

The PDF is Available here: Confession in Biblical

The following video is humorous and informative. Be sure to watch the outtakes at the the end.

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Interpreting the Scriptures

Many people like to say that “fundamentalists” or Evangelicals read the Bible literally and Catholics do not. It is not really that simple though. There are many passages that Evangelicals do not read literally. For example, when Jesus says, “This is my Body” they do not interpret these words literally but, rather, conclude that the Jesus should be understood to be speaking symbolically. And we Catholics, who are not usually said to read the Bible literally, do interpret these words quite literally. Another example, When Jesus says that he will build his Church upon Peter whom he declares to be rock, Catholics take these words quite literally to mean that Peter is in fact the Rock upon which Jesus will build his Church. Evangelicals however interpret the rock here to be faith and so the text, which plainly says Peter is the Rock, is interpreted by them to mean that the rock is symbolic for faith. And so on….

So, a simple declaration that Evangelicals and Fundamentalists read the text literally and Catholics do not is simplistic. However, it remains true that Catholics and Evangelicals do have a different interpretive keys. Catholic theology and Tradition has a rather nuanced position in regard to Scriptural interpretation that gives great emphasis to the genre and context of a passage. Some texts which are plain doctrinal statements or historical narrative are interpreted rather literally. However, there are other texts in Scripture which are clearly in the genre of poetry or allegory and hence these should be interpreted that way. Scripture is not merely one book, it is a collection of books written in many different styles. This will affect the interepretation of such books. To a world that wants a simple “slogan approach” to understanding Biblical interpretation a nuanced approach is difficult to stomach. And yet the Catholic approach, though nuanced, is wise since it respects it respects genre, style, and context.

Here are a couple of videos that make rather plain the Catholic approach to Biblical interpretation. The first video is from John Martignoni and is a very brief description of the Literal vs. Literalist interpretation. The second vido is from Fr. Robert Barron and details two key Catholic interpretive principles: the importance of Genre and that Jesus Christ is the interpretive key to to understanding the whole Bible.