Dei Verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Post 2

This is the second post in a series on the Vatican II document, Dei Verbum.  

You can find Post #1 here.   

You can also find the online document here.  

 

Chapter 2: “Handing on Divine Revelation,” Paragraphs 7 thru 10:

The second chapter deals with three related matters.  Given that God has revealed Himself through scripture, His revelation first needs to be explained and handed down through the centuries.  Second, to explain the revelation requires an understanding of the tradition from which it was understood.  One cannot separate the scripture from the tradition.  Taken together, scripture and tradition are a deposit of faith.  And third, the Church was created to maintain and promulgate that faith.  Here again are excerpts that build the argument.

 

In His gracious goodness, God has seen to it that what He had revealed for the salvation of all nations would abide perpetually in its full integrity and be handed on to all generations. (7)

 

But in order to keep the Gospel forever whole and alive within the Church, the Apostles left bishops as their successors, "handing over" to them "the authority to teach in their own place."(3) This sacred tradition, therefore, and Sacred Scripture of both the Old and New Testaments are like a mirror in which the pilgrim Church on earth looks at God, from whom she has received everything, until she is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face (see 1 John 3:2)  (7)

 

And so the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved by an unending succession of preachers until the end of time.  Therefore the Apostles, handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to hold fast to the traditions which they have learned either by word of mouth or by letter (see 2 Thess. 2:15) (8)

 

This tradition which comes from the Apostles develop in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. (5) For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke, 2:19, 51) through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her. (8)

Here perhaps are the key couple of sentences for chapter 2:

 

Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. (9)

To separate scripture from the tradition is to do what the Protestant Reformers did 1500 years after the Christ.  It kept the scripture but shucked out most of the tradition to create a whole new understanding of Christianity.  It was not what was handed over from the apostles.  Chapter 2 continues with the need for a “teaching office” to maintain both halves of the deposit of faith, and that teaching office—commonly referred to as the “magisterium”—is part of the responsibility given to the Church.  The logic of chapter 2 continues:

 

But the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on, (8) has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, (9) whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This teaching office is not above the word of God, but serves it, teaching only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully in accord with a divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it draws from this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as divinely revealed. (10)

It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God’s most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.  (10)

Finally it should be noted that the teaching office is guided by the Holy Spirit, a link to the divine.

Kerstin Commented:

Once one is on board with both Scripture and Tradition comprising the deposit of faith one can't go back. It makes so much sense. For me it really was intuitive. I had never been hung up on this particular hurdle while still Protestant.

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Chapter 3: “Sacred Scripture, Its Inspiration and Divine Interpretation,” Paragraphs 11 thru 13:

The third chapter provides some facts about the nature of sacred scripture.  First scripture comes to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Those divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in Sacred Scripture have been committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (11)

God worked through real men with their own personalities and perspectives.  Judeo-Christian sacred scripture is not a quoting from God, say in what Islam claims of Mohammed from Allah, but men who use with their own words, style, imagery, rhetorical gifts.  That is the difference between inspiration and ventriloquism. 

 

In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him they 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. (11)

Nonetheless, inspired text are still the word of God and must be understood to be without error.

 

Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation. (11)

But the form and genre of the author must understood to derive the full truth the author is trying to convey.

 

To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to "literary forms." For truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts which are variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse. (12)

God’s kindness and gentleness, indeed, His entire nature is present in the text.

 

In Sacred Scripture, therefore, while the truth and holiness of God always remains intact, the marvelous "condescension" of eternal wisdom is clearly shown, "that we may learn the gentle kindness of God, which words cannot express, and how far He has gone in adapting His language with thoughtful concern for our weak human nature."  For the words of God, expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as the word of the eternal Father, when He took to Himself the flesh of human weakness, was in every way made like men. (13)

This short video provides a nice summation of chapter 3.

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Chapter 4: “The Old Testament,” Paragraphs 14 thru 16:

The fourth chapter is short and sweet, but the conclusion is vitally important.  It’s purpose is to give significance to the Old Testament and to make the bold claim that salvation history was planned by God and foreshadowed from the beginning.  First it states the special importance of the Jewish people.

 

In carefully planning and preparing the salvation of the whole human race the God of infinite love, by a special dispensation, chose for Himself a people to whom He would entrust His promises. (14)

 

Then too, when God Himself spoke to them through the mouth of the prophets, Israel daily gained a deeper and clearer understanding of His ways and made them more widely known among the nations (see Ps. 21:29; 95:1-3; Is. 2:1-5; Jer. 3:17).  (14)

It makes clear that there was a plan from the beginning, and the plan’s objective was the coming of Christ.

 

The principal purpose to which the plan of the old covenant was directed was to prepare for the coming of Christ, the redeemer of all and of the messianic kingdom, to announce this coming by prophecy (see Luke 24:44; John 5:39; 1 Peter 1:10), and to indicate its meaning through various types (see 1 Cor. 10:12). (15)

And it makes the bold statement that there is a relationship, a deep interconnection between the Old and New Testaments. 

 

God, the inspirer and author of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and the Old be made manifest in the New.  (16)

The Old Testament is not just filler to get to the New. 

Dei Verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Post 1

We did a reading of the Vatican II document on Divine Revelation called Dei Verbum.  The following are my contributions to the discussion.  I expect this will take about three posts to complete the series. 

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Introduction.

What is Dei Verbum?  Translated in means “the Word of God” and it is taken from the opening phrase of the document.  It refers to itself as the “Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation.”  It was the very first document put out by the Second Vatican Council, and it is dated, November 18, 1965, promulgated by his holiness, Pope Paul VI.  You can read the document online, here.  

In the preface we are given the objective of the document:

 

Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love.  (Preface, Paragraph 1)

In layman’s terms, the objective is to put forth the doctrine of how the Catholic Church has received divine revelation and how it communicates that revelation to the faithful.  It is important to remember that some things we can know about God through our senses and reason and some things we can only know through divine revelation.  This document deals only with the divine revelation element of how we know God.  The second part of that quoted sentence tells us why the Church communicates: so that the whole world may believe.  I emphasized “whole world” because that is more than just the Catholic Church.  It does so I believe because the Catholic Church as the institution created by Jesus through Peter sees herself as having the responsibility of maintaining the faith for all, whether they consider themselves as part of the Catholic Church or not.

You can read a history and summary of Dei Verbum at Wikipedia, here.  

Let’s take this week to read it.  It’s only ten pages.  And then we’ll have the next two weeks to discuss it.

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Susan Commented:

And my other question relates to your last statement. Are you able to clarify what you mean when you say "the Catholic Church...sees herself as having the responsibility of maintaining the faith for all, whether they consider themselves as part of the Catholic Church or not"? Would I be accurate in re-expressing what you were saying as, 'feels the responsibility to keep fidelity to what was handed on to Her, and to continue to express such to allow the opportunity for any and all to choose to believe?' There might be a subtle distinction there that I am trying to clarify

My Reply to Susan:

Hmm, when I said that it came out of my understanding, perhaps out of my impressions. I don't know for a fact whether the Church feels that responsibility. I think it does, but I don't want to state it as absolutely certain. How do you and others feel on that? Do you think the Catholic Church feels the responsibility to maintain Christianity whether other sects of Christianity agree with her or not?

 

As to the subtle distinction you are making, yes, I would agree. It is part of the Bishop of Rome's responsibility and duty to keep fidelity with what has been handed down. It is his primary job function. I don't know if I meant to draw that distinction. Perhaps my choice of words were not perfect.

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The first thing in understanding a work is to first understand its structure.  The structure of Dei Verbum is given to us in six chapters with titles.  Let me lay this out:

1. Revelation Itself

2. Handing on Divine Revelation

3. Sacred Scripture, It’s Inspiration and Divine Interpretation

4. The Old Testament

5. The New Testament

6. Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church

A summary outline of Dei Verbum would be the understanding of how God revealed Himself to humanity, how humanity handed on that revelation, how it came to be written down as inspired scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments, and how the Church teaches with the scriptures to form the life of the faith.

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Now I will get at the heart of each chapter with some abundant quotes. 

 

Chapter 1: “Revelation Itself.” Paragraphs 2 thru 6:

The first chapter states that “God chose to reveal Himself and make known the hidden purpose of His will.”  That is what I would call a foundational statement to salvation history and the scriptures, which are nothing less than the Word of God.  Here are key statements in chapter 1 fill out this claim.  Each of these excerpts build toward the conclusion of chapter 1.  The number in parenthesis is the number of the paragraph in the document.

 

This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having an inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation. (2)

 

Through the patriarchs, and after them through Moses and the prophets, He taught this people to acknowledge Himself the one living and true God, provident father and just judge, and to wait for the Savior promised by Him, and in this manner prepared the way for the Gospel down through the centuries. (3)

 

Moreover He confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal. (4)

 

To make this act of faith, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving "joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it." (5) To bring about an ever deeper understanding of revelation the same Holy Spirit constantly brings faith to completion by His gifts. (5)

 

Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate Himself and the eternal decisions of His will regarding the salvation of men. That is to say, He chose to share with them those divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind. (6)

The development of the excerpts reach this conclusion for chapter 1:

 

As a sacred synod has affirmed, God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason (see Rom. 1:20); but teaches that it is through His revelation that those religious truths which are by their nature accessible to human reason can be known by all men with ease, with solid certitude and with no trace of error, even in this present state of the human race. (6)

God has revealed Himself and can be known through human reason.

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Kerstin Commented:

Manny wrote: "God has revealed Himself and can be known through human reason."

This, in a nutshell, is what modernism denies, what we run up against every day.

 

Referencing 1 Timothy and Titus, this sentence on the bottom of paragraph 4 stood out for me:

The Christian dispensation, therefore, as the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away and we now await no further new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In other words, the deposit of faith is true and unalterable. It is. Yet from the very beginning men have tried to create wiggle room for themselves to make it in their own image. This famous G.K. Chesterton quote comes to mind:

 

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

My Reply to Kerstin:

Agree Kerstin. The other takeaway from that passage you quote that should be noted is "we now await no further new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." That is important. Revelation has stopped with the apostles. Stuff like the Book of Mormon or the Koran can never be seen as revelation because revelation has ended. Any revelation by saints or mystics is private revelation and while it may be useful for devotional purposes cannot add to inspired revelation.

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Here is a nice little video on what Dei Verbum is and says.

Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, Part 4

This is my fourth and final posts on Treasure in Clay. 

Part 1 of my posts on Treasure in Clay can be found here.  

Part 2 can be found here.  

Part 3 here.

Summary, Chapters 17 thru 20

Chapter 17, “The Second Vatican Council”:

Sheen discusses his involvement with the Second Vatican Council and the Council’s objectives, events, and outcome.

Chapter 18, “The Lighter Side”:

Bishop Sheen speaks of his sense of humor and of a number of amusing events in his life.

Chapter 19, “Things Left Unsaid”:

Bishop Sheen provides his view of internal conflicts and of the importance of silence and restraint. 

Chapter 20, “The Woman I Love”:

Bishop Sheen speaks of his love for the Blessed Mother and of her importance in the spiritual life of a Christian.

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Comment 1:

The chapter on the Vatican II was interesting.  I have to learn more about Vatican II.  I was surprised at how monolithic the voting turned out.  The voting ran roughly 97% yes for all articles.  Would we have that today?  The recent Amazonian Synod vote was 128-41, which was roughly 76% yes.  Perhaps Vatican II was just not as controversial as I thought.  The Amazonian Synod was definitely controversial.  I thought this paragraph was insightful.

The Vatican Council was held at that period of history when it was necessary to strike a balance between two extremes both in the world and in the Church: individualism and socialism. By individualism I mean the emphasis on the right of the individual either to develop his own spirituality or economically to increase his own capital without much concern for the social good. By socialism I mean the stress on social welfare with little concern for either the individual's religion or his morals.

Here is his summary of the Council's accomplishments:

What the Council did was establish equilibrium or balance between these extremes-between evangelization and human progress, between soul-winning and society-saving, between divine salvation and human liberation. It made both inseparable. The Council decided that we must beget children of God through evangelization but not without giving witness to fraternal love and a sensitiveness to humanity's desire for freedom and justice. For the first time in the history of all the Councils of the Church, there was a chapter on "The World" in which there was stressed the unity of creation and redemption; and the truth that the dignity and freedom of the human person is inseparable from salvation. It was a master stroke under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that bishops gathered from all over the world could see the new direction the Church must take-which actually was nothing else than the old direction that Christian salvation has an earthly and historical dimension, namely, the relation of the love of God and love of neighbor.

That last sentence kind of make me wince a little.  It seems to be implying that the love of neighbor was missing.  So the Church did not advocate a love of neighbor before?  The Church did not set up hospitals, take care of orphans and feed the hungry before Vatican II?  From what I've seen historically it seems to me it did quite a bit of it.  After all there were no welfare programs.  It was the religious institutions, Catholic and others, that took care of the poor.  It would not surprise me that as a percentage of money and effort spent, the Churches did more before Vatican II and welfare systems than they do now.  That responsibility for the poor has been relieved from the religious institutions with the creation and expansion of welfare programs.

But I'm not going to say I'm an expert.

Comment 2:

I also loved the chapter on the Blessed Mother.  He is so spot on when he says this:

I think one of the major defects in world religions has been the absence of the feminine. The absence becomes more striking in a study of Christian sects where so little attention is paid to the Mother of Christ.

It has been pointed out to me that Catholicism has so much more of a feminine touch as compared to an overly masculine perspective of the Protestants, Jews, and Muslims.  I really believe it’s because we have our Blessed Mother in so prominent a role in our faith. 

I loved this quote as a parry to the criticism we worship Mary:

God Who made the sun also made the moon. The moon does not take away from the brilliance of the sun. The moon would be only a burned-out cinder floating in the immensity of space, were it not for the sun.  All its light is reflected from that glowing furnace. In like manner, Mary reflects her Divine Son, without Whom she is nothing.

This was great.

While I was still in the first grade, a suggestion was made by a good nun that we put at the top of every page the initials J.M.J., standing for dedication to “Jesus, Mary and Joseph.” In the course of my life I have written tens of thousands of pages. I do not believe I ever set my pen or pencil to paper without having put the seal of dedication on my work.

Wow, I would love to take up that habit.  I don’t know if I can at my age, but that is something that should be more promoted.  I’ll have to give it a try.

And this was very insightful. 

Devotion to the Blessed Mother brought me to the discovery of a new dimension in the sacredness of suffering. I do not believe that I ever in my life said to the Good Lord: “What did I do to deserve all these trials?” In my own heart I knew that I received fewer blows than I deserved. Furthermore, if Christ the Lord had summoned His Mother, who was free from sin, to share in the Cross, then the Christian must scratch from his vocabulary the word “deserve.”

And he elaborates on this theme further in the chapter:

If the Lord called her, who “deserved” no pain, to stand at the foot of the Cross, why should He not call me? If I had expressed a love for her as the Mother of the Priesthood, why should she not, in maternal love, make me more like her Son by forcing me to become a victim?

So if she suffered along with her Son, then we are privileged to suffer along with both.  That is quite a statement on suffering.

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Chapter 21, “The Three Stages of My Life”:

Bishop Sheen in summation divides his life into three stages: the call, the profession, the second look.

Epilogue, “Bye Now, Fulton Sheen, and God Love You Forever”:

We are provided the homily delivered at Bishop Sheen’s Funeral Mass on December 13^th, 1979.  We are also given a summation of his life, and a chronology of the events in his life.

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Comment from Celia:

Here is a quote that will stay with me a long time:

"Peter did what he did not plan to do—what he did not wish to do—what he had been warned against doing—what he declared he would never do. And they were both brought face to face with their guilt. Judas had only remorse, but Peter showed sorrow. If Judas had returned to the Lord he would have been saved by that second look, but in him there was a total and final rejection of Christ; in Peter, a loving return."

How will WE react to Christ's Second Look?

My Reply:

I noticed that quote too Celia. Good point about the tone of that last chapter. Yes I sensed it too but I couldn’t put my finger on it until you pointed it out. Is it possible that the first twenty chapters were written before his heart operation and that last chapter after. It seemed like he was so much less jovial and sensing his mortality after the heart issue. It does feel like something dramatic changed him in that last chapter. Just a thought.

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My Goodreads Review:

In a way, Archbishop Fulton Sheen spans the Catholic Church in the 20th century.  The soon-to-be canonized saint takes us through his life, his career in the media, his evangelization, his take on various theological arguments, his relationships with the various popes, his spirituality, and his engagement with the world.  All the while he passes on wonderful wisdom.  For instance, here he sums up what he learned as a teacher:

I felt a deep moral obligation to students; that is why I spent so many hours in preparation for each class. In an age of social justice one phase that seems neglected is the moral duty of professors to give their students a just return for their tuition. This applies not only to the method of teaching but to the content as well. A teacher who himself does not learn is no teacher. Teaching is one of the noblest vocations on earth, for, in the last analysis, the purpose of all education is the knowledge and love of truth.

In this autobiography, Bishop Sheen shows you all sides of his personality.  He was a funny man, and there is humor.  He was an introspective man, and he shares his inner thoughts.  He was a compassionate man, and there is much gentility, understanding, and reaching out to all who need help.  This is a wonderful read.  Four and a half stars actually.