Scripture’s Relationship with the Church

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1).

Some while ago, a friend said, “And to which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?” (Mt. 6:27). Understanding that he had quoted somebody, I asked, “Who said that?” nearly guessing, “Shakespeare?”

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“Our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ” my friend responded as I blushed, embarrassed. How often are we ignorant of Scripture? As Catholics, we must read and know God’s written word in order to know the incarnate Word. “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ,” as St. Jerome said.

Scripture is an aspect, rather than the totality, of Revelation. Revelation is God’s process of making Himself and His will known to man, wishing “to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity” (CCC 52). It occurred throughout history, culminating and completing in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Christ commissioned the Apostles with the guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit to proclaim, protect, and pass down Revelation. Revelation has two components: Scripture and Tradition, from which “the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed” (Dei verbum 9). As the Catechism states, “Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 81).

The Catholic canon of Scripture developed historically, and was conclusively defined at the Council of Trent. It consists of 73 books: 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. A division exists between “protocanonical” and “deuterocanonical” books. The former are universally accepted as canonical by Christian denominations, but Protestants do not include the latter in their canons. However, there is only one complete Catholic canon.

Scripture cannot exist, or even truly be read and understood in its fullness, independently from the Catholic and Apostolic Church. It demands an authority, as given by Jesus and guided by the Holy Spirit, both to define what Scripture consists of and what the text means. There must be clarity between whether or not certain texts are divinely inspired, such as in the cases of 1 and 2 Maccabees (which are recognized as canonical by Catholics but not Protestants) or the Gospel of Thomas (which is not recognized as canonical by Catholics or Protestants).

No text can coherently self-interpret. While there is no single interpretation of the entirety of Scripture, there are certain passages which require definitive interpretations. For example, we must interpret Jesus’ words “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51) literally to substantiate Church teaching on the nature of the Eucharist. Further, if one reads passages about the Resurrection as literary fiction rather than historical fact, “then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). These examples, among others, are clarified through the teaching authority of the Church, in light of the entirety of Scripture and Tradition.

Scripture fills and fosters the liturgy and teachings of the Church, and the personal spiritual lives of her flock. “[A]ll the preaching of the Church must be nourished and regulated by Sacred Scripture” and “Sacred theology rests on the written word of God, together with sacred tradition, as its primary and perpetual foundation” (Dei verbum 22, 24). The Mass is filled with Scripture, explicitly during the Liturgy of the Word and implicitly in both the propers and ordinary ranging from the Sanctus (cf. Rev. 4:8), to the sacred words of the Consecration (cf. Mt. 26:26-28, Mk. 14:22-24, Lk. 22:19-20).

As Catholics, Scripture must undergird our spiritual lives. The Gospels take primacy over any other section of Scripture because they most intimately relay the actions and words of Christ. Our reading intention should be twofold. First, we should broadly understand Scripture and its relation to other aspects of the Church. We should know Jesus’ entire life, the teachings of St. Paul, passages that relate to the sacraments, and so forth. Second, and most importantly, we should read the Scriptures to know God most intimately. We should study its details, meditate on each line, and take it to our prayer. May we know the Word through the word.