Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church. Holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people united with their shepherds remain always steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles, in the common life, in the breaking of the bread and in prayers (see Acts 2, 42, Greek text), so that holding to, practicing and professing the heritage of the faith, it becomes on the part of the bishops and faithful a single common effort (DV 10).Does this mean that the events described in the Gospels are not necessarily true? Perhaps not in the factual sense of “true.” Something can be “truth” and not be fact. If a three-year-old child indicates that his dad is forty feet tall, clearly this is not “true.” But the “truth” of the statement is that from the point of view of a three-year-old, his Dad is a giant. And so, while his statement is not factually true, it does hold a certain degree of truth. It is the same with Scriptures. While some of the events may not be described factually, the truth to which they point is “true”. Let me give you an example: Whether Jesus fed 3000 or 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21) or whether he was visited by wise men who gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11-13) is not really the point of those stories. It may be true (factually) but what’s important is the truth to which the stories point: for example, Jesus multiplies what we have to offer (in the multiplication of the fishes and loaves story) and Jesus is King (gold), Priest (frankincense) and Sacrifice (Myrrh). The Gospels are about quality, not quantity. The Catholic Church believes and teaches that God is the author of Sacred Scripture (CCC 105) for “all scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16 ). The Church teaches that the:
...Holy mother Church, relying on the belief of the Apostles (see John 20:31; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19-20, 3:15-16), holds that the books of both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety, with all their parts, are sacred and canonical because written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself. 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 (DV 11).This means that everything in both the Old and New Testaments must be ascribed to the Holy Spirit and be held as Truth without error that God wished to put into sacred writings "for the sake of salvation" (DV 11). The document continues:
However, since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, the interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words (DV 12).And so, we are called to use our God-given reason to interpret Scripture as best we can because:
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 (DV 6).Next time we’ll look at some practical ways that we can read and interpret Sacred Scripture.
We join the Holy Father in praying that we might again learn how to discern, to know how to choose paths of life and reject everything that leads us away from Christ and the Gospel.
In his weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV continued the cycle of catechesis on "Jesus Christ our Hope" as part of the Jubilee 2025. He reflected on the raising of Jairus' daughter and the healing of the bleeding woman in Mark chapter 5. Commenting specifically on the bleeding woman, he said that "every time we perform an act of faith addressed to Jesus, contact is established with Him, and immediately his grace comes out from Him."
During the Jubilee of Bishops, Pope Leo XIV gave a meditation at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica. He said that "a Bishop is a witness to hope by his example of a life firmly grounded in God and completely devoted to the service of the Church. This will be the case only insofar as he is conformed to Christ in his personal life and in his apostolic ministry. The Spirit of the Lord will then shape his way of thinking."
In his weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV continued the cycle of catechesis on "Jesus Christ our Hope" as part of the Jubilee 2025. He reflected on Jesus' healing of the paralytic in John 5. He said that "Jesus...takes this man back to his truest and deepest desire," and "helps him to discover that his life is also in his hands."
In this month of June, the Holy Father invites us to pray that the world might grow in compassion, that each one of us might find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus, and from his Heart, learn to have compassion on the world.