VATICAN CITY, 5 MAY 2011 (VIS) - A message from the Pope to Cardinal William J. Levada, president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and the members of that commission was made public today. The message was issued on the occasion of the commission's annual plenary assembly, which focused on the theme of "Inspiration and Truth of the Bible".
The Pope emphasized that "this theme is one of the main points of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini, which discusses it in the first section".
"An interpretation of Sacred Scripture that ignores or forgets its inspiration", the Holy Father writes, "does not take into account its most important and valuable characteristic: its provenance from God".
Benedict XVI recalled that in that same apostolic exhortation, "'the Synod Fathers stressed the link between the theme of inspiration and that of the truth of the Scriptures. A deeper study of the process of inspiration will doubtless lead to a greater understanding of the truth contained in the sacred books'".
"Through His Word, God seeks to communicate to us the entire truth about Himself and His plan of salvation for Humanity. The commitment to discovering more and more the truth of the sacred texts thus means seeking to know God and the mystery of His salvific will ever better".
The Pope continued to call attention to the fact that "it is essential and vital for the life and the mission of the Church that the sacred texts are interpreted according to their nature: Inspiration and Truth are the constitutive aspects of this nature". In this context he assured the members of the commission that their efforts in this area "will have true usefulness for the Church's life and mission".
"A good hermeneutic", the message concludes, "cannot mechanically apply the criteria of inspiration, or absolute truth, in the extrapolation of a sentence or expression. The level on which it is possible to perceive Sacred Scriptures as the Word of God is that of the unity of God's history, a totality in which single elements are reciprocally illuminated and open themselves to understanding".
MESS/ VIS 20110505 (340)
The Pope emphasized that "this theme is one of the main points of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini, which discusses it in the first section".
"An interpretation of Sacred Scripture that ignores or forgets its inspiration", the Holy Father writes, "does not take into account its most important and valuable characteristic: its provenance from God".
Benedict XVI recalled that in that same apostolic exhortation, "'the Synod Fathers stressed the link between the theme of inspiration and that of the truth of the Scriptures. A deeper study of the process of inspiration will doubtless lead to a greater understanding of the truth contained in the sacred books'".
"Through His Word, God seeks to communicate to us the entire truth about Himself and His plan of salvation for Humanity. The commitment to discovering more and more the truth of the sacred texts thus means seeking to know God and the mystery of His salvific will ever better".
The Pope continued to call attention to the fact that "it is essential and vital for the life and the mission of the Church that the sacred texts are interpreted according to their nature: Inspiration and Truth are the constitutive aspects of this nature". In this context he assured the members of the commission that their efforts in this area "will have true usefulness for the Church's life and mission".
"A good hermeneutic", the message concludes, "cannot mechanically apply the criteria of inspiration, or absolute truth, in the extrapolation of a sentence or expression. The level on which it is possible to perceive Sacred Scriptures as the Word of God is that of the unity of God's history, a totality in which single elements are reciprocally illuminated and open themselves to understanding".
MESS/ VIS 20110505 (340)
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What wonderful words from the Holy Father . . . now, will we as a Church listen? He has been saying such for decades. This from his commentary on Dei Verbum:
ReplyDelete"(Dei Verbum) states that tradition, which stems from the Apostles, develops under the assistance of the Holy Spirit in the Church, i.e., that there is a growing understanding of the words and realities that have been handed down to us. Again, three factors of this growth are listed: contemplation and study on the part of believers; inner understanding, which comes from spiritual experience; and the proclamation by the teaching office. The final point is made that the Church and its understanding of revelation is moving forward towards the fullness of the divine word in the Church in the eschaton. It is important that the progress of the word in the time of the Church is not seen simply as a function of the hierarchy, but is anchored in the whole life of the Church; through it, we hear in what is said that which is unsaid. The whole spiritual experience of the Church, its believing, praying and loving intercourse with the Lord and his word, causes our understanding of the original truth to grow and in the today of faith extracts anew from the yesterday of its historical origin what was meant for all time and yet can be understood only in the changing ages and in the particular way of each. In the process of understanding, which is the concrete way in which tradition proceeds in the Church, the work of the teaching office is one component (and, because of its nature, a critical one, not a productive one), but it is not the whole."
Tautology.; though one can understand the goal of Benedict. Most biblical scholars do not know what to do with discoveries.They do not perceive the meta-principle of Bible+do not understand the meaning of the term "God" not only in biblical source but especially, that of St.Thomas Aquinas@its consequences how to interpret better texts on "the will of God".
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