The following is taken from a final year CCD Confirmation class that my wife and I had the pleasure of teaching last year. Over the course of 2 weekends, we covered how the Catholic Church is truly endowed with a special and distinct form of authority. The main concept of this class was to demonstrate to the catechumen how the Catholic Church relies on 3 modes of authority and how none of them can ever contradict one another as well as the fact that all 3 form the foundation of our knowledge base of Christ and His message.
We really enjoyed this class since it was not only a break from our lesson plan but, it also gave us the opportunity to show the kids in our class why we, as Catholics, don’t ever go by the Protestant concept of sola scriptura, that is, that the bible alone is the final authority on all things Christian. The original format of this paper was as an Q&A outline of speaking and teaching points, I’ve expanded these bullet points into a more coherent post.
On Authority
Introduction
Let’s say that we had a time machine and we used this time machine to go back in time to see Jesus preach. Let’s further say that we understood the Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke in, as we heard Jesus preaching about the Kingdom, salvation and repentance. After hearing Jesus speak we have a question about what we just heard, maybe we didn’t clearly understand something he said as is seen time after time in the Bible whenever Jesus has to explain a parable. Or, maybe Jesus said something that we had a hard time coming to grips with like what happened in John 6:60-61. Either way, we want to ask a question about what we just heard so, who do we go ask? Jesus of course!
Now, we get back in our time machine and travel back to the present. We go to Mass and the Pastor is speaking about purgatory during his homily. We really don’t understand what purgatory really is or where it came from but, we do understand that it is a teaching of some form. Who do we go to now to get answers for our questions about anything that has to do with Christian teachings?
The answer is simple: we go to the only place that Jesus created and invested with his power and grace to lead all souls into heaven and that place is the One, Holy, Apostolic and Catholic Church! But how do we know this? How do we know that Jesus gave authority to only one Church and not all churches?
Let’s see if we can find out why the Catholic Church is the sole heir of Christ’s authority.
Part I: The Magisterium
So, if someone had a question about the faith during Jesus’ time who could they go ask? The answer is Jesus but, as we all know, Jesus isn’t around at the moment to answer any of our questions BUT, Jesus did do something that has allowed us as Catholics to know that we are truly part of His Church.
QUESTION 1: What did Christ do to ensure that His teachings would be known to us?
ANSWER: Jesus did two things in order to make sure that we could know about His teachings:
1) He chose 12 Apostles
2) He taught them everything He wanted the world to know.
QUESTION 2: What is the name given to everything Christ taught the Apostles?
ANSWER: The Deposit of Faith
How do we know that Jesus did in fact teach them everything that they needed to know? Go to John 21:25. In it we read the following:
“There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.”
So notice that Jesus, after His resurrection while still on earth, did other things. More than likely, He continued to preach, heal, work miracles and explain what his teachings meant. Only the 11 Apostles were there to see this so that kind of makes them a little special especially when we read what happens in Matthew 28:16-20:
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
In other words, Jesus gave the Apostles authority and to teach right before He Ascended into Heaven! So, now that Jesus has left, let’s ask ourselves the following question: If someone had a question about the faith, who could they go to now? The answer is simple: The Apostles! So, right from the beginning of the Early Church, the Apostles had the authority to teach. They had this authority ONLY because Jesus gave it to them. This teaching authority of the Early Church is what we call the Magisterium.
The word Magisterium comes from the word Magi, which means teacher or learned one. Where have we seen this word before? That’s right! In the Gospel of Matthew when the Three Wise Men from the East visit Jesus at his birth. So the Magisterium is simply the office of the Magi, or “the office of the teachers.” That’s where we get the word from. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church #100 states:
The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him.
CONCLUSION 1: Thus, the first source of authority is the Magisterium.
Part II: Apostolic Oral Tradition
QUESTION 3: How did the Apostles convey the message of Christ?
ANSWER: The Word of God was spread by word of mouth.
Have you ever played thumb-tag or secret telephone? What happens when you tell something to someone and then that person tells someone and that person tells someone and so on and so forth? The message usually changes by the time it gets to the last person, right? So, if the Apostles relied on people telling and re-telling Christ’s message over and over, how do we know that the message stayed the same? How do we know that it didn’t change?
John 14:26 states:
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name - he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.
QUESTION 4: So, how do we know that the message the Apostles transmitted by preaching the Word of God was without error?
ANSWER: The Holy Spirit is the reason why we know that everything the Apostles said was said correctly!
Think about it, who is the Holy Spirit…God, right? So God Himself is going to protect His own word from the foolishness of man. This is how we know for a fact that Christ’s message was never changed. The Holy Spirit, God Himself guided the Apostles. As CCC # 81 mentions:
“…[Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."
QUESTION 5: Approximately when did Christ ascend into heaven?
ANSWER: About 33 A.D.
QUESTION 6: Approximately when was the first book that went into the N.T. written?
ANSWER: About 50 A.D
So about 17 years went without anyone ever writing anything about Jesus!
QUESTION 7: Approximately when was the last book of the N.T. written?
ANSWER: About 100 A.D.
So, from 33 A.D. to 100 A.D. (67 years) before any of the books that went into the bible where all written down, this is how the faith spread. This is how the Deposit of Faith was transmitted orally and it was transmitted correctly. As St. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:15:
Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.
QUESTION 8: If The Magisterium was a source given by Christ and Apostolic Tradition was given by Christ, can they ever by in disagreement?
ANSWER: No. It is impossible for both inspired sources of authority to ever contradict one another!
Let’s look at what the Catechism says. Paragraph #76 reads:
- orally "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit";
- in writing "by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing".
CONCLUSION 2: Thus, spoken or written word of God is called Apostolic Tradition.
The final source of authority is The Bible. Let’s examine the Bible.
Part III: Introduction to the Bible
Here’s a question to ask Bible-Only Christians: Do you claim the Bible to be an authoritative source? Do you pray from it? Do you base your faith on it? 2 fatal questions to ask a Bible-Only Protestant: How did this book come into existence and, how do you know it really is God’s infallible word?
In order to answer those 2 questions, we have to look at history.
It was the Jews who started to live their lives in relationship with God and they started to write down their feelings, their knowledge and their relationship with God and, what did they do with these writings? They collected them and put them together as books. over the course of 2,000 years God’s Chosen people wrote many books that accounted with their dealings with God.
QUESTION 9: What is the first part of the Bible?
ANSWER: The Old Testament.
The O.T. gives us the account of the Hebrew people for about the first 2,000 years.
QUESTION 10: What event in history caused the O.T. to stop and the N.T. to begin?
ANSWER: The coming of Christ.
So, up until the time of Christ, we have Scriptures: a series of writings that the people used to know about their God. Now, when Jesus was teaching, did he ever quote the O.T.? Yes, after all, Jesus is God so he did quote from Hebrew Scripture. How many books were in the O.T. during Jesus’ time? Ans.: 46. There were 46 books put together in the O.T. and these were the books that Christ used. The name of these 46 books was called the Septuagint.
From 50 - 100 the early Christians started writing letters to one another. After 100 A.D., some Churches used some letters other churches used another collection of letters and some churches only used a handful of letters that no other Church used.
QUESTION 11: What do you think happened in this early church with so many books floating around?
ANSWER: Confusion!
So what happened? The Church said, “Let’s resolve this problem by determining which books teach us about Christ and which ones don’t.”
Part IV: A brief history of the canonicity of the Bible
There was a constant history of faithful people from Paul's time through the Apostolic and Post Apostolic Church.
- Melito, bishop of Sardis, an ancient city of Asia Minor (see Rev 3), c. 170 AD produced the first known Christian attempt at an Old Testament canon. His list maintains the Septuagint order of books but contains only the Old Testament protocanonicals minus the Book of Esther.
- The Council of Laodicea, c. 360, produced a list of books similar to today's canon. This was one of the Church's earliest decisions on a canon.
- Pope Damasus, 366-384, in his Decree, listed the books of today's canon.
- The Council of Rome, 382, was the forum which prompted Pope Damasus' Decree.
- The Council of Carthage, a local north Africa council of bishops created the same list of canonical books in 397.
- The Council of Hippo, a local north Africa council of bishops created the list of the Old and New Testament books in 393 which is the same as the Roman Catholic list today.
- Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse wrote to Pope Innocent I in 405 requesting a list of canonical books. Pope Innocent listed the present canon that we have today.
So by 400 A.D. The Magisterium (which has authority, right?) got together to determine out of the hundreds of works which books and letters floating around in the Church had the truth. And, what criteria did they use to determine which one’s were really God’s Word? The only thing available to the Early Catholic Church: Verbal & Oral Tradition! The Early Church examined books that they had and compared them to the spoken Word of God to determine what books should be used for teaching. Once again, we can see that the Early Church leaders relied on what was transmitted to them in order to form the basis of what Scriptures were inspired and which ones weren’t.
Think about that, it wasn’t until 400 A.D. that the early Church chose 27 books and said that these were the ones inspired by God. The early Church also ratified the Septuagint – that Jesus used - as declared it as part of the whole of Christian Scripture. At the end of the 4th century, the Catholic Church’s leaders got together –because they had the authority (Magisterium) – and they used the authoritative verbal Apostolic Tradition as the criteria and they selected 27 books and ratified the 46 from the Septuagint.
So at the end of the 4th century is when the Bible came into existence. The important thing to remember is HOW we got the bible: From an authoritative leaders, using authoritative Apostolic Tradition as criteria which gave us The Bible. IT WAS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH THAT GAVE US THE BIBLE, this is an undeniable historical fact! It was the Catholic Church exercising the authority which Jesus gave it that was able to compose the collection of books that we have today. No other Christian church can ever claim this right.
QUESTION 12: Why do you think it is a good thing to have 3 sources of authority? [HINT: how many branches of government are there and why do we have them?]
ANSWER: Checks and balances!
Because if you read scripture and interpret it one way, she reads scripture and interpret it another way, he reads scripture and interpret it a different way, who’s right? Who is to say who isn’t right? With more than one source of authority, the Catholic Church can always determine what is morally or ethically correct from a Christian perspective. The main drawback that comes from Protestantism is that they mainly use only one source of authority and that is the Bible. While there is nothing wrong with using the Bible, reading from it or praying out of it, the confusion arises when we note all of the different Protestant denominations out there.
By most accounts, there are over 35,000 different Christians denominations today! Think about that; 35,000 different groups who all claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit as they read the Bible but, intellectual honesty begs the question: if 35,000 different Christians say that they are all inspired to believe whatever it is they want to believe because the Holy Spirit inspired them to think so, then either the Holy Spirit (i.e. God) must be very confused to inspire 35,000 different modes of worship and belief or, 35,000 group of Christians must be wrong. Who’s right? The answer is simple: the Catholic Church who not only has the history and pedigree behind it but, most importantly, it has the authority to teach, preach and proclaim without error because it is constantly guided by the Holy Spirit as Jesus Himself promised.
The Holy Bible therefore, is an inspired source of authority for the Catholic Church; as the Catechism of the Catholic Church #103-104 states in regards to the Scriptures:
…the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.
In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God". "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them."
In other words, we venerate and honor the Holy Bible is the same manner that we venerate and honor Christ in the Eucharist! Don’t ever let anyone tell you that we Catholics don’t love the Bible or the Word of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment