A Seed in the Soul of the Poor

One of the objectives of the Second Vatican Council was to enrich the spiritual lives of the faithful by deeper intimacy with Sacred Scripture. This had been a long time goal of the Roman Pontiffs before this time. In some of my scholarly work, I have had cause to read several of the Praenotanda of the Council, which were the combined suggestions of the world’s bishops in regard to topics for discussion at the impending Ecumenical Council. Although my research was not exhaustive and mostly confined to the Bishops of the United States, I think it is safe to say that there was at least a plurality of Bishops who were united in their desire to enlarge the cycle of readings then in use for the Liturgy of the Word (then the Liturgy of the Catechumens) of the Mass. There are good arguments that have been made against having a three-year Sunday cycle of readings, and these I believe are made in good faith due to the pedagogical reliability of having a single cycle year after year. Whether or not a multi-year cycle of readings is ultimately beneficial in the worship of God and the edification of the faithful is a topic for another time. What I hope is indisputable to all sides, however, is that familiarity with the Scriptures, especially when presented in tandem with the living Tradition of the Church, is a powerful and useful tool to further Christianize the sensibility and spirituality of the lay faithful, and the Priest himself.

A few years ago I decided to found a Bible Study which became extremely popular. Many Bible Studies, I am afraid, err in two ways: they become merely support groups, or they become book clubs. In the case of the former, way too much time is dedicated to “faith sharing”, to the detriment of serious attention paid to the text and sense of Sacred Scripture. In the case of the latter, the group, lacking a qualified moderator or guide, has to rely upon a usually expensive series in order to understand what they are reading. If any questions arise, very rarely can the group get the answers they need. In many situations, they ask their Priest or someone else to come visit them for a Q&A. Now, a Bible Study I think should form community and be enriching to the people who participate in it. There should certainly be a “faith sharing” element, as long as it is secondary to the “faith forming” element. That is to say, if one were to gather the average Western Catholic and put them in a Bible Study, chances are the majority are working off a hodgepodge of collected knowledge on the Scriptures, most of which is fuzzy or inaccurate. Their faith, while not formally in error, is certainly full of material error. “Faith sharing” in this case can actually be deformative, rather than formative. As to the issue of using series developed by professionals, that is not something to be discarded, but rather put in context. Bible Study series are tools, not ends in and of themselves. I have been asked more times than I care to remember what series I have used for my Bible Studies. My refrain is often, “I spent several years in theological education in order to become a Priest. If I need a series to teach the Scriptures, what has happened to me?”

The Scriptures, as Dei Verbum said, are the “soul of theology.” They are the very life-breath of Christian Spirituality, a true fons et origo; yet for far too many, the Scriptures remain sealed. Is it any wonder that St. John wept when he saw the scroll with seven seals which no one could read (Revelation 5:4), until he was told that it would be the Lamb of God, slain and risen, which would enable the message to be shared? In today’s Church and world, there are many signs which point toward a large scale chastisement on the part of the Church, because “judgment begins with the house of God”, as St. Peter reminds us (1 Peter 4:17). One could point to the proliferation of apostasy, the corruption of morals, the indifference of the hierarchy, the persecution of the good, and the lack of reverent and licit divine worship. Yet one particular chastisement is noteworthy, which comes from the revelation to the Prophet Amos:

The hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, says the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place. Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail…The Lord has sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely I will never forget all their works…Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. And they move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, lives: and the way of Bersabee lives: and they shall fall, and shall rise no more.

Amos 8:3-4, 7, 11-14.

One of the worst fruits of apostasy is spiritual famine, which makes the souls of the people faint with thirst. “The hinges of the temple shall screak”, because the Churches will be empty, because they lack the nourishing Word of God. “Many shall die”, because they lack spiritual nourishment, and also lack the tools necessary to combat the noxious influences of the world, the flesh and the devil. They will turn to idolatry in their desperation for some spiritual meaning, and so Amos mentions swearing by the sin of Samaria, which was the erection of a ‘cult’, or locus of worship, opposed to that of God’s true temple in Jerusalem. Even now, many Christians now swear by the ‘sin of Samaria’, abandoning true worship, in order to adore false and malevolent gods.

I’ll never forget the time I taught my people the Book of Numbers. It was our largest Bible Study ever: we even true Protestants from neighboring Churches, including one Pastor. (I smiled at the irony also when we studied the Book of Sirach together: imagine, Protestants reading the Deuterocanonical Books with us!) The Book of Numbers, infamously, is where most people who adopt a “Bible in a Year” regimen begin to tire. The Book of Numbers is full of old ritual and difficult symbologies, but once they are explained with Christ and Divine Worship in mind, the Book of Numbers is a cornucopia of material to explain the importance of Sacred Liturgy. In this, we find once again that solid knowledge of the Scriptures creates a virtuous cycle, in that it forms Christian instincts which mutually reinforce each other across the board. Probably the most illuminating moment of the entire study was the discussion which took place in the aftermath of our reading of the Rebellion of Korah. The Rebellion of Korah, in essence, began when he and a large amount of the people declared that “all in the congregation are holy…Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? (Numbers 16:3) Based upon the idea that “all the congregation [is] holy”, he believed that all had a ‘right’ to offer sacrifice, which is the rightful duty of Priests alone.¹ Korah and his allies asserted also that the Old Testament Priesthood established by God through Moses was essentially clericalistic, to use a modern term. It was “exclusive”. Everyone in the people, they claimed, should be able to do what Priests do. Moses beckoned the sons of Korah to offer incense before the Lord, which was the most simple and lowly of Priestly tasks. God, it is said, was so offended by this impiety, that he destroyed the entire party of Korah by having the earth swallow them. Even the censers used by the rebellious would-be clerics were commanded to be melted down and reused as a covering for the altar of the Lord, as a way of redeeming even the metals used in such an act of sacrilege.

After reading that passage, and after also reading the reference to it in the Epistle of Jude, several of the participants who were Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion spontaneously said that they wanted to offer their resignation on the spot. It opened up discussion on a whole host of topics, such the impossibility of ‘women priests’, or the distinction between the Priesthood of the Faithful (a legitimate concept) and the Priesthood of the Ordained. It even brought up topics such as why we consecrate sacred vessels, why we wear special vestments for sacred rites, and the very important meta-concept that all of us, Priests and lay faithful, are God’s servants, and we have a role to play in passing down the sacred trust given to us unaltered and unadulterated. The Biblical story of the Rebellion of Korah, which to my recollection appears no where in the cycle of readings as they are, was such a powerful influence in the minds and hearts of the people.

This small anecdote I think reflects the power of the Sacred Texts to touch hearts and minds. To unleash the power of the Word is to truly wield the “sword of the Spirit”, as St. Paul called it in his letter to the Ephesians. Strangely, to memory, it is the words of the author Fyodor Dostoevsky through the fictional Elder Zosima which comes to mind, when he explains his own love of the Scriptures and their power in the life of a Christian:

 I only speak from rapture, and forgive my tears, for I love the Bible. Let him too weep, the priest of God, and be sure that the hearts of his listeners will throb in response. Only a little tiny seed is needed — drop it into the heart of the peasant and it won’t die, it will live in his soul all his life, it will be hidden in the midst of his darkness and sin, like a bright spot, like a great reminder. And there’s no need of much teaching or explanation, he will understand it all simply. Do you suppose that the peasants don’t understand? Try reading them the touching story of the fair Esther and the haughty Vashti; or the miraculous story of Jonah in the whale. Don’t forget either the parables of Our Lord, choose especially from the Gospel of St. Luke (that is what I did), and then from the Acts of the Apostles the conversion of St. Paul (that you mustn’t leave out on any account), and from the Lives of the Saints, for instance, the life of Alexey, the man of God and, greatest of all, the happy martyr and the seer of God, Mary of Egypt — and you will penetrate their hearts with these simple tales. Give one hour a week to it in spite of your poverty, only one little hour. And you will see for yourselves that our people is gracious and grateful, and will repay you a hundred foId. Mindful of the kindness of their priest and the moving words they have heard from him, they will of their own accord help him in his fields and in his house and will treat him with more respect than before — so that it will even increase his worldly well-being too. The thing is so simple that sometimes one is even afraid to put it into words, for fear of being laughed at, and yet how true it is! One who does not believe in God will not believe in God’s people. He who believes in God’s people will see His Holiness too, even though he had not believed in it till then. Only the people and their future spiritual power will convert our atheists, who have torn themselves away from their native soil.

The Brothers Karamazov, Part II, Book VI, Chapter I: Father Zosima and His Visitors

I highlight that penultimate sentence, because I believe that that very sentiment is the principal reason why so many of the lay faithful languish in the darkness of unbelief and apathy: so few of their clergy truly believe in them. This is especially true in how children are treated today in what passes for Christian education in parishes. The Priest, taking the time to explain the Scriptures to the faithful in a way that is winsome and helpful, is more powerful than all the combined sermons and potlucks he may create in his career. It is assumed by many that the faithful are either not interested or not capable of absorbing the deep meaning of the Scriptures. What I find to be truly the case, however, is that so few clergy have the interest or the wherewithal to share these marvelous treasures. When you light that fire, also, it’s incredible how the Holy Spirit rewards with communion and true friendship those who revere his Inspired Word. Many of the members of these Bible Studies become life-long friends, they look after each other in their material and spiritual needs, they pray for one another. In short, they truly love one another, as Christians ought. Reverence of the Scriptures and the deep study of them is a powerful way to increase the spiritual depth of your lay faithful, and once they taste even a morsel of that richness, it unlocks a spiritual hunger. Perhaps even more importantly, like the story of the Deacon Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, study of the Sacred Scriptures forms conviction in the heart of the believer, so that they can confidently and joyfully share with others the riches found in the knowledge and love of Christ Jesus.

Moreover, in these times when so many pastoral gurus rhapsodize eloquently on a “ministry of presence”, by which they primarily mean the social presence of the life of the Priest in his parish or institution, the importance of a Priest communicating the Scriptures is often completely overlooked. Yes, we feed our people with the Body and Blood of Christ. But we often forget that we must also feed them his word. As Dostoevsky rightly says, this is a true form of nourishment, a personal engagement with the lay faithful which is not easily forgotten, and forms relationships of spiritual discipleship which last for years, and whose effects are known only in eternity. It should also be noted as an aside that ignorance of, or apathy toward, the Sacred Scriptures is a key reason for the aridity of homiletics in our day and age. The Second Vatican Council called for a great renewal in homiletics for the Church, but unfortunately did precious little to check the arid, sterile quality of Biblical Studies in Seminaries. Although things like the Historical Critical Method and other scholarly tools are helpful, they are like dissecting a butterfly in order to understand its nature. Understanding the Scripture as if it were a dead letter, rather than a Living Word, seriously impoverishes the future Priest’s ability to expound it in a way that communicates love and life. Fortunately, some Seminaries are returning to the Fathers as a way to understand the Scriptures holistically. This is the true ressourcement; a return always to our roots in the fulness of Scripture and Tradition.

To close, to show how powerful a true and holistic exposition of Sacred Scripture can be, one need only look at the massive success of Dr. Jordan Peterson’s psychological analysis on the first few chapters of Genesis. His views total in the millions, and these have contributed to many people, especially the young, having a completely transformed perspective on the Scriptures and their value and meaning for contemporary people. Dr. Peterson does not even have (by his own admission) the gift of faith, but his insightful way of explaining them has earned him the intense devotion of millions of people, thirsty for meaning in their lives. If the Scriptures can be thus unleashed by a man who does not possess training in the Sacred Sciences, how much more could they be unleashed if all our clergy cherished and expounded the Word of God with knowledge and conviction? Fathers, love your people with the truth. And the truth will set them free, and send them forth, rejoicing.

¹ To see once again how good knowledge of Scripture leads to appreciation of Liturgy and Tradition, see the text of Sacris Solemniis, the famous hymn of St. Thomas Aquinas for Matins of Corpus Christi: “officium comitti voluit solis presbyteris, quibus sic congruit, ut sumant, et dent ceteris“; “[Christ] willed to commit this office to Priests alone, to whom it is fitting, that they may eat [the sacrifice], and give it to others.”