Course: Bible and Spiritual Life

The School of Mary

Intermediate Course First Level

Bible and Spiritual Life

London - September – November 2016

Lecturer – Jean Khoury

Many catholics are encouraged to use their Bible with fervour and to practise Lectio Divina. This is not an easy task! It takes time and practice! Support is needed as finding the Lord's light or "our daily bread" in the Bible can be a challenge – albeit very worthwhile.

This course is about deepening the relationship between the "Bible" and our "Spiritual Life": in a word, it aims at helping us view the Bible as the source of our daily nourishment.

What makes this course unique is, first, the choice of topics (substantial and rarely addressed topics) and, secondly, relating them to our Spiritual Life!

As always, Our Lady continues to lead us on our journey.

The classes will take place on Wednesday from 10am – 12am in the parish house of St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church, Moorhouse Road W2 5DJ. The entrance is located to the left of the church entrance.

Everyone is welcome to the course, also those who have not attended the First Level Course as the material is enlightening in its own right.

Cost: £120

For registration please email schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com with your name and contact details and we will be in touch with bank details OR send a check including your name and contact details made payable to Jean Khoury, sent to Maartje Skare, 3 Hereford Square, SW7 4TT, London.

Dates and Topics of classes

Wednesday 14 September	The new prophetical life inaugurated by Jesus for every human being: God makes of us a friend and wants to talk to us. The practical meaning and the fruitfulness of this new prophetism.
Wednesday 21 September	The relationship between the Theory of Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and our Spiritual Life. The action of God in the human author and its practical consequences for us.
Wednesday 28 September	Structure and meaning of the Gospel in relation to our Spiritual Life. Reading and analysis of key passages from the Gospel.
Wednesday 5 October	Continuation of analysis of key texts and foundations of our spiritual life.
Wednesday 12 October	Questions of exegesis: The Holy Spirit Exegete of the Bible. The intelligence of Scripture in the Fathers of the Church.
Wednesday 2 November	Questions of exegesis: Examples from the Fathers of the Church. The relationship between the Old and New Testament. Rules for our spiritual life.
Wednesday 9 November	Mary and the Word of God. Mary as our model and help in our relationship with the Word of God.
Wednesday 16 November	The Bible is the soul of God's Revelation to us. The Bible is a treasure one learns to draw from on a daily basis. Practical advice.
Wednesday 23 November	Difficulties when confronting an archaic text, a different language and culture. What is to be done with "modern" exegesis? The Bible: doubt, power, pleasure and possession. Conclusions.

Intermediate Course: “Bible and Daily Spiritual life”

“to my friend I say everything” (see John 15:15)

_____

Lecturer: Jean Khoury

September-October 2014 : 4 Saturdays

Since 2007 many people in London have been attending the First Level Course, "Initiation into Spiritual Life". As a result, many have been encouraged to use their Bible more fervently and to practise Lectio Divina. However, support is still needed as finding "food" in the Bible is not an easy task. This is why the "Intermediate 1 Course" is about deepening the relationship between the "Bible" and our "Spiritual Life": in a word, it aims at helping us view the Bible as the source of our daily nourishment.

What makes this course unique is, first, the choice of topics (important, "juicy" and rarely addressed topics) and, secondly, relating them to our Spiritual Life! As always, Our Lady continues to lead us on our journey.

A Certificate will be awarded to all those who attend the entire four days.

The dates are: Sat 27^th Sept, Sat 4th Oct, Sat 18th Oct, Sat 25th Oct, from 10.00 am to 4:30 pm. Venue: St Mary of the Angels Parish hall, Moorhouse Road, W2 5DJ, Notting Hill. Spaces are limited for this course. The cost is £ 25.00 per day. Should there be any places remaining, we can accept those who did not follow the First Level Course.

To secure your place, a non-refundable deposit of £ 50.00 should be paid by cheque or bank transfer. Please send an email or call to confirm payment. Email: schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com or call 07908513762.

The Topics are:

1st Saturday:

Structure and meaning of the Gospel in relation to our Spiritual Life.

Reading and analysing essential and fundamental texts from the Gospel in relation to our spiritual life.

2nd Saturday:

The relationship between the Theory of Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and our spiritual life. Explanation of the action of God in the human author and its practical consequences for us.

The new prophetical life inaugurated by Jesus for every human being: God makes of us a friend and wants to talk to us.

The practical meaning and the fruitfulness of this new prophetism.

3rd Saturday:

Exegetical questions: the Holy Spirit Exegete of the Bible; the intelligence of the Scriptures in the Fathers of the Church; the example of the Fathers of the Church; the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament; exegetical Rules for our spiritual life.

The Bible is the soul of God's Revelation to us, and is a treasure whose riches we can draw upon on a daily basis. Practical advice.

4th Saturday:

Difficulties when confronting an archaic text, a different language and culture. What is to be done with "modern" exegesis?

The Bible: doubt, power, pleasure and possession.

Conclusions.

Looking forward to seeing you. Continuing the Journey toward Union with Jesus, lead by His Mother.

www.AmorVincit.com

101: Prophetical Theology 2

Forming Disciples at the School of Mary

After having read the previous post, one might wonder: in what consists Prophetical Theology? Here, in a summarised way, we offer an idea of how it could be done. We will see first "The Spirit of the Formation" in "Prophetical Theology", which will be followed by "The method of Formation", and finally by the "Contents of the Formation" (i.e. the topics).

The spirit of the Formation

1- “Disciples” means that the accent in the formation is put on the student himself, his/her capacity to digest and live the teaching and not on the accumulation of knowledge/theology.

The way of teaching theology is totally revolutionised in the School of Mary. The centre of gravity is put on the inner spiritual life, the experience of the Risen Lord, and all proceeds from there. The students becomes a “Witness” of Jesus, allowing Jesus to grow in him, and learning how to be led by the Holy Spirit.

So growth and mentoring that growth is essential and the absolute priority.

The centre of gravity of the study is on forming the Disciple (his/her spiritual life, the interior line), his capacity to handle the contents of Theology, understand them by experience and not only in an intellectual/abstract/historical way.

Having the centre of gravity on the inner line of formation (see diagram below) doesn’t imply to neglect the exterior line, with all what it bears of objective teaching as it is today (Bible, Dogma, Liturgy/Sacraments, Moral Theology, Pastoral Theology). On the contrary it implies seeing clearly the bridges on each horizontal level between the inner topic and the exterior expression of it.

Theology according the Greek Fathers meant: Contemplation, and the higest levels of contemplation, being in the Trinity. Contemplation is central in this education.

2- “Mary”: Mary is not only the Archetype of the Theologian (his/her best realisation) but as well his/her Mould. She guides him/her in his growth, she forms him/her, silently, but efficiently, until her/she reaches completion and can be a real solid witness to Christ. She is the one who makes this way of making theology integral; by the attention she brings into the formation of the theologian, she makes theology complete. I would find it difficult to go astray from Mary.

We should be able to hear the Lord saying to Our Lady: “Blessed are you Woman, Mother of my Disciples, you offered the “Key of knowledge”; you did enter yourself and you introduced those who were entering.” (See Luke 11:52)

3- Key of knowledge: This way of forming disciples puts the interest in the spiritual growth of the Disciple. In doing so we point out the fact that what matters in “learning theology” is the transformation (divinisation, sanctification) of the Disciple, his/her deep knowledge of God, his/her experience of the Risen Lord and of the Power of the Holy Spirit. It helps the future disciple to avoid falling in the pitfall of an abstract knowledge of the history of theology that remains conceptual and hardly ever experienced, internalised, assimilated. He/she is enabled, step by step, to become more and more resemblant to Christ, and therefore being able to contemplate Him as He is (see 1 John 3:2). He becomes more and more true Witness to the Risen Lord, capable of Evangelising and bearing fruits. In this way we understand how Our Lady is really the Mother of Evangelisation.

This way for forming the future Disciple opens in him and through him the “communication line” between the “Experience of God” and the “Persons to Evangelise”. (Please see the green lines in the second diagram below.)

The method of Formation at the School of Mary

Approach: In order to have a solid Spiritual Life one needs to learn deep prayer and establish new spiritual habits. Any solid formation requires 3 years to implement the new habits, like Jesus did. This length of time, and the faithfulness of the student during this length of time to the practises of prayer, helps root them in him/her.

By establishing the deep spiritual life and its main tools (contemplation), one then can address the other theological issues (Bible, Dogma, Liturgy-Sacraments, Moral Theology, Pastoral Theology), and “see” in a contemplative way all the links and connections.

The two lines of Formation (the inner line and the outer line) come as follow:

Formation in the School of Mary has the following classes:

1- Theory of the Practice: The Courses in Spiritual Life (and normal Theology).

2- Verifying the understanding of the Theory of Spiritual Life, questions and answers: Workshops. Seeing the applications.

3- Practising a minimum of 1 hour Lectio Divina and 1 hour of Prayer of the heart as classes time. + 1 extra hour of Prayer of the heart in the evening, at home.

4- "One to one" tuition/check up of the practises (Lectio Divina and Prayer of the heart).

5- The Students are invited to have regular Spiritual Direction.

Monitoring the spiritual growth comes in three different levels:

1- The workshops

2- The One to one tuition/check up.

3- Spiritual Direction

The "tools" are in fact the daily practise of Lectio Divina and the Prayer of the heart; they are ways to digest the Food taken at Mass: Jesus' Word and Jesus' Body and Blood.

If the person is faithful to that Program during the 3 years, then, in the end you have a very good solid Disciple of Jesus, capable of being useful to the Church and its Mission.

Topics for an Integral Formation

Forming Disciples at the “School of Mary”

Introductory Course: Theology of the Call for Holiness.

	Inner line of formation	Bridge-Topics	Outer line of formation
God	Theology of listening Lectio divina “Biblical Inspiration” and “Spiritual Life” Christian Contemplation	Spiritual exegesis	Bible Exegesis Canon, Inspiration Biblical Theology	The Persons to Evangelise
	Experience of the Trinity Experience of Christ Experience of the Holy Spirit Experience of Mary The spiritual experience of the Church	Trinity in Spiritual Life Christ in Spiritual Life The Holy Spirit in Spiritual life Mary in Spiritual Life Church and Spiritual Life	Dogma Trinity Christology Pneumatology Ecclesiology Mariology
	Spirituality of Priestly Gift of the Faithful Martyrdom Lectio Divina Prayer of the heart – Lift up the heart Digesting the Sacraments Rosary	“Fruitful Participation” to the liturgy. Liturgy and Spiritual Life Spirituality of Baptism Spirituality of the Eucharist Spirituality of Marriage	Sacraments Liturgy
	Theological Acts (Faith – Hope – Love) Ups and downs in SL Synergy with the Action of the Holy Spirit – Presence of God	Moral Theology and Spiritual Theology Confession and Spiritual Direction Perception of sin in the examination of conscience	Moral Theology
	Discernment – Counsel – Government Spiritual Direction Spiritual Pastoral Being fruitful	The Holiness of the Priest/minister in his ministry Pastoral techniques under the light of Spiritual Life. Pastoral orientations in the light of the Spiritual Journey.	Pastoral Theology

(To be continued...)

99: Reading the Scriptures "in the Spirit"

The following text (see below) is a commentary of the Parable of the Good Samaritan made by one of the Fathers of the Church, Severus of Antioch. I chose it because it exemplifies how we are supposed to read the Bible, how we can read it and understand it "in the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit is the Main Author of the Bible - this doesn't cancel the human authors but it gives a different quality to each word in the Bible. The central work of the Fathers of the Church was to comment the Scriptures "in the Holy Spirit". The majority of their works are Commentaries of different books of the Bible, and Homilies made during the Mass.

During the first 6 centuries of Christianity God gave us these great Masters that we call "the Fathers of the Church" in order to show us how to read the Bible "in the Holy Spirit". Their way of reading of the Bible respected the literal sense of the text: they always tried to be sure that they had a good translation of the Bible, and often tried to know the exact meaning of what they were reading. But as well - like Jesus shows it in Luke 24 and St Paul in 1 Co 10:6 - God's Spirit opened their minds so they became able to see what the naked eye of a plain reading and analysis of the text wouldn't see. What the Holy Spirit made them "see" is essentially Jesus present in the Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testament. We all need to go at the school of the Fathers of the Church and learn from them how to read the Bible. The Bible is the Bread of our Soul, and the Fathers of the Church opened wide for us the Bread-box of God.

Once our personal relationship with Jesus starts, we start to grow and the Bible - like Jesus - walks at our side and grows with us, giving us, day after day, a more substantial food. This is why, at a certain point, when Jesus opens our Soul in order to purify it, He deepens in the same time our understanding of the Bible, and He starts to feed us with the deeper meanings He enclosed and hid in it.

The journey of purification in us is a journey from the senses to the spirit, through the soul. It is like crossing the sea of Galilee. Jesus opens in us a way, that will lead us to the inner room where he - the Groom - dwells. A journey from the outer world to the inner world, in the centre of our heart. In this journey we need food, a spiritual food, for our soul and spirit; the Fathers of the Church and the Mystics show us how to grow in the reading of the Bible in the Spirit, and show us many new levels of richness hidden in the Bible. This is a unique experience. While we read the Father of the Church we are involved in a unique Experience of the Holy Spirit, where He opens our mind and heart to show us these new depths in the Bible, nourishing us with amazing new types of food. Like Moses, the Fathers of the Church hit our heart of Stone, so Jesus opens it, the the Waters of the Holy Spirit flow from it giving us a New Life in Jesus. Blessed are the ones who go at the School of the Fathers of the Church and the Christians Mystics!

It would be good first to read the Good Samaritan, at Luke 10: 30-37, then read this beautiful spiritual reading of it. Just remember that since the Bible is the Word of God, there is no one interpretation, we could have many. Though they always have to respect the literal sense of the text and the Truths of our Faith.

Please do not hesitate after that to dive in the reading of the Fathers of the Church. You can start with something easy to read like:

- "The Lord's Sermon on the Mount", Saint Augustine.

- Saint Augustine’s "Homilies on the First letter of John".

The Good Samaritan Commented by Severus of Antioch[1]

_______

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho." Christ used the denomination of gender correctly: he did not say: “someone was going down”, but “a man was going down”. Indeed this passage concerns humanity as a whole. After the prevarication of Adam, humanity left its elevated and calm environment, where there was no suffering and the marvels of paradise, rightly named Jerusalem – which means peace of God – and went down to Jericho, a hollow and lowly place, where the heat is stifling. Jericho is the feverish life of this world, the life separated from God, which drags us down and brings on suffocation and exhaustion through the flames of the most shameful pleasures.

So, once humanity had turned away from the good route and toward this life, it was dragged downhill from above and carried away on the slope; a savage troop of demons came and attacked it, like a band of thieves. They stripped it of the clothing of perfection, leaving its soul deprived of all strength, of purity, of justice, of prudence, of anything that characterised the divine Image; but by striking it in this way, with the repeated blows of various sins, they struck it down and finally left it half-dead.

The law given by Moses went by; it looked at humanity lying there in agony. The priest and the Levite of the parable in fact symbolise the Law, since it introduced the levite priesthood. But, although the Law looked at humanity, it had no power: it was not able to procure the complete healing of humanity, it did not raise up the one who was prostrate. Because it lacked energy, it finally had to go away after a vain attempt. For the Law made sacrifices and offerings, as Paul said, “which are not able, in regard to conscience, to make perfect him who is serving“, because “it is impossible for blood of bulls and goats to take away sins”.

Finally a Samaritan came by … Christ gives himself on purpose the name Samaritan. For speaking to the doctor of Law, who made lovely discourse on the Law, he show by his words that neither the priest nor the Levite nor, in short, any of those expected to conduct themselves in accordance with the Law of Moses, did so, but that he himself came accomplishing the Law and showing by his acts themselves “who is our neighbour” and how to “love him as we do ourselves”, him whom the Jews, to outrage him, had said: “You are a Samaritan and you are a demon”.

The travelling Samaritan, who was Christ himself - because he really did travel - saw the man lying on the roadside. He did not pass him by precisely because the aim of his voyage was to “visit us”, he came to earth for us and dwelled among us. For not only did he appear, but he also conversed with men in truth.

He poured wine on his wounds, the wine of the Word; and because the seriousness of the wounds did not support this, he mixed oil with it, and so attracted, by his meekness and his “philanthropy” the criticism of the Pharisees, to whom he had to answer: Go and learn what this means: Mercy I will, and not sacrifice”.

Then he placed the wounded man on a beast of burden, - which means that he lifts us up above the beastly passions, he who also carried us himself, making us into “the members of his body”.

Then he brought the man to an inn – he calls the Church inn, which has become the dwelling-place and the receptacle for all people. Indeed, we do not hear him say, in a restricted sense, with a legalistic shadow and with a figurative worshiping way: “The Ammonite and the Moabite shall enter into the Church of God”, but rather: “Go and teach all the nations”. And once they had arrived at the inn, the Samaritan asked that even greater kindness be shown to the one he had saved: indeed, when the Church had been formed by the reunion of the peoples who had died to polytheism (or: who were dying in polytheism), Christ was in her giving every grace. And to the innkeeper - a figure of the Apostles and the pastors and doctors who came after them - he gave - when he ascended into Heaven - two denaries, so that he might take great care of the sick man. We see in these two denaries the two Testaments, the Old and the New, that of the Law and the Prophets, and the one given to us by the Gospels and the Constitutions of the Apostles.[2] Both are from the same God and bear the image of the one God on high, by the means of the holy words, since one and the same Spirit pronounced them. Let Manes therefore take flight, as well as Marcion, that very impious man who attributed these two Testaments to two different gods! These are the two denaries of one king, Christ gave simultaneously and in the same way to the innkeeper. Now, according to the pastors of the holy Churches who received these two denaries and who increased them through their teaching, with work and labour, after also having payed for their own needs - for the spiritual money, when one spends it, does not diminish but augments, since it is the word of doctrine -, each one of them will say to the Master at his return on the last day: “Lord, you gave me two denaries; while spending them for myself, I earned two more”, with which I augmented the flock. And the Lord will answer, saying: “Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in little things, I will set you over many. Enter into the joy of your Lord”.

[1] Homily 89. Quoted in Henri de Lubac, Catholicisme (Paris: 1947⁴), pp. 377-379.

[2] Saint Augustine explains that these two denaries are the two commandments of the love of God and the love of our neighbour. His interpretation is close to Severus’, for the two commandments sum up the Law and the Prophets as well as the Gospel.

94: Lectio divina in daily life 2: The depths of spiritual life

(continuation of "Spirituality 91")

2. The depths of spiritual life

St. Paul speaks about the transition to adulthood: “Brothers, I could not talk to you as I talk to men who have the Spirit; I had to talk to you as men of this world, as to little children in Christ. I had to feed you milk, not solid food, because you were not ready for it” (1 Col 3:1-2). But those who go through this transition receive “the power to understand, together with all the saints, how broad and long and high and deep Christ’s love is”; they know the love of Christ “which surpasses all knowledge” and fully enter into the fullness of God (cf. Eph 3:18-19). St. John of the Cross also mentions this transition in his writings, but in stanza 36 of the Spiritual Canticle he seems to propose even more to the person who is already well advanced: “Let us enter into the heart of the thicket”, i.e. into the profundity of God’s wisdom. Let us consider more closely now the form the two commandments may take, in the light of lectio, for people who have come to these heights.

a) “The highest pinnacle of Scripture”

St. Paul reminds us that God wants us to be holy (cf. 1 Th 4:3). If lectio is a way of searching for God’s will, this implies that it leads us to holiness. And what is holiness? It is full union with God! So lectio takes us by the hand, like a pedagogue, and leads us to Him. It helps us to accomplish the first commandment, which is to love God, by allowing Him to dwell in us.

In this sense, we can say that the Bible is an “accident”[1] (with the scholastic meaning, according to which it contains the substance: the Word of God). This implies that the Bible in fact is not in itself absolute. It contains a substance, i.e. the Word, the eternal Logos, who is the ultimate goal of our search. The role of lectio is to lead us to the Word. Lectio is not an end in itself.

We are going to consider this more closely with reference to some Christian writers, three of whom are Church Fathers. But let us first remember that the two geniuses of Christianity, John and Paul, summed up the Gospel and Scripture in their own manner. St. John says that everything in Scripture leads to faith in Jesus’ divinity: “these things have been written that you may believe” (Jn 20:31). “This is how we win the victory over the world: with our faith” (1 Jn 5:4). Here, “faith” is synonymous with “union with God”. St. Paul sums the Bible up in this way: “For I decided not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ” (1 Co 2:2), and in another passage, where he speaks about love: “I may have the knowledge and understanding of Scripture, but without charity I am nothing” (1 Co 13:2)! Let us now look at how each of these authors approaches the question of the pertinence of the Bible in terms of the written message.

Dionysius the Areopagite and the highest summit of Scripture

Dionysius the Areopagite begins his work Mystical Theology with this prayer: “Deity above all essence, knowledge and goodness, Guide of Christians to Divine Wisdom; direct our path to the ultimate summit of your mystical knowledge, most incomprehensible, most luminous and most exalted, where the pure, absolute and immutable mysteries of theology are veiled in the dazzling obscurity of the secret Silence, outshining all brilliance with the intensity of their Darkness, and surcharging our blinded intellects with the utterly impalpable and invisible fairness of glories surpassing all beauty”[2].

Here Scripture appears to be God himself. It is no longer a question of exegesis in the usual sense of the term – even in patristics. Scripture, like a sublime sacrament, conveys God himself to us. At the summit we find the “the super-essential Radiance of the Divine Darkness”. In another work, Dionysius speaks of the “Radiance itself (coming) forth from the holy thearchic words” (Divine Names I, 1). This super-essential Radiance has always contained, in a quite indescribable way, the terms of all knowledge. We simply do not know how to conceive it, describe it or grasp it in a kind of vision, because it is separated from all things (cf. Ibid., I, 4). This ray then seems to come forth from Scripture as if out of a tabernacle.

Dionysius discloses a new perspective for us by showing us that Scripture contains a Radiance. He therefore invites us to go beyond our exegetical methods, even the deepest ones, to consecrate ourselves to God and to nothing  less. This idea is certainly out of the ordinary for us, and perhaps it reveals the deepest mystery of exegesis. It is true that his description is very brief. But a good knowledge of mysticism[3] can help us to better understand what he means.

So Scripture is compared to a high mountain which must be climbed by growing through the four levels we have been considering, the last of which plunges into God himself in such a way as cannot be grasped by the intellect alone. And there, at the summit of Scripture, we receive the super-essential Radiance.

St. Augustine, Charity is at the heart of the Bible

St Augustine

St. Augustine considers that the entire Bible speaks of one thing only: Love – of loving and loving with a pure heart… in unity with the heart of God. Summing up all of Scripture, Augustine says: “Only one thing shines forth from the holy pages: Charity”[4]. The Bishop of Hippo teaches us that the Bible leads to love, but not just to any kind of love. This reminds us of the explanation St. John of the Cross gave of the height of spiritual life: the flame, the sparkling. It is then quite understandable how the Bible vanishes in the face of the reality to which it leads us: the “ineffable sighs” of God loving himself in the soul. And here is what Augustine tells us: "it is not necessary for a preacher who wants to talk about charity to read the entire Bible because charity springs forth from every page". Moreover, the Master himself attested this – and the Gospel gives an account of the scene: when asked which precepts of the Law are the greatest, he answered: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbours as yourself” (Mt 22: 36.39). In order to keep us from searching for anything else in the sacred text, he then added: “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Mt 22:40). If this is already true of the Law and the Prophets it is even truer of the Gospel.

“Of all, then, that has been said since we entered upon the discussion about things, this is the sum: that we should clearly understand that the fulfilment and the end of the Law, and of all Holy Scripture, is the love of an object which is to be enjoyed, and the love of an object which can enjoy that other in fellowship with ourselves. For there is no need of a command that each man should love himself.”[5]

“And thus a man who is resting upon faith, hope and love, and who keeps a firm hold upon these, does not need Scripture except for the purpose of instructing others. Accordingly, many live without copies of Holy Scripture, even in solitude, on the strength of these three graces. So that in their case, I think, the saying is already fulfilled: ‘Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.’ Yet by means of these instruments (as they may be called), so great an edifice of faith and love has been built up in them.”[6]

In fact, what is found in the Bible may be summed up by the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity.[7] Augustine refers all understanding of Scripture to these virtues. This was to be the basis of biblical interpretation throughout the Middle Ages.[8]

St. Thomas Aquinas and the New Law

In his “answer” in I-IIae, q. 106 a. 1, St. Thomas says: “the New Law is in the first place a law that is inscribed on our hearts, but that secondarily it is a written law”, and then in ad 1 he adds: “The Gospel writings contain only such things as pertain to the grace of the Holy Ghost, either by disposing us thereto, or by directing us to the use thereof”. The Holy Spirit is then the New Law written on our hearts. He is the heart of the Bible.

These examples help us to better understand that we are called to reach the point where one single word suffices to centre us and give us what is essential: God. So, lectio is not a means for finding solutions but the sacrament of the encounter with the Lord; and the Bible, after having taken us by the hand, leads us to the summit of the Mountain of the Knowledge of God.

(to be continued...)

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[1] “accident”, as used in philosophy, is an attribute that doesn't affect the essence of a subject.

[2] Mystical Theology I, 1.

[3] Firstly of his own mystical doctrine; and for this it is necessary to read his entire work Mystical Theology.

[4] En. In Psalmos 140.

[5] De doctrina christiana I, 39.

[6] Ibid.I, 43.

[7] Cf. ibid.

[8] See H. de Lubac, Medieval exegesis. Also see Origen, who says that what we look for and find in the Bible is the Logos himself (H. de Lubac, History and spirit, chapter VIII § 3 and 4), and that the Bible, like the Body of Christ, are transitory realities (ibid.).

How necessary Mary is for our Faith? # 2

Development of Christian Doctrine

The Blessed John Henry Newman deepened a very important aspect in Theology: the development of Christian Doctrine. In simple words, it means: Peter’s faith (Peter the Apostle) and our faith today is exactly the same in its core. But in our perception and understanding of this living Faith there are explicit elements and implicit elements - We need to add that in the implicit has various layers. The understanding (“explicitation” / explication) of certain aspects of our faith today, or throughout the Centuries, received a great deal of improvement/growth. What is needed for salvation is 1- the implicit faith and 2- a minimum of explicit parts (think of the very basic little Creeds we find in the New Testament, like small affirmations: Jesus is God, he is our Saviour;…). Because of external and internal needs in the Church and in the Faithful in some area of the Globe, throughout the centuries some aspects of our faith received, by the Grace of God, a deepening, a clarification: a passage from an implicit state to an explicit state. 

Newman calls this passage: development.

True development doesn’t bring anything new; it is not a new revelation of any sort. It is just an improvement of something we had from day one*. Like a seed that becomes a big tree. We can say that all the tree is included in the seed, the very same DNA is “dormant” implicitly in the seed. We may see development as the continual biological growth, not as a mutation, not as a change of specie.

*day one: Remember that our “day one” is the death of the last apostle. This is when, for us Catholics, the Revelation brought to us by Jesus is accomplished (reaches its fullness). 

Now, Newman and many others after him noticed that – amongst other aspects of course – in the last 160 years, the marian doctrine in the Catholic Church received a great deal of development. 

Envelopment 

In his research, reflections and deepening of the Action of God in time (the Divine Economy), Newman saw that in order to have a development, God proceeded by an Envelopment of the Doctrine, of His thoughts. When Newman thinks of the Old Testament, he sees that God didn’t immediately offer everything in Christ, but, on the contrary, he adopted a pedagogical procedure of envelopment as we would do with a little Child. The parents know many things, but they still adapt their words and notions to their little child. The more the child grows, the more the language, concepts, contents will develop accordingly.

From the parents point of view, they operate by envelopment, by putting layers upon layers on the core they hope to transmit education to their children. 

Can we blame the parents for enveloping/hiding the Core (the end result) from their children? Can we say that they lied to their children? Certainly not. 

For the very case of the Old Testament, while reading it and seeing how God acts, today’s mentality in many “developed” countries, has a great deal of difficulty to admit that such behaviour from God is possible. 

Marian Doctrine 

These two notions (development and envelopment) shed a very interesting light on the recent (last 160 years) “growth” in the understanding of Mary and her place in our Faith. 

With these two notions – that are linked to each other – we are better equipped to face the recent facts and pushed as well in the field of theology to give more theological credit to these recent developments and try to take them more seriously theologically. Mary is not only a devotional aspect in our Christian Theology, to be left to some “popular Pastoral Theology” for simple minded pious people. Mary is essential and structural to our faith. And all the signs we receive from more than 160 years, are to be taken very seriously by theologians and by theology. This of course this is a huge challenge for people who think that Christocentrism might be threatened, or who think that they understood everything and nothing is left to be developed. 

Exegesis 

The Bible, the Word of God, is the core/soul of Theology. So one of the first tools used by Theology is Exegesis. And one of the first areas in Theology to be challenged by the recent marian developments is Exegesis. 

The notion of “development” as we stated it above, implies that in what you find/see there is a great deal of implicit. Introducing this notion in Exegesis is very challenging, because Exegesis has to find new (or old) “tools” in order to become able to “see” what she is not seeing yet by herself. Since the recent developments in Marian Theology are stating “new” explicitations, and since the actual tools of exegesis are not capable of reaching to these discoveries, this means that the tools as well should develop. 

New exegetical tools 

We perfectly know that the Fathers of the Church and the Spiritual Masters did use different tools in Exegesis in order to “read the Bible” and listen to God’s Voice. Many of these tools today are either criticized or simply dismissed. On the contrary, a more welcoming eye might, would find in them some better tools that can help us “see” better Mary in the Bible, both New and Old. 

Today we dismiss the allegorical, typological, “spiritual” ways of finding Mary in the Old Testament (i.e. she is - as well as Jesus - the “Wisdom” of whom it is spoken in the Wisdom Books, she is the Burning Bush, Jacob’s Ladder, Elijah’s little Cloud, and so on). Of course this is a deep lack of theological insight and methodology.

Today we rely only on the explicit affirmations in the New Testament on Mary. Firstly we think they are very few, and secondly we think that they are not structural (part of the core of our Faith). So in our understanding of Mary and her Theological place we rely on the crust and we even reduce it! While, the recent events (160 years) are pushing us to reconsider the New Testament itself, and feel invited to explore it again, with new eyes, new thirst, and mostly: new exegetical tools, in order to “see” better and “hear” better God’s Voice in Jesus. 

Summing up 

Concluding this part we can say: 

* In the recent years (160 years) Mary appears more and more to be essential in our Faith. 

* “Development of Christian doctrine” should be applied as well to the Theology of Mary. 

* Exegesis should, accordingly, seek better tools in order to be able to follow that development, and find it (see it) in the New Testament.

(to be continued...)