Catholics and the Veneration of Scripture

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I will never forget the first time I attended the Catholic Mass. It was almost a decade ago now, but I still remember the surprise I felt as I listened to four substantial scripture readings. I had always been told that Catholics deemphasize scripture and rarely read it.

On the contrary, I quickly discovered that the Bible is used more in Catholic services than I had ever experienced in a Protestant service. Each Sunday, they read from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the New Testament, and finally, the Gospels. The priest then preaches a homily based on these readings. Indeed, I now know that The Liturgy of the Word is the first of the two parts of the mass (the second being The Liturgy of the Eucharist, which is celebrated second). This section is devoted to the reading and expounding of scripture.

As I’ve learned more about Catholicism over the years, I have realized how misinformed many Protestants are regarding the Catholic view of scripture. Scripture is foundational to Catholic tradition and teaching. Catholics not only hold scripture authoritative and inerrant — they venerate it as the very body of Christ. In this way, they seem to hold a higher view of scripture than most Protestants do.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes its teaching on scripture In Brief:

134 “All Sacred Scripture is but one book, and that one book is Christ, because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ” (Hugh of St. Victor, De arca Noe 2, 8: PL 176, 642).

135 “The Sacred Scriptures contain the Word of God and, because they are inspired, they are truly the Word of God” (DV 24).

136 God is the author of Sacred Scripture because he inspired its human authors; he acts in them and by means of them. He thus gives assurance that their writings teach without error his saving truth (cf DV 11).

137 Interpretation of the inspired Scripture must be attentive above all to what God wants to reveal through the sacred authors for our salvation. What comes from the Spirit is not fully “understood except by the Spirit’s action’ (cf. Origen, Hom. in Ex. 4, 5: PG 12, 320).

138 The Church accepts and venerates as inspired the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New.

139 The four Gospels occupy a central place because Christ Jesus is their centre.

140 The unity of the two Testaments proceeds from the unity of God’s plan and his Revelation. the Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfills the Old; the two shed light on each other; both are true Word of God.

141 “The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord” (DV 21): both nourish and govern the whole Christian life. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (⇒ Ps 119:105; cf. ⇒ Is 50:4).

This veneration of scripture is both liturgical and also part of the lay Christian life. Contrary to what I always heard — that Catholics didn’t really want lay people reading the Bible — the Catechism expressly encourages scripture study:

V. Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church

131 “and such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigour, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life.” Hence “access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful.”

132 “Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology. the ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching, catechetics and all forms of Christian instruction, among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place - is healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture.”

133 The Church “forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.

I’ve been working my way through the catechism over the last few weeks. It’s a weighty book, so finishing it will take a while. The catechism is so rich, I can tell it will be the topic of many more posts. I had been listening to an audio version, as I’m often crunched for time, but I felt like I was missing things just listening. I’m so glad I switched to reading the print book. It is amazing to see the extent to which scripture references pepper each page. It is yet another example of the way the scripture is both theoretically and practically central to Catholic Christianity.

That doesn’t mean that the Catholic Church hasn’t been plagued by nominalism. It doesn’t mean that there haven’t been eras where the clergy were not as faithful to what they profess as they should have been. We in the Protestant Church have those very same problems, so we should understand. We, too, have issues with nominalism — with congregations that are scripturally illiterate. And how many of our leaders scandalize us because they do not live up to what their Christian traditions teach?

As a younger adult, I was wary of Catholicism because I loved scripture. Now, I realize that love for scripture is part of being a good Catholic. And as an Evangelical weary of all the Protestant disagreement on what the bible actually means, I so appreciate that Catholicism offers not only veneration of scripture — it offers an authoritative interpretation of scripture in Sacred Tradition.

Tradition, however, is a topic for another day.