Taking my own Advice

Last year, I volunteered to be a chaperone/small group leader on the Confirmation retreat.  Most of the kids were sophomores, with some scattered freshmen and juniors.  I remember talking to one kid who was going through a tough time.  Among the things I told him was that whatever he were doing in their spiritual life, they needed more.  Praying already?  Pray more.  Reading Scripture?  More.  And so on, and so on.  God has more to give, and Jesus promised rest to those who came to Him (Matt 11:28).  Whether that was helpful or not, or if he only needed someone to listen, who knows? 

So in my struggle to maintain my spiritual life as a new parent, I’ve done a couple things.  We already went to Sunday Mass regularly.  I drink a lot more coffee, and I snack a lot more.  The pretense is that they help keep my energy up—in reality, I just like to eat.  I write articles about once a month for the Cora Evans blog, which I always enjoy.   

And yeah, that’s all.  I’d much rather give advice than take my own.

In an effort to take my own advice, I’m going to write everyday on this for a week.  Writing helps me process things, and it will inject a little more spirituality into my day.  We’ll see if my will or my procrastination wins out on this one…

That’s a long introduction to my topic of the day: the importance of good teachers in the faith.  I’ve been plodding my way through Pope Benedict’s second Jesus of Nazareth book.  He has a mixture of spiritual reflection, deep theological considerations, and commentary on biblical scholarship.  Out of everything, I appreciate the commentary on biblical scholarship the most. 

When I took scripture classes in seminary, just about every teacher I had taught strictly according to the historical-critical method.  Marcan priority and Q were treated as de facto facts rather than theories, and many of the events of the New Testament didn’t occur.  One article by a Dominican “scholar” looked at the Transfiguration and determined that it was only an expression of the early Christian community’s belief in the divinity of Jesus.  There was also the popular, idiotic, unsubstantiated-in-the-text, utter nonsense that Jesus didn’t multiply the loaves & fishes—He shared what He had, and in turn, the whole crowd shared what they had.  I find it incredibly irritating, since I heard that in a homily one Sunday.  Take a look at Jimmy Akin’s beatdown of that moronic hypothesis here. I find it really, really, ridiculously irritating.  Have I emphasized that enough?  Why don’t Catholics believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist anymore?  Hmmm….

All that to say: scholars of Sacred Scripture are hit and miss, and there’s a TON of garbage out there.  I’m very thankful for good teachers like Pope Benedict, who can sift through the crap.  He gives a fair shake to the tradition (small ‘t’) of the Church, which few scholars do, in my limited experience.  In the Nazareth books I see a valuable resource in getting a full take on biblical scholarship.  Not agenda-driven, and fair to all sides—especially fair to the deposit of faith. 

And consider the importance of the subject matter: this is the interpretation of the divine Word of God!  Interpreting it correctly or incorrectly has huge implications. 

Let us pray for good teachers!