Humility before the
Word of God
I recently saw a pamphlet in which a catechist
related how she hated teaching about Creation because she felt like a fool
teaching that light was created on Day One, and the sun on Day Four. Perhaps she feared getting questions to which
she didn’t know the answer, which is understandable. Anyway, the conclusion of the story is how
relieved she was to learn that the creation accounts in Genesis only have
spiritual meaning and no real relation to the physical creation of the
universe.
Now, I would take issue with her new found
knowledge, but that’s not my main point.
I would like to use this simple story of a no doubt sincere woman to
reflect on the need for humility when approaching Scripture.
The book of Genesis has some elements
that secularists like to use to scorn Christians. However, as time goes on, it is they who end
up looking foolish.
It is important to note that Scripture
has both a literal and spiritual meanings.
According to the teaching of Pope Leo XIII, the spiritual is always
based on the literal. It is also
important to note that “literal” does not mean “literalistic.” What’s the difference? Literal refers to the literal meaning
intended by the sacred author who wrote the piece of Scripture. It allows for metaphor and poetic language,
etc. Literalistic means applying the
Webster’s dictionary definition to every word and then constructing the
meaning, so for example, to say that “It’s raining cats and dogs,” in the
literalistic sense, would mean that felines and canines were falling from the
sky.
This does not mean that anything that
seems difficult to us, such as light being created before the sun, can just be
explained away as figurative. It
requires a little more work than that.
One thing that is quite interesting is that physicists have discovered,
according to their theory of the development of the universe, that light did in
fact exist first, as the Bible says, before the sun. Photons, which are the essence of light, seem
to be, according to the most accepted research of modern physicists, the beginning
of material creation. The Bible, it
seems, even in the literal interpretation, got it right.
Just a couple of months ago, I wrote
an article about how scientists have shown that all humanity did in fact come
from an original man and an original woman, another Christian doctrine scoffed
at by the prevailing culture. (Of
course, it is considered a brilliant discovery when hit on by scientists.)
These instances highlight a very
important need for humility when approaching Scripture. We tend to think that if something does not
match our experience or understanding, it must not be true, or there must be a
purely spiritual explanation. We don’t
often think that it is our experience or perception that may be limited.
Another important thing to remember is
that ancient peoples were not idiots.
They all knew where light came from, for example. So the notion of light being created before
the sun would have been just as confusing to them, even more, actually, given
the discoveries about light and celestial bodies over the centuries to which we
are privy.
We can not dismiss Biblical accounts
as the mythology of a naïve or unsophisticated generation. In many ways, it is our own generation that
is the most naïve and unsophisticated in many centuries.
None of this is to say that I can give
a perfect or authoritative exegesis on the book of Genesis. There is much symbolism in the book, and it
is not a science text, but a religious text, containing that Truth which is
necessary for our salvation, as stated by the Second Vatican Council. However, we suffer greatly when certain
people try to give an authoritative interpretation, especially when it is based
on their own discomfort with some of the text.
We must approach it, as with all Scripture, with humility.
The Church has given us some clear
doctrines in which we can trust. But she
has left much open for study and debate.
The debates are fruitful, and the study is edifying, but only if we
engage in both with a spirit of humility.
