Q: What assumptions guide you in your study of the Bible?
Cardinal Vanhoye: My assumptions are clearly assumptions of faith. The Bible is a text that expresses the faith. To receive it in a serious and profound way it is necessary to be in the current that produced it. So, it is essential to approach the inspired text with an attitude of faith. On the other hand, there is also the conviction that the Bible is a historical book and not simply theoretical. It is a revelation with facts, with events; it is an existential historical reality that must be accepted as such.
Q: In all these years of studying the word of God, what has stimulated you the most to continue your research in the face of the various difficulties in the exegetical field and in the work itself? What are your deepest motivations?
Cardinal Vanhoye: Certainly that sacred Scripture is essential for knowing Christ, for conforming to Christ, for investigating all the dimensions of the mystery of Christ. [There is a] close link between exegetical research, in-depth study of the faith and the spiritual life. Because of these things I never hesitated to engage in research, to spend all of my efforts and my abilities in this study that is of fundamental importance for the life of the Church.
Q: What have been the most precious fruits for your priestly life of this contact with the Word?
Cardinal Vanhoye: The word of God nourished my spiritual life in a very deep way. For example, when I was still a student at the Pontifical Biblical Institute I did a study on two phrases in John’s Gospel that express the relation between Jesus’ work and the Father’s work. Jesus was given the gift of works. In two phrases Jesus speaks of the works that the Father has given him. I saw the insistence: “My Father goes on working and so do I” (John 5:17). A very important theme for the deepening of the spiritual life not only in a speculative way but in work itself. As the Father gave his works to Jesus, so Jesus gives us his works.
This is a point that nourishes me: I must always do the work of the Lord with the Lord. And, on the other hand, I understood that in order to do the Lord’s work with the Lord it is essential to be united to the heart of the Lord so that the Lord’s work is not something administrative that can be done with a certain detachment, but is a work of love. This is a beautiful, profound and demanding orientation that continues to guide me. The Lord is the principal author, I am a poor and modest assistant, but one who must be dedicated because what the Lord is doing is important and beautiful. This is the principal example of my relationship with Scripture.
I love this part, from the excerpt above:
[blockquote]Certainly that sacred Scripture is essential for knowing Christ, for conforming to Christ, for investigating all the dimensions of the mystery of Christ. [There is a] close link between exegetical research, in-depth study of the faith and the spiritual life. Because of these things I never hesitated to engage in research, to spend all of my efforts and my abilities in this study that is of fundamental importance for the life of the Church.
[/blockquote]
Nice to see it in print!
In His Peace
Jim E. <><
I was excited to read this from a Catholic cardinal-scholar, and then I happened upon his thoughts about the Psalms, and this sentence: ‘It seems opportune and useful from the point of view of the acceptance of the Word of God to omit things that have been corrected by Jesus.’ Having grown up Reformed Presbyterian and singing only the Psalms, I have a real love for them. I don’t think there is anything in them that Jesus ‘corrects’, or that needs to be omitted. That is a shallow view. Including dashing infants upon the rocks (Psalm 137) — it is extremely hard to hear in our current culture, but something we have to struggle with in God’s Word, as we have to struggle with many things in it, asking questions of God and it and taking seriously God’s mercy AND justice. I have been blessed by Patrick Henry Reardon’s [i]Christ in the Psalms[/i], and he writes about Psalm 137:
[blockquote]Should anyone feel daunted by the violent feelings that Psalm 137 entertains with respect to Babylon, let him consult the rejoicing of the saints over the fall of Babylon in John’s mighty vision: “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!’ (Rev. 18.20).[/blockquote] Let’s not omit scripture, because then we miss out on the full character of our God!
Libbie,
I think I agree with you. I certainly agree with Patrick Henry Reardon and his excellent book. However, on the other side of things, the Catholic Cardinal would appear to be agreeing with non other than C.S. Lewis who wrote on this topic in the second chapter of his book on the psalms.