FRIDAY POTPOURRI: TO KNOW WHO WE ARE

HAPPY 4^TH of JULY TOMORROW

 

There will be no post tomorrow so Friday’s post is being moved to today.  We move into a new section of Dei Verbum entitled, “The Old Testament” in paragraph 14.

 

There has been several skirmishes over the past few decades about the politically correct way to refer to Scared Scripture before the advent of Christ.  “Old Testament” was seen as divisive and dismissive as in, “What do you do with old newspapers?  Throw them out.”  So also there was introduced the term “common era” and “before the common era” or CE and BCE.  Then there were the titles “Hebrew Scriptures” and “Christian Scriptures.”  All of them have their problems and not being one who likes to exchange problems simply to get a different set of problems, I stick with Old and New.

 

That being said, one of the problems with both “Old” and “Hebrew” is that they can be misleading.  To the uniformed they can make the first part of Sacred Scripture seem irrelevant to Christians, which is, in fact, a heresy.  They are extremely important to the Christian Church.  It is our heritage and through it we understand the New Testament better.

 

Since the fall of Adam and Eve, there had been a steady distancing between God and man.  God had to work hard to breach that gap.  So, as at the parish, when we want to start a new program we often begin with a select group of people on which to build something, God chooses a people and then sets out to form them into His family through which He will eventually capture the world.  These Old Testament Scriptures is God courting humanity (not without difficulties, breakups, reunitings, tears, and joy – the whole 9 yards) until the wedding feast of the Lamb.  If we fully want to understand ourselves, we must know our history for, “whatever was writing in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Rom 15:4)