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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE AS TEACHERS
The Catholic Laymen’s Association publicity bu
reau was recently asked why we always hear priests
say the Church teaches” this or that, and not ‘‘the
Bible teaches.” The answer sent out is reproduced
here.
The Bible does not teach. To teach is to put forth, to
expound, to explain. The Bible does not do any of
these things. It is passive, inert; it merely contains.
The first quality of real teaching is that it be
adapted to the understanding of the one taught. In
the case of a universal teacher, this quality must be
of universal aptitude; that is to say, it must be adapt
ed to the understanding of all persons. This is not
possible of a book, which can be written in a limited
number of languages only. There are several hundred
languages in which the Bible is not written and several
hundred more in which it is not possible to write it
because they are languages without a written alphabet.
It stands in the nature of things, therefore, that the
Bible, even though in a loose sense it might be said to
teach, cannot be considered a universal teacher.
Moreover, even where a people has a written lan
guage and the Bible is written in their language, we
are reminded by reading in the Sacred text itself that
it contains some things hard to understand. Speaking
of the working of St. Paul, St. Peter in his 2nd Epistle
(iii, 16) says, that they contain ‘‘some things hard to
be understood, which they that are unlearned and un
stable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to
their own destruction.”
Finally, the Bible cannot be said to be a universal
teacher in the sense of containing all truth. We read
in the last verse of the Gospel of St. John that there
are many other things than those related in the Scrip
ture which Jesus Christ did, ‘‘which if they should be
written everyone,” says St. John, ‘‘I suppose that even
the world itself could not contain the books that
should be written.”
It is plain truth, therefore, that even though we
should depart from the strict meaning of the word and
consider the Bible as “teaching,” it is by no means al
lowable to consider it as a universal teacher, either as
adapted to the understanding of all persons to be
taught or as teaching all the things which Jesus Christ
did.
The Church, on the other hand, is a true teacher.
It puts forth, expounds, explains. It has a living voice
and can be adapted to the understanding of all per
sons throughout the world. Though there are tribes
and nations without a written language and which
cannot therefore receive the Bible, no tribe ever existed
without a spoken language. The Church, therefore, is
not only a true teacher but a universal teacher.
Moreover, as we read in the Gospel of St. John (iv,
26) Jesus Christ said to his Apostles that “the Holy
Ghost Whom the Father will send in My name, He
shall teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” Hence
both in its quality of adaptibility to the understanding
of all persons and in its power to expound all things
whatsoever that Jesus Christ taught, the Church is a
universal teacher.
That a universal teacher is essential to the promul
gation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ we know from His
words to His Apostles, “Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature—teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
(Mark xvi, 15; Matthew xxviii, 20).
Jesus Christ did not write anything; He preached.
He taught by the living voice. He did not command
His Apostles to write, but to preach. He conferred
on them the gift of tongues in order that they might
teach the people of every language.
The earliest writing contained in the New Testa
ment was not written until many years after our Lord
ascended into Heaven; not until after Churches had
been established by the Apostles in many countries.
The last part of the Bible (the Book of Revelation) was
not written for 60 years after our Lord ascended into
Heaven, not till Churches had been established in every
part of the known world, not till many years after the
death of all the Apostles except St. John.
When first written the books contained in the New
Testament weie scattered all over the world, in the
possession of the different Churches where they had
been written and not a single book of the Bible was
possessed by all the Churches for many hundred years
after Christ. The books of the New Testament were
not gathered together in one volume until after the
Roman Empire had become Christian, more than three
hundred years after our Lord ascended into Heaven.
Moreover, it was the Church that gathered together
the different parts of the Scripture, pronounced them
canonical, that is to cay inspired, translated them into
one language and incorporated them in one volume. It
was the Church that rejected the Gospel written by St.
Barnabus, the Apostle, as uninspired, and accepted the
Gospel of St. Luke, who was not an Apostle, as an
inspired writing. It was the Church that taught us
that the Bible is the word of God.
Catholic priests are, therefore, in every sense cor
rect when instead of saying that the Bible teaches, they
tell us that “the Church teaches.” The Church alone
has the word of God from Jesus Christ Himself. To
her alone did Christ say. “he that heareth you heareth
Me. The Bible is a sacred book, the very word of
God. We know it because the Church, to whom the
Holy Ghost teaches all things, whom Christ promised
to be with always, and against whom He said the gates
of Hell shall not prevail, she teaches us that the Bible
is the word of God.
The Church alone is the living voice having author
ity and power to fulfill the commands of the Saviour,
Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to
every creature.”
CLERICAL LIFE—SOME OF ITS SERIOUS
AND HUMOROUS SIDES
(Continued from page 5.)
fore him and saying nothing. “Is there anything else,”
I asked him, “which you would Hike to know about
the services of yesterday?” “I have more to think
about now than I can get through my brain,” he said,
“and I must confess that what you have told me has
made a great impression on me. But I think I had
better go home and try to piece all these things to
gether; it puts things in a new light to me, and it does
look now that the Catholic Church has a good deal to
say for herself which appeals to those, who, like my
self, believe in the Saviour; but there is one question
which 1 would like to ask you; Do you mean to say
that the Catholic Church of today is the same as the
Christian Church of the early days of Christianity.
I have read my Bible very attentively and I don’t find
in it anything which corresponds to the way things are
done today in your Church. Your Church, so it
seems to me, claims to dictate what a man must be
lieve and allows him no freedom of judging for him
self what to believe. I can’t find in my Bible anything
about the Mass and the other ornate services of the
Church, but I do find that we must search the Scrip
tures, and you will not permit one to do that.” ,
The Mass in the Catacombs
“It’s quite certain,” I replied, “that Mass was said
in the first Christian age in the Catacombs; and if
there was no other proof of it, it would be sufficient to
recall that Christ commanded the Apostles to do what
He did at the Last Supper, and He then and there did
what every priest does at Mass. Besides the history of
the days of which you speak, as recorded in the writ
ings of the Fathers, shows conclusively, that the es
sential part of our Mass dates from the days of the
(Continued to page 12.)