Tuesday, January 13, 2009

2Tim 2, 2 What you heard from me entrust to faithful

(2Tim 2, 2) What you heard from me entrust to faithful
[2] And what you heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will have the ability to teach others as well.
(CCC 101) In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: "Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men" (DV 13). (CCC 97) "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God" (DV 10) in which, as in a mirror, the pilgrim Church contemplates God, the source of all her riches. (CCC 94) Thanks to the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the understanding of both the realities and the words of the heritage of faith is able to grow in the life of the Church: - "through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts" (DV 8 § 2; cf. Lk 2:19, 51); it is in particular "theological research [which] deepens knowledge of revealed truth" (GS 62 § 7; cf. GS 44 § 2; DV 23; 24; UR 4). - "from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which [believers] experience" (DV 8 § 2), the sacred Scriptures "grow with the one who reads them" (St. Gregory the Great, Hom. in Ezek. 1, 7, 8: PL 76, 843D). - "from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth" (DV 8 § 2). (CCC 95) "It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls" (DV 10 § 3).

No comments: