The Gospels Were Formed in Three Stages

In the previous sections, we have looked at the basis for our relationship with God. We are born with a capacity for God, and God comes toward us with even greater joy and love. This coming of God is revealed to us in Divine Revelation - Scripture and Tradition.

Scripture and Tradition flow from one source - from God. Among all the books of the Bible, the Gospels hold a special place of honor because they tell us about Jesus Christ, the Person and the Message.

The Gospels were formed in three stages:

1.)The Life and Teachings of Jesus - the Church affirms the historicity of the four Gospels. They faithfully hand on what Jesus did and taught during His life among us.

2.)The Oral Tradition - What Jesus said and did the Apostles preached to others. Enlightened by the Spirit of Truth, they brought to their preaching an even deeper knowledge of what they experienced.

3.)The Written Gospels - the Sacred authors composed the four Gospels, choosing certain elements, and explaining them in a way relevant to the Church’s current situation that they were writing to, and explaining them in such a way as to always deliver the honest truth about Jesus Christ.

The strength and power of God’s Word provides support and energy for all the Church’s members. It gives us a stronger faith, food for our souls, and a rich source for our spiritual life. The study of Scripture should be the soul of theological studies, but should always be studied in light of Sacred Tradition and with the guidance of the Church.

Q. 6. Where does the Church find the revealed truths it is bound to teach?
A. The Church finds the revealed truths it is bound to teach in the Holy Scriptures and revealed Traditions.

-Baltimore Catechism

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Video Worksheet

Helpful Vocabulary

●Fundamentalism -a form of a religion popular in Protestant Christianity that upholds belief in the strictly literal interpretation of Scripture.

●Literal Sense - themeaning conveyed by actual words of Scripture, followed by sound interpretation according to the teachings of the Church. All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the Literal Sense.

●Spiritual Sense - Viewing the realities and events in Scripture as Spiritual signs. There are three types of Spiritual Senses - allegorical, moral, and anagogical.

●Allegorical Sense - Recognizing an event by its significance in Christ - Example: Crossing of the Red Sea prefigures Baptism

●Moral Sense -Viewing events as written for our instruction, to show us how to live justly.

●Anagogical Sense - Viewing events in light of their eternal and everlasting significance.

Video Notes

●The Church has always honored the Scriptures, and since Vatican ll has been making a revived effort to encourage study of them.

●We must read Scripture under the guidance of Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church.

●At Mass, during the Liturgy of the Word, we meditate on Scripture Readings.

●There are four basic principles that guide a Roman Catholic on reading scripture:

1.)The whole of Scripture speaks of Jesus Christ. (CCC 102) The Old Testament foreshadows Him, and the New Testament speaks of Him.

2.)God is the author of the Scriptures. (CCC 105) The Church tells us to be attentive to three things: First - the unity of Scripture; Second - the Tradition of the Church and how it has read Scripture through the ages; And third - the Analogy of Faith, which is the way the Truths of the Faith and Scripture unite consistently with one another.

3.)The Scriptures are also authored by human beings. (CCC 106) We must read the Bible in its correct historical context - this is crucial to avoid fundamentalism. Just as Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, the Scriptures are both fully human and fully divine.

4.)The books of Scripture teach the truth. (CCC 107) The Bible teaches the truth which God willed to be available for us for the sake of our salvation.

●The Holy Spirit is the interpreter of Scripture (CCC 109-119)

●Since God is the author of Scripture, there is a unity to Scripture as a whole. (CCC 112)

●Scripture must be read within the living tradition of the whole Church. (CCC 113)

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●Be attentive to the Analogy of Faith. (CCC 114) We look at Scripture in light of what the Church believes and teaches.

●Know the senses of Scripture. (CCC 115-119). CCC 116 - the Literal sense; CCC 117 - the Spiritual sense (which includes sub-categories of: allegorical, moral, and anagogical).

●The Canon of Scripture is covered in CCC 120-130. The Catholic Canon of Scripture (given to us by the Church) was the accepted Canon by all Christians until the Protestant Reformation, when Martin Luther removed books from the Bible. Protestants now have seven less Old Testament books than Catholics. Old Testament Books retain permanent value (CCC 121), as everything in the Old Testament points to the coming of Christ.

●CCC 122 tells us about the Stages of Revelation. This paragraph shows that God’s Revelation is progressive. “The Old Testament Law has but a shadow of the things to come instead of the true form of these realities.” -Hebrews 10:1

●In CCC 124-127 we learn about The New Testament. CCC 125 says: The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures - this is because they are the main source of teaching of Jesus Christ. There are three stages in the Formation of the Gospels:

1. The Life and Teaching of Christ - while there is some timeline and wording variations in the Gospels, they agree on the historical facts of the life of Jesus.
2. The Oral Tradition - between Jesus’s death and the writing of the Gospels, the teachings were passed on orally.
3. The written Gospels - the authors selected elements of Oral Tradition to teach and explain that pertained to the Christian communities that they were writing to, and the circumstances that those communities may have been facing.

●CCC 128-133 speaks on the Unity of the Old and New Testament: we must pray and study over the New Testament in light of the events of the Old Testament.

Q. How do we show that the Holy Scriptures alone could not be our guide to salvation and infallible rule of faith?
A. We show that the Holy Scripture alone could not be our guide to salvation and infallible rule of faith:
1. Because all men cannot examine or understand the Holy Scripture; but all can listen to the teaching of the Church;
2. Because the New Testament or Christian part of the Scripture was not written at the beginning of the Church's existence, and, therefore, could not have been used as the rule of faith by the first Christians;
3. Because there are many things in the Holy Scripture that cannot be understood without the explanation given by tradition, and hence those who take the Scripture alone for their rule of faith are constantly disputing about its meaning and what they are to believe.-Baltimore Catechism

YOUR NOTES

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For Next Week

For Next Week’s Lesson, “Obedience of Faith”, please read the following paragraphs in the Catechism and the correlating Scripture that is listed next to them:

●144
●146
●148-149
●153
●159
●162
●166 and 169 / ●171-172
●176-184 (In Brief)
●185, 190, and 195
●205-207 (Exodus Chapter 3)
●218-221 (Isaiah 54:5-10)
●222-227
●228-231 (In Brief)

Please also reflect on the following questions:

1.)What is Faith? (CCC 176) How is faith both a grace and a human act? ______

2.)Why is Faith more than an isolated act? (CCC 166 and 169) What does it mean to share your faith, and how can you concretely do so? ______

3.)Where does faith come from? (CCC 179) ______

4.)What is the role of reason, and of the Church, in faith? (CCC 180-181) ______

5.)What are the three parts of the Creed? (CCC 190) Is there a part of the Creed you have trouble understanding or fully believing? ______

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6.)What are the five implications of having faith in one God? (CCC 222-227) ______

7.)Which of the above implications is easiest for you? Which is the hardest? ______

The Catechism/Scripture Connection

Catechism Paragraph # / Corresponding Scripture
CCC #146 / Heb 11:1; Rom 4:3;
Rom 4:11, 4:20
CCC #148 / Lk 1:37-38; Lk1:45
CCC #153 / Mt 16:17
CCC #162 / 1 Tim 1:18-19; Gal 5:6
CCC #171 / 1 Tim 3:15; Jude 3
CCC #183 / Mk 16:16
CCC #205 / Ex 3:6
CCC #207 / Ex 3: 6, 12
CCC #219 / Jn 3:16
CCC #220 / Isa 54:8; Isa 54:10; Jer 31:3
CCC #221 / 1 Jn 4: 8,16
CCC #223 / Job 36:26
CCC #224 / 1 Cor 4:7; Ps 116:12
CCC #225 / Gen 1:26

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Faith Begins the Path of Salvation,

but Works Perfect and Complete It

Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called “the friend of God.”l See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route? For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. – James 2:23-26

The phrase "faith alone" (the Greek "pisteosmonon") only occurs once in the Bible. "Man is justified by works and NOT faith alone." Unlike what some churches teach, nowhere in Scripture does it say that man is justified or saved by "faith alone." To the contrary, man is not justified by faith alone. In Catholic theology, a person is justified by faith and works acting together, which comes solely from God’s divine grace. Faith alone never obtains the grace of justification (Council of Trent, chapter 8, canon 9). Also, the word “justified” (dikaiow) is the same word Paul uses for justification in Rom. 4:3 in regard to Abraham (so other churches cannot argue James is not referring to “justification” in James 2:24 unless they argue Paul wasn’t in Rom. 4:3 either).

But without faith it is impossible to please him,e for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. - Hebrews 11:6

Faith is indeed the minimum requirement without which we cannot please God. But this is just the beginning of the process leading toward justification. Faith alone does not justify a person. Justification is only achieved by faith and works. Also, this gratuitous gift of faith from God also includes the grace of hope and love the moment the person is justified.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. – Galations 5:6

Thus, the faith that justifies us is “faith working through love,” not faith alone. This is one of the best summaries of Catholic teaching. Faith and love (manifested by works) are always connected. Faith (a process of thought) and love (an action) are never separated in the Scriptures. Cf. Eph. 3:17; 1 Thess. 3:6,12-13; 2 Thess. 1:3; 1 John 3:23; Rev. 2:4-5,19. Further, all faith (initial and perfected) are gratuitous gifts from God, and not earned or merited by any human action. God effects everything, both the willingness and the achievement. But God also requires human action, which is necessary to perfect our faith.

Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38, 3:19, 17:30 - the faith we have must be a repentant faith, not just an intellectual faith that believes in God. Repentance is not just a thought process (faith), but an act (work) by which we ask God for His mercy and forgiveness.

Q. 154. What must we do to save our souls?

A. To save our souls, we must worship God by faith, hope, and charity; that is, we must believe in Him, hope in Him, and love Him with all our heart. – Baltimore Catechism

18Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph numbers 153-165