Day 16: Senses of Scripture (2025)

As we journey together toward our heavenly home, it is day 16. We're reading paragraphs 115 to 119. Just a couple quick things before we get started. I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Also, to download your own catechism in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash CIY. That can be kind of helpful because you can see, okay, where are we? in the pillar, where are we in what section? Where what are we really talking about? That can be helpful. Also, you can click follow or subscribe or whatever the what the word is in your podcast app for daily notifications. A couple of things, just as we continue to move through the catechism today.

I just I mentioned this I think yesterday at the end of the day, but it is so important. Here we are, day sixteen. You know, yesterday was the first day after the second week. Day fifteen. That's how weeks work, right? There's two of two of those weeks together is 14 plus one, 15. Here we are day sixteen. And the recognition, of course, is that we're journeying as a community.

I think one of the ways, maybe one of the only ways, we're truly gonna be able to get through this catechism, because it it it can be dense. Even today, the readings from paragraphs one fifteen to one nineteen, that's not a lot. I think that's five, if I can count correctly. Those paragraphs, they're simple, but they're also dense, right? And because of that, it can be a little bit of a challenge to say, okay, I'm gonna keep showing up, I'm gonna keep pressing play.

But the fact that here you are on day sixteen, you're pressing play, means not only, of course, that the Lord is moving you and he's inviting you into a deeper relationship and deeper knowledge of him, But also that, you know, we're praying for each other. And I think we really, really need that because it can get kind of easy to say, well, maybe not today, maybe tomorrow. But here we are on day 16. I'm ready to press play. Before we do that.

What are we gonna listen listen to? What we're gonna hear is The senses of scripture. There are essentially two senses of scripture. There is the literal sense and the spiritual sense of scripture. So the literal sense is kind of the obvious one, right? The text says what it means. It means what it says.

The spiritual sense has three other senses it's subdivided into. And the three are the allegorical sense, the moral sense, the energogical sense. So we're gonna talk about all of those today. So just keep that in mind. We're looking at that when you whenever we read the Bible. We read it according to these two senses of scripture. We look for the literal sense, what do the words mean? That's what that is, and the spiritual sense, what might be a truth or or the truth

That is conveyed, that was not originally intended by the human author. Maybe there's another meaning to this, right? So the literal sense and the spiritual sense we're gonna talk about today. So let's say a prayer as we dive in. Father in heaven, we give you thanks, we give you praise because we know this. We know that you are the author of sacred scripture, we know that you used human beings.

With all of their gifts, with all of their wisdom, with all their flaws, with all their lack of knowledge, with all their style and preference and just their personality, Lord God, you use them to convey your word to the world. And you still do that in different ways, right? You you still use us.

You still use us with all of our wisdom and all of our failures, with all of our weaknesses and with all of our foolishness, with all of our strengths and gifts and personalities, Lord God, you continue to use and work with us. To bring your word to the world. When we embody your word, Lord God, when we we live out your truth. You are working in this world, and we ask you to please help us not only hear these words, but be shaped by them so that we can live by them.

Help us to live by your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day sixteen. We're reading paragraphs 115 to 119. The Senses of Scripture According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of scripture, the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses.

The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of the scripture in the church. The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis following the rules of sound interpretation. As Saint Thomas Aquinas said, all other senses of sacred scripture are based on the literal.

The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture, but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.

First, the allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ. Thus, the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or a type of Christ's victory and also of Christian baptism. Second, the moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As Saint Paul says, they were written for our instruction. Third, the anagogical sense, Greek anagoge meaning leading.

We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland. Thus, the church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses. The letter speaks of deeds, allegory to faith, the moral how to act, anagogy, our destiny. Dave Verboom stated.

It is the task of exegetes to work according to these rules toward a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of sacred scripture in order that their research may help the church to form a firmer judgment. For of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.

As St. Augustine once said, but I would not believe in the gospel had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me. Okay, so so there it is. As I said, uh this section, a brief section, but it's so powerful. This is so important. This is gonna change the way we continue to listen to scripture or read scripture. If you followed the Bible in a year with us last year or the year before.

You know that this is how, hopefully you may be caught on. This is how I always will read the scriptures because I'm kind of formed by the catechism, right? There's always two ways we can read scripture, the literal and the spiritual. The literal is the first way we're gonna read scripture. So as the example would be, here's David. Here's the here's the story of King David marching into Jerusalem. Here's David walking into Jerusalem.

What's the literal sense? The literal sense is hey, David walked into Jerusalem. That's that's the first sense of scripture. And again, as the catechism says, Every one of the other senses of sacred scripture is based off the literal. So that's the first one. We can't ignore that one. We can't bypass it. We can't neglect it. We always have to realize all the other senses, the spiritual senses, are based on the literal. That's a quote from Thomas Aquinas. So

David walks into Jerusalem, literal sense, yeah, he walked into Jerusalem. But then there's the spiritual sense with those three categories. They're in, right? So the allegorical sense, the moral sense, and the anagogical sense. I know you're like, are you kidding me? All of these words. I understand. Let's break it down.

The allegorical sense would be, okay, the allegory. So the example that the catechism uses is crossing the Red Sea. That's the literal sense. The Jewish people, the Hebrew people, walked through the Red Sea. But the allegorical sense is that's also a sign of Christ's victory. that Jesus went, he descended to hell and rose again from the dead. Also, it's a sign of Christian baptism, right? So the an the allegory there, the connection is

That's a type. The Jews crossing the Hebrews crossing through the Red Sea is a type or foreshadowing of how now Christians are baptized in water. So what do we mean by that? Well The Jewish people on one side of the Red Sea, they were dead, they were enslaved, right? I mean that's the end of their lives because here's Pharaoh and all of his chariots and charioteers who are bearing down on them.

They pass through the waters of the Red Sea and they emerge on the other side with freedom and with life. Just like Christians, here we are. Before we're baptized, we belong to the evil one. We will belong to the kingdom of darkness. We enter into the waters of baptism and come out the other side with freedom and with life. So that's the allegory, right? So David walk marches into Jerusalem. The literal sense. David walked into Jerusalem.

the allegorical sense could be, well, here is this is a sign or a type of of Jesus coming into Jerusalem as the the King of Kings, right on Palm Sunday. So there's the image of David marching into the city of Jerusalem, the literal sense he walked into Jerusalem, the allegorical sense could be something like that could be a type or a sign of Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

The king ready to take his place, his rightful throne. And in this case, of course, his throne he assumes is the cross. So there can be an allegorical sense, right? There's a type. that is fulfilled in the New Testament or in the life of the church. The moral sense, obviously, is the the sense that we apply to our lives that should lead us to act justly. So David marches into Jerusalem. Yep, right there it is, literal sense, could be a sign of Christ entering into Jerusalem himself.

the moral sense. Okay, David. Yeah, maybe you could say it something like it something like this. David, worshipped before he led the Ark of the Covenant into the city of Jerusalem. He made sacrifices in order to guarantee that the Ark of the Covenant will be brought in a God honoring way into the city of Jerusalem.

And it's just in the same way. We too have to sacrificially worship the Lord to truly honor him. Like something like that, right? We're applying it to our own lives. So the allegorical sense. How it applies to Jesus, the moral sense, how it applies to our lives, and finally the anagogical sense. Which would be how how does this apply to the end times? How does this apply to the end of times?

So David enters the city of Jerusalem, just like Jesus will one day come back. And when he does that, he will establish an eternal Kingdom, an eternal throne, where he will have dominion and a kingdom that will last forever. Right. So the allegorical sense, how does this relate to Jesus in many ways? Moral sense. How does this relate to us? How can we apply it to our lives? In the anagogical sense, how does this apply to the end of time?

And so those are the ways in which we read scripture. So keep that in mind. These two main ways, literal and spiritual, those three ways, and allegorical, Jesus, moral, you and me. Anagogical, the end times, and we read scripture according to those senses. Now it's remarkable if you ever go back and read the early fathers of the church and and how they did this. I mean it goes all the way back to the beginning, how those fathers of the church

We just pay attention to the literal because that's so important. But then they would dive deeply in the anagogical, allegorical, and moral senses, and it's just so beautiful and so powerful.

The last note of this section today is a quote from St. Augustine. And it is remarkable. It's almost one of those situations that it it almost leads into tomorrow's section when we talk about the canon of scripture or the the the number of books in scripture or the which books are in scripture. But it's a quote by Saint Augustine, here he is living in the fourth and fifth century, where he says, But I would not believe in the gospel had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me.

Saint Augustine was living close enough to the original events of Christ's life, death, and resurrection, that he knew that the church predated the New Testament.

We rely upon the New Testament based off of the authority of the church that Jesus Christ himself established. That's why it's so powerful to realize that this giant of the faith, right? This giant of intellect, this giant of holiness, This giant of a of a man, Saint Augustine, said, I would not believe in the gospel had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me.

Again, the authority of the church comes before the authority of the Bible. Not in necessarily in order of importance. I believe there's mic equal importance, right? Sacred tradition, sacred scripture. But the reason why we know that there are seventy-three books in the Bible is we're basing that off of the authority that Jesus gave the Catholic Church. Does that make sense? I know that sounds so bold. If you're not Catholic, it sounds so brash. Might even sound rude.

But it's also the historical reality. And it's one of those things we just have to say, Oh gosh, okay, Lord, that is the truth. Now tomorrow we're gonna dive more deeply into the canon of scripture, the actual books, all the sacred books, the seventy-three books, forty-six books of the old testament.

27 books in the New Testament, and we're gonna go through all of those tomorrow. And you know all about those because you uh read the Bible with us. Maybe you didn't, maybe this is the first time you're joining us on day sixteen. But if it is or if it isn't, it doesn't matter because I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.