PASTORAL LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 28 July 1921, Page 18

PASTORAL LETTER

. OF 'jWQja/w. HIS GRACE ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD

FRANCIS

By the Grace of God and Favor of the. Apostolic See Archbishop of Wellington and Metropolitan. To the Clergy and Faithful in the said Diocese. Health and Benediction'in the Lord. «

Dearly Beloved Brethren, In our pilgrimage through life from time to eternity, we stand particularly in need of two things, food and lightfood to sustain our strength, and light to guide our steps in the right way. Now, God's infinite mercy has admirably provided us with these two gifts, namely, our food in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, and our light in the Holy Bible, infallibly interpreted by the Church. Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XV., has chosen the occasion of St. Jerome's loth centenary, to emphasise the exhortations of his predecessors, chiefly Pope Leo XIII., to bring back Bible-reading into prominence among the educated Catholics throughout the world. The. occasion was most appropriate, because St. Jerome stands second to none of the Fathers as the,, champion of the Bible. His whole life was strenuously devoted to that one cause, nor did he spare either labor or sacrifice for its promotion. Born of Christian parents, he received the very best education in Greek and Latin literature available in his day. Hence his trenchant style and his rich vocabulary. No doubt in his youth he underrated the Sacred Scriptures in comparison with the elegance of his beloved classics, but, later on, more careful and extensive study of the Bible entirely changed his taste, and the love of Holy Writ became the most absorbing passion of his heart. Pope Damasus, of immortal memory, whose secretary St. Jerome had been for a period of two years, set him at his first most important biblical enterprise, namely, the correction of the old Latin version of the New Testament. After his illustrious patron's death, he left the Papal court and began to travel from school to school in different countries, in order to enrich his mind at every source of biblical scholarship. At last he settled permanently at Bethlehem, the very cradle of the Faith and there spent the rest of his days in untiring labors on the text, the translation, and the exposition of the Sacred Scriptures. Near the cave where Our Saviour was born, his vacant tomb may still be seen, while his relics are venerated at Home, in the Basilica of Our Lady, styled "At the Crib " St. Jerome was-.certainly a providential teacher, and Catholic schoolmen acclaim him a very great doctor, Doctor Maxzmus, because he is the verv embodiment of Catholic tradition, regarding the Bible. His doctrine on the Canonicity of the Bible, its authority, its place in the scheme of Divine revelation, and the estimation in which it must be held by Christians, is bevond all praise The root-principle and starting-point for every dutiful and sincere reader and student of the Bible is, "according to- St. Jerome, this: the Bible is not, like other books, the common heritage of mankind, but the property of the Catholic Church, much in the same way .as the deeds of an estate . are the property of the owner. "No Church no Bible is an axiom. It was the Church that pre' served with immense care the text and versions of the Old Testament, dunng the ages when very numerous treasures of ancient literature utterly perished: and as regards the New Testament, the specific heritage of Christ lamty, we should not know, apart from the Church's certificate, either its authentic contents or the valid grounds for including or excluding particular documents. In the early ages of the Church, many so called -gospels" were of circulation, and also a number of epistles besides tTo e I M • f al ./T ( V 110 other Apostles. Who but the Church and proceeds to deal with it according to his fancy he commits, a most unscholarly solecism, and unscrupulously

violates the principle of St. Jerome. In that Saint's view ecclesiastical tradition is the basic law of all biblical study; and we read of him brushing aside some novel interpretation of a text with the curt remark, "the Church of God does not accept it." And we hear him declare that he did not deem it worth his. while even to glance at a certain apocryphal book, for, he asks, "What is the use of reading what the Church rejects?" In this respect he perfectly agrees with the great • doctor, St. Augustine, who forcibly asserts, "I would not credit the Gospel itself if it did not come to me on the authority of the Church."

The Church is the divinely appointed trustee, of the Bible on behalf of mankind, and every Catholic scholar must enter on his biblical studies with loyal submission to the limitations of his critical liberty necessarily proscribed by the Church's infallible tradition. With these safeguarding limits he enjoys the most perfect freedom. Moreover, he is diverted from blind-alleys which lead nowhere, and is concentrated on fields of research sure to be most fruitful. The plain man who reads his Bible, like the flower-sucking bee, for the sweet sustenance to be extracted from it, is delivered from the nightmare of the higher criticism, and takes God's book with the infallible guarantee that he reads the words of light and life.

We exhort you, therefore, Dearly Beloved Brethren, to be diligent in Bible-reading. But you must know that it is largely an acquired taste, as both St. Jerome and St. Augustine tell us. They, too, needed training before they could appreciate it. "You must crack the nut before you eat it," was one of St. Jerome's epigrams. Nor can we use better words than his in this connection. To a devout lady he says, "Read constantly and memorise as much as you can. Road till sleep overtakes you, and your head droops softly upon the sacred page." To a priest: '•'Frequently read the Holy Scripture, nay, never let the hallowed volume out of your hand. Learn what you have to teach. Acquire the faithful word which is according to doctrine, that you N may be able to exhort in sound doctrine, and to convince the gainsayers." To his spiritual daughters, Paula and Eustochium, at a time of social unrest very like the present, he expresses his worldweariness and its cure: "If there is anything to reconcile a thinking man to this life, and make its stirs and upheavals supportable, I really think the. devout perusal of the Bible is that one thing." What rivetted him to this spiritual passion was the living image of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His own personality, and in His Mystical Body, which seemed to shine out of the inspired page. "Not to know the Scriptures," he cried, "is not to know Christ. One thing and one thing only is the priceless pearl—knowledge of Christ, the Sacrament of Mis Passion, the mystery of His Resurrection." It is an old calumny against the Catholic Church that she fears and hates the Bible, and does all she can to keep it a closed book, in fact, that Catholics are not allowed to read the Bible. The fact is that the Catholic Church surpasses all in the reverence which she pays to the Bible, and the zeal and care with which she promotes its study. Before the "reformers" began their nefarious work, the Catholic Church taught the people the Bible as no Protestant Church has ever done. The "reformers," instead of giving the people the Bible, took it from them. Pope Pius VI. (1778) wrote: "At a time when a great number of bad books are circulated among the unlearned, you judge exceedingly well that the faithful should be excited to the reading of the Bible, for this is the most abundant source which ought to be left open to everyone to draw from it purity of morals and of doctrine. This you have reasonably effected by publishing the Bible in the language of your country (viz. Italian) suitably to everyone's capacity." This letter has since been commonly printed at the beginning of popular editions of the Catholic Bible. Also Pope Pius VII. (1820) urged the English bishops to encourage their people to read the Bible, saying, "Nothing can be more useful, more consolatory, more animating, because the Holy Scriptures (i.e., the Bible) serve to-con-firm the faith; to support the hope, and to inflame the charity of the true Christian."

Last year the whole Catholic world celebrated in Rome the 15th centenary of the death of the great doctor, St.

.•■:■-•'. i Jerome, and, as a fitting consummation of that festival, our Holy Father Pope Benedict XV. issued an Encyclical Spiritus paraditus, 15th September, 1920, whereby he does honor to the saintly defender of Holy Writ, and %dds an important contribution to the sum of Papal documents on the Bible. This celebration in the form of a Triduum, his Holiness has graciously extended to the whole world, leaving to the respective bishops in each diocese the care of fixing the date of the Triduum.

Accordingly, we have given you the foregoing instruction on Bible-reading, and have added our earnest exhortation to that of the Sovereign Pontiff on that spiritual exercise and salutary devotion. The Triduum is fixed for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the 12th, 13th, and 14th of next August. Each evening there will be, in the churches of this archdiocese, the Rosary, a sermon, and the Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. We expect large congregations to attend these spiritual exercises, in order to obtain the choice graces and blessings connected with them. The faithful who attend the exercises of the third day of the Triduum, can gain a Plenary Indulgence, provided they have been to Confession and Communion, and pray for the intentions of the Holy Father. Also those who are truly sorry for their sins, and pray as above, can gain, on the two preceding days of the Triduum, a partial indulgence of seven years and seven times forty days. And all these indulgences arc applicable by way of suffrage to the souls in Purgatory.

"The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen." (11. Cor. xiii., 13.)

Given at Wellington on this, the 24th of July, A.D. 1921.

* FRANCES,

Archbishop of Wellington.

N.B. —This Pastoral is to be read to the people at least one Sunday before the Triduum.