B.
The Right Way
God communicates through the Scripture. But what are we to consider in interpreting it? Read the excerpt from Catechism for Filipino Catholics paragraphs 93-96. Group yourselves, analyze the reading from 1 Peter 2:1-25, and apply the four factors to get the message.
Four Factors
First, the human author. Common sense tells us to find out what the inspired human author had in mind when interpreting a text. This involves some basic idea of the social, economic, and religious conditions of the authors in their particular
historical situations (cf. DV 12: CCC 110); (CFC 93).
Second, the text itself. We have to look at its literary form (e.g., historical narratives, prophetic oracles, poems, or parables) which the author is using (cf. DV 12); (CFC 94).
Third, the readers/hearers. We are constantly asking Scripture new questions and problems, drawn from our own experience. Every Filipino Catholic wants to know what the Scripture means "to me/us." At the same time we recognize that the Bible brings its own culture of meanings and framework of attitudes that help form, reform and transform us, the readers, into the image of Christ. We must let the Bible "form" us, even while conscious that we are reading it in the light of our own contemporary experience
(CFC 95).
Fourth, the common horizon which first unites all the books of the Bible into a basic unity, and second, links together the context of the Scriptural text and its tradition with our present reading context today (CFC 96).
C. Two Become One
Other religions believe that Oral Tradition is an unreliable source of faith. Thus,
the basis of their faith is solely the written Tradition or the Sacred Scripture. Some
Catholics start to doubt Tradition. As a Catholic Christian, how would you explain the
Sacred Scripture and the Oral Tradition as one sacred deposit of faith?
Write your main points in the box and prepare to share them with your classmates.
