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A Commentary on Catholic Catechism Articles
Paragraph 105
On The Inspiration Of Scripture
This paragraph doesn't need any elaborate explanation. It is what it is. The scriptures are the Inspired Word of God, written by men, so that He could communicate to us on our own terms. We touched on it in articles 101 & 102. Again, I would stress that God came down to our level, just as He did when He took on the weakened form of Man. And scripture is the weakened form of God's communication.
Think of it kind of like a children's bible. WE dumb down the language for kids, so they'll understand what God wants to communicate. GOD dumbs down the language for us to that we'll understand. The main difference is that we sometimes make mistakes when dumbing it down for kids, but God's version is without error.
While scripture is a dumbed down language, made to be read and understood by both the quick and the slow, it also has a depth to it that we can't really say about any other 'literary' work. Scripture is a window, looking into the thoughts of God. If we stand far back from the window, we can see the other side just fine. We don't need any special tools to do this. Just as if we read the Bible here and there, only taking a mild interest, we will see the will of God as plain as day.
But as we move closer to the window, we begin to see things we hadn't noticed. The tunnel we see through (caused by the sides of the window) gets larger as we move closer to the window, and we're able to discern all kinds of things that had been hidden from our sight. Just as we find new depth to scripture as we study it more and contemplate on what God wanted to communicate. In union with the Church, the scriptures hold the entire formula for life and salvation.
No, I'm not preaching sola scriptura. I'm saying that the Bible has a depth to it, and our feet could never possibly reach the bottom. It's all there, in black and white, yet it takes our cooperation and the guidance of the Church to even begin to see the message.
So while scripture is dumbed down, it's never shallow. God, it would seem, can communicate to us on different levels, and He gives us this tool to use, along with His church, so that we can grow in our faith.
But we must take time to read it, study it, contemplate on it, and put it into action. Then it becomes alive. It becomes the true Word of God.