Friday, February 26, 2021

Preview: How St. Thomas More Reads the Holy Bible

On Monday, March 1, Matt Swaim and I will continue our discussion of St. Thomas More's "The Sadness of Christ" on the Son Rise Morning ShowListen live here or on your local EWTN affiliate at about 6:50 a.m. Central, 7:50 a.m. Eastern.

If you want to follow along, The Sadness of Christ, with an excellent introduction by Gerard Wegemer is readily available from Scepter Publishers.

In our introductory discussion on Monday, February 22, I mentioned to Anna Mitchell that St. Thomas More has two themes in these meditations: (1) Jesus really endures fear and anguish in the Agony in the Garden as He knows what is going to happen in detail and (2) Jesus is a model for More's readers, both for those in More's own time who are failing to be true disciples in the midst of the crisis in the Church and in England and for us today. 

While More was preparing for his own death, either by natural causes in prison or by execution at Henry VIII's will, he meditated on the Agony in the Garden as a way to face his fears of suffering and death just as Jesus, True God and True Man, faced His natural human dread of the fulfillment of the prophesies of His Passion: the humiliation, cruelty, and horrible death He was to die. More looks upon this Agony as a model, one that he and his readers may fail to imitate, as they so often fail to imitate Jesus as they should.

Indeed, More immediately introduces an example of how often we fail in our imitation of Christ, how we don't live up to the discipleship we profess. He begins by citing the Gospel of St. Matthew (26:30): "When Jesus had said these things [in the Upper Room at the Last Supper], they recited the hymns and went out to the Mount of Olives."

More says that we often fail in giving proper thanks to God before, during, and after our meals--in his own time he says they are neglecting the prayers the Church has given them to praise God, and when they do pray, it's perfunctory and on the way to a nice nap after dinner. 

Demonstrating his scholarship, More cites the Spanish bishop of Borgos, Paul of St. Mary (1351-1435), who was a convert from Judaism after reading the Summa of St Thomas Aquinas. From Bishop Paul, More had learned that Jesus and the Apostles sang the six psalms of the Passover, Psalms 113 through 118, the great Hallel, after the Lord's Supper.

While we may nap or relax after dinner, Jesus sang the Hallel and then led his Apostles to the Mount of Olives to pray during the cold night, as was often his custom (More cites Luke 22:30). 

Again he offers Jesus as a model for our prayer life: we need to prepare to pray: "we must lift up our minds from the bustling confusion of human concerns to the contemplation of heavenly things" (p. 2)

St. Thomas More then presents some guidance on how to read the Holy Bible, how to pay attention to the meaning of names and how the interpretation of those names helps us understand what God wants us to know about these events and their deeper meaning beyond the literal narrative.

First, More looks at the importance of Jesus praying on the Mount of Olives. Olive trees were the source of many blessings: the oil of anointing, the branches of peace, the foreshadowing of the greater anointing of the Holy Spirit the Apostles will receive after they've witnessed His Passion. That anointing will be effective, as a Sacrament, because it will "then teach them what they would not have been able to bear had it been told them only a short time before." 

Then, More examines the geography of Jesus's path to the Mount of Olives in the garden of Gethsemane: He walks through the stream of Cedron in the valley between Jerusalem and the Mount: "Across the stream Cedron to the outlying estate named Gethsemane." (John 18:1, Matthew 26:36, Mark 14:32) 

He pays attention to the meaning of the names Cedron (sadness) and Gethsemane (most fertile valley/valley of olives) because he says "not a single syllable [of the Bible] can be thought inconsequential" since it is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

More then brings up an issue that he'll explore further in later sections: "drowsiness". We have to be awake and alert to recognize not just the meanings of these words but how those meanings should affect our understanding of Holy Scripture. As Jesus crosses the Cedron to Gethsemane, "we must surely cross over, before we come to the fruitful Mount of Olives and the pleasant estate of Gethsemane . . . we must (I say) cross over the valley and stream of Cedron, a valley of tears and a stream of sadness whose waves can wash away the blackness and filth of our sins." 

Thomas More, a layman, is establishing himself ("I say") as an authority in the interpretation of scripture because it has so many "senses" and "mysterious meanings". Beyond the mysterious meanings, the spiritual senses of Scripture (moral, anagogical, and allegorical), More establishes the main significance of this passage: The darkness Jesus is entering (since Cedron means not only "sad" but "blackened") also signifies "the inglorious torment" and disfigurement "by dark bruises, gore, spittle, and dirt" He will endure.

More sees the Providence of God from eternity in these names and their meaning. He says the Gospel writers were inspired by the Holy Spirit to tell us these names so we could know their meaning and their significance.

Then, too, the meaning of the stream He crosses--"sad" was far from irrelevant, as He Himself testified when He said, "My soul is sad, unto death". (p. 4)

He notes that only eleven of the Apostles are with Jesus, since Judas left after receiving the morsel from Him; then More invites us: 

Let us follow after Christ and pray to the Father together with him. Let us not emulate Judas by departing from Christ after partaking of His favors . . ." (p. 5)

And that is what we will be begin to do on Monday.

Image Credit (public domain): James Tissot, "My Soul is Sorrowful unto Death".

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