Liturgy and Scripture

This study strives to understand the teaching of the CCC in the voice of Scripture from which it draws. The CCC directs us to this very effort: "The texts of Sacred Scripture are often not quoted word for word but are merely indicated by a reference (cf.). For a deeper understanding of such passages, the reader should refer to the Scriptural texts themselves. Such Biblical references are a valuable working-tool in catechesis" (19). An exegetical examination of biblical texts requires the study their own historical, literary and cultural context, a task imposed by the fact that each text emerges from a specific context in history to address in writing the interests and needs of a specific audience bounded by their own cultural setting. The Magisterium calls for obtaining this very meaning of the biblical text that is defined as its literal sense. However, the interpretation must also include the meaning of the text in "the same Spirit by whom it was written," which adds to the original dynamism of the biblical texts by considering the dynamism of the living Tradition. To accomplish this, the study includes the view of the early Fathers who first pondered these mysteries.