When You Don’t Understand the Bible
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
Ascension
4.9 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 December 2020
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Oftentimes in Christian media we see what Fr. Mike dubs a “Hallmark” version of following Christ. There’s struggle and hardship, but then God’s grace comes in and cures everything, making everything nearly perfect for the characters in the story. While these types of stories make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, they’re not very realistic. And while God’s grace is essential, it’s not a magic wand that makes everything bad go away.
There are some stories in the Bible that at first glance appear dark, difficult, or just don’t make sense. Even some of the things Christ says to his followers can sound harsh or even scandalous at times. But it’s in these moments of confusion and concern that God wants to teach us something.
This was something that St. Augustine struggled with before his conversion. It wasn’t until after he had accepted the faith and began to intentionally practice it that he realized it’s not God’s word that’s wrong, it's our interpretation of it. He gives us 7 things to do when trying to understand a passage we’re unsure of:
- Read the text in the original language. Or, if you’re not a scholar of Greek or Latin (more than likely), at least realize that a lot can be lost in translation, like idioms and turns of phrase, or context and foreign references.
- Try different biblical translations and see how they compare.
- Weigh what you’re reading with all of scripture (it’s ALL connected!)
- Be humble and accept that you don’t know everything needed to fully understand God’s word (and that’s okay).
- Sacred tradition always trumps our own interpretations.
- Don't take figurative language literally.
- Don’t universalize a parable to be relevant for all situations in life.
The Bible wasn’t written by Hallmark. It was inspired by God. Hallmark is meant to help you escape reality. The Bible is meant to help you get back in touch with reality. There’s going to be brokenness, and sin, and unhappy endings, but there will also be real grace that transforms those hardships into strength, and it has the power to change your life.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And you start reading and you're like, whoa, this is so broken. |
| 0:03.8 | Like, there are so many things that are not only just broken, |
| 0:07.4 | but there's some things that are really dark. |
| 0:09.0 | Like Lord, what are you trying to teach me? |
| 0:10.4 | How many is Father Mike Smith's? |
| 0:19.9 | And this is the sense of presence. |
| 0:21.1 | So when I was in college, I took an independent study class |
| 0:24.0 | on morality in the works of Flannery O'Connor. |
| 0:27.0 | Now, Flannery O'Connor is arguably one of the greatest |
| 0:31.2 | American writers of the last century. |
| 0:33.0 | I say arguably because people argue about that stuff. |
| 0:35.2 | But here's Flannery O'Connor who is this Catholic writer, |
| 0:40.3 | this phenomenal Catholic author, and that there's this depth of, |
| 0:44.6 | like, meaning and depth of reality, depth of morality, |
| 0:47.8 | in her writings. |
| 0:48.5 | And I was like, that's awesome. |
| 0:49.6 | I can't wait to read from this Catholic author. |
| 0:52.5 | And I started reading and I was like, I don't like these stories. |
| 0:55.6 | Because the stories are all broken. They're all dark. |
| 0:57.6 | I'm used to hallmark. |
| 0:59.2 | I'm used to Christian movies. |
| 1:00.5 | Christian movies are, there's some brokenness, |
... |
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