Devil Cites Scripture

Remember the purpose of the Bible is happiness and heaven

09/01/2018

Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus told his disciples this parable: "A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one– to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, 'Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.' His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

Up and down the centuries people have tried to wrestle the Bible out of the hands of the Church and use it for purposes for which it was never intended. Sadly, sometimes even churchmen have tried to use the Scriptures for unspiritual purposes. Here are a few of those illicit ends. Some said the Bible provides a picture of the cosmos, how the universe is organized and originated. But Galileo Galilei asserted accurately in the 16th century, “The Bible tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.” Others have held the Bible gives a blue print for biology, or the origin of the human species, explaining it in terms of creationism instead of evolution. But the ground-breaking work of Charles Darwin and others in the 19th century have reminded us to make more modest claims about creationism.

Others have argued the Bible teaches that one political system is sanctioned by the Scriptures while others are condemned. But the Bible was not written as a handbook for freshman senators or congressmen. Yet others insist the Bible teaches medicine and science and prescribes that some treatments are healing while others are harmful. But should all doctors really read the Bible their first year in medical school?

We would all do well to recall the wise words of Antonio to Bassanio in Shakespeare’s play “The Merchant of Venice.” Antonio advises: “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose” (Merchant, I, 3). The true target of the Bible, however, is none of these sciences, but rather humanity in general, and its happiness. Pope Benedict XVI said in 2009: “The Church…is an expert in humanity and offers to all mankind teachings of truth, justice and love.” In other words, the best use of the Bible is not to answer technical questions of botany or biomedicine, but about human flourishing on earth and her final destiny in heaven. To bring the Bible to bear on other sciences would be like bringing a Ferrari to a go-cart race.

This distinction about the real design of the Bible can help us understand Jesus’ parable of the talents today. Jesus sounds almost like a financial advisor giving tips about trading stocks, but he is not. We read how the master reprimands the servant with one talent: “Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?” In fact, some preachers have used this passage, and others like it, to persuade their parishioners that Jesus wants them to be rich, the so-called “Health and Wealth Gospel.” One day I was telling a group of people that I thought the stock Alibaba was a great investment, and a friend, who is a financial advisor said, “Father you stick to preaching the sermons and I’ll stick to picking the stocks.” A not very subtle way of saying you don’t know what you’re talking about. The purpose of this parable, as well as the purpose of the Sacred Scriptures, is what Pope Benedict said: “it offers to all humanity the teachings of truth, justice and love,” not sound investment policy.

But we should be careful not to draw too dark a line between the Scriptures and all sciences, as if the two were entirely divorced. Why? Well, because even if the Bible does not bear directly on politics, finance, medicine, biology or astronomy, nonetheless, it is human beings who learn and hopefully grow through the mastery of these sciences. The Scriptures and the Church want humanity to use these sciences for the sake of human flourishing and human felicity, and when they don’t, she will not remain silent.

So, the Church must speak when a political regime violates basic human rights. She cannot remain mute when finances entice people to become greedy. She would fail in her divine mandate not to mention that some medical procedures – like abortion or euthanasia – are intrinsically evil. She will not stand idly by and not decry the conclusions of astronomers that God is not the first cause of the cosmos. And indeed, that God is the world’s last end. In these areas there must be a marriage between science and spirituality, and they will inevitably fight like all good married couples do.

Scott Hahn likes to say that whenever you see the word “therefore” in the Bible, you should stop and ask, “What is it there for?” And that is the same question we should ask before we ever open the Bible and read the first word: “What is the Bible there for?” Not everyone reads the Bible looking for the answers that God put in there; even “the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!