Heaven and Earth and George Bailey
by Pat Gohn in Faith on Thursday, January 07, 2010 6:00 AM
The best stories and the best movies speak to us on more than one level. Take, for example, the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The basic story line of this classic film tells the retrospective story of the life of George Bailey. But it is so much more.
The movie’s literal story line provides the framework through which multiple meanings shine. You might even call some of the meanings “spiritual.”
As the story of George is unveiled, we find the intersection of heaven and earth: the existence of angels in the heavens and on the earth, plus the need for faith, and the power of human prayer. There are moral aspects of the story too: the ups and downs of marriage and family, the inherent dignity of the human person, plus the tug o’ war between generosity and greed.
Better Than a Movie
But even better than great cinema, God-inspired Sacred Scripture speak to us on multiple levels. We call these different levels of Scripture “senses.”
There are two broad categories: first, the literal sense, and then the spiritual sense. St. Thomas Aquinas taught: “All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.”
The literal sense answers: what did the author intend to say? If Scripture is God’s Word in human language, then, the literal sense cannot be ignored. It is foundational for understanding and substantiating any other meanings.
There is a unity to the Scriptures, just as there is a unity to God’s plan. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in CCC 117:
Thanks to the unity of God’s plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.
Within a given scriptural text, there can be signs (or clues) to something more than the literal meaning. In other words, the literal sense of a text provides the framework for the possible spiritual senses of it.
Three Senses
The spiritual sense, based on the literal, is divided into three categories:
1. The allegorical sense – The word “allegory” sometimes misleads a modern reader. The allegorical sense does not refer to fables or make-believe stories. The allegorical sense is symbolic in that it demonstrably points to Jesus Christ in some way. Think of it is as the “Christological” sense.
For example, CCC 117 states:
We can acquire a more profound understanding of events [in the Old Testament] by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ’s victory and also of Christian Baptism.
There is an old Church saying: “the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.”
The Catechism’s example of the Exodus event demonstrates the allegorical sense. As the Hebrews passed through the waters of the Red Sea, they passed from a kind of death (slavery) to new life (freedom). Biblical scholars teach this passing through the waters as a “type” of Baptism. Similarly, the baptized person passes from enslavement to death and sin to a new life in Christ.
2. The moral sense – This sense tell us how to live a moral life. This instruction can be direct or indirect. There are direct laws such as the Ten Commandments and the instructions given by Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount. But there are also indirect moral instructions, such as the moral principles learned from parables, or the holy example of God’s people.
CCC 177:
The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written “for our instruction (1 Cor 10:11)”.
3. The anagogical sense – This sense points toward heaven, or eternity. (The Greek word for anagogy is anagoge, which translates, “leading”.)
CCC 117:
We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem (Cf. Rev 21:1-22:5).
Here the Catechism references Jerusalem, an earthly city found often in the literal sense. In the Old Testament and the Gospels Jerusalem is a holy city in Israel with the temple of God in its midst. This reference to the Church, which also has God in its midst, points toward eternity. The Book of Revelation harkens to a future day when there will be “a new heaven and a new earth… a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Rev 21: 1-2.)
The four senses give us a profound richness and depth to our Bible reading. And when we take time to study God’s word, the deeper we go, the more we find that Christianity really is a wonderful life!
—Pat Gohn is a wife & mother celebrating 27 years of Catholic family life. Her Catholic writing, podcasting, and ministry life are found at PatGohn.com.
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