THE P
RTAL
Catholic Social Teaching
April 2018 Page 9
The Old Testament
Fr Ashley Beck
In the Catholic tradition all moral teaching , like theology in general , rests on both reason and revelation .
We assert that we can deduce some things about the nature of God and about how we should live in the world simply by observing the world around us – this is the basis of what we call the ‘ Natural law ’ tradition and enables us to say that some moral norms ( for example , not killing innocent people ) are universal and not restricted to members of one or other particular religious faith . I will look at this idea in more detail in a future article .
At the same time , we believe in revelation – that is , we believe in a personal God , engaged with the life of the world ( not the masonic ‘ Grand Architect ’) who communicates with those whom he has created . He has revealed something about himself – for example , that he is one God in three persons , Father , Son and Holy Spirit . The sources of this revelation are the Sacred Scriptures and the teachings of the Catholic Church .
This series is about Catholic Social teaching , that part of the Christian moral tradition which looks at how we should live in society and how the world which God has created should be ordered according to his will . This draws both on reason and revelation , so it ’ s right to look at the Bible for signs of what God has revealed to us about how we should live in the narrative of salvation which the scriptures put before us – and this month we will look briefly at the Old Testament . This is actually an area in which converts from Anglicanism might have something distinctive to offer : back in the 1930s , the great Monsignor Ronald Knox used to reflect that ‘ cradle ’ Catholics , compared to other Christians , were very unfamiliar with the Old Testament and in his preaching he used to try to put this right . One reason for this is that until the current Mass lectionary was published in 1969 Catholics hardly ever heard the Old Testament read at Mass ( only really at weekday Masses in Lent , and read in Latin ) so clergy rarely preached about it . While that has changed , I suspect you would still find , especially among older Catholics , much less familiarity with the Old Testament , whereas anyone from an Anglican background will have received more of this in their upbringing .
In the Old Testament we can see the moral narrative addressed by the social teaching tradition in two blocks of material above all – the Law and the Prophets . While we see the prohibition on the killing of the innocent as universal and ‘ natural law ’ it is also in the most important moral code in the Old Testament , the Ten Commandments , read ( as some of
you may recall ) in the Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion service . For all Christians this is one of the great pillars of the moral law : there is a big section on it in the Catechism . Most of the commandments are about how we relate to other people – not killing them , not committing adultery , not stealing and so on . And if you look at the rest of the ‘ Law ’ as outlined for the chosen people of Israel in the first five books of the Old Testament you will find detailed rules about how the community is to be run : how problems are to be solved , how land is to be managed , and the right treatment of the widow , the orphan and the stranger . This last example – how the stranger or the foreigner is to be treated – has become an important basis of contemporary Catholic teaching about how migrants are to be respected and supported .
The second block of material is the ministry of the prophets . The picture here is of King Ahab and a man called Naboth , whose vineyard the king coveted in 1 Kings 21 . You don ’ t need me to retell the story , I am sure : but the point is that the prophet Elijah confronts and condemns the king because he has stolen the vineyard of Naboth and exploited him , and indeed had him unjustly put to death . The sorry end of Ahab was with the dogs licking up his blood . For Elijah and the other prophets ( Amos , Hosea , Isaiah and so on ) there is an intrinsic link between idolatry , the worship of false gods , and injustice in society . Those who turn away from the worship of the one true God exploit the poor : they seize the land of the poor , swindle people out of just wages and enslave them . As a result , the worship and sacrifices which those who are rich and powerful offer is detestable to him . Not only that , kings lord it over their subjects by conscripting them into their armies .
The concept central to Catholic social teaching of the ‘ preferential option for the poor ’ draws much of its inspiration from the ways in which God speaks through his prophets in the Old Testament .