OTHCC Chapter 22: items 421 - 440

The Old Testament in the Heart of the Catholic Church < > All Chapters

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Read Ps 110:1-4 [Ps = Psalm]. Melchizedek, king of Salem (Jerusalem), was seen by the people of Israel to prefigure David, the ideal king, wholly devoted to ''God Most High.''

Who was right about the true name of God Most High, David or Melchizedek?

a.   David.
b.   Melchizedek.
c.   Partly both.

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CCC 1544 says, ''The Christian tradition considers Melchizedek, 'priest of God Most High,' as a prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ, the unique 'high priest after the order of Melchizedek'....'' Melchizedek is a type (prefiguration) of Christ. What he did is a pre-echo of Christ's salvific work.

So, here's the situation:

- Melchizedek, a priest of ''God Most High,'' offers Abram gifts of bread and wine, and blesses him.
- Abram sees God (the real one) working through Melchizedek.
- The people of Israel see God working through Melchizedek.
- The Catholic Church sees God working through Melchizedek.

What, pray tell, is the conclusion we can draw from all this?

a.   God really was working through Melchizedek.
b.   God was not really working through Melchizedek.
c.   Who knows if God was really working through Melchizedek?

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Melchizedek is venerated in all the liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church as a type of Christ himself, the king of Salem (Jerusalem) who is also the high priest. Yet Melchizedek's very name states that the Canaanite god Zedek was his king!

How can it be that someone who does not even know that the LORD is God can be a saint?

First, in Melchizedek's time, God's ''name'' was not very well-established in the world. Abram himself had not yet received his own covenantal name, Abraham. In Melchizedek's day, the whole world was still waiting for God to reveal himself more clearly.

Second, not once in the passage does Melchizedek say or do anything against the LORD.

Third, to the contrary, everything he says and does gives great honor to God.

Saints love God and come close to him with the clarity available to their time and place. Please read CCC 58. Melchizedek is a saint. >>

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Since Melchizedek's day, of course, God has made it possible for his saints to receive and respond to him with greater and greater clarity. In the fullness of time, God has revealed himself completely to the world in his only Son, Jesus, who continues his work by the power of the Holy Spirit, in and through his one and only Bride and Body, the Catholic Church.

It is the witness of the whole Catholic Church that Melchizedek saw God, loved him, and honored him with a clarity and intimacy so extraordinary for his time that it prefigures the work of Christ himself, but Melchizedek's level of clarity is not good enough for you. You have - as he did not - the additional clarity and intimacy provided by the teachings and worship of the Catholic Church.

The covenants given by God are the only means by which men may draw near to God. Those in our time who ''through no fault of their own'' [CCC 847] do not know Christ and his Church may yet move closer to Christ through the Old Covenant [CCC 839] or, as Melchizedek did, through the covenant with Noah [CCC 58].

However, anyone who moves toward words or deeds that contradict the sacraments or the firm teachings of the Catholic Church is definitely not moving closer to Christ. Things have happened since Melchizedek's day!

Since Melchizedek's day, God has made Abraham the ''father of a multitude of nations,'' appeared in the burning bush to Moses, freed Israel from slavery at the Passover, and given Moses the Law on Mount Sinai, and a child has been born ''in Bethlehem of Judea,'' [Mathew 2:1] ''a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.'' [Luke 2:11]

All men of good will draw near to loving intimacy with God in and through the covenants. There is no other way for man to be with God except in and through the very specific covenants God has established. God must (and does) find man and offer man intimate union with himself.

You have the advantage of the intimacy of the perfect and complete covenant, the New Covenant that Jesus himself has established by his sacrifice on the Cross with his one and only Bride and Body, the Catholic Church. In the Eucharist, by the power of the Holy Spirit whom he sent, Jesus makes present to all men of all times and places the New Covenant in his blood, the covenant of complete and perfect intimacy with God.

Since you know about the New Covenant and have been joined, in and through the sacraments, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the most intimate possible way to Christ and his Bride, the Catholic Church, that covenant of supreme intimacy is the covenant through which you must continue to draw near to Christ. You have been joined to the perfect intimacy of the New Covenant. For you, a lesser intimacy will no longer do. <<

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Read Gen 22:1-19. The literal sense of this passage appears to be given in Gen 22:15-18. Abraham, who is willing to trust God with what is nearest and dearest to him, his son Isaac, in return receives God's superabundant blessings. The Catholic Church sees in Isaac at this sacrifice a type of Christ, because the victim to be offered to God

a.   is completely innocent.
b.   is not the beloved son of a completely faithful father.
c.   will feel no pain.

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Most scholars find in Gen 22:1-19, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac,

a.   acceptance of the human sacrifices performed by Israel's neighbors.
b.   hesitancy about the human sacrifices performed by Israel's neighbors.
c.   rejection of the human sacrifices performed by Israel's neighbors.

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Read Gen 3:9-13. Now read in the New Testament, the Letter to the Hebrews, Heb 10:5-7. Read CCC 2568. CCC 2568 teaches that between

''God's sorrowful call to his first children: 'Where are you?...What is this that you have done?' and the response of God's only Son on coming into the world: 'Lo, I have come to do your will, O God.'''

- - - comes what?

a.   The end of the world.
b.   The Fall of our first parents.
c.   The revelation of prayer.

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Abraham has done much in obedience to God previously, but the very first time Abraham directly speaks to God in the Bible, he does not praise God. He does not thank him. He quietly reminds God of his promises to him. Read Gen 15:2-6. Read the remarkable passage, Gen 18:16-33. Abraham even dares to intercede before the LORD on behalf of other men.

Read Gen 28:10-22 in which God renews his promise to Jacob, grandson of Abraham. Now read Gen 32:24-30, a mysterious passage in which Jacob wrestles with God and is given the name which makes him the ancestor of God's people: Israel.

You now have enough mastery of Genesis to read CCC 2570-2573, which teaches regarding the patriarchs' experience of prayer. Read CCC 2570-2573 now. <<

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Read Ex 14. According to this passage the Israelites are able to escape their slavery

a.   by defeating the Egyptian army in a pitched battle.
b.   by quietly praying while God did everything.
c.   by traveling over dry land in the midst of the sea.

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The people of Israel escaped their slavery, passing from death to life, as it were, led by Moses, by traveling safely through water. The Catholic Church has seen Moses as a type of Christ, and the crossing of the Red Sea as a type of the sacrament of

a.   Baptism.
b.   Confirmation.
c.   the Eucharist.

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Some modern scholars think that Ex 14 actually blends together two separate traditions about the crossing of the sea. If this happens to be true, then

a.   your faith is not shattered if there is no ''newspaper'' account of the crossing.
b.   your faith is shattered because there is no true account of the crossing.
c.   your faith is wounded because there is no true account of the crossing.

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You may as well know: some scholars think that the people of Israel crossed a ''sea of Reeds,'' (some sort of marshland), not the Red Sea. Ex 14 never actually mentions the particular sea crossed, but Ex 15:22 does. The Red Sea might be the correct sea referred to in Exodus, but ''Red Sea'' also might be an ancient Greek mistranslation of the original Hebrew text, a mistranslation then passed on for centuries. However, no pope, or even a single bishop, so far as is known, has ever even hinted that this possibility might affect your union with Christ. You don't need to worry about it, one way or the other. <<

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The God of Israel is a God

a.   about whom stories are told of great deeds he performs among the other gods.
b.   cut off from reality and human time and who exists only outside of time.
c.   who actively enters into human time and into real human hearts.

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The exodus of Israel from slavery, the giving of God's name, and the giving of the Law

a.   are central events to Jews and to Catholics.
b.   are central events to Jews but not to Catholics.
c.   are insignificant events to Jews and to Catholics.

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The events recounted in the book of Exodus (and retold and referred to in many other places in the Old Testament) defined Israel. From then on, Israel thought of itself as the people whom the Lord brought out of Egypt, to whom he gave his holy name, and to whom he gave the Law as a covenant with them. <<

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Read Ex 16. Read Ps 78 [Psalm 78], especially Ps 78:1-25. Now read John 6 (Jn 6:30-35). The manna is a type of

a.   the Eucharist.
b.   the Law.
c.   Noah's Ark.

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The fact that manna is a type

a.   means that the manna itself has lost all significance.
b.   means that the manna itself has lost much significance.
c.   means that the manna itself retains its full significance.

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The Catholic Church sees the entire people of Israel as a type of the Catholic Church, led out of slavery by the new Moses, Christ, through the waters of baptism. The fact that the people of Israel are a type

a.   means that the people of Israel themselves have lost all significance.
b.   means that the people of Israel themselves have lost much significance.
c.   means that the people of Israel themselves retain their full significance.

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This textbook introduces the Old Testament to Catholics who are not familiar with it. It emphasizes passages in the Old Testament held ''in the heart of the Catholic Church.'' These are passages that historically have been particularly important to saints and to the popes and bishops as they taught about or reflected on the reality of the sacraments and the truths of the Catholic faith. The fact that these passages in the Old Testament are emphasized in this introductory course

a.   is a warning that no course can ever teach the entire Old Testament, because there will always be more to learn from it, and emphasizes that the student should continue to read and study the Old Testament.
b.   means that the student should prefer a course that teaches the Old Testament as if the sacraments were not real and the New Testament were not true, because that would give him an unbiased view of the Old Testament.
c.   shows that Old Testament passages that have not been selected by this course for study are worthless and irrelevant, because the Old Testament has no meaning except to predict the New Testament.

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The Catholic Church sees the entire Old Testament as a type of the New Testament. The fact that the entire Old Testament is a type

a.   means that the Old Testament itself has lost all significance.
b.   means that the Old Testament itself has lost much significance.
c.   means that the Old Testament itself retains its full significance.

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