CNS photo/Paul Haring

Bishop Sklba Answers Questions about Catholic Scripture Study

Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Sklba of Milwaukee is an expert on scripture and   has been a member of the Catholic Biblical Association of America since 1968.  He served as president of the association in 1982.

Bishop Sklba was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and spent two years at St. Catherine High School in Racine before transferring to St. Francis Minor Seminary in Milwaukee to finish high school and begin his college education. From 1954 to 1960 he studied in Rome, completing his undergraduate studies and receiving his first of three advanced degrees in scripture. In 1960 he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He returned to Rome from 1962 to 1965 to complete the equivalent of a master's and doctorate degree in sacred scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the University of St. Thomas Aquinas "Angelicum.”

Bishop Sklba has written several books, and many articles and papers on scripture. He was awarded the Catholic Theological Society of America John Courtney Murray Medal in 1988 for outstanding achievement in theology.

What are ways in which Catholics can be encouraged to read the Bible?

If the Scriptures represent an entire library of inspired testimonies to the way God is at work in our lives and in our world, the first and fundamental encouragement will come when people begin to understand the power of the Word!  Countless generations of saints and sinners have heard the mighty whispers of God and offered the testimony of their faith in that Word.  They have been truly transformed by the very act of listening and paying attention.

The Scriptures are the Book of the Church!  They come from the early communities.   They were gathered by those communities, whether we name them Synagogues or Churches.  They are proclaimed to us as Christians every time we gather for the Eucharist or for any other sacrament.  They belong to the entire people of God, not merely to the scholars.  The Church feels a serious obligation to make sure that they are faithful translations.  They are indeed the Book of the Church.   That also gives encouragement.

Many parishes now publish in the Sunday Bulletin the Scripture citations / readings for the Masses of the following week.  Take a look of them in advance, especially the readings for the next Sunday.  Preparation helps us to have an initial sense of what we might hear!

Engage in the grand devotion of Lectio Divina, namely the thoughtful reading of the text in such a way as to be willing to linger of the words and the ideas until they come alive in one’s mind and heart.

Join a Bible study group which explores the background of a biblical book, such as the writings of one of the prophets or an Epistle of Paul.

A word of encouragement from the pulpit, an invitation to join a men’s group before work or special Lenten devotion in the parish could be marvelous ways to feel the encouragement to grow and deepen in faith together.


Do parishes encourage small faith groups involved in Scripture study?

A parish often recommends groups like this, and even offers general invitations, especially during Advent or Lent.  Parish leaders themselves can be discouraged, however, when opportunities are provided, but people find their lives too filled with work to take advantage of the program when offered.

Those who take the plunge often are the ones best able to give personal testimony to the spiritual energy which such opportunities can provide.


What is Lectio Divina?

Lectio Divina, or “Divine Reading” is an ancient practice developed by the early monks to make reading the Bible an attractive experience.   A common method would suggest that an individual, or even better a small group of people, listen to a passage read aloud … or read it themselves.  The participants first point out any word that struck them.  Then they hear the same passage once more, and expand from a word to an idea reflected in the passage.  After a third reading the members of the group take time to describe briefly about how the passage speaks to them and how it might throw light upon the work or worries of their lives.


What are some of the catechetical issues that need to be addressed in getting parishioners to read the Word of God more frequently?

Our Catholic people need to be reminded that there are many different types of literature collected into the library of inspired books which we call “the Bible.”   It is profoundly Catholic to want to know what type of sacred literature this might be.  A literalist approach is not truly Catholic because it does not pay attention to whether the passage is poetry or moral admonition or accounts of God at work for the salvation of his people.  Words alone without their literary context can be very misleading.

It is also profoundly Catholic to remember that ideas developed in the lives of God’s People, just as we deepen in our appreciation of our faith.  It is Catholic to want to know the history of things!  

One of the Church’s requirements is that an approved Bible translation always be accompanied by some explanatory notes.  This enables a reader to understand more difficult passages, and to benefit from the research and study of scholars.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church has some remarkable teaching about the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church.


How important is it that we distinguish between the Word that is a divine Person, Jesus the Son of God, and the written word that is the biblical Witness to Christ as God’s final revelation?

God has chosen to speak to us, and in that process to gradually reveal that the deepest mystery of the Trinity includes the utter reality of God the Father speaking a Word so powerful as to be a Divine Person, and that the very love between them might be another Person, the Holy Spirit ... three persons, yet one God!   All human experience falters before that wonder.   At the heart of it is the Word as Person, addressed to our world to save it, not to condemn it.  The message of God becomes expressed in human communication which is inspired by God and faithful to his plan for the world’s salvation.

The written words, the “grammar of God’s talk as it were, are an expression of the Word and a means of entering human conversation and communication.  They are related, but not the same identical reality.


How might the Synod’s treatment of the relationship between the Old and New Testaments shed light on the relationship between the Church and the Jewish people today?

Although we have read the preparatory documents which were distributed before the actual beginning of the Synod, we will have to wait and see how the discussions among the bishops unfold next month.  The Old Testament, or “First Testament” as I prefer to call that collection, has a voice of its own, and should not be pressed too quickly or too facilely into a Christian mold!   Jesus heard those sacred writings as a member of the family of Abraham, through all the centuries of Israel’s fidelity and faithlessness.

God does manage, however, to invoke certain patterns of grace which remain perpetually active across all ages. God seems always, for example, to choose the lowly and improbably of instruments in order to make it very clear that the work is God’s, not that of some gifted human being.   Moses, David, Jeremiah, Paul and even Mary herself are all examples of the mysterious works of God.

It is important to remember that the First Testament has a slightly different order than the one we Christians use.  The Scriptures of our Jewish neighbors end with what they call “the writings” and with the hint of the king of Jerusalem being released from prison while exiled in Babylon, and invited to share the royal table in Babylon!   Our Christ order ends with the Prophets, and creates a strong expectation of the Gospels as an on-going fulfillment of Prophetic dreams.

The Synod, while recognizing the outlines of the mission of Jesus in so many different passages, might encourage us to listen to the way the rabbis heard their inspired texts.  This could help us to put aside some of the bitter debates of the centuries and listen again to the words of a loving, forgiving and transforming God!  The Synod could also be forceful in its cautions about portraying Jewish leaders or customs in an unfavorable light.  This might enable us to approach one another again as brothers and sisters of the Covenant.


Why is it that Christians who read the same Bible come up with diametrically opposed positions on key moral issues?

The bible doesn’t intend to solve every scientific question of a culture as different from that ancient world as our own.  It offers basic approaches to fundamental moral questions.  Many of our moral debates are the result of scientific technology which would never have even dawned upon the ancient world.

Also sometimes the differences stem from not understanding the mind of the ancient world, or from only reading a single verse without context.   I have often suggested that one of the definitions of “heresy”  is building an entire spirituality or theology upon a single verse of Scripture without the benefit of the nuancing and balancing provided by other verses of the Scriptures.  The books of the Bible speak to each other as well as to the modern reader.