82 Spirituality Studies 10-1 Spring 2024 from the Old Testament, Exodus 25, 18–20, where the ark of the covenant is described as well as the fact that it is to be covered with a lid (mercy seat) and on which should be two cherubim, whose faces will be turned towards each other. With this connection, the Pope argues that just as the Ark of the Covenant contained God’s word engraved in stone, so in the grave was God’s word that became man and that is no longer lying there dead but has risen from the dead and is alive. The two angels from the Book of Exodus and from the Gospel of John point to the interconnectedness of the two parts of the Holy Scriptures, the Old and the New Testament. 5 Meanings of the Holy Scriptures From the beginning, the Holy Scriptures allowed for a plurality of interpretive meanings. Gregory differentiates three senses in the biblical text: “In one and the same statement of Scripture, one finds food in history, another in allegory, and the third in morality” (Gregorius 1971, 88). The literary does not relate to the linguistic sign, but to the “intention” (Lat. intentio) that the words of the text carry. Literary meaning and history are therefore interchangeable. Although intellectual effort with clarification of this meaning is necessary and has its own meaning, it is not sufficient. The task of the Scriptures is namely to accompany man on his spiritual journey to God. He enumerates them in a letter to Bishop Leander of Seville accompanying his Commentary on the Book of Job: literary, allegorical or typological and tropological or moral (Gregorius 1979, 4). However, we sometimes find that he also mentions a fourth sense, which is mystical (Gregorius 1979, 813). These are passages, however, which cannot be interpreted only according to the letter, because they do not give meaning; they can be interpreted only allegorically. Gregory considers allegory as a kind of “pulley” (Lat. quandam machinam) which enables the soul separated by a great distance from God to rise to him (Gregorius 1963, 3). Allegory is thus not a rhetorical tool, but it helps to transform the soul; it does not change the text, but it transforms the reader’s soul and helps him on his way to God. Because the Holy Scriptures are God’s letter to mankind, or a mirror, special attention must be paid to distinguishing the literary meaning from God’s message. What Gregor calls “discernment” – Latin discretio – serves this purpose (Gregorius 1971, 315). This enables the reader to find an allegorical or moral meaning in the text along with the literary meaning: “If we wanted to understand everything literarily, we would lose the virtue of discernment; if we reduced everything to a spiritual allegory, we would be bound by the stupidity of a lack of discernment” (Gregorius 1971, 35). This is so due to the nature of the Holy Scripture itself, which is God’s creation, and this is why it also contains facts that cannot be understood by humans, but only by spiritual beings – angels (Gregorius 1971, 139). Thus, a plurality of the same sacred text exists. Therefore, Gregory warns: “Some of those who read the texts of the Holy Scriptures understand the most complicated statements, are in the habit of disdaining out of their intellectual pride the humble recommendations that are given by the simpler ones and want to interpret them differently. If these people were to correctly understand the noble teachings Scriptures, they would not ignore even the smallest recommendations, because the divine commandments are in certain respects addressed in such a way as to educate the simple in other respects” (Gregorius 1971, 145). 6 Effects of Reading the Holy Scriptures This discernment (Lat. discretio) is not achieved, however, by some study, nor by the intellectual capacity of the reader [1]. It is achieved through asceticism. In Gregory’s view, unlike that of Cassian, asceticism does not lie in the practice of fasting or prayer, but exclusively in practical love for fellow human beings, in which one “ascetically” renounces the contemplation of God’s love in favor of showing practical love for one’s neighbors. Discernment, which is the distinguishing factor between the literary and allegorical understanding of the sacred text, is thus not found in the text itself, nor is it only in the reader’s intellectual capabilities. Spiritual reading arises from the clash between the biblical text and the religious background of the reader who reads the text in a “certain spirit” (it will be read differently by a Christian and by a Jew). However, he adds a third component to this basic distinction, which was also recognized by authors before Gregory, which is his fundamental contribution to the hermeneutics of the sacred text. This third factor is the lifestyle of the reader. For Gregory, this means an ascetic lifestyle. Reading a sacred text is thus not only an intellectual act of appropriating the meaning of the text; its result is humble service to one’s fellow man, during which the reader renounces the contemplation of God’s love in favor of active love for one’s fellow human beings (Nemec 2021, 58). In Gregory’s view, God “through the reading of the Scriptures grants humility to the proud, instils confidence in the fearful,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjkyNzgx