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Catechetical Resources
Typology
The Plan of God:
“A plan has always existed in the mind of God, the aim of which is to bring humankind to the full enjoyment of God.” (HGT 4)
“In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of time, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.” (Ephesians 1:8-10)
- How do we first learn of this plan of God?
“I am God, there is no other;
I am God, there is none like me.
At the beginning I foretell the outcome;
In advance, things not yet done.
I say that my plan shall stand,
I accomplish my every purpose…”
(Isaiah 46:9-10)
“For example, the people of Israel live the definitive moment of the Exodus, in which God protects, defends and helps them. They emerge from this experience with a renewed and deepened knowledge of God, because they have encountered the Lord who ‘with strong hand and outstretched arm,’ has freed them from slavery. They have encountered God working in history.
“After such an experience, Israel does not know God merely because it has heard about him; rather, Israel knows God because it encountered him in its own life. Israel’s knowledge of God is not merely speculative but is experiential or, more precisely, existential. It is not second-hand knowledge; it is direct knowledge. Israel has not come to an idea about God; rather, Israel has encountered the Person who is alive and at work in history, in Israel’s own history.” (HGT 12)
Jean Danielou on typology in The Bible and the Liturgy:
• “That the realities of the Old Testament are figures of those of the New is one of the principles of biblical theology. This science of the similitudes between the two Testaments is called typology. And here we would do well to remind ourselves of its foundation, for this is to be found in the Old Testament itself. At the time of the Captivity, the prophets announced to the people of Israel that in the future God would perform for their benefit deeds analogous to, and even greater than those He had preformed in the past. So there would be a new Deluge, in which the sinful world would be annihilated, and a few men, a “remnant,” would be preserved to inaugurate a new humanity; there would be a new Exodus in which, by His power, God would set mankind free from its bondage to idols; there would be a new Paradise into which God would introduce the people He had redeemed. These prophecies constitute a primary typology that might be called eschatological, for the prophets saw these future events as happening at the end of time…
• “The New Testament, therefore, did not invent typology, but simply showed that it was fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (‘the Nazarene”). With Jesus, in fact, these events of the end, of the fullness of time, are now accomplished. He is the New Adam with whom the time of the Paradise of the future has begun. In Him is already realized that destruction of the sinful world of which the Flood was the figure. In Him is accomplished the true Exodus which delivers the people of God from the tyranny of the demon. Typology was used in the preaching of the apostles as an argument to establish the truth of their message, by showing that Christ continues and goes beyond the Old Testament: ‘Now all these things happened to them as a type and, they were written for our correction’ (I Corinthians 10, 11)…” (p. 4)
• “…the deeds of Christ are charged with biblical memories which tell us the true significance of these deeds.”
• “This reference to the Bible has a double value. First of all it constitutes an authority justifying the existence and the form of the sacraments by showing that they are the expression of constant modes of the divine action, so that they do not appear as accidents, but rather as the expression of the very design of God.”
• “The fact that the Good Shepherd appears dressed as Orpheus does not alter the fact that it is He Whom Ezechiel announced, and Whom St. John showed us as actually having come in the person of Christ.” (TBATL, p. 4-5)
Encounter with the living God:
• If our reading of the Bible is truly to be an encounter with the living God, we must be aware of the reality of the biblical events in our lives. We must realize that those ancient events preserved for us in the Bible are present in our lives today in some way.” (HGT 14)
As an apple tree among the trees of the woods,
So is my lover among men.
I delight to rest in his shadow,
And his fruit is sweet to my mouth.
He brings me into the banquet hall
And his emblem over me is love.
Strengthen me with raisin cakes,
Refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.
His left hand is under my head
And his right arm embraces me…
My lover speaks; he says to me,
‘Arise my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!
For see, the winter is past,
The rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
The time of pruning the vines has come,
And the song of the dove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
And the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one and come!
‘O my dove in the clefts of the rock
In the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
Let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
And you are lovely.’
(Song of Songs 2:3-6, 10-14)
Encountering Jesus:
“…God is manifest in a way that we are able to perceive, for we are able to arrive at the transcendent only through the perceivable.
“Therefore, we can say that the history of salvation is a ‘progressive incarnation’ of God in human history, by which God makes himself known in the perceivable. Through the events of sacred history, we come to see the face of God more clearly. Thus, it is possible to say that God is being ‘incarnated’ in history, little by little, in a manner that allows us to perceive him.
“If one accepts this manner of speaking, if one accepts the concept of ‘progressive incarnation’ in history, then one will also understand that the principal event in the history of salvation is the Incarnation in Jesus Christ. ‘Progressive incarnation’ prepared the way and even somehow made it inevitable that God would be manifest so completely, though still through the perceivable and the concrete, namely through the embodied person of the Son. There is no longer merely an aspect of God being manifested in the Incarnation, but God’s very self.” (HGT 8-9)
Resurrection:
“We have seen how even the youngest children are able to perceive a link between the parables focusing on the mysterious growth of the kingdom of God and resurrection. The mystery of life is illuminated by the light of Christ: Life is stronger than death; and life, not death, will have the final word in our history. Our affirmation of this truth is not based on an ideology, but on a fact: Christ is risen. The mystery of life is resolved only in the paschal mystery. Without the resurrection, the ‘jaws of death’ would crush everything and devour every theology. Only the resurrection, already realized in Christ and slowly being realized in all creation, can offer an answer to the creature that finds himself or herself at the portals of death.
“We cannot grasp the full dynamism of the resurrection by merely pondering its occurrence two thousand years ago or its presence in our world today. Rather, the dynamic power of the resurrection can only be fully known as we live in joyful hope for that day when the fullness of life will have reached all of creation. Resurrection is a dynamism, like the yeast in the dough, which permeates all reality, making all things new, beginning with our mortal bodies. This is what we Christians proclaim when we say ‘Christ will come again.’ For the Christian, the ‘mystery of faith’ is also the song of faith and hope.” (RPOC II p.71)
What is history? What is time?
• “The human creature lives the dimension of time together with all other elements of creation, and this fact binds them closer together.” (RPOC 2, 14)
• Time “offers a window on eternity and is charged with the strongest religious content.”
• “We discover that our whole being and our every action are immersed in the reality of time, yet we can’t dominate time. We live in time as in a river, whose origin is very far from us. We furtively drink from its waters in the moment we are living, but we can only take in a mouthful. The river will go on flowing, long after we have gone.” (RPOC 2, 14)
• “Time, however, is beyond our reach, beyond our power. It is both near and far, intrinsic to all experience and transcending all experience. It belongs exclusively to God.” A Heschel in RPOC II 14
• “With Israel we do not find a philosophy of history but an ‘intelligence of history,’ a knowledgeable penetration of history, a capacity to deeply scrutinize the facts in order to discover a level of meaning which transcends the facts. The prophet, who is the embodiment of Judaic spirituality, is the interpreter of history.” (RPOC 2, 15)
• “Indeed, history’s grandeur and dynamism can be perceived only when history is viewed from a global perspective, only when one deeply scrutinizes history in search of the idea that weaves the various events into one design and transcends the uniqueness of each event.” (RPOC 2, 16)
• “…the Lord of history is present throughout time. He is present at its beginning and even before. He is the artisan of creation, and he stays with the project throughout its development, projecting his presence also toward its conclusion.” (RPOC 2, 16)
• “The biblical message is based on a wisdom – a wisdom so great as to be considered revelation – and on an event: the resurrection of Christ. In him the victory over evil and death has already become a reality, even if, thus far, this victory is limited to the person of Christ. God’s plan involves the entire universe. We are living in the time of waiting and hope in the fulfillment of this plan.” (RPOC 2, 17)
• “Only after we have given the children “the big picture,” that is, the significance of biblical history as a whole – its unity and vastness, its development as a history of gifts, and its one author with one plan to create cosmic communion – do we focus on individual events in biblical history.” RPOC 2, 43
• “The readings and prayers of the liturgy presuppose a certain type of reading and pondering of scripture. In the liturgy of the Easter Vigil we can clearly perceive this methodology if we look at the prayers that follow the readings. In these prayers we hear the recalling of a particular event and also its projection into the future – how it is to be played out in the course of the history of salvation. By having our attention drawn to the importance of the event in the past, its significance for the present, and its intended fulfillment in the future, we are presented with the fundamental unity of salvation history. For example, after the reading of the creation account from the first chapter of Genesis, we pray: ‘Help us no to perceive how still more wonderful is the new creation by which in the fullness of time you redeemed your people through the sacrifice of our Passover, Jesus Christ…’ Having considered the first creation, we have now shifted our attention to ‘the new creation,’ which is the present reality of redemption. After the reading of Abraham’s sacrifice, we pray: ‘May we respond to your call by joyfully accepting your invitation to the new life of grace,’ and we attest to the ongoing fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham as we say, ‘Everywhere throughout the world you increase your chosen people.’ With these words we have moved beyond our present reality of redemption. Our gaze is now being cast forward to eschatological times.” RPOC 2, 44
• “The method of reading scripture on which the liturgy is based is known as the typological method. It is a method that, in considering single events, does not forget the unitary vision of biblical history. As Saint Augustine referred to it, salvation history is like ‘a golden thread which binds together all the individual gems,’ uniting all the events of history in one plan. A typological reading of scripture is one which searches constantly for this ‘golden thread,’ which is the one Plan of God uniting all the various events of the history. It is a method which is common to both Jewish and Christian traditions, and this fact is a further affirmation of its being the most natural methodology to read the Bible.” RPOC 2, 45
• “It is precisely when we, as adults, confront simplicity that we find ourselves the most unsettled and at the greatest loss for words. We tend to forget that the things of God, precisely because they are so great, are also simple. When we confront the extreme simplicity of certain realities we feel disarmed and usually rush to complicate the matter in an effort to get it to what we think is a more ‘adult level.’” RPOC 2, 46
• “Typology is linked to very basic theology; it is a theology based on the concrete events rather than on sophisticated theological arguments. Without losing their own importance, the singular events in sacred history also shed light on another level of reality, wherein they reveal multiple meanings and help us to discover a whole network of connections with other events. Thus they also help us to penetrate the ‘mind of God.’ The events of the history of salvation are actually ‘signs.’ They are like windows opening out onto a landscape whose horizons are endless, because they point out for us the Mystery. This is both the task and the nature of theology.” RPOC 2, 46
Approaching the Mystery:
• “Indeed, in describing our work with the children, I believe it is best not to speak in strict terms of ‘the parable method’ or ‘the method of signs’ or the ‘the typological method’ but rather of ‘the method for approaching the Mystery’ in its various manifestations. The Mystery is unfathomable, and there are many ways one draws near to it. It can be hidden in parables; it can be progressively manifested in the events of history; it can be celebrated in the liturgy. Yet, the method for attempting to penetrate the Mystery is always the same. It is that method that begins with concrete, perceivable elements that then point us to and help us live a reality that transcends those very elements. It is that method which opens up the whole of reality for us and enables us to see with new eyes its multiple levels of meaning. God uses this method in all his interactions with humankind, beginning with the creation of the world and reaching its highest expression in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.” RPOC 2, 47
• “Thus, God’s method serves to enlarge our space so that what is immediately perceivable, that which our human senses can readily verify, no longer functions as a wall in limiting our perspective. Instead, we are enabled to see through and beyond the immediate, sensory data to other worlds that are no less real or concrete.” RPOC 2, 47
• “With typology, each event must first be studied for its own sake by reading the biblical sources.”
• “As Saint Augustine points out, typology rests non in verbis sed in factis (not in words but in facts), and, thus, it is only in establishing the concrete, historical base of the event that we will be able to interpret that event typologically. Only an actual event can be the seed of future events; a plant cannot grow from an imaginary seed.” RPOC 2, 49
• “Typology, a treasure that the biblical tradition possesses, has all too often been used poorly. We have tended to focus only on the past as it relates to our present realities and to forget that the history of salvation is…a history not yet complete. Contemplating the history of salvation in a limited way – particularly in considering only its first two movements of past and present – has very serious consequences. We lose the dynamism of history, its power as a history that is constantly evolving. With the loss of this dynamism, our sense of joyful anticipation is lost as well. Thus, a fundamental Christian virtue is extinguished: the virtue of hope.” RPOC 2, 50
• “The Fathers of the Church used the image of the statue, which the artist slowly brings to completion, to explain the stages of salvation history. From a first attempt, the artist moves on to a more refined one; thus, step by step, through succeeding stages that are always more refined, the statue is completed. The first attempt prepares for the finished work, and the finished work contains within itself the first attempt.” HGT 15
• “The resurrection is the great event of the world, compared to which any other historical event pales. The very creation at the beginning of the world loses its importance when seen in the light of the second creation, a creation on a higher plane, a new life, the very life of God.” L.L. page 52
• “In the resurrection the power of the Holy Spirit takes hold of the weakness of human flesh, permeating it with the life-giving breath of the Sprit, empowering it and transforming it.”
Typology and Memorial:
• “Typology and memorial are bound together at the level of the reality to which we are drawn near: the infinite mystery of God. The mystery speaks and acts. We enter into it by listening to the word and participating in the sacramental celebration. When the mystery speaks and we listen to it, the method of listening is that of typology. When the mystery is celebrated and we participate in it, the way of participating is memorial.” RPOC 2, 67
• “Typology is obviously no less essential that memorial in drawing us near to the mystery. Neither typology nor memorial is an arbitrary method; they are not scholarly gimmicks. Rather, they are in some way demanded by the very nature of the message they seek to transmit; they are supreme examples of a methodology that is perfectly suited to its content. A reading of the Bible that truly aims at scrutinizing and penetrating the mystery (beyond just studying the Bible) cannot be done without typology, just as the sacramental celebration of that same mystery cannot be done other than in the memorial.” RPOC 2, 67
• “Therefore, the first reason for the presence of a perceptible element in the sacraments will be found in the incarnation, the determining event in the entire history of salvation. Christianity, before it is a system of thought, before it is a particular morality, is an event: the incarnation of the Son of God, the manifestation of God in matter, in the concreteness of a human body. The relationship of each of us with God is conditioned by this fact. In the relationship of each one of us with God we will find the reflection of this fundamental fact: The divine is always manifested through the tangible and the human. We call this “the law of the incarnation.” L.L. page 36“Baptism is the sacrament that imprints the initial likeness of Christ on the human person…To initiate means to let someone share in a life, in this case, the life of the risen Christ. The risen life of Christ is a transformed and empowered life, since it is totally permeated with the Holy Spirit; It is the life of Jesus glorified by the Father after his passion…” L.L. page 51
•
more thoughts from Jean Danielou, The Bible and The Liturgy:
“But the New Testament shows us that this new creation is already accomplished in Christ. The Incarnation is the creation of the new universe; and it is this creation which is continued in present history and takes place in Baptism…”
“The analogy of the primordial waters with the waters of Baptism, is, then, an aspect, which is fundamentally biblical, of the parallelism between the first and the second creation.” (72-5)
The Sabbath’s “character as a type is brought out in the New Testament: “Let no one, then, call you to account for what you eat or drink, or in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Collosians 2:16). Here is the statement which will be the guiding principle of our whole study: the substance, the reality of the Sabbath is Christ. We need, then, to discover the religious reality of the Sabbath, for when it is thus set alongside the other types, it will show one aspect of what Christ is. This is the reason why the study of the Sabbath contains teaching which is always of value to us, even though the institution of the Sabbath as such has been abolished since Christ Who is its fulfillment has appeared.” (223)
“The Sabbath expressed the consecration to time to God, as the temple expresses that of space. And just as the temple, by the consecration of a limited enclosure, was the sacrament and prefiguring of the consecration of the whole universe, to be fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus and the creation of the cosmos of the Church, so the Sabbath, by the consecration of a particular day of the week, was the sacrament of the consecration to God of the whole of history, which was also to find its principle in the resurrection of the incarnate Word.” (224)
“The Sabbath and the Temple are gone by because Christ Himself, the Sabbath and the temple of the New Testament, is here.” (226)
“A plan has always existed in the mind of God, the aim of which is to bring humankind to the full enjoyment of God.” (HGT 4)
“In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of time, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.” (Ephesians 1:8-10)
- How do we first learn of this plan of God?
“I am God, there is no other;
I am God, there is none like me.
At the beginning I foretell the outcome;
In advance, things not yet done.
I say that my plan shall stand,
I accomplish my every purpose…”
(Isaiah 46:9-10)
“For example, the people of Israel live the definitive moment of the Exodus, in which God protects, defends and helps them. They emerge from this experience with a renewed and deepened knowledge of God, because they have encountered the Lord who ‘with strong hand and outstretched arm,’ has freed them from slavery. They have encountered God working in history.
“After such an experience, Israel does not know God merely because it has heard about him; rather, Israel knows God because it encountered him in its own life. Israel’s knowledge of God is not merely speculative but is experiential or, more precisely, existential. It is not second-hand knowledge; it is direct knowledge. Israel has not come to an idea about God; rather, Israel has encountered the Person who is alive and at work in history, in Israel’s own history.” (HGT 12)
Jean Danielou on typology in The Bible and the Liturgy:
• “That the realities of the Old Testament are figures of those of the New is one of the principles of biblical theology. This science of the similitudes between the two Testaments is called typology. And here we would do well to remind ourselves of its foundation, for this is to be found in the Old Testament itself. At the time of the Captivity, the prophets announced to the people of Israel that in the future God would perform for their benefit deeds analogous to, and even greater than those He had preformed in the past. So there would be a new Deluge, in which the sinful world would be annihilated, and a few men, a “remnant,” would be preserved to inaugurate a new humanity; there would be a new Exodus in which, by His power, God would set mankind free from its bondage to idols; there would be a new Paradise into which God would introduce the people He had redeemed. These prophecies constitute a primary typology that might be called eschatological, for the prophets saw these future events as happening at the end of time…
• “The New Testament, therefore, did not invent typology, but simply showed that it was fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (‘the Nazarene”). With Jesus, in fact, these events of the end, of the fullness of time, are now accomplished. He is the New Adam with whom the time of the Paradise of the future has begun. In Him is already realized that destruction of the sinful world of which the Flood was the figure. In Him is accomplished the true Exodus which delivers the people of God from the tyranny of the demon. Typology was used in the preaching of the apostles as an argument to establish the truth of their message, by showing that Christ continues and goes beyond the Old Testament: ‘Now all these things happened to them as a type and, they were written for our correction’ (I Corinthians 10, 11)…” (p. 4)
• “…the deeds of Christ are charged with biblical memories which tell us the true significance of these deeds.”
• “This reference to the Bible has a double value. First of all it constitutes an authority justifying the existence and the form of the sacraments by showing that they are the expression of constant modes of the divine action, so that they do not appear as accidents, but rather as the expression of the very design of God.”
• “The fact that the Good Shepherd appears dressed as Orpheus does not alter the fact that it is He Whom Ezechiel announced, and Whom St. John showed us as actually having come in the person of Christ.” (TBATL, p. 4-5)
Encounter with the living God:
• If our reading of the Bible is truly to be an encounter with the living God, we must be aware of the reality of the biblical events in our lives. We must realize that those ancient events preserved for us in the Bible are present in our lives today in some way.” (HGT 14)
As an apple tree among the trees of the woods,
So is my lover among men.
I delight to rest in his shadow,
And his fruit is sweet to my mouth.
He brings me into the banquet hall
And his emblem over me is love.
Strengthen me with raisin cakes,
Refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.
His left hand is under my head
And his right arm embraces me…
My lover speaks; he says to me,
‘Arise my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!
For see, the winter is past,
The rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
The time of pruning the vines has come,
And the song of the dove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
And the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one and come!
‘O my dove in the clefts of the rock
In the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
Let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
And you are lovely.’
(Song of Songs 2:3-6, 10-14)
Encountering Jesus:
“…God is manifest in a way that we are able to perceive, for we are able to arrive at the transcendent only through the perceivable.
“Therefore, we can say that the history of salvation is a ‘progressive incarnation’ of God in human history, by which God makes himself known in the perceivable. Through the events of sacred history, we come to see the face of God more clearly. Thus, it is possible to say that God is being ‘incarnated’ in history, little by little, in a manner that allows us to perceive him.
“If one accepts this manner of speaking, if one accepts the concept of ‘progressive incarnation’ in history, then one will also understand that the principal event in the history of salvation is the Incarnation in Jesus Christ. ‘Progressive incarnation’ prepared the way and even somehow made it inevitable that God would be manifest so completely, though still through the perceivable and the concrete, namely through the embodied person of the Son. There is no longer merely an aspect of God being manifested in the Incarnation, but God’s very self.” (HGT 8-9)
Resurrection:
“We have seen how even the youngest children are able to perceive a link between the parables focusing on the mysterious growth of the kingdom of God and resurrection. The mystery of life is illuminated by the light of Christ: Life is stronger than death; and life, not death, will have the final word in our history. Our affirmation of this truth is not based on an ideology, but on a fact: Christ is risen. The mystery of life is resolved only in the paschal mystery. Without the resurrection, the ‘jaws of death’ would crush everything and devour every theology. Only the resurrection, already realized in Christ and slowly being realized in all creation, can offer an answer to the creature that finds himself or herself at the portals of death.
“We cannot grasp the full dynamism of the resurrection by merely pondering its occurrence two thousand years ago or its presence in our world today. Rather, the dynamic power of the resurrection can only be fully known as we live in joyful hope for that day when the fullness of life will have reached all of creation. Resurrection is a dynamism, like the yeast in the dough, which permeates all reality, making all things new, beginning with our mortal bodies. This is what we Christians proclaim when we say ‘Christ will come again.’ For the Christian, the ‘mystery of faith’ is also the song of faith and hope.” (RPOC II p.71)
What is history? What is time?
• “The human creature lives the dimension of time together with all other elements of creation, and this fact binds them closer together.” (RPOC 2, 14)
• Time “offers a window on eternity and is charged with the strongest religious content.”
• “We discover that our whole being and our every action are immersed in the reality of time, yet we can’t dominate time. We live in time as in a river, whose origin is very far from us. We furtively drink from its waters in the moment we are living, but we can only take in a mouthful. The river will go on flowing, long after we have gone.” (RPOC 2, 14)
• “Time, however, is beyond our reach, beyond our power. It is both near and far, intrinsic to all experience and transcending all experience. It belongs exclusively to God.” A Heschel in RPOC II 14
• “With Israel we do not find a philosophy of history but an ‘intelligence of history,’ a knowledgeable penetration of history, a capacity to deeply scrutinize the facts in order to discover a level of meaning which transcends the facts. The prophet, who is the embodiment of Judaic spirituality, is the interpreter of history.” (RPOC 2, 15)
• “Indeed, history’s grandeur and dynamism can be perceived only when history is viewed from a global perspective, only when one deeply scrutinizes history in search of the idea that weaves the various events into one design and transcends the uniqueness of each event.” (RPOC 2, 16)
• “…the Lord of history is present throughout time. He is present at its beginning and even before. He is the artisan of creation, and he stays with the project throughout its development, projecting his presence also toward its conclusion.” (RPOC 2, 16)
• “The biblical message is based on a wisdom – a wisdom so great as to be considered revelation – and on an event: the resurrection of Christ. In him the victory over evil and death has already become a reality, even if, thus far, this victory is limited to the person of Christ. God’s plan involves the entire universe. We are living in the time of waiting and hope in the fulfillment of this plan.” (RPOC 2, 17)
• “Only after we have given the children “the big picture,” that is, the significance of biblical history as a whole – its unity and vastness, its development as a history of gifts, and its one author with one plan to create cosmic communion – do we focus on individual events in biblical history.” RPOC 2, 43
• “The readings and prayers of the liturgy presuppose a certain type of reading and pondering of scripture. In the liturgy of the Easter Vigil we can clearly perceive this methodology if we look at the prayers that follow the readings. In these prayers we hear the recalling of a particular event and also its projection into the future – how it is to be played out in the course of the history of salvation. By having our attention drawn to the importance of the event in the past, its significance for the present, and its intended fulfillment in the future, we are presented with the fundamental unity of salvation history. For example, after the reading of the creation account from the first chapter of Genesis, we pray: ‘Help us no to perceive how still more wonderful is the new creation by which in the fullness of time you redeemed your people through the sacrifice of our Passover, Jesus Christ…’ Having considered the first creation, we have now shifted our attention to ‘the new creation,’ which is the present reality of redemption. After the reading of Abraham’s sacrifice, we pray: ‘May we respond to your call by joyfully accepting your invitation to the new life of grace,’ and we attest to the ongoing fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham as we say, ‘Everywhere throughout the world you increase your chosen people.’ With these words we have moved beyond our present reality of redemption. Our gaze is now being cast forward to eschatological times.” RPOC 2, 44
• “The method of reading scripture on which the liturgy is based is known as the typological method. It is a method that, in considering single events, does not forget the unitary vision of biblical history. As Saint Augustine referred to it, salvation history is like ‘a golden thread which binds together all the individual gems,’ uniting all the events of history in one plan. A typological reading of scripture is one which searches constantly for this ‘golden thread,’ which is the one Plan of God uniting all the various events of the history. It is a method which is common to both Jewish and Christian traditions, and this fact is a further affirmation of its being the most natural methodology to read the Bible.” RPOC 2, 45
• “It is precisely when we, as adults, confront simplicity that we find ourselves the most unsettled and at the greatest loss for words. We tend to forget that the things of God, precisely because they are so great, are also simple. When we confront the extreme simplicity of certain realities we feel disarmed and usually rush to complicate the matter in an effort to get it to what we think is a more ‘adult level.’” RPOC 2, 46
• “Typology is linked to very basic theology; it is a theology based on the concrete events rather than on sophisticated theological arguments. Without losing their own importance, the singular events in sacred history also shed light on another level of reality, wherein they reveal multiple meanings and help us to discover a whole network of connections with other events. Thus they also help us to penetrate the ‘mind of God.’ The events of the history of salvation are actually ‘signs.’ They are like windows opening out onto a landscape whose horizons are endless, because they point out for us the Mystery. This is both the task and the nature of theology.” RPOC 2, 46
Approaching the Mystery:
• “Indeed, in describing our work with the children, I believe it is best not to speak in strict terms of ‘the parable method’ or ‘the method of signs’ or the ‘the typological method’ but rather of ‘the method for approaching the Mystery’ in its various manifestations. The Mystery is unfathomable, and there are many ways one draws near to it. It can be hidden in parables; it can be progressively manifested in the events of history; it can be celebrated in the liturgy. Yet, the method for attempting to penetrate the Mystery is always the same. It is that method that begins with concrete, perceivable elements that then point us to and help us live a reality that transcends those very elements. It is that method which opens up the whole of reality for us and enables us to see with new eyes its multiple levels of meaning. God uses this method in all his interactions with humankind, beginning with the creation of the world and reaching its highest expression in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.” RPOC 2, 47
• “Thus, God’s method serves to enlarge our space so that what is immediately perceivable, that which our human senses can readily verify, no longer functions as a wall in limiting our perspective. Instead, we are enabled to see through and beyond the immediate, sensory data to other worlds that are no less real or concrete.” RPOC 2, 47
• “With typology, each event must first be studied for its own sake by reading the biblical sources.”
• “As Saint Augustine points out, typology rests non in verbis sed in factis (not in words but in facts), and, thus, it is only in establishing the concrete, historical base of the event that we will be able to interpret that event typologically. Only an actual event can be the seed of future events; a plant cannot grow from an imaginary seed.” RPOC 2, 49
• “Typology, a treasure that the biblical tradition possesses, has all too often been used poorly. We have tended to focus only on the past as it relates to our present realities and to forget that the history of salvation is…a history not yet complete. Contemplating the history of salvation in a limited way – particularly in considering only its first two movements of past and present – has very serious consequences. We lose the dynamism of history, its power as a history that is constantly evolving. With the loss of this dynamism, our sense of joyful anticipation is lost as well. Thus, a fundamental Christian virtue is extinguished: the virtue of hope.” RPOC 2, 50
• “The Fathers of the Church used the image of the statue, which the artist slowly brings to completion, to explain the stages of salvation history. From a first attempt, the artist moves on to a more refined one; thus, step by step, through succeeding stages that are always more refined, the statue is completed. The first attempt prepares for the finished work, and the finished work contains within itself the first attempt.” HGT 15
• “The resurrection is the great event of the world, compared to which any other historical event pales. The very creation at the beginning of the world loses its importance when seen in the light of the second creation, a creation on a higher plane, a new life, the very life of God.” L.L. page 52
• “In the resurrection the power of the Holy Spirit takes hold of the weakness of human flesh, permeating it with the life-giving breath of the Sprit, empowering it and transforming it.”
Typology and Memorial:
• “Typology and memorial are bound together at the level of the reality to which we are drawn near: the infinite mystery of God. The mystery speaks and acts. We enter into it by listening to the word and participating in the sacramental celebration. When the mystery speaks and we listen to it, the method of listening is that of typology. When the mystery is celebrated and we participate in it, the way of participating is memorial.” RPOC 2, 67
• “Typology is obviously no less essential that memorial in drawing us near to the mystery. Neither typology nor memorial is an arbitrary method; they are not scholarly gimmicks. Rather, they are in some way demanded by the very nature of the message they seek to transmit; they are supreme examples of a methodology that is perfectly suited to its content. A reading of the Bible that truly aims at scrutinizing and penetrating the mystery (beyond just studying the Bible) cannot be done without typology, just as the sacramental celebration of that same mystery cannot be done other than in the memorial.” RPOC 2, 67
• “Therefore, the first reason for the presence of a perceptible element in the sacraments will be found in the incarnation, the determining event in the entire history of salvation. Christianity, before it is a system of thought, before it is a particular morality, is an event: the incarnation of the Son of God, the manifestation of God in matter, in the concreteness of a human body. The relationship of each of us with God is conditioned by this fact. In the relationship of each one of us with God we will find the reflection of this fundamental fact: The divine is always manifested through the tangible and the human. We call this “the law of the incarnation.” L.L. page 36“Baptism is the sacrament that imprints the initial likeness of Christ on the human person…To initiate means to let someone share in a life, in this case, the life of the risen Christ. The risen life of Christ is a transformed and empowered life, since it is totally permeated with the Holy Spirit; It is the life of Jesus glorified by the Father after his passion…” L.L. page 51
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more thoughts from Jean Danielou, The Bible and The Liturgy:
“But the New Testament shows us that this new creation is already accomplished in Christ. The Incarnation is the creation of the new universe; and it is this creation which is continued in present history and takes place in Baptism…”
“The analogy of the primordial waters with the waters of Baptism, is, then, an aspect, which is fundamentally biblical, of the parallelism between the first and the second creation.” (72-5)
The Sabbath’s “character as a type is brought out in the New Testament: “Let no one, then, call you to account for what you eat or drink, or in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Collosians 2:16). Here is the statement which will be the guiding principle of our whole study: the substance, the reality of the Sabbath is Christ. We need, then, to discover the religious reality of the Sabbath, for when it is thus set alongside the other types, it will show one aspect of what Christ is. This is the reason why the study of the Sabbath contains teaching which is always of value to us, even though the institution of the Sabbath as such has been abolished since Christ Who is its fulfillment has appeared.” (223)
“The Sabbath expressed the consecration to time to God, as the temple expresses that of space. And just as the temple, by the consecration of a limited enclosure, was the sacrament and prefiguring of the consecration of the whole universe, to be fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus and the creation of the cosmos of the Church, so the Sabbath, by the consecration of a particular day of the week, was the sacrament of the consecration to God of the whole of history, which was also to find its principle in the resurrection of the incarnate Word.” (224)
“The Sabbath and the Temple are gone by because Christ Himself, the Sabbath and the temple of the New Testament, is here.” (226)
