Simon of Cyrene

[jtodisco]

indeed “I would not believe in the gospel,had not the authority of the Catholic Church moved me”- Pope Leo XII in Proventissimus Deus advised " the literal and obvious sense must always be accepted unless reason or necessity dictate otherwise" - this has never been rescinded or superceded,of course he never said only the literal - twinc

I think there may be a miscommunication here. I have never said that the literal meaning of Scripture should be discounted or ignored. I’m simply stating that there is more than one level of meaning behind Sacred Scripture. Take just about any event in the Bible and you can see both the literal and spiritual meanings contained within it. (i.e. the crossing of the Red Sea as a prefiguration of baptism, the bread and wine of Melchizedek being symbolic of the Body and Blood of Christ, the sermon on the mount reflecting and enhancing the teaching of the Torah and Moses’ ascent and descent from the holy mountain, etc.)

While there is obvious value in knowing what literally took place when reading the Bible (and this in fact is the foundation for any later interpretations), there is also value in knowing what the Spirit is trying to tell us through these various events.

 

[po18guy]

very often the conjectures are endless blind alleys and cul de sacs and this is why we are advised to always follow the literal or obvious sense - but if we must conjecture then simon represents mankind carry the original upright tree and Jesus the cross piece to form an X to cancel out the original[sin].In fact I also suspect that the upright stake or tree was already in place and only the cross piece was carried by Jesus and mankind to cross out the original[tree]sin - twinc

Conjecture? As to following the literal or obvious sense, what is the literal sense of a parable?

Bear with me here: These “conjectures” can be minor forms of private revelation, which lead individuals to a deeper understanding of the text. Thus, they may mean nothing at all to others. I offer mine as such.