Comments(3) Owen posts about a journey via Sola Scriptura to the Catholic Church. I’m not gloating, but simply pointing out that the Bible and Catholicism are not as contradictory as they seem for many. A Bible-believing Catholic is not a contradiction in terms either, nor is it contradictory to be Christ-centered and Catholic.
Comments(0) From the Office of Readings today:
| From the dogmatic constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council
See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah… I will plant my law within them and inscribe it in their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people… All shall know me, from the least to the greatest, says the Lord. This messianic people has Christ as its head: Christ who was given up for our sins and rose again for our justification; bearing now the name that is above every name, he reigns in glory in heaven. His people enjoy the dignity and freedom of the children of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple. They have as their law the new commandment of loving as Christ himself has loved us. They have as their goal the kingdom of God, begun on earth by God himself and destined to grow until it is also brought to perfection by him at the end of time, when Christ, our life, will appear, and creation itself will be freed from slavery to corruption and take on the freedom of the glory of God’s children. This messianic people, then, though it does not in fact embrace all mankind and often seems to be a tiny flock, is yet the enduring source of unity, hope and salvation for the whole human race. It is established by Christ as a communion of life, of love and of truth; it is also used by him as an instrument for the redemption of all, and is sent out into the whole world as the light of the world and the salt of the earth. The Israel of old was already called the Church of God while it was on pilgrimage through the desert. So the new Israel, as it makes its way in this present age, seeking a city that is to come, a city that will remain, is also known as the Church of Christ, for he acquired it by his own blood, filled it with his Spirit, and equipped it with appropriate means to be a visible and social unity. God has called together the assembly of those who in faith look on Jesus, the author of salvation and the principle of unity and peace, and so has established the Church to be for each and all the visible sacrament of this unity which brings with it salvation. |
Comments(0) This is a brilliant and thought-provoking post at Open Book. Amy brings out two gems from Fr. Al Kimel (the Pontificator):
| Adam, it is not just the poor worship. The poor worship has a cause, and the cause is ineffective, poor, or misleading catechesis. And, for me, still, this calls into question the proposition that “this is THE church”. If this is THE church, shouldn’t it do better at making Christians, out of both unchurched adults and little children?The simple answer to your question is, yes. Yes, the Catholic Church should do better at making Christians, it should do better at evangelizing, it should do better at catechizing, it should do better at preaching the gospel, it should do better at worshipping God, it should do better in serving the poor and the oppressed, it should do better in every aspect of its life and ministry.However, if the Church was doing better in all of these areas, or even just the one you have mentioned, would you be persuaded that the Catholic Church is the Church of Jesus Christ, as she claims to be? Of course not! Because performance neither proves nor disproves the claims of the Catholic Church. Ironically, your objection to the Catholic Church—viz., her poor, even sinful performance—is grounded in a works-righteousness understanding of the gospel. You are demanding that the Catholic Church justify herself as the Body of Christ by her works! But the Catholic Church is the Body of Christ only by grace and election!
Are you willing to apply the same criterion of performance to individual believers, to yourself? Are you willing to prove your regeneration in the Spirit by your works, by how well you are living the Christian faith, by how effectively you are proclaiming the gospel in word and deed? Jim, are you not in fact judging the Catholic Church by a standard you would never apply to yourself? What would you say to the nonbeliever who declares that Christianity cannot be true because there are so many bad Christians? But your criterion of performance also fails for other reasons. For one thing, you are judging the Catholic Church on the basis of her performance in one geographical area in one period of time. But she has no doubt performed better (whether it be at catechesis or evangelism or whatever) in other places and in other times. Why not judge the Catholic Church at her best? Why not judge the Catholic Church by her saints? But would you be persuaded even then? |
And this..
| Jim, for 2,000 years the Catholic Church has been proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and making disciples. How many saints must the Catholic Church produce to convince you? How many martyrs must lay down their lives? How many nations must she evangelize? How many churches must she build? How many baptisms must she administer? How many penitents must she absolve? How many Masses must she celebrate? How many religious orders must she establish? How many hospitals and schools must she found? How many hungry persons must she feed? How many homeless must she house? How many kings and despots must she confront in the name of Christ? And who stands today, pray tell me, more firmly and courageously against the culture of death, abortion, and sexual immorality than the Catholic Church?If you insist on judging the Catholic Church by her works, then by all means do so, but do so across all categories of mission and ministry. Do not judge her just by your parish church in the year A.D. 2007 but judge her by her remarkable and glorious history that reaches back to the Apostles of Christ.Yet are you truly in a position to judge her sanctity and sins, good works and failures? Why do you see only her weaknesses and not her strengths, her defeats and not her victories? |
Comments(0) In my conversations with Lito at extranos about his concerns regarding Catholics trying to buy their salvation with works (something which the Catholic Church does not teach but many misconstrue to be the case), I sometimes wonder what the point is in arguing about words. I recently read through Jimmy Akin’s explanation of the term “justification” in Catholic teaching, and he reminds us that St. Paul exhorted his listeners “to avoid disputing about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers” (2Tim. 2:14, RSV; cf. 1Tim. 6:4).”
Lito is only being thorough when he wants me to articulate my attitude concerning justification and works. This morning at Mass I was comforted to find St. Paul in today’s readings (Philippians 3:8 - 14) capturing my very Catholic perspective on that:
“All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have become perfect yet: I have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. I can assure you my brothers, I am far from thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come; I am racing for the finish, for is the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus.”
Yes, it is Lent, and I can tell a Lutheran that I also wish to share in Christ’s sufferings by training my flesh in self-denial. This is something that Christ called us to do. Am I trying therefore to buy my salvation with this self-denial? No. At the foot of the cross in the school of Christ’s passion, I simply wish to live the Incarnation in my flesh. To be perfect, as God calls me to be, in our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Comments(0) Lito had posted in his blog about Sean Hannity and Fr. Tom Euteneuer, the latter having publicly contradicted the former’s heterodox notions about contraception. Lito had latched on to Fr. Tom’s later statement (in another venue) that he was compelled to try and correct Mr. Hannity by his duty as a pastor, that to fail to even try would jeopardize his salvation. Lito and I had been going back and forth about justification by works (and Catholics do not advocate that this is by works alone), so I felt that I had to respond in order to head that off. Then Lito asked about mortal and venial sin:
| All sins from my understanding are mortal as I think Jesus taught - for example he says to the Pharisees “to look at a woman to lust after her” is already tantamount to adultery so we sin in our thoughts, in our words and in or actions too.Would you agree to this characterization of sin? For example we do not love God and neighbor constantly so we are sinning mortally everyday. |
This was my response. Not that everything that follows is spot on — I am often guilty of hastily writing a response, particularly when I’m way past my bedtime (and the bread has probably gone past simply cooling down — it is probably soaking by now — in the bread pan). But Mark Shea’s quip that no thought of his, “no matter how stupid, should ever go unpublished,” is forever etched in my mind, so I wish to post my response to Lito for posterity:
I think the Catholic theology on mortal and venial sin is more .. rigidly organized. To constantly ask the question “is this mortally sinful or is it venially sinful only?” is not really the right attitude to sinfulness, but some people do fall into that. I have been known to drive myself crazy with scrupulosity, particularly when I was still in college.
BTW Cardinal O’Connor gives a good homily on that.
For me, scrupulosity loses out with love and trust: God’s love and my trust in God’s love more than any fear of God’s judgment. It took a while for me to get here though, and scrupulosity can still rear its ugly head from time to time…
But as to sinning mortally everyday.. let’s just say that we would disappoint God daily if not for His grace which, from time to time, manages to spur us into love. When we are called to regular confession, Catholics are urged to consider two things: God’s love and our contrition. Love is superior to fear, but fear is not without its place. The fear of the Lord is of wisdom. Love of the Lord is at the end. Fear brings about imperfect contrition. Love spurs us into perfect contrition, with the right motive being that we would want more than anything to please the Lord because we love him.
Now for those who would worry about mortal and venial sins.. I guess at a tender age with an immature level of faith, one would go through that stage when the Law is a set of rules; before one moves into the Law being a life of freedom written in our hearts. For those, I guess it is important to reassure them that, so and so are not serious acts of unrighteousness and so should not elicit an exaggerated dread of having lost Heaven, something which can harm one’s faith — the notion of God picking you apart for every transgression, the minor as much as the major. At the same time, it is important to be able to bluntly (sometimes necessary) point out to those with calloused consciences that so and so are serious sins which cry to Heaven for justice and must be dealt with appropriately. To do otherwise would also be harmful to the faith — the notion that God does not care for the oppressed, does not expect justice in our actions.
There will always be people for whom the difference between mortal and venial, serious and minor trespasses, are relevant. To fail to distinguish them could be harmful to such people as they are still growing in their faith and righteousness.
Comments(1) Please read this latest e-letter from Karl Keating (to which I am subscribed):
“CONFESSIONS: SATURDAYS FROM 4:00 TO 4:05″
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
That is what I imagine the average church’s signboard could advertise, so few are those who go to confession any more. Like me, you probably go to confession regularly, but most Catholics go rarely or not at all.
This was confirmed in a newspaper article that appeared last week, so it must be true. The article was distributed by the Religion News Service, which said that “only 14 percent of Catholics go to confession yearly. … Forty-two percent reported they never go to confession at all. … Fifty years ago, penitents lined the aisles outside confessional booths on Saturday afternoons, waiting to admit their sins, recite the Act of Contrition, receive absolution from a priest, make their penance, and be forgiven.”
Gone with the wind, that. What happened?
The article said that “sociologists and Catholic clergy list a number of reasons, including changing notions of sin, opposition to the Church’s stance on birth control, widespread changes after the Second Vatican Council, ignorance about the sacrament, and busy lives.”
Each of those, no doubt, has had something to do with our ending up with everybody going to Communion and almost nobody going to confession, but I think the real answer may be simpler than that. Let me tell you a true story.
Some years ago I was invited to dinner at the rectory of the most populous parish in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. When I knocked on the door, the housekeeper admitted me. It was evident at once that no one else was there. Had I shown up on the wrong night? Oh, no, said the housekeeper. All four priests were still in the church, hearing confessions.
On a Thursday night?
When the priests finally returned to the rectory, the pastor apologized for keeping me waiting. They had had fifty more penitents than usual for a Thursday. I remarked that Thursday evening seemed an odd time to have confessions. “Oh, we have confessions every evening,” said the pastor–hundreds and hundreds of confessions each week.
I wondered how that could be possible. The pastor chuckled. He said that neighboring pastors asked the same thing–and they proffered answers. “Many of them say, ‘Well, you’re just getting our penitents because you have such convenient times for reconciliation,’ but that’s not so, you know. We can tell that these are our own people.”
But why, I asked, were the four priests in this parish kept busy with confessions each evening, not to mention on Saturday afternoons, when in neighboring parishes only a handful of people showed up at the once-a-week slot for confessions?
“Easy,” said the pastor. “It’s so easy that other priests don’t believe how we do it.”
Okay, I said. What’s the secret?
“From the pulpit we tell our people that they are sinners, that they know they are sinners, and that they need to go to confession. We tell them that God loves them and wants to forgive them. We tell them that we will be waiting for them in the confessionals each night and on Saturday afternoon. We tell them this often and always gently, and so they come to confession. Lots of them.”
That’s it? I asked. No fire and brimstone? No bribes, spiritual or otherwise? No threats?
“Not necessary,” said the pastor. “If you tell people the truth that they already know in their hearts–that they are sinners and need forgiveness–they will respond to that.” And so they did.
No matter what changes have occurred since Vatican II, no matter how ill-instructed today’s Catholics may be, no matter how put off they may be by scandals or flat homilies, one thing has remained constant: human nature. People today commit the same sorts of sins that people committed fifty or a hundred or a thousand years ago, and those sins affect them as sins always have affected people. At least in this regard, there is nothing new under the sun.
The story I have told suggests why most parishes have few penitents: The fault is found not so much in the wider culture but in the narrow pulpit. When is the last time you heard a priest, even a good one, say clearly that those listening to him were sinners, knew they were sinners, and needed to go to confession–and that he would be waiting for them and would give them as much time as they needed?
Yes, I know of good priests who mention confession, but I can’t remember the last time I heard that even one of them spoke about the sacrament the way it should be spoken about. And those are the good priests. What about priests who would rather not have Saturday afternoons so inconveniently interrupted, the ones who have never uttered the word “confession” from the pulpit, who think they are doing their parishioners a favor by not trying to burden them with guilt?
I have news for such priests: Their parishioners already are burdened with guilt. They struggle with guilt because each person over the age of reason is a sinner. That is something called a Brute Fact. What a pity that so many priests fail to understand what is so obvious to the people they preach to each week!
Until next time,
Karl
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Comments(0) Today we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph. Pope Leo XIII calls him “guardian, the administrator, and the legal defender” of the holy family of Nazareth. Scriptures refer to him as a righteous man. It is truly amazing that the Lord, for whom any and every praise fails to do him justice, would deign to include ordinary human beings like St. Joseph in His divine plans. He takes ordinary human beings, pours His Holy Spirit into them, and makes them extraordinary. And thus can such men be rightly called righteous. This is the work of a truly gracious Heavenly Father, who is pleased, not threatened, by honors given to His children, primarily since we honor people like St. Joseph according to God’s own pattern of heaping honors upon His children who follow His holy will. The Holy Spirit, principal author of Scriptures, refers to St. Joseph as a righteous man. May all of us be so righteous as St. Joseph, particularly those among us who are husbands and fathers. May we love our families as St. Joseph loved the holy family of Nazareth, lovingly serving as guardian, administrator and defender.
St. Joseph, pray for us!
