Penance: Did Someone Call the Doctor?

            Confession! What a veritable spring of life from the One Who Lives! And, yet, how difficult it can be to come to that meeting place with God, and to bear our sins to him. How difficult it can be to overcome our pride and our shame in order to step out into the river of mercy, which flows ever deeper and deeper. Perhaps, even, we grow weary of confessing our sins, over and over in our brokenness and our addictions. God, however, never grows weary of receiving us back joyfully, forgiving us our sins, healing our wounds, repairing our relationships, restoring us to joy, and indwelling us with his Spirit. Through the Sacrament of Penance, Jesus, our humble and gentle physician lovingly calls to us back to health and peace, continuing the same ministry he started while on earth.

            “’But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the one who was paralyzed—‘I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home’” (Luke 5:24 NRSVCE). At the time Jesus said this, the spiritual leaders and the common folk were astonished that anyone would claim to have the authority – or the right – to forgive sins on earth. At first, people laughed and mocked him. But when Jesus was able to confirm his power to forgive sins by healing people physically, as in “Stand up and take your bed,” they marveled. St. Luke’s version of the story ends with the people going home and saying to themselves, “We have seen strange things today” (Luke 5:26 NRSVCE).

            St. Matthew’s Gospel tells a slightly different ending, which seems very relevant. That is, St. Matthew witnessed that immediately after the paralytic was healed, and forgiven his sins, “they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings” (Matthew 9:8 NRSVCE). The Catholic Church, believing that all Scripture is inspired by God, also believes that this verse contains a very important point: that God has given this authority to forgive sins to “human beings.” That is a plural noun; it is not singular, as if it were only meant for Christ. On the contrary, keeping in mind the inspiration of Scripture, we find it no light point that “human beings” is plural, because the ability, per se, to forgive sins was granted to others after Christ, specifically, the Apostles.

            In the twentieth chapter of St. John, we read that upon Jesus’ resurrection and first appearance to the disciples, he has something extremely important to impart to them. “’Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (21-23). It was at that moment, the Church teaches us, that Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Penance. For it was there where he imparted his own authority to forgive sins to mere men; it was there that he gave them the ministry of peace and of reconciliation. There is no doubt, however, about the fact that this power has its source in the Holy Spirit, which he explicitly breathed upon them, and gave to them.

            While the first three centuries after Christ saw almost no dispute on the Church having the power to forgive sins, there came a time when people started to disbelieve and falsely teach against it. Ironically, it was not strictly disputed that forgiveness of sins was possible through the successors of the Apostles, but it was eventually disputed which kinds of sins could be forgiven. In the third and fourth century, the Nestorian heresy had followers who denied that “mortal sins” could be forgiven by the Church, and declared that, therefore, any believer who fell into grave sin like idolatry or murder would not be able to receive forgiveness again.

            Saints Athanasius and Augustine had something different to say, and fought forcefully against these heresies. St. Athanasius, who was instrumental not only in defining the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, but also in support of the New Testament list of books we currently hold as inspired, wrote the following against Nestorians: “As the man whom the priest baptizes is enlightened by the grace of the Holy Ghost, so does he who in penance confesses his sins, receive through the priest forgiveness in virtue of the grace of Christ.” ¹ The famous St. Augustine of the fourth century, the great Doctor of the Church, wrote similarly, “Let us not listen to those who deny that the Church of God has power to forgive all sins" (De agon. Christ., iii).¹

            Putting history aside for a moment, it would be good to address the means by which the Sacrament of Penance is given and received, and its effects. Basically, any Christian who has committed “grave sin” with full knowledge and full consent of the will (not by any accident) ends up with two major, natural consequences. Firstly, they have ruptured their relationship with the God of life and love by falling from grace similarly to Adam and Eve, but after having been washed by the blood of Christ. Secondly, they have ruptured their spiritual relationship with the body of Christ, the Church. Both need reconciling; both need healing. One cannot be done without the other, for the two are inseparable – that is, Christ and his body, the Church.

            The Sacrament of Penance is made up of several parts: contrition (or sorrow) over sin, confession of our sins, and acts of penance, which are those things we do to draw nearer to God, whether it be prayer or reading Scripture or giving alms, whichever the priest justly requires. First, we must truly be sorry for our sins, or else we cannot rightly receive forgiveness. “ For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death,” wrote St. Paul (2 Corinthian 7:10). Here we certainly do not mean hatred of ourselves, by the word “sorrow.” For this would be contrary to the Gospel, but we do mean that there should be sorrow for those things, which caused harm to others, ourselves, and to our relationship with the God of Love.

            Confession of our sins is the second aspect of the Sacrament. This simply means to confess our sins to a bishop, who has been handed on the authority to forgive sins, or his representative, a priest. In the confessional, we bear our sins not only to God, but also to the Church. In the priest, we find another Christ – Christ’s own representative – and Christ himself offering the healing words of forgiveness, which do not come back void. There, he listens to us, perhaps consoles us and gives us advice for our spiritual life. Most importantly, he wipes away every sin we’ve committed that has been previously forgiven. Our sin is taken from us as “far as the East is from the West,” as the Scriptures tell us; he remembers it no more.

            The healing does not simply stop there, though. We have fallen backward by our sins in our relationship with God, and have lost ground in our conquest of love. In fact, there are scars left from our sins. They, too, need to be healed and erased. We must draw closer to God and regain the virtue for which he tells us to strive. St. James harshly tells us about what our acts of penance should look like:

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you (James 4:8-10 NRSVCE).

In the act of penance, only by the grace of Christ and his power do we start to heal the crookedness of our hearts and the wounds left by sin. Of course, Christ forgives and mends the broken hearted, but there is a relationship that must be brought to its fullness of love from within our souls and by our minds and bodies, the whole person. As before, penances are done by prayer, Scripture reading, alms giving, or some other act of love.

            But from the moment we leave that confessional, as many individuals have witnessed and testified, the weight of sin, which was so heavy, is lifted off of our shoulders, lifted off of our hearts. Our souls are lightened and rejoice. A steady, inner peace, which surpasses all understanding, gives way to a smile that one cannot suppress. Freedom. It is the feeling of freedom. Christ has set us free in the Sacrament. He has restored us to life. At the same time, he has healed the Body of Christ. Our sin has been forgiven, our sin that wounded the Church, which is the body of Christ itself, and the unity of the body of Christ has been restored.

            The thought of this is often ignored, but Christ is one and his body is one. Our sin has not only an effect on ourselves, but also on the rest of the Church. We are not living in a vacuum in space, where sin has no effect but on our own souls. God is a community. We are part of that community, as the Church. When we sin, it is communal. Sin affects other people, down a line of unspeakable length. So, confession and repentance, they are not just “between God and me.” It is between God, everyone else and me. This is why Jesus declared that all sins will be openly known in the end, and will not be secret (Luke 12:2,3).

            Penance takes humility; it takes courage. We may be ashamed, but to face our sins and to face evil takes strength. In fact, it takes the strength of God’s grace. “You can do nothing apart from me,” Jesus said (John 15:5). Through Christ’s strength and power, we can be freed from sin, even sins of addiction. Perhaps we might fall many times, but if we continue to go to the God who calls us, we can only become stronger in his grace. We can only grow closer to God as we maintain the humility to confess our sins to him and to the Church. For God exalts the humble, but he opposes the proud. Don’t let pride or shame get in the way, between yourself and the healing that you so desire. Confess.

¹ Hanna, Edward. "The Sacrament of Penance." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 15 Dec. 2014 .

Go to your confessor; open your heart to him; display to him all the recesses of your soul; take the advice that he will give you with the utmost humility and simplicity. For God, Who has an infinite love for obedience, frequently renders profitable the counsels we take from others, but especially from those who are the guides of our souls. 

        -- St. Francis de Sales

Daughter, when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you.

                   -- Jesus to St. Faustina (Diary)

The Never-Expendable Sacrifice of Christ

            Speaking with some Christians outside of the Catholic Church, you may never know that the Catholic understanding of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is one of comprehensive scope and infinite depth. Upon hearing that we call the Mass a “Sacrifice,” some squirm and cringe at the sound, because they perceive wrongly that Catholics somehow do not believe Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was “once-for-all,” and that we nullify Christ’s words from the cross itself, “It is finished” (John 19:30). In fact, though, Catholics would go above and beyond the incomplete understanding of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice that teaches the sacrifice is limited to history. Catholics believe his sacrifice to be an eternal, never-expendable source.

Practically, when I write that the sacrifice of the cross is never-expendable, I mean that it can be offered over and over again, without ever being diminished or depleted. Here I specifically point to the Mass itself, which is the continually repeated act of obedience of the Church to Christ’s own command. Catholics look at the Deposit of Faith, handed down through the centuries, and see that Christ’s sacrifice began at the Last Supper, when he said, “This is my body… This is my blood… Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). The Eucharistic celebration, called the Mass, is our form of worship, following out the command to “remember” the Lord’s death and resurrection for our redemption and freedom.

Perhaps it is not so obvious to the English speaker’s ears, but “do this in remembrance” was to the apostles clearly a call to offer sacrifice. A “memorial sacrifice” was often commanded by the Lord to the people of Israel. In fact, Passover itself, which was the foreshadowing of Christ’s own Passover, was a memorial sacrifice; it was a memorial of the event in which God won for the people of Israel their freedom from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12:14,17). As the Catechism points out, a memorial sacrifice is not an empty act of intellectual memory; it is, rather, something that recalls and, to some degree, makes present now that which had historically happened. So, the Israelites sacrificed and then ate entirely a lamb for Passover every year. Other items were used to make present the event of the Exodus out of Egypt and God’s magnificent power to save (CCC, 1363). The same is true for the Mass: Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice is made truly present in the act of remembrance, even Christ himself fully-present, and the sacrificial value is made truly available again and again.

What is the purpose of doing it again and again, though, if Christ did it once-for-all in the first century? The simple answer is, first, that Christ commanded it. Secondly, the continual and repeated offering makes present to us in the here and now that “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Yes, Christ offered himself up two thousand years ago, but that same sacrifice is not limited to time and space: we can receive it in its fullness now, in our own time. Every time someone is baptized with water and Spirit, the saving merit of the Cross is made present for that soul in that moment. The same is true for the Eucharist in the Mass, except that the entire sacrifice itself is made present and available to us, for the reception of grace and the forgiveness of sins. The event of the Cross is brought to the present moment at each Mass.

In fact, the Council of Trent in the year 1562, following the mass exodus of millions of Catholics to Protestantism, reaffirmed that the sacrifice of the Mass “is truly propitiatory.” What the Council meant by this statement is that the Sacrifice of the Mass has the same exact merit and value of Christ’s original sacrifice made in the first century. The reason is simply because it is one and the same sacrifice with that on the cross, being re-presented (CCC, 1366). Why would we want to neglect such a great gift, to offer up the greatest sacrifice of all time to God for the salvation of the world? After all, after the priestly office and authority handed on to the apostles, we the Church are all called to a holy and royal priesthood to offer sacrifices (1 Peter 2:9).

In God’s infinite mercy and wisdom, he has made it so that we, too, with Mary can stand at the foot of the cross and offer up the Son to the Father in thanksgiving, praise, and petition for forgiveness and grace, to grow in holiness and sanctification. This is the infinite plenitude of the Cross, that “from his fullness, we all have received grace upon grace” (John 1:16 NRSVCE). Every Mass brings a renewed grace of salvation, equal to the same and once-for-all sacrifice on the Cross. And through this Sacrifice, we are able to present ourselves as a “living sacrifice” by partaking and participating in the one Sacrifice, present in the Eucharist (Romans 12:1).

The boundless scope of Christ’s sacrifice, then, encompasses not only the eternal aspect (i.e., not limited to history) of Christ’s saving act, but also that his sacrifice is an inexhaustible source of grace in which we can participate. All of our prayers, works, joys and sufferings are able to be united to the sacrifice of the Cross, and the Mass. Only through the Cross of Christ can we offer any personal sacrifices up to God (CCC, 2031, 618). As the Church is Christ’s body, we are able to participate in his sacrifice to the Father. All of our good works and our sufferings are granted merit as a gift simply because they are united to the one and same Lord to whom we belong, as his body (CCC, 1368, 2008). Therein lies the infinite value of Christ’s sacrifice: the one Sacrifice redeems and restores every single faithful believer to justice and makes us able and valid participants in the priesthood of Christ, and especially through the Mass, we can access the fruits of that sacrifice an infinite number of times. Nothing can diminish it. Nothing can expend it.

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

    -- Malachi 1:11 NRSVCE

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar?

    --1 Corinthians 10:16-18 NRSVCE

"Then What Did Jesus Accomplish?" Part III (On Grace)

            Continuing the previous articles on the Catholic understanding of grace, there are serious differences between the Catholic and the common Protestant concepts of grace. For a Catholic, grace is much more tangible, something that can be given and received over and over again, while at the same time able to be lost. Grace, in its simplest definition, is “favor … the free and undeserved gift of help, … the participation in the life of God,” as we read in the Catechism (CCC 1996, 1997). Grace is made possible through the blood of Jesus, which he poured out in an infinitely worthy sacrifice of love to the Father for the whole world, by which God himself showed his own merciful justice for the sake of every sinner and every victim of sin (Romans 3:21-26).

In the two prior articles, I have already described what Catholics call “original sin” and the understanding of Law, before the entrance of grace. Original sin is what we call the state into which every human being is born, unless otherwise granted by special provision, whereby we find ourselves without the fullness of justice within ourselves, the fullness of our source of Life and Love. Original sin is merely the lack of grace within our souls; when grace was lost by our parents, it could not be then handed down. The Law, we further saw, brought light into the world to show what we were missing – that fullness of Life and Love, God himself. It could only shed light on our current state, though, and could not impart that Life itself. The Law told us what Love really was, but could only condemn, because it did not give the power to fulfill that Law of Love, nor bring us back from death, which is merely separation from God.

Enters Grace: through the Cross, Christ was able to be obedient to Love even unto death. As a man, he was able to overcome sin, and in his resurrection, he was able to overcome death, by the power of the Spirit. Through this infinite act of justice, this act of mercy and love, we have now been given access back to God, who is our Life. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). Through faith, then, we are able to receive the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15). And in his sacrifice, we have redemption through his blood (Romans 5:10).

This is the grace of God, then; that when we are born again in baptism by water and the Spirit, then we are gifted full access to the Divine Nature, and the Divine Life within us (2 Peter 1:4). We are made “new creations,” as St. Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 5:17). Having been washed by the blood and the water, original sin is wiped out, and our status in grace, the life of God, is restored in our souls. We were dead, and now we live (Ephesians 2:4-5). The power of the Law to keep us condemned and under death, then, is disarmed, because of the just and merciful forgiveness of God.

Can we, then, be held accountable to the Law? Yes, even more than we ever had been before. Our reconciliation is specifically for our access to the Spirit, who not only washes us, but gives us the strength to do the perfect will of God. For this reason, we will be held even more accountable to the Law of God, which is poured out into our souls by the Spirit himself, and written on our hearts (Hebrews 15:16, Jeremiah 31:33).  So, Christ could say specifically, ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18 NRSVCE)”

Here I must quote St. Paul at length, to show the seriousness of warning he gives for Christians and the possibility of falling back into sin:

For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:26-31).

We see, then, that the people of God, even sons and daughters, are not exempt from the Law. Certainly not! While we are certainly reconciled by grace alone, we see that grace demands a proper response of our free wills. So, St. Paul can say in the same letter, “Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14 NRSVCE). The call to holiness is that much higher, now that we have received the Spirit and been washed by the very blood of the Son of God.

Here now comes to light all the parables of the Kingdom that Jesus told his disciples, about the demands of the Christian way, of the new life in Christ. We must pick up our crosses and die to ourselves, because we are still in the world, yet by the Spirit have been given grace to do the will of the Father, just as Jesus himself did. Just as so many parables describe to us, we must abide in the grace of God by keeping the law of love and doing good works. “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? … So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:14,17 NRSVCE)”

Jesus, then, was so clear when he said in the fifteenth chapter of St. John: “Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. […] If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (6, 10 NRSVCE). As we heard from him previously, Christ summed up the whole Law into love – love of God and love of neighbor. He asks us to love as he loved us; and this is his new commandment.

The Catholic understanding of grace, then, is that it is God’s undeserved and free gift of himself, to strengthen us and to partake in his divine nature, to be his children in all ways. His grace is plentiful and always sufficient, as he told St. Paul when he struggled against sin: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (1 Corinthians 12:9 NRSVCE). Christ was not saying that his blood covers up sin and makes law and sin ineffective; he was telling Paul that by his grace, he was set free from the power of sin over him, and would be given perfect strength where Paul himself was weak to do God’s will.

If that grace were to be scorned and left unused, we would fall back into a spirit of fear, and of slavery to sin (2 Timothy 1:7, John 8:34, 36). We must endure, then, until the end, in the grace of God, remembering that we have been set free from the power of sin and death, and been made alive, to live in newness of life as dear children of God. Let us press on toward the goal, so that we may rejoice with all the saints and angels in heaven; for God has poured out abundant blessings upon us to make all things new, and to live not according to the flesh, but to the Spirit, which brings life (Romans 8:13). And, as long as we live, he will always offer to us his grace, mercy and forgiveness, never tiring of giving such gifts: “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NRSVCE).

Blessed be God forever. Amen +

Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. – John 8:34-36 NRSVCE

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. – Galatians 5:1 NRSVCE

You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. – James 2:8-13 NRSVCE

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another. – Galatians 5:16-26 NRSVCE

"Then What Did Jesus Accomplish?" Part II (On Law)

            In the last article, I began to address the Catholic understanding of grace, as opposed to common Protestant beliefs regarding God’s grace. In order to understand grace, we must understand sin, first. So, in brief, I began retelling the story of humankind’s original loss of grace (Part I). In summary, we found that in choosing behavior and actions outside of the Love of God, we were also deprived, or disassociated, from the Life of God within us, which was the cause of humankind’s original status of holiness and justice that are founded upon Love itself. Simply, stepping outside of the relationship with Love and Life itself, we lost that same Love and Life, called “grace.” (CCC, 417,418).

            Through our original loss of grace, our parents found themselves in a lacking of fullness. Because of that lack, that missing piece, it was impossible that grace be received through inheritance ever again. Instead, it became the natural state in which humans were born – deprived of the grace of God. What one does not have, cannot be given. We call this “original sin,” in a positive manner, rather than the passive.

            Fast forward thousands of years, when the Law was given to the people of Israel through Moses. Until that time, there was only the Natural Law, for which all humankind through reason was capable of deducing. This included things like “There is one God,” and “Thou shalt not murder.” These laws are understood from the natural reason given to humankind, without the aid of Divine Revelation.

            Moses, however, was given a Divine Law (inspired by God, who is Love). In this Law, the Israelites were called to a greater holiness than the rest of the world. This is their priesthood to the nations. In the Law was the Wisdom of God, and it showed forth the true call to holiness, justice and mercy that humankind was called to: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8 NRSVCE)”

            The purpose of the Law, though, is not only to call us to love our neighbor and God, our Life, but to show where we stand in relation to our original purpose of love: it shows that we are sinners, in need of grace. St. Paul wrote extensively about the law and grace in his letter to the Romans. In it, he explained that the Law itself has not the ability to bring eternal life, simply because it does not empower us to fulfill the just requirements of the Law; it merely teaches us where we lack in justice, since we have all fallen short of it.

            In this regard, let us paint an image for the mind to show just what the relationship is between the Law, sin, death and Life:

            Imagine, if you will, a sea of water, above which is an abundance of open air. Let us imagine that the air itself represents God and his being of Love and our source of Life. Humans, when fallen out of grace and into sin (error), are separated from the air and plunged into the sea, under the water. The Law, which is merely the objective reality of what is holy and good, consisting of love, is the object of obstruction between the sea of water and the air. Perhaps we can imagine the Law to be a slab of frozen ice over the sea, which keeps us from accessing the fullness of Life, the air.

            That slab of ice – the Law – is continually keeping us down under water, preventing us from full access to the air (God/ Life).  That is, the Law is continually condemning us, because we have fallen out of fulfilling its goodness. The Law only sheds light on the reality of our sin and, therefore, keeps us under the oppression of death. The Law itself can never become a means by which humans can freely access the God, who is Life and Love. The Law can never provide a way back to Life, to breathe that wonderful air in again fully. We will end the metaphor here, but it could continue.

            St. Paul describes this in his own method fairly comprehensively (Rom. 5-8). Although he is mostly speaking about the Jewish ritual laws of circumcision and other requirements that Gentiles did not fulfill, it serves the same purpose as the full Law. At one point, he tells us what the solution is to our continual guilt under the Law:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:2-4 NRSVCE)

Of course, the Law, though good, always condemns us. But the answer that God has for the problem is that he would come in the flesh to fulfill the Law perfectly, to suffer and to die in order to overcome sin and death, and therefore, the Law itself. He destroyed the power of the Law itself, by fulfilling it to its highest possibility of love – to give up one’s life for one’s friends.

            By fulfilling the Law in human flesh, he was able to make an infinite sacrifice, which became an unending source of grace for those who would freely accept the sacrifice through faith. He was able to atone for our lack. He was able to free us from condemnation, by forgiving our sins. Much more, though, he was able to make us new creations. By his fulfillment of the law and death on the Cross, we were made able to be regenerated by grace and in grace. He made it possible for us to be returned to our life in grace, similar to our original state. Ultimately, this comes about by the pouring out of his Spirit into our hearts, whereby we are literally brought back into union with God, with Love, and given life.

            At this point, I probably sound like a Protestant, except that I did not mention the word “impute” … which is a nasty word. (I say that with a smile). It is at this point where that will come to an end. This is where the Catholic understanding of sin and grace becomes radically different than the Protestant understanding. For a Catholic, it is understood that one can be baptized and regenerated, but still later become a slave to sin. For a Catholic, it is understood that being in a state of grace, like Adam and Eve obviously were, does not guarantee falling from grace through sin, back into death. The Catholic believes that grace is something like the Parable of Talents speaks about, and must be used or will be lost or taken away (Matthew 25:14-30).

            That is where the understanding of “faith working through love,” “faith and works” and “there is a sin leading to death” come into play, but I will write in the next article about spiritual re-birth and significance of grace in the soul of the believer to give the actual ability to fulfill the law, above and beyond natural capabilities (supernaturally).

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him (Romans 8:13-17).

           

Ave Maria, gratia plena, dominus tecum.

benedicta tu in mulieribus,

et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus,

nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.

Amen. +

See Part III (On Grace)

"Then What Did Jesus Accomplish?" Part I (On Sin)

            In speaking with many non-Catholic Christians about the significance of Jesus’ death on the Cross and what was accomplished through it, I find that there is often a disconnect between the Catholic understanding of grace and many popular, Protestant understandings of grace and its effect. The popular, Protestant concept of grace that I am writing about here is the one in which it is understood that Christ applies his grace as an undeserved mercy and forgiveness of sin, restoring the sinner to God perfectly, without the need of any future serious following of the Law. In that understanding, sin has no true eternal effect on the soul any more after the start of the Christian life. (Some Protestants do hold, of course, another nuanced perspective that it takes some very hard work of persistent and rebellious sin or outright apostasy to “fall from grace,” as St. Paul put it (Gal. 5:4)). The Catholic perspective is much more radical.

            The Catholic Church teaches that sin can still lead to eternal death, even for a baptized (born-again) Christian. In fact, the Church teaches that one single act of grave, fully-willed and fully-known sin will rupture our relationship with God and destroy Charity within our souls (CCC, 1854-1857). “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live,” wrote St. Paul (Romans 8:13-14 NRSVCE). St. John was in agreement when he wrote, “There is sin that is mortal” (1 John 5:16 NRSVCE). For some Protestants, though, a specific objection arises: “What did Jesus actually do for us, or accomplish, if we can still sin and lose Eternal Life? I thought that Jesus died to forgive me of my sins. I thought that I could not earn my salvation. What does the Law have to do with my salvation, when I will always be a guilty sinner, who broke the Law?”

            Allow me to paint a picture for the mind here and perhaps retell a little bit of history, in order to elaborate on the Catholic teaching of the Gospel and the relevance of Law. Most importantly, and as a preface, what is sin, and why does it rupture our relationship with God? Is it merely a rule being broken, causing an angry God to justly punish us for not “playing by the rules?” No, certainly not. Our God is not so simple, and certainly not so stupid. The Law, as St. Paul wrote, is for our instruction: “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin” (Rom. 7:7 NRSVCE).

Our God is Love itself. When we sin, we are falling outside of that perfect relationship of Love itself, which always and completely gives of itself for the other. Sin is the misuse of creation, the broken use of creation or creatures. Sin is destructive to ourselves and others, always; it is communal. Sin is disease in our relationships with all of creation, and the Source of that creation. It kills us, because sin is any act against love, and is outside of he who is Life and Love. The natural consequence of sin is to be separated from Life and Love, simply because sin is the absence of that Life and Love.

In the beginning, when humankind was created, we were created in the state of Grace. We shared God’s life and lived in perfect loving relationship with each other, with creation, and with the God of Love, the Source of Life and Love. Sin, though, entered the world, through freewill and the temptation of selfish gain or pride. Suddenly, the love relationship was broken, not just between humans, but between humans and God. We became ill. We became blind to the Truth of Love. Our hearts grew darker and darker. Being separated from the Source of Love, we became unable to love to the utmost ability. Sin became a slavery. Law, whether understood through nature (like murder obviously being contrary to love) or understood through divine revelation, was that which merely showed how far humankind truly was from God and its origin. While acting as a light in the darkness – “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” – the Law itself did not provide the strength to fully accomplish the Law (Psalm 119:105). The Spirit would come to do that, but grace had not yet been fully given.

To be continued …

           

See Part II (On Law)

The Father of Mercy and Folly

            Oftentimes, many Christians envision God the Father only as an angry God who demands justice and perfection, perhaps even projecting their own faulty fathers. These Christians usually look only to Jesus for their consolation and the love that they seek, while missing the Father’s. Yet, we know from Jesus’ own words, that he was only ever doing and saying what the Father wanted him to do and say (John 12:49). It was in Jesus’ Person that he revealed God the Father as the God of Mercies, the God of Love, who sent his only Son to give his life for the life of the world.

            Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J. once wrote that we often speak of the “folly of the Cross,” as the Scriptures put it, but rarely ever ponder the “folly of the Father’s love.”¹ The Father himself is one who sent the Messiah for our salvation. The Father is the one who “gave his only Son” to die, so that a world full of sinners, who return no such love to the One Who Loves, may have forgiveness, life, healing and peace. Moreover, the Father sent the Messiah, so that we may be one with him!

Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24 NRSVCE). He was constantly only speaking about the Father and his will: “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day" (John 6:39 NRSVCE). That “life” that Christ desires for us is the same life that he shares with the Father: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us […] so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me,” Jesus prayed (John 17:21-23 NRSVCE).

The “folly of the Father’s love” is that he sent the one, perfect Son, who had never disregarded his infinite and unconditional love to die a torturous and unjust death for the sake of us, degenerate sinners, who had spited the Father’s love and abandoned him to our own self-destructive ways. What folly! What mercy! What love! None of us would ever do such a thing. We are completely undeserving of this grace.

There is one request, though, from the Father, through Christ himself. That one request is to love as he has loved us. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21). This is no mere call to baptize people and to tell people about the love of Jesus. This is a call to obey the Father as Jesus has obeyed every word of the Father, including and especially to love unto death of self: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me" (John 14:23,24 NRSVCE). He is calling us to the “Father’s Folly.” He is calling us to love others has he has loved us, without regard to worldly consequences. Rise, let us be on our way.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NRSVCE

¹ Plus, Raoul. The Little Book of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Model of Christians, Cause of Our Joy. Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Institute, 2010. Print.

Queenship of Mary: Our Hope and Our Kingdom

            This last Friday, August 22^nd, we celebrated the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. Our Lady, according to the teaching of the Church, was assumed – that is, brought up, body and soul – into heaven and then crowned Queen of Heaven. On the fringes of the Church, there are those who question why the Church would declare such dogmas, especially when they seem to push farther away those who cannot yet accept these points of faith. Or rather, they may ask why these doctrines are necessary for the Christian life. Mary, though, is essential to the plan of salvation and essential to the Kingdom of God by the will of God himself. Her queenship and motherhood is vital to our Christian hearts and our lives, whether we realize it or not.

            Ultimately, Mary herself is the work of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. From the first moment of her immaculate conception – no, from the foundations of the world, by God’s own ordained plans (Genesis 3:15) – throughout her pure and perfectly obedient life as a virgin, to her holy death, assumption to heaven and coronation, God had wrought this miracle, called the Blessed Virgin Mary, by his grace. To deny this miraculous work of God would be the same as to deny the creation of the world, the covenant made with Abraham, the commandments given to Moses, the people of Israel or the Ark of the Covenant. We cannot deny the work of God, or else we call him a liar.

            The Church recognizes in Our Lady the work of God himself and the cooperation of God-created freewill, existing not only for herself, but also for all of humankind. “My soul magnifies the Lord,” she sung at the blessing of the St. Elizabeth, both inspired by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:46). In her hymn, we hear what God desired for her and for all – a love that gives all and does all for the love of God, who has given himself completely to us without partiality, condition or reservation. She took nothing for herself, but gave way to the vision of God. Like her, we are all called to such a humility in truth, so as to be icons of God, images of God, so as to be able to say with her and St. Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. (Gal. 2:19,20)” St. John the Baptist’s own words apply equally well: “He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 1:22)”

            In the Assumption of Mary, we have hope in the Resurrection of Christ being applied to us at the end of time. In Our Lady, we have been given extra evidence of the graces of God to be applied not to the Son of God only, but to all who believe. In the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, we have hope in our glorification. Thus, St. Paul wrote, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God, […] and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom. 8:14-17 NRSVCE)” We are heirs of the Kingdom and will receive glory, if we endure with Christ like Mary did.

            Paragraph 966 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting Lumen Gentium, tells us that:

‘No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.’

In this statement, the Church specifically is writing about Mary’s role within the life of grace, but the truth of the statement can be applied to all other Christians as well. It is clear from the Scriptures that God shares his glory, his honor and his authority with men and women on earth. Rather, it is clear from the order of nature that God shares a shimmer of his glory with the kings and queens of the earth. How much more do we believe that he will share with those heirs of his own kingdom, in the order of grace?

            The Queenship of Mary is a facet of our Catholic faith that is a great joy to the faithful, because in her we find a superabundance of the glory and honor that God desires to share with us. She was the humblest of women, and the most blessed. In her was the hope of the Messiah, her “Fiat” (Let it be done) bringing that hope to fulfillment. And, yet, she lived a simple life of love for her family and friends. She contemplated the word of the Lord continually. She sought the Lord in all ways, even to the foot of the Cross itself. After the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, she remained to continue the Lord’s simple call to love. In return for her completely perfect, faithful stewardship, God rewarded her with the position of the right hand of the Son that Sts. James and John so eagerly sought out of pride and vanity. (Matt. 20:21)

            In another passage of Scripture, Jesus tells his disciples that they, too, will have thrones from which they judge all twelve tribes of Israel. (Matt. 19:28) In Revelation 3:9, Jesus tells those in the church at Philadelphia that their enemies will bow down to them and learn that they are loved. Later, he says to the church in Laodicea, “To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Rev. 3:21 NRSVCE)”

 If this is a sharing of the power, authority, glory and honor of God, how much more do we believe for Mary, whom St. Elizabeth proclaimed as the “Mother of my Lord”? (Luke 1:43) For, she is the “Queen Mother,” just as the Davidic Kingdom calls for. King Solomon himself bowed to his own mother and had a thrown set up for her beside his own. (1 Kings 2) Jesus, as the Son of David, King of Israel forever, has set up a throne for his own mother. Now, she is our own Queen Mother, because Jesus is our King. Let us give her the honor and glory that God has already himself bestowed on her. As St. Maximilian Kolbe once said, “No one can love Mary more than Jesus has.” So, let us not be afraid to love and honor our living Queen, who is the work of God, a clear reflective glass and image of God himself, Our Lord.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

Queen of Angels, pray for us.

Queen of Patriarchs, pray for us.

Queen of Prophets, pray for us.

Queen of Apostles, pray for us.

Queen of Martyrs, pray for us.

Queen of Confessors, pray for us.

Queen of Virgins, pray for us.

Queen of all Saints, pray for us.

Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us.

Queen assumed into heaven, pray for us.

Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us.

Queen of families, pray for us.

Queen of peace, pray for us.

Amen. +

            -- Taken from the Litany of Loreto

Martyrs: Faith in the Living One

            The world seems to be in flames right now, as I write this. War and disease are ravaging many parts of the world. Especially in mind, though, are those Christians who are being killed by the sword in Syria and Iraq. They are victims of violence and hatred, and, yet, they are witnesses to hope, to love, to grace and to life. There is one who once died and who rose again from the dead – the one Jesus Christ. That One who conquered death, the “Living One,” is he who holds “the keys of Death and Hades,” and who tells us, “Do not be afraid. (Rev. 1:17-18 NRSVCE)”

            All human life is precious, infinitely and immeasurably valuable. God shows no partiality in whom he deems valuable. “’Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,’ says the Lord, ‘but rather that they should turn from their ways and live?’ (Ezek. 18:23)” God takes no pleasure in death, not of any sinner, nor of the saint. Not even of the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father was pleasurable. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not a god of insatiable desire for blood. He is a God of insatiable desire for love: “[…] live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph. 5:2 NRSVCE)”

            Martyrs are witnesses, as the Greek word means (μάρτυς). They are witnesses in the highest regard to the truth of reality itself, that all things have their being and their end in Christ; he is the all in all, the alpha and the omega. Pope St. John Paul II once wrote the following about martyrs in his encyclical, Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason):

The martyrs know that they have found the truth about life in the encounter with Jesus Christ, and nothing and no-one could ever take this certainty from them. Neither suffering nor violent death could ever lead them to abandon the truth which they have discovered in the encounter with Christ. […] This is why their word inspires such confidence: from the moment they speak to us of what we perceive deep down as the truth we have sought for so long, the martyrs provide evidence of a love that has no need of lengthy arguments in order to convince.  (32)

Here, St. John Paul II pinpointed the active motive of martyrs in Christ, that they die out of love for God, having faith in the “Living One” who has given his life, so that they might live. “I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,” Christ said. (John 11:25) Those who have had faith and give their lives in witness to the truth, are giving witness to their encounter with Christ, who is Truth and Love itself. The Church has had many witnesses who have shed their blood out of love. This act of faith is the sweet aroma, the “fragrant offering” to God; that is, their love of God above all else, including life itself.

            Among some holy examples of martyrdom are Sts. Peter, Lawrence and Maximilian Kolbe. In their day, and even now, they are witnesses to the encounter with a loving God. By their light, we see and know that truth calling to our inmost being.

            St. Peter, prime apostle and friend of our Lord, was told by Christ himself that one day he, too, would die as Christ did. At Christ’s last appearance in St. John’s Gospel, we read that Christ directly asked Peter, “Do you love me?” to which Peter replied, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. (John 21:15)” Jesus asked Peter this three times. Upon receiving the same answer three times, Jesus then told Peter, “’Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go. […] Follow me.’ (John 21:18,19 NRSVCE)” St. John tells us that by saying this, Jesus signified how St. Peter would die. Later, after many years of feeding the sheep of Christ’s church, he died at the hands of the Romans, by being crucified up-side-down. It is believed he requested the inverted crucifixion, because he did not believe himself worthy to die exactly as our Lord died, by crucifixion right side up.

            St. Lawrence was a deacon in the mid-third century, under Pope Sixtus II. Pope Sixtus II was martyred first, along with six other deacons of the Church in Rome. It is reported that the prefect of the Emperor demanded St. Lawrence bring remaining riches of gold or silver used during the Mass to him for Caesar. Yet, when St. Lawrence appeared before the prefect, he presented the maimed, lame, poor and ill and said, “These are the riches of the Church.” He was then martyred by way of being roasted to death upon a gridiron. While roasting, he allegedly said, “I’m well done. Turn me over.” The Church has highly honored him as a great witness to the Gospel of Christ, having died with the joy of Christ in his heart and in his deeds.

            St. Maximilian Kolbe is a modern-day martyr, having died at the hands of the Nazis in Auschwitz. He was declared, by Pope Paul VI, as a confessor of the faith and “martyr of charity.” Pope St. John Paul II declared and canonized him clearly a martyr of the faith at the hands of those seeking the destruction of all faith. In the first half of the twentieth century, Maximilian Kolbe gave his life to Christ as a priest, and fought diligently against the fierce forces of Nazism and other godless philosophies in the world.

After the Nazis invaded Poland, Maximilian Kolbe resisted all efforts of the Nazi persecution and kept spreading the faith of the Church with zeal. He was arrested and brought to Auschwitz in 1941. There, one day, a Nazi commander demanded the life of ten random inmates in vengeance for an attempted escape. One man, who was selected from among Kolbe’s peers, immediately upon being chosen cried out, “My wife and my children!” At that moment, Kolbe stepped out of line, in faith, though risking immediate execution. He walked up to the commander and requested to take the man’s place in death. The commander was stunned silent, but ultimately agreed. Kolbe then spent the next two weeks in a starvation bunker, all the while leading the other prisoners in prayer and hymns, until he was the last remaining. The guards eventually grew impatient and killed him by injection of carbolic acid, which he readily accepted. All of this was recorded by a Nazi translator and guard at the bunker. Kolbe died out of love for his neighbor, for Christ, the Church and the Blessed Virgin.

Right now, the Christians and other whole groups of people in Iraq and Syria are being murdered and martyred in the name of religion. The failure on the murderers’ parts is that they do not realize whom they are persecuting. “Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” Jesus said to St. Paul before his conversion. They are persecuting the Living One, who has gained victory over all, and now shares that victory with us who believe. Those who have died in faith have gone on to be with the Resurrection and the Life. They have gone on to be glorified because of their love. For us who remain, let us do all we can, especially to pray, for those who continue to be persecuted, for their strength and the grace that they may endure. We must not be afraid, just as Christ taught us. Let us, too, pray for the persecutors, for their conversion of heart from these horrific atrocities they commit. Nothing else will change them except the encounter with the God of Love.

Sts. Peter, Lawrence and Maximilian Kolbe all gave us pure lights of faith, hope and love. Let us remember them as we seek the grace of God, and ask for their intercession on behalf of all those unjustly killed. Let us, too, be reminded that the call of Christ to follow him is no mere story to make us feel good or even to teach the morality of love; the call of Christ is to die for sake of love, in every real sense and every real sacrifice – to hand over to him our entire beings.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

-- 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 NRSVCE

St. Peter, pray for us.

St. Lawrence, pray for us.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

All you Martyrs in Christ, pray for us.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.

Amen. +