Top Dog!

A boy and his dogs

I have a dog. His name is Lucky, and he is. He and his brother, Grateful, were abandoned in the woods as pups. They were found by my husband’s co-worker and adopted by our family based on the suspicion that two entirely average, half-wild mongrel puppies might not survive the winnowing process at the shelter. Grateful has since gone on to his canine reward, and to be honest he’s probably more comfortable there. Lucky had an unfortunate habit of using his brother’s head to make himself look taller. Whenever we would pay attention to the dogs, Lucky would stand on top of Grateful, pushing him down and elevating himself, so that he would get all the attention, praise, and hopefully culinary compensation.

What goes up, Lucky reasoned, must needs push something else into the ground….

If Catholics are none too keen on the phenomenon known as Reformation Sunday, Protestants get all creeped out around this time of year, too – by All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day (October 31, November 1 and 2, respectively). The basic concept of the communion of saints is not the problem; after all, no Christian can quibble with Hebrews 11 and Hebrews 12:1 –

And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb 11:32-40, 12:1-3)

Both Protestants and Catholics are encouraged by the truth that we have “so great a cloud of witnesses.” Often, though, in a Protestant context, that word “witnesses” transmogrifies into something more along the lines of “predecessors.” The saints mentioned in the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11 become merely “those gone before,” and Protestants understand their importance the way we understand the importance of our ancestors or of the founders and original settlers of our country. They’re not “witnesses” in the sense that they’re actively watching us contend for the faith. They were certainly important in their lifetimes, and their lives serve as great examples for us – but they’re dead and they’re gone.

So, while Protestants accept the notion of the communion of saints, it really isn’t something that plays a decisive role in their theology. For all intents and purposes, the body of Christ, to them, is here on earth. When you go to be with the Lord, you cash in your chips and leave the survivors to play on, so to speak.

And Catholics have a problem with this. In Catholic theology, the communion of saints isn’t just an abstract theological concept – the communion of saints helps form the basis of our definition of who we are as believers. The body of Christ – the Church Universal – is made up of three subsets: the Church Militant (us), the Church Suffering (those who have died and are undergoing purgation), and the Church Triumphant (our brothers and sisters who now see God face-to-face). The Catechism elaborates on this:

When the Lord comes in glory, and all his angels with him, death will be no more and all things will be subject to him. But at the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating ‘in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is.’

All Saints Day and All Souls Day are the commemoration of the members of the Church Triumphant and the Church Suffering, as well as a reminder to us of our goal in Christ to one day become a member of these groups ourselves. We are admonished to aim for Heaven, so that should we fall short, we will at least land among those destined for Heaven when their purgation is complete. And this is Heaven as described in the Catechism:

By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has “opened” heaven to us. The life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly glorification those who have believed in him and remained faithful to his will. Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.

This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father’s house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed – is called “heaven.” Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.

In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God’s will in relation to other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ; with him “they shall reign for ever and ever.”

This is good news indeed! “He makes partners in His heavenly glorification those who have believed in Him and remained faithful to His will.” “…the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God’s will in relation to other men and to all creation.” This is in accord with what we know from St. Paul about life here on earth: “We are God’s co-workers.” But many assume that Heaven is where we go to get some rest from all this “co-working.” Not a chance! As Jesus told us, “I am working, as my Father in Heaven works.” There’s no such thing in the Christian life as resting on your laurels. Which instrument can God more readily use: an indolent, half-hearted, doubt-plagued, balking mule (like me), or a completely purified saint in Heaven who beholds His face and exists only to do His will (like St. Paul of the Cross, who devotes a considerable amount of his heavenly ministry to praying for this balking mule)? The saints have by definition been perfected in holiness and in love, and the Catholic understanding of this is that they are taking an even more active role in God’s work now that they are with Him and can see Him face-to-face than they ever did when they could only perceive Him “through a glass, darkly.”

Fine, so the saints in Heaven are praying for us. Some Protestants will give us that much, but would definitely like to leave it at that. All this talk about “venerating the saints” rubs them the wrong way. They feel that veneration (the respect, honor, and devotion paid to a saint) distracts the Christian from what he should be doing – worshipping God! Catholics, from this Protestant perspective, need to get a better grasp on the sharp distinction between the creature and the Creator!

According to the Catechism:

All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures — their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God. Consequently we can name God by taking his creatures’ perfections as our starting point, “for from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator”.

God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, image-bound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God — “the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable” — with our human representations. Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God.

Admittedly, in speaking about God like this, our language is using human modes of expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God himself, though unable to express him in his infinite simplicity. Likewise, we must recall that “between Creator and creature no similitude can be expressed without implying an even greater dissimilitude”; and that “concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is, but only what he is not, and how other beings stand in relation to him.”

To summarize, if we want to think about God Whom no man has ever seen, we need to take His creation as our starting point, because in His creation we see Him reflected. As previously quoted, “This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father’s house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise…” – in other words, we can’t discuss or even form an understanding of God’s presence without comparing it to something on earth. If we have an impoverished concept of the value of created things, our estimation of God will necessarily be that much the poorer. With that said, we must always remember that God transcends His creation, and when we say that “God is like _____,” we must keep in mind that He is actually far more different than similar to whatever created thing we’ve filled into that blank. In saying, “God is like a father,” for example, what actually needs to be said is that in some limited sense, earthly fathers reflect the image of the One True Father, whose eternal Fatherhood will forever be for the most part a mystery to His creatures. Hardly satisfying, and yet, if we spurn the use of creation as the starting point for our thoughts about God, we end up with no scaffold for our thoughts about God at all.

But that’s no excuse for venerating saints! the quibble goes. Look, if you’re sitting around thinking about how great St. Paul of the Cross is, you can’t be thinking about how great Jesus Crucified on the Cross is!

This is a weighty objection to the veneration of saints – that praise given to them is obviously praise taken from its rightful object, which is God. To answer that objection, let’s read part of a prayer in honor of St. Paul of the Cross:

By your preaching and holy example Jesus converted thousands of sinners through you by bringing them to the foot of the Cross to repent of their sins, thereby obtaining for them His infinite forgiveness and mercy! May Jesus be blessed for His extraordinary grace that was so often made present in your life, and for the many miracles He worked through you for the conversion of souls!

Are you catching the drift? When we go on and on about St. Paul of the Cross, it’s not St. Paul of the Cross that we’re going on and on about – it’s the One Who made St. Paul of the Cross the big deal that he was! Contemplation of the saints, therefore, is an extraordinary help towards better understanding the God who, in crowning the saints’ merits, has merely crowned His own gifts.

“…Our communion with these in heaven, provided that it is understood in the full light of faith, in no way diminishes the worship of adoration given to God the Father, through Christ, in the Spirit; on the contrary, it greatly enriches it. Lumen Gentium

Protestants often take the attitude that in order to glorify the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the saints must be cut down to size. In order for Him to be exalted, all creatures must be devalued, as if tall poppy syndrome were the engine driving the heavenly economy. Jesus is Top Dog! But this misses the point – Jesus specifically isn’t the King of nobodies or the Lord of underachievers. The fact that He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords makes Him all the greater than if He were the King of indolent, half-hearted, doubt-plagued, balking mules alone. In praising the holy lives of His saints, we are praising something spectacular about Him, praise that will never be offered Him if we insist on devaluing the saints to the supposed glory of God. With all Heaven, therefore, the Christian rightfully declares with his whole heart:

Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints!

 

On All Hallows Eve, the vigil of the Solemnity of All Saints

Deo omnis gloria!

My, How Things Haven’t Changed!

Over the years I have read claims that Catholic teaching has changed, that it has “learned from Protestant doctrine” over the nearly 500 years since the Reformation, becoming more “Biblical.” “Pope Benedict admits that Luther was right!” people crow, (pretending that the Holy Father said “Luther was right – period!” rather than “Luther was right, IF….). This reasoning originates with people who have bought into standard-issue anti-Catholic propaganda, along the lines of: “Romanists believe that you have to work your way to heaven, worship the Pope, the saints, and Mary, and pretend that a flat, tasteless wafer is God.” They then hear the Holy Father say something that sounds suspiciously “Christian” and, stymied, can only attribute the Pope’s “change of heart” to Protestant influence. Catholic doctrine is changing, they assume. Assumption is so much less trouble than research. I know that from first-hand experience….

Take the subject of justification. If you had asked me back when I was a Protestant why Catholics don’t agree with the Protestant doctrine of “faith alone,” I would have explained to you that the pernicious doctrine of justification by works had wormed its way into Church doctrine as man-made “wisdom” superseded the preaching of the Gospel. The clergy and religious brothers and sisters of the Middle Ages were steeped in ignorance of the Scriptures and in the traditions of men. That’s why God raised up Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk who came to realize that the Catholic Church was teaching error concerning justification. God called this simple monk to lead people back to the Bible, to teach them to have faith, and trust in the blood of Jesus Christ for their salvation!

Not that I actually did any research on this – I was just buying into the prevailing Protestant wisdom that permeated the teaching of the churches I attended. I now wish that I had actually tested these assumptions against the historical record. Here are some quotes taken from the High Middle Ages, the 11th to the 13th century. Is prevailing Protestant wisdom correct? Did Catholics know anything about salvation by grace through faith before the time of Luther?

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090- 1153) What I need to enter Heaven, I appropriate from the merits of Jesus Christ who suffered and died in order to procure for me that glory of which I was unworthy.

St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) Christians must lean on the Cross of Christ just as travelers lean on a staff when they begin a long journey.

St. Bernadine of Siena (1380-1444) The Church is indeed built on the Name of Jesus which is its very foundation, and hence it is the greatest honor to cleave through faith to the Name of Jesus and to become a son of God.

These men all lived and died before Luther’s time. These are the guys your Protestant mother warned you about: medieval priests and monks. But those quotes sound suspiciously “Christian.” Is that a fluke?

Martin Luther lived from 1483 to 1546. Here is a sampling of quotes from the Catholic writings of that era:

St. Thomas of Villanova (1488-1555) Fear not to approach Him with confidence, for He is called by the name of Jesus. He is the Savior and will not reject those whom He ought to save. If a man is condemned to hell, it is not because he has sinned but rather because he has rejected this so abundant and certain source of salvation.

St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) Not for ourselves, Lord, for we do not deserve to be heard, but for the blood of Your Son and for His merits.

St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) In His infinite love for us, though we were sinners, He sent His only Son to free us from the tyranny of Satan, to summon us to heaven, to welcome us into its innermost recesses, to show us Truth itself, to train us in right conduct, to plant within us the seeds of virtue, to enrich us with the treasures of His grace, and to make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.

St. Thomas of Villanova’s timeline runs almost exactly parallel to that of Luther. St. Thomas was an Augustinian monk, as was Luther. Luther suffered from scrupulosity, and was plagued by doubts that his sins could be forgiven. Surely these words of St. Thomas, “If a man is condemned to hell, it is not because he has sinned but rather because he has rejected this so abundant and certain source of salvation,” address Luther’s fundamental concern. Yet Luther claimed that the Catholic Church knew nothing of salvation by grace through faith. It’s certainly hard to believe that St. Thomas was the only man of his time who preached these things….

St. Charles Borromeo, too, was a contemporary of Luther’s, and one of his fiercest critics. Borromeo seems to be awfully interested in Jesus and “the treasures of His grace” for someone who is trying to teach “works-righteousness” instead of salvation by grace through faith. Kind of counter-productive reasoning….

The Council of Trent, perhaps the heyday of anti-Protestantism, took place between 1545 and 1563, with its decisions being codified in the Roman Catechism (1566), the revised Roman Missal (1570), and a revised edition of the Vulgate Scriptures (1592). What were Catholics declaring about justification during that time period?

Council of Trent – But when the Apostle says that man is justified by faith and freely, [Rom 3:24, 5:1] these words are to be understood in that sense in which the uninterrupted unanimity of the Catholic Church has held and expressed them, namely, that we are therefore said to be justified by faith, because faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God [Heb 11:6] and to come to the fellowship of His sons; and we are therefore said to be justified gratuitously, because none of those things that precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification. For, if by grace, it is not now by works, otherwise, as the Apostle says, grace is no more grace. [Rom 11:6]

That bears repeating: None of those things that precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification!

Some well-known Catholic saints lived at this time. What were they saying?

St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) It is by the merits of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that I hope to be saved.

St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622) He leaves us for our part all the merit and profit of our services and good works, and we again leave Him all the honor and praise thereof, acknowledging that the commencement, the progress and the end of all the good we do depends on His mercy by which He has come unto us and prevented us, has come into us and assisted us, has come with us and conducted us, finishing what He has begun.

He repairs all, modifies and vivifies; loves in the heart, hears in the mind, sees in the eyes, speaks in the tongue; does all in all, and then it is not we who live, but Jesus Christ who lives in us.

That could be a Protestant preacher talking! But St. John of the Cross was a Catholic mystic, and St. Francis de Sales was a Catholic bishop who, by God’s grace, brought some 70,000 converts to Protestantism back into the Catholic fold! Could it be that those reverts realized how wrong they had been about actual Catholic teaching on justification?

If the Catholic Church taught “salvation through works,” the saints of the 17th, the 18th and the 19th centuries seem not to have realized it:

St. Rose of Lima (1586-1617) Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.

St. Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682) It is yours to do all, divine Heart of Jesus Christ. You alone will have all the glory of my sanctification if I become holy. That seems to me clearer than the day.

St. Louis de Montfort (1673-1716 ) Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ.

St. Paul of the Cross (1694-1775) I hope that God will save me through the merits of the Passion of Jesus. The more difficulties in life, the more I hope in God. By God’s grace I will not lose my soul, but I hope in His mercy.

St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696- 1787) And when the enemy represents to us our weakness, let us say with the Apostle: I can do all things in Him who strengthens me. Of myself I can do nothing, but I trust in God, that, by His grace I shall be able to do all things.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself.

St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved!

This all seems a far cry from the perception of Catholics trying to earn Heaven through worthless good works, with no reliance on faith or trust in Christ’s blood. It seems to be a continuous stream of reliance on grace and faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. The 20th-century saints speak:

St. Edith Stein (1891-1942) His blood is the curtain through which we enter into the Holiest of Holies, the Divine Life. In baptism and in the sacrament of reconciliation, His blood cleanses us of our sins, opens our eyes to eternal light, our ears to hearing God’s word.

St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) I fly to Your mercy, Compassionate God, who alone are good. Although my misery is great, and my offences are many, I trust in Your mercy, because You are the God of mercy; and from time immemorial, it has never been heard of, nor do heaven or earth remember, that a soul trusting in Your mercy has been disappointed.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) Keep the light of faith ever burning, for Jesus alone is the Way that leads to the Father. He alone is the Life dwelling in our hearts. He alone is the Light that enlightens the darkness.

“Catholics sure have changed their tune!” is what a lot of folks claim when they read comments like the following from Pope Benedict:

Benedict XVI (1927- ) “Luther’s expression ‘by faith alone’ is true if faith is not opposed to charity, to love. Faith is to look at Christ, to entrust oneself to Christ, to be united to Christ, to be conformed to Christ, to his life. And the form, the life of Christ, is love; hence, to believe is to be conformed to Christ and to enter into his love.”

“Paul knows that in the double love of God and neighbor the whole law is fulfilled. Thus the whole law is observed in communion with Christ, in faith that creates charity. We are just when we enter into communion with Christ, who is love.”

You see, this is no capitulation to Protestant doctrine – it’s just the Catholic Church teaching what’s she’s taught all along. If by “faith” you mean “faith that creates charity,” then you understand the subject of justification the way the Council of Trent proclaimed it – faith without works is dead.

Realize, please, that the above-quoted individuals (Benedict XVI excepted – for now) aren’t just anybody; they are saints and blesseds. This means that the Catholic Church has set them up on a pedestal with a flashing neon sign proclaiming, “Pay attention to this person! Imitate her life! Listen to what he said!” Kind of counter-productive if the Church has secretly been cherishing the works-righteousness heresy all these centuries….

But as a Protestant, I didn’t know any of this, basically because I didn’t bother to do research on the subject. Prevailing Protestant wisdom was good enough for me. Little did I realize that Catholic doctrine cannot change!

Next time we’ll examine the prevailing Protestant wisdom on the subject of the Catholic Church and the Bible.

On the memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine

Deo omnis gloria!