Faith and works

Explained very well.

Love and Marriage

So they defiled themselves by their deeds and broke their marriage bond with the Lord till his anger blazed against his people; he was filled with horror at his chosen ones.

Part of today's Psalms at Mass (Ps 105), is a common theme in the writings of the prophets as well, associating the relationship between Man and God with marriage, and so infidelity is the abomination of worshipping other gods. One of the questions that come to mind when many bishops suggest that divorced and remarried Christians can be worthy of Holy Communion while remaining in the same state of adultery, is this: is there still such a thing as fidelity? Where, too, is justice, given the price of redemption and given the aggrieved other half of the abandoned marriage? If fidelity is impossible for some people, is it claimed that the grace of God is insufficient?

Caesar is in the (German) Church

Perhaps that is why it is in trouble: it cannot serve two masters, and only one of them can grant supernatural faith. Sadly, their leaders don't seem to get it.

Marriage battle was lost in the culture long before it was lost on the courts

I would go further than what George Weigel wrote. Yes, the marriage battle was lost in the culture long before it was lost in the Supreme Court, but it must have been lost in the Church first. That would explain why the Christian west was entirely too quick to walk away from Christian marriage and into the arms of cheap Hollywood romance. We lost the plot a long time ago. We exchanged the true meaning of love and freedom for shiny false substitutes. So now we have the work of a few generations cut out for us: to have faith and to remain faithful to the author of true Love. It will take his mighty hand to get the world out of this one.

The Patience of God

It struck me as I read Jesus assuring Simon Peter shortly before his crucifixion: "I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail."

Well, it did fail. He denied Jesus when confronted at the courtyard. So what is Jesus talking about? It seems to me he took into account, not just those moments of failure, but also the moment of grace when he repented and turned back. Taken together in chronological order, by the grace of God,  Peter's faith did endure.

He has a longer, more complete view of things. We tend not to see that far because our lives are short and the long term can seem too great to contemplate. Thankfully, God takes the long view, and additionally, he stacks things in our favor by giving us the grace we need when we need it. It may take a while, and not according to our schedule, but in the long view of things, we can get by and more: we can triumph. One thing is needed, however: we need Faith. And even that is a gift.

Mary's faith and Elizabeth's rejoicing

Why was Elizabeth so filled with joy at Mary's greeting? Because the Holy Spirit filled her with joy. That passage (Lk 1:39-45) is filled with words like blessed, leapt for joy and similar words of rejoicing (a loud cry, honoured). And Elizabeth does not even have to hear the news from Mary about the Word made flesh in her womb, the unborn Son of God. Mary is blessed for her belief in the Lord's promise: trust, faith and hope in the faithfulness of God -- these are blessings of themselves, and they are gifts that keep on giving. Does the Holy Spirit prompt rejoicing in the Incarnation, or in the mother's faith? BOTH, I think. Just as man grieves over both the coming of death through sin and the fall of Eve (and Adam), we rejoice rightly over the coming of Emmanuel and the cooperation of Mary. For to minimize Mary's yes to God is to minimize Eve's (and Adam's) yes to the serpent, which would necessarily increase God's part in the fall -- and that is an impossible proposition!
  So let us believe in God's promises to us; it is all over his love letter to us, in Scripture (check out the first reading from the Song of Songs 2:8-14). Let us faithfully and joyfully say yes to our Father in heaven at every opportunity, and we will be blessed, brothers and sisters of our Lord, who can prompt faith and rejoicing to those whom we greet, too.

Perseverance, by the Grace of God

I'd been riding on a high since menALIVE weekend for more than two weeks now, but of course I'm not quite in a fairy tale, so I haven't yet lived happily ever after. There are still lows with the highs, but I have noticed in me a remarkably positive response to the lows. I recover faster, my perspective now being fairly upbeat and forward-facing. Then it happened: a slight meltdown in the sacristy with my two sons arguing over whether both or only one of them will serve at the altar that day. Oh the horror and the shame! Then Father Cantalamassa (not that one) walks in -- more horror and shame! I was losing my cool, and pretty soon, three boys were arguing, one being myself. Not loudly, but heated nonetheless. I was morose all the way to the consecration, flushed with shame and guilt that I not only failed to resolve it quickly and peacefully with the boys, but that I actually ended up arguing with them. But along with these thoughts came inspirations that kept me sane:

I'm really stewing because of pride, aren't I? Am I supposed to be perfect now? It happens; move on. I am replaying it over and over in my mind, and the scene is growing, not abating, and I'm not resolving anything. I really should have taken them aside to talk this out just among us -- that way, we reduce the tension.

One stunning thought surfaced, too:

This wallowing in shame and self-loathing is no longer who I am. That has already been put to death by Christ. By feeding these deadweights, I am reviving what amounts to an undead, a zombie. Now why would I want to do that?

At that point, I smiled (really!), and I prayed in earnest: thank you, Jesus! So I nailed that event to the cross where it belongs, took up my dignity (not pride), and realized that I was indeed being silly. Pride, self-loathing and defeatism were knocking, and I don't have to let them in. I think I understood something new about faith, then. It needed some mental steps, what separates conviction from taking something for granted. I believe that Christ has already won, that I was already buried and raised with him in baptism. I believe that the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon me. I am not a slave of sin any longer, and I am alive.

Time to act like it.

To be aware, and to dare

A few things came to mind last Sunday, after hearing the readings. In the first reading, Isaiah is called, and he answers "Here I am, send me!" In the second, St. Paul talks about his commissioning to evangelize. The Gospel talks about some of the first of Jesus' disciples, and how they were called to become fishers of men. Hearing the readings and the excellent sermon of our parish priest, the following seemed noteworthy to me. First, all the commissioned men were aware of their sinfulness. St. Peter sums it up best: "Leave me Lord, I am a sinner!" But of course, the Lord loves him more than that. Second, they were called anyway. To Isaiah, these words were said:

‘See now, this has touched your lips, your sin is taken away, your iniquity is purged.’

Jesus says simply, "Do not be afraid."

It seems to me that here there are two aspects in this conversation between myself and God: to be aware of who God is, and of my sinfulness, and to dare to take His hand and follow after Him. I think that the former is necessary in order to get to the latter. Not because the Lord disdains the proud -- I think He calls everyone, great and small, good and bad. I think it is more the case that the proud may not be willing to take God's hand. They might instead say "I have it sorted." They might not be timid enough to dare cast their nets.

I have my own version of St. Peter's confession of guilt, and I can't say if it is good or bad, but it is how I find myself saying it. "Don't ever leave me Lord, I am a sinner! Where else can I go?" But I do pray that I will one day attain a level of faith and confidence in God so that I can stop saying that in nervous apprehension. Lord, I do believe, but please help my unbelief! But the answer is probably there already. I should put out into deep water and lower my net.

Fear

My household has been somewhat plagued with bird mites for the last 3 weeks. I am ever so thankful to God that my wife and kids have been spared the worst of the little critters, but found it almost unbearable to be their human host (the birds were gone, their holes around the house boarded up) of choice. Lack of sleep, paranoia, and overall general discomfort. It was at this time (of Lent, too!) that I realized how weak my trust in God was.

Thank God for two people: my wife, and my doctor. First, my wife was incredibly patient through the tons of laundry she had to do at overdrive right after the house was sprayed with insecticide. She was also much less worried about the mites than I was, and was a source of strength. My doctor, while not an expert in bird mites, did give me good general advice in dealing with the discomforts, but moreso with the weakening faith. He shared the exegesis of his pastor (Evangelical) about Job's plight that had at its origin neither God nor Satan, but in fear. Job exclaimed somewhere in his soliloquy that his worst fears were realized in his trials.

Ecclesiastes 10:8 speaks of a hole in the hedge, whereby a serpent shall come through. Well Satan challenges Job's faithfulness by remarking to God and the hedge that He built around Job, explaining the latter's faithfulness. What hole then did Job make through the hedge? His fear of misfortune, taking away all his riches and happiness. In my case, it was already dawning on me that my confidence in God's protection was too easily shaken, whereas my wife's was rock solid. The anxiety was certainly taking its toll on me in many ways. And while the infestation is not yet over, it has died down without any help from my anxiety. Instead, it was just a matter of time. Meanwhile, I just needed to relax, sleep better, cope, and foster some hope. Not one thing about my problems would be helped by my worrying.

Why are you cast down, my soul, Why groan within me? Hope in God; I will praise him still, My savior and my God. (Psalm 42)

Faith versus works

Or the dog that never barked, perhaps. Or the issue that never was.

Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio delivers as good an explanation as any, if not better, about this artificial confrontation between faith and works. Many Christians assert "faith alone, but this faith is never alone" (or some permutation), and still find fault in the Roman Catholic position. The obstinacy is sad and frustrating. There is already a common, orthodox understanding of faith and works, not as opposing systems but as necessary components of what is expected of us: a living faith. To nevertheless maintain that there remains a contention hides what the issue really is.

Whatever that/those might be, the disappointments, heartache and frustrations that brought them on are real.

Hard but liberating words to live by

In today's Gospel reading, our Lord teaches us how to pray. He also leaves us some hard words to consider about forgiveness:

‘Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.’

I am currently discussing with Lutheran friends what they call JBWA: "justified by works also". They object to it based on the Protestant principle of being saved by faith alone (sola fide). But these particular Lutherans do not subscribe that once one is saved, one is always saved (and assured of it). It is therefore plausible to explain that, in that lifetime of being saved, or, having been saved, in the lifetime of remaining saved, one's cooperation has an impact. This cooperation, they see as "works also", and they will never permit that it is a cause of justification. Fair enough, I think. The who of salvation is of course he-who-saves (Yeshua), our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. The what of remaining saved, as in the things that impact our state of grace, includes, significantly, obedience. Not as a cause, but as a requirement of God, i.e., he requires our obedience. In their doctrines, faith that saves (or that which keeps us saved), seems to what we Catholics might refer to as a living faith, or a life of faith. This necessarily involves obedience -- and that involves love, as in the two greatest commandments to love God with all our mind, heart, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love exhibits itself in good works.

Faith without (good) works is dead, says St. James, so works are in there someplace as the "flesh" of our faith. If we refuse to give our works over to the will of God in obedience, then we most certainly wreck our faith and imperil our salvation. This refusal to obey is the opposite of cooperation with grace. This refusal to love is a rejection of God, who is love. Therefore, cooperation with grace, which is by obedience in our whole being (body included), does impact our salvation. It is not the cause of it, but it is a requirement. More precisely, it is God's requirement.

But a word about the Catholic notion of being saved: we don't generally express it in this way. We know instead of the state of grace, which keeps us in friendship and unity with God. Mortal sin (deliberate and gravely evil works) severs that state of grace, so we therefore understand salvation as a process that mortal sin can interrupt. We also understand that refusing to re-establish that state of grace, that friendship with God, may completely derail salvation. Thus, it is our habit to speak only of the state of grace, not of being certainly saved. The New Testament also refers often to the Last Day, at the hour of judgment, as the definite time of salvation, because that is when the process is complete. It is not a lack of confidence in the God who saves, but a realistic assessment of our sinful nature, which, in the state of grace, is being repaired by the Holy Spirit. It is daunting to think that God has given us the will to resist and rebuff the Holy Spirit. Just look again at what the Lord teaches above about the refusal to forgive. But we take comfort in the fact that we are not without help -- we refer to the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete, the helper. With his help, we can discern, we can forgive, we can love, we can obey.

Living faith, living love

From today's Liturgy of the Hours via Universalis.com:

Mid-morning reading (Terce)	1 John 4:16 ©
We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves. God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.

---

Noon reading (Sext)	Galatians 6:7 - 8 ©
What a man sows, he reaps. If he sows in the field of self-indulgence he will get a harvest of corruption out of it; if he sows in the field of the Spirit he will get from it a harvest of eternal life.

---

Afternoon reading (None)	(Galatians 6:9-10) ©
We must never get tired of doing good, and then we shall get our harvest at the proper time. While we have the chance, we must do good to all, and especially to our brothers in the faith.

Oh dear

They do hate us, don't they? This is something I've never quite related to. In all my years as a Catholic, I have never been told to simply believe, and never to question. In fact, even in Opus Dei, we were encouraged to study, study, study. Of course we were told "this is true", but we were also encouraged to examine why -- through study.

One thing which I pray may be taken up by my children is the spirit of true learning. Not that which arrogantly claims to know what one has not studied nor analyzed, but that which begins with a proposition -- yes, perhaps a dogma -- and ends with a position obtained from careful, prayerful study. What of dogmas that can't be understood? May they be humble enough to state that they cannot understand it -- rather than claim that what they do not understand is false. There's a difference, after all.

Update: The American Papist provides more details about the book "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman, including reader comments at Amazon. So television executives are willing to pull episodes on TV that might offend Muslims, but no such charity towards Catholics when every visible aspect of their faith is insulted and villified -- in children's fantasy novels/movies?

Truth, faith and tolerance: excerpts

I found this amazing piece from Ignatius Insight, which includes excerpts from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's "Truth, faith and tolerance" -- written before he became Pope Benedict XVI. It's great reading.

Spirit and truth

The Jews do not seem to have any metaphoric understanding of "Spirit." Yet many Christians cite such a metaphor as the key to the doctrine of the Eucharist as a purely symbolic meal. One step improved is the doctrine that the Eucharist is a purely Spiritual meal, but even that is not good enough. The Catholic doctrine is instead the sacramental one: the Eucharist is a parallel of the Incarnation. It is Spiritual and physical. It is also holy -- sacramental. How can something Christian not be sacramental, when Christ came and remains our most Blessed Sacrament? Just as the Incarnation is about God becoming man, the Eucharist is about God becoming bread and wine. And just as the Incarnation does not compromise the fullness of divinity, neither does the Eucharist.

It came to mind earlier that a similarly strange metaphor of the Spirit is also responsible for compromises on Baptism as a sacrament. Likewise Confirmation, the Eucharist, Holy Orders, Matrimony, Confession, and Extreme Unction.

I have an image of the Enemy chipping away at athe faith of the Church. Chip, chip, chip. No sacraments, no bodily Incarnation, no bodily Resurrection -- pretty soon, one is worshipping a christ who is not Jesus Christ; God who never became man.

When you exclude the hard doctrines because they are divisive, what do you risk losing? Who says that divisive doctrines are wrong simply because they are divisive?

Catholic Faith

Now why would the Catholic liturgy of the hours include these readings for today?

Mid-morning reading (Terce) Romans 1:16 - 17
The power of God saves all who have faith – Jews first, but Greeks as well – since this is what reveals the justice of God to us: it shows how faith leads to faith, or as scripture says: The upright man finds life through faith.

Noon reading (Sext) Romans 3:21 - 22
God’s justice that was made known through the Law and the Prophets has now been revealed outside the Law, since it is the same justice of God that comes through faith to everyone who believes.

Afternoon reading (None) Ephesians 2:8 - 9
It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.

Shouldn't the Church be removing such verses from the liturgy of the hours, to keep Catholics fooled? ;-)

Update: I almost forgot about this Christianity Today article by Simon Gathercole that is quite relevant and interesting to read: "What did Paul really mean?" -- about justification by faith.

The Witness and the Loss of Faith

Amy Welborn comments thoughtfully on the LA Times story of one man's journey and loss of fath. Once Evangelical, William Lobdell went through with RCIA and was stopped from entering the Catholic Church by the scandal of clergy sexual abuse. It is a sad story, but his journey is not yet over and we can pray that he and many who were similarly driven away from the Church will find the Prince of Peace at journey's end somehow.