Please come to our end-of-the-year party next Thursday, May 5, starting at 5:30 pm, Parish Hall (1011 25th St.) Chipotle burritos and cold beverages to be served. You won't want to miss this!
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In our 8:30 discussion Sunday night "On the dignity of women", we had a spirited conversation that was intense but civil. All in all, it was very good for many of us to engage in honest dialogue about important issues.
However, I have noticed (before and on Sunday) that there is a widespread lack of faith in the Church by some Catholics. They will say that they believe in Jesus but not in the Church.
Here's the question: do you believe that the Church has been guided by the Holy Spirit for 2000 years? If so, in what ways? If your answer is 'no', then of course you're not going to follow the Pope (or bishops) when he teaches about issues such as women priests, contraception, married priests, abortion, etc. Why would you? If that were the case, then it would be just an opinion from some old guy in Rome which you could reject.
Is Pope Benedict XVI filled with the Holy Spirit in his teachings? Was John Paul II? And all the popes going back to St. Peter? If so, then it is the Holy Spirit who is teaching infallibly an all-male priesthood, life begins at conception, etc. through the particular Pope (and college of bishops).
Yes, it is God who is truly teaching these things. That is the guarantee of our faith. All of Christ's teachings about God (faith) and how to live in Him (morals) have been preserved in the Catholic Church. In their fullness. Through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth (John 14:17), "whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I said to you" (26).
The Church began in 33 A.D. when the Father sent the Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost. Acts 2:4 says that the Apostles were "all filled with the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit is active throughout the Acts of the Apostles (He speaks in 13:2, e.g.). Was it just for that generation that the Holy Spirit was active in the Church? No, of course not. He has been the primary acting agent in the Church for over 2000 years.
The visible Catholic Church is a divine institution led by human beings under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. "Christ is the Head, the Church is the Body" (Ephesians 1:23). Christ teaches today through the Pope and bishops (the successors of the Apostles): "whoever hears you hears me" (Luke 10:16). The Holy Spirit guarantees that when they teach about faith and morals, they teach without error what Christ taught.
Outside of these matters, they are fallible like you and me. Their sins are well documented by the world. But, Jesus entrusted the care of his Church to weak and sinful men. He gave supreme teaching authority to Peter (Matthew 19) who He knew would deny Him. How did Jesus treat Peter after he denied Him three times? Jesus told him 3 times to "feed my sheep" (John 21).
Even though he knew that Peter and the other Apostles were fallible and sinful men, He still gave them the "keys to the Kingdom" (Matt 19) which is the authority to teach as He taught about the Kingdom. He couldn't be wrong; they and their successors can't be wrong when they teach in this way under the guidance of the Spirit.
It's all about faith. Faith in God and faith in the Church. We profess our faith in the Trinity and in the Church ("we believe in one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church") every Sunday. We believe that the Church and Christ are one (Ephesians 5). We believe that faith in the Church is faith in Christ because the Church is the Body of Christ. What we say about the Church, we say about Christ.
Do you believe?
"When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8)
3 comments:
As a reforming (trying diligently) "Cafeteria Catholic," I have recently begun to realize (I believe, with the help of the Holy Spirit) that you cannot decide what aspects of Catholicism to believe in or not--either you believe in the Trinity, the Gospel, the Church, the Pope, etc., in their entirety, or you don't.
As you get a little older, you begin to realize that modern society increasingly demands that you make concessions in your beliefs and in your faith. Incredibly, during the Mass at the Vatican, just before the Conclave began, then-Cardinal Ratzinger offered an extraordinary Homily, in which he warned of the danger of the "Dictatorship of Moral Relativism" in the Church and the world. Greg Shaffer offered many excerpts from this Homily in his previous posting, but if anyone is interested in reading the full transcript, it is extraordinarily relevant and deeply inspiring and can be found at: http://www.ncronline.org/mainpage/specialdocuments/ratzinger_conclavehomily.htm. For me, this clearly demonstrates the Holy Spirit at work, here and now--and what perfect timing.
In the past, I found myself picking, choosing, and subscribing only to those church teachings that fit with my lifestyle and that were convenient for me to follow. I began to realize that I was subconsciously rationalizing my decisions and my behavior to reconcile what I wanted from the modern world with my Catholic faith. After a great deal of disappointment, confusion, prayer and reflection, I am beginning to realize that the two are not compatible and that my approach was inherently self-centered and arrogant--as if I could make better decisions about appropriate Church doctrines than the successors to the Apostles?
I don't mean to preach (I am certainly not qualified), and I certainly continue to struggle with my faith, but I am completely convinced of the importance of my faith in the Holy Trinity and in the absolute power of the Holy Spirit, particularly, to bring me closer to Jesus Christ and to guide me through the real and difficult challenges of modern life. My personal view is that the Holy Spirit could not have chosen a more appropriate candidate for the times than Pope Benedict XVI, especially considering my own recent challenges and experiences, and especially as the church is confronted with an increasingly hostile world that expects the Church to conform to its standards rather than the other way around.
Did Jesus construct his teachings simply to attract more followers or to increase his popularity? Did he change his message, or answer the questions of the Pharisees or Pilate differently to save his own life, rather than be beaten and nailed to a cross? Jesus preached that following him would be difficult and painful; faith in him and his teachings was not supposed to be convenient, much less conforming to the rest of society.
I believe that the Pope, Cardinals, and Bishops are not "interpreting" the will of the Holy Spirit, rather I believe that their actions with regard to the church and its teachings are moved and guided by the Holy Spirit directly. The fact that the College of Cardinals chose such a staunch and conservative defender of church doctrine seems incredibly appropriate and necessary for the times in which we live.
Finally, one last point on a different topic: it has been suggested that eliminating celibacy among priests would have somehow precluded the pedophilia scandal. It is my understanding that Pedophilia is a psychological illness; and there seem to be many documented cases of married men in the world among convicted pedphiles, so I doubt the validity of this argument.
I agree with almost all of what you said Anonymous, especially about the mind's tendency to rationalize its own arrogance and to try to fight doctrine. That is certainly true in the area of doctrine.
But I think you can take this argument too far, by saying that the actions of Bishops and Popes are directly led by the Holy Spirit.
If you look at what we believe, this is simply not (directly) true. They have no specific promise from God that everything they do will be right. The promises from Christ are that: 1) the Gates of Hell will not shut closed against them, 2) the Pope and the Cardinals in the power of the Magesterium will never say something that is false and 3) God will continue, through the form of the priests appointed in secession to his Bishops the Apostles, to make the sacraments work.
Those are the promises, and nothing more. And God couldn't have promised anything more, because as Benedict says, he is working with weak and imperfect tools. To say that God works through everything and will come out on top in the end, is of course true. But it is no more true of Bishops or Priests than the rest of us. If we make Bishops and Priests our perfect examples, or assume that they always work directly with the Holy Spirit, what are we to say about those who do abuse children, or Cardinals who have (in the past) voted for currupt Popes? As our new Holy Father himself said (see the bottom comment in last week's post), there are too many cases where people blessed by the Spirit, and given a number of promises, have failed the Spirit in regard to other matters, to argue that such a direct connection exists.
The danger is that, if we teach Catholic to worship at the feet of their earthly leaders and guides, rather than in the perfection of their Heavenly Father, they will lose their faith when these corruptible, human leaders inevitably do something incorrect. It is arrogant to think you know better than thousands of years of Catholic theologians, but it is natural to recognize child abuse or corruption as sins. Humility we must have, but faith in the unbelievable precept that man can be perfect, we cannot.
You made some excellent points Anonymous 2, thanks for responding to my post!
However, I would like to clarify one important point: I do not believe that we should "worship at the feet" of our "earthly leaders and guides," but I was suggesting that we should have faith that the Holy Spirit guides the actions of Cardinals and Bishops with regard to the Church and its teachings. Of course, we all recognize that they are also human and are subject to the same errors in judgment and temptations of sin. It was not my intention to suggest that church leaders are perfect, because clearly they are not.
You made the excellent point that Pope Benedict XVI referred to himself and other Church leaders as weak and imperfect tools, but I have to believe that, specifically in matters of Church doctrine, they are guided by the Holy Spirit directly.
Having said that, the child abuse scandals and the subsequent cover-up are abhorrent, and corruption definitely erodes the credibility of the church (every leader and representative of the Catholic church has acknowledged this); but precisely because Church leaders are human, we have to accept that they will make mistakes and that Christ will forgive them as he forgives us (in a similar recent discussion, a certain seminarian reminded me of this fact quite eloquently!).
Respectfully, as much as some Church officials have deeply disappointed me, others have reaffirmed my faith in the church and have served as great examples of how the Holy Spirit is at work in the Church every day.
Finally, it is easy to jump on the bandwagon to criticize various church leaders for their failings, but how often do people publicly recognize those many other leaders who live selflessly, honor their vows of celibacy, and who commit themselves to serving the church? I know that I could not make the same sacrifices; and while it is entirely appropriate, and necessary, to question any alleged malfeasance by any church official, we should also remember to recognize the great sacrifices of those leaders who serve the Church honestly and faithfully.
Thanks again for responding to my post--these exchanges are a great learning tool for me, as I always learn something new from everyone on here!
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