catholicism 101 -- part 4/8

CATHOLICISM 101

Church of the Holy Cross

February 10, 2008

Part 4

The Historic Episcopate: the Guardian of the Truth, and the Instrument and Pledge of Grace

• Some residual remarks on the Episcopate:

  • It is the Guardian of the Truth

    • The Truth, in its completeness, was given by Jesus and the Holy Spirit (by God himself) to the Apostles.

      • John 17.6, 7, 19: “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them to me, and they have kept thy word. Now they know that everything that thou hast given me is from thee…. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

    • The Apostles handed it on to their successors.

      • 2 Timothy 1.13-14: St. Paul writes to St. Timothy: “Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.”

      • 2 Timothy 2.2: “and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

      • St. Irenaeus of Lyons (in about 175 AD) writes about St. Polycarp: “But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true.”

    • One of the primary jobs of a bishop is to teach and guard this faith which was given by Christ to the Apostles, and who promised to them that the Holy Spirit (the third person of the Godhead) would himself guard this deposit of truth.

      • Matthew 28.20: (speaking to the 12): “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teachings them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

      • John 14.16f: “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth…”

        • Note that the promise of the Holy Spirit is “forever” (Greek = “eis ton aiona” = “into the eon”). It cannot therefore be just about the 12 Apostles – who would die well before the close of the eon.

    • When false teaching rose up in the Church, it was the job of the bishops to refute it. That’s what the “ecumenical councils” were for. They were large gatherings of bishops from all over the world.

      • Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and of Chalcedon in 451 AD gave us the Nicene Creed, which we still recite today, every Sunday. It was produced by the bishops to differentiate what was the truth about Christ, which had come down from the Apostles, from some strange things about Jesus that had begun to be taught (like that he was a creature – but no, said the bishops, he was in fact “begotten, not made, of one being with the Father, and through him all things were made”). The bishops were restating what had been handed down to them by the Apostles from the beginning.

      • A few weeks ago, a very good question was asked: how do we KNOW what the true teaching is? Here is what I believe: we know because of the universal witness of bishops of the apostolic succession. This means, basically, three groups of bishops in the divided Christendom: The Roman Catholics (the largest group), the Eastern Orthodox (the next largest group), and the Anglicans (the third largest group). What these groups of bishops teach is what is safe and true. But some of them, you will note, disagree with one another. Here’s how to tell when they disagree: When Rome and the East agree about something and Anglicanism teaches something different (or is silent), Rome and the East win out. When Rome and the East disagree with one another, we are at liberty to believe different things. I am hear advocating a kind of democracy among bishops of the apostolic succession. I think this is right – though it is not “gospel”.

  • The historic Episcopate is the instrument and pledge of grace.

    • Grace is the free and unmerited favor of God, manifested in the salvation of sinners (us), and in the bestowal of blessings.

    • St. Paul calls the clergy “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4.1).

      • The “mysteries of God” are the very profound truths about God, which transcend the ability of humans to understand: like how God can be a trinity of persons and a unity of substance, or the Incarnation – how Jesus can be at once both perfect God and perfect man.

      • But “mysteries” also means “sacraments”. The normal Greek word for “sacraments” is “musterion”. We use this too in English, for example in the Postcommunion Prayer, when we thank God for “assuring us in these holy mysteries”.

    • The bishops are the guardians and dispensers of the Sacraments.

      • The sacraments can only be duly celebrated by those who have been authorized by Christ – by the Apostles and their successors.

      • Unless the sacraments are administered by someone sent by Christ to do so, there is no guarantee that they are means of grace (any crazy person can take a bowl of milk and a jar of peanut butter, and wave his arms around and say it’s a “sacrament”).

      • Jesus told the Apostles to Baptize (Matthew 28.19), to Celebrate the Mass (“do this” – cf. 1 Cor. 11.25), and to absolve sins: John 20.22f: “…he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

      • To say “This is my body,” and “this is my blood”, or to say “I absolve you from all of your sins” would be extremely presumptuous for someone not authorized by God to do so.

      • Moreover, there is no guarantee that these words would mean what Christ meant by them, or that they would effect what he meant to effect when he used them, unless they are used by those whom he sent.

        • Here we can see the connection between the magisterial (= teaching) authority of the bishops as guardians and dispensers of the true faith, on the one hand, and their authority as guardians and dispensers of the sacraments. John 17.8: “I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them…”

    • Thus the historic Episcopate – bishops in succession from the Apostles themselves – is the warrant and guarantee of sacramental grace, of the “musterion theou” – the Mysteries of God.

      • And correlatively, Christian groups who have not maintained the historic Episcopate (most Protestants), have lost with it the ordinary means of grace ordained by God – namely, his sacraments. Those Christians, of course, who act in ignorance will likely be excused by God, and he may reward the faith of such Christians by granting them grace – but it is beyond the purview of his covenant. His covenant is with the Catholic Church.