catholicism 101 -- part 7/8

CATHOLICISM 101

(The outline of this series is taken from Father Vernon Staley’s book The Catholic Religion.)

Church of the Holy Cross
March 9, 2008

Part 7
Christian Duty – Initiation into the Life of Grace / The (beginning of the) Sacramental Life

- We have seen what the Church is – that it is the sphere within which God is active, the sphere of grace; that it is the home of the Truth. But what about individuals? How do we stand in relation to the Church?

• We are concerned with those who are within the Church (this is, after all, a discussion within a church).

• ALL PEOPLE (including those who are not members of the Church), from our point of view, should maintain an open and suppliant heart. They should constantly seek the truth for its own sake, honestly search for God, and do good.

• But we are after SALVATION, union with God, eternal fulfillment, deliverance from death. What then must we do?

• “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. HE WHO BELIEVES AND IS BAPTIZED WILL BE SAVED; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover" (Mark 16.15ff).

• But we all see in this baptism that its impossible just to believe in the sense of passive acknowledgement.

• “But some one will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe -- and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren?” (James 2.18ff).

• Its not enough just to “believe” in the sense of believing something to be the case. That’s not the what the Scriptures mean. They mean FAITH – which is ACTIVE.

• “Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6.12).

• The life of faith is a FIGHT. Its something we DO. It’s a “taking hold” of eternal life. It doesn’t stop with “making a good confession”.

• There are two stages of faith:

• “the good confession” – cf. the man born blind from John 9: “Lord I believe!” AND HE WORSHIPPED HIM (John 9.38); or the father of the epileptic / mute child from Mark 9: “Lord I believe! Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9.24); or Mary and Martha and Lazarus from John 11: “if you would believe you would see the glory of God” (John 11.40).

• This is essentially acknowledging that Jesus is who he claims to be – the Christ, the Son of the Living God, he who is coming into the world, etc. Acknowledging his power.

• Then there is “fighting the good fight of the faith” – which follows on from the “good confession”. It is entailed by the acknoweldgement of Christ’s power over all. Because if he has power over everything, then he has power over YOU. Fighting the good fight means acquiescing to his power in YOUR life, your particular circumstances. Its not enough just to “believe” passively – “even the demons believe – and shudder.”

• So the Lord says “signs will accompany those who believe” in the more complete sense of “believing” – because the more complete sense of belief means making oneself susceptible to the power of Christ in your particular life. Therefore “you will take up serpents,” and speak in tongues and heal the sick, etc.

• This is symbolic. We should not be snake-handlers. It means that the Lord of Creation is now your Lord – through FAITH. You are no longer a slave to natural power, but to supernatural power. You are prone now to grace, you look for it, you find it in your life, you take hold of it, you make use of it to be transformed.

• This transformation is a transformation to make us able to see the power and glory of God, and to dwell in it (in HIM) forever. “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12.2).

• 1) Faith, 2) Baptism (from the Lord’s words in Mark 16, above).

• Baptism is sacramental initiation into the sphere of Grace – which is Christ himself.

• “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6.3)

• To be baptized means to be mystically incorporated into the sphere of divine power which begins the supernatural transformation of your personhood. Because baptism is baptism “INTO HIS DEATH” – that is, into the place where divine power delivers EVEN FROM DEATH – into Christ himself (because he IS the Kingdom of God – the place where God’s will is carried out, where his power is manifest): “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6.4).

• “And you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2.12).

• “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free -- and all were made to drink of one Spirit…. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12, passim).

• And “the Body” is the one (catholic) Church (cf. Colossians 1.18 & 24).

• When we are baptized, we make solemn vows (or they are made on our behalf, and we later ratify and renew them for ourselves). See Book of Common Prayer p. 302.