catholicism 101 -- part 8

CATHOLICISM 101

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

Church of the Holy Cross
April 13, 2008

Part 8
Christian Duty: Christian Belief

- Christian Duty

• We have seen that we are promised salvation, and that salvation comes to us by supernatural grace, and that the Catholic Church is the covenanted sphere of grace, the domain within which grace is operative, and where the truth is proclaimed and taught.

• But obviously mere passive membership in the Church is not sufficient. Rather, as in 1 Timothy 6.12, the journey toward salvation demands certain things of us. It demands 1) the “good confession” and 2) “the good fight of the faith” (1 Tim. 6.12). Not just any old confession or fight will do. They must be “the good confession” and “the good fight of the faith”.

• What is necessary, in other words, are the two inseparable and interpenetrating realities of 1) faith, and 2) works. We must BELIEVE rightly, and DO rightly.

• In Part 7 we saw that Baptism is the first act of faith, and that by it we are brought into the Church, incorporated into the mystical Body of Christ (the Church), and the possibility of salvation / restoration / healing / fulfillment was thereby opened to us.

• In Baptism we promised several things (in the baptismal promises, BCP p. 302ff).

• We renounced: Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God, all the evil powers of this world, and all sinful desires. (In short: the world, the flesh, and the devil.)

• We promised that we turned to Jesus Christ, put our trust in his grace and love, and that we would follow and obey Jesus as Lord.

• (If we were very young, these promised were made in our name and on our behalf.)

• In short we promised to:

• Avoid evil,

• Believe the truth,

• Do what is right.

• This is the essence of Christian Duty, which encompasses the domains of faith and works; belief and action; doctrine and devotion; etc.

• Now we will consider the first of these two spheres: Belief.

- Christian Belief

• We don’t make up the faith as we go along. We are not the inventors of Christianity. God is. “The Lord has founded Zion” (Isaiah 14.32), and “…I will build my Church” (Matt. 16.18), etc.

• So Christian duty with respect to BELIEF is to seek and to believe what God has revealed, without questioning – to accept it on God’s authority, because he is God and he has revealed it. Anything else is horrendously presumptuous.

• “Not questioning” does not preclude the seeking for reasons; this is in fact enjoined upon us (“Be prepared to give a defense…” etc. (1 Peter 3.15). But it does mean FIRST deciding that God HAS revealed himself, and then seeking his revelation.

• Right belief is also important because what you believe informs what you will DO. We are less likely to DO the right thing without BELIEVING the right thing. For example: all else being equal, a person who believes that murder is permissible is more likely, prima facie, actually to COMMIT (to DO) murder than a person who believes that murder is impermissible. So believing correctly is important. St. Jude writes, first urging his hearers to “to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” and then to “build yourselves up on your most holy faith” (vv 3 and 20). If we are to build on faith, then it is important that our faith be solid (extending the construction metaphor – our faith is our foundation).

• Revelation 14.12 defines the saints as those “who keep the commandments of God [ACTION] and the faith of Jesus [BELIEF]”.

• So… Q: what ARE we to believe?

• A: the catholic faith.

• Q: where is it?

• A: First, its in the “Catholic Creeds” - the Apostles’ Creed, and the Nicene Creed.

• The word “Creed” comes from the Latin word “credo” which means “I believe.” This is the first word of both the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds. The Greek word for “creed” is σύμβολον which originally meant half of a broken thing which, when placed with the other half of the broken thing, would serve to verify the bearer’s identity. It thus came by extension to mean a password or watchword. And the term came to be applied to the creeds because they were watchwords of belonging to the Christian community of faith. If you can affirm THIS, then your belief is recognizably that of the Christian communities’ – the creed was the formula by which a Christian could make himself known to fellow Christians.

• The use of the creeds by Christians began very early – before the books of the New Testament were written. Many see a reference to very early Christian creeds in St. Paul’s writings:

• “The saying…” (1 Tim. 1.15, 1 Tim. 4.9, 2 Tim. 2.11, Titus 1.9, Titus 3.8).

• “…the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith…" (2 Tim. 1.13).

• “…what has been entrusted…” (1 Tim. 6.20, 2 Tim. 1.12).

• This way of speaking fits the pattern of use which we know creeds had in the early centuries of the Church – namely they were “entrusted” to catechumens to be learned by heart (they were not written down), in the days immediately prior to their Baptism at Easter.

• In the first few centuries of the Church, there came to be broad agreement on certain “patterns of sound words” and “sayings” that expressed well and succinctly the content of the Christian faith – and which thus serve well as watchwords for members of the Christian community and those who were coming into it. For the next few weeks we will look at: 1) the Apostles’ Creed, and 2) The Nicene Creed.