Lost In Translation
August 20, 2010
“Upon this Rock…”
Most Catholics, and most Protestants, are familiar with the passage from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 16, where Jesus addresses “Simon Bar-Jona” and says: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it; and to thee I will give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven…” Most Catholics know that this passage teaches that Peter was thereby designated the head of the Apostles, and would ultimately — as the first Bishop of the church in Rome — become the first “pope”, (tho’ that title would not be used for centuries).
Most Protestants know it doesn’t teach that at all. Of course not. Peter isn’t the rock… that can’t be what Jesus means…
A brief review of the entire story may help.
The disciples have been with Jesus a long time, they’ve had to absorb a great dealing of teaching, an entire Sermon on the Mount, dozens of parables… and so — in order to assure that they’ve been paying attention — Jesus provides them a “mid-term exam.”
“Who do men say the Son of Man is?” Well, the disciples have been hearing the buzz on the streets, they’ve overheard the comments of the crowds, and so they eagerly put forward some of the “conventional wisdom.”
“Some say ‘John the Baptist!’ ”
“Others say Elijah!”
“Others say jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” … all the disciples, chiming in with what other people were saying. Then Jesus turns the tables, and asks the BIG question.
“But who do YOU say that I am?”
Suddenly the noisy disciples go strangely quiet… that awkward silence when no one in the class is really certain of the answer, and is praying that the teacher won’t call on them…
Then, a voice rings out: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” It is Simon, son of John… the fisherman from Cana, coarse and uneducated, but with a heart open to the Spirit of God.
Jesus answers him: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church…”
Immediately something is lost in the translation from Greek, (the language in which the New Testament was written), into English, because “Peter” and “rock” do not look or sound the same. Protestants will say “Peter” cannot be equated verbally to “rock” because even in the Greek, (where the words DO look and sound the same), the “Petros” translated “Peter”, and the “petra” translated ”rock” have two different genders. (In the Greek, the word for “rock” is feminine; “petra.” In order to make the word “rock” a masculine name, one would have to change the ending; “petra” => “petros”) The Protestant argument is that “petra” means “solid rock” — and Jesus is pointing to Himself, of course – and that “petros” means “a small stone.” Jesus is not equating them, but is instead contrasting them. But Greek scholars — even non-Catholic ones — admit that the words ”petros” and “petra” were synonymous in first century Greek. Karl Keating writes, in “The Essential Catholic Survival Guide”: The difference in meaning can be found only in Attic Greek, but the New Testament was written in Koine Greek — an entirely different dialect. In Koine Greek, both “petros” and “petra” simply mean rock. The distinction that some Protestants attempt to make between “petros” and “petra” simply doesn’t exist!
But beyond that, when one considers that Jesus and the disciples most likely spoke Aramaic, and not Greek, (at least, not among themselves), the Protestant argument becomes even less defensible – the word for ”rock” in Aramaic is “kepha” , and because there are no distinctions between masculine and feminine, what Jesus would have said to Peter is: “You are ‘Kepha’, and upon this kepha I will build My Church.” The early Church historian, Eusebius of Caesarea, records that the Gospel according to St. Matthew was originally written in Aramaic, and was translated into Koine Greek early on, (possibly by St. Matthew himself.) Therefore, the earliest inspired record of this conversation would have clearly shown the verbal connection between “Cephas”, (as St. Paul refers to him in several places), and the ROCK upon which Christ promised to build His Church.
Unfortunately, a lot often gets lost in translation. Fortunately, we don’t have to search far to find what has been lost.
Weapons of the Spirit
March 10, 2010
Millions of people think that Satan, (aka, “the devil”), is a figment of human imagination; a non-existent being akin to orcs, goblins, and elves. They are mistaken. Holy Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, clearly teaches that Satan does exist. One has only to read the daily papers, or watch the evening news, to know that Satan exists and is as active today as he ever was in the past. Of all the enemies the human race has – especially those members of the human race who are part of the Church, the Body of Christ – this Enemy is the most dangerous.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church leaves no doubt about the truth of the existence of Satan, and of his works, and of his ways:391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy.266 Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil”.267 The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.”268
392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.269 This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: “You will be like God.”270 The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is “a liar and the father of lies”.271 _______________________________________________________________________________________
266 Cf. Gen 3:1-5; Wis 2:24. 267 Cf Jn 8:44; Rev 12:9. 268 Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800. 269 Cf. 2 Pet 2:4. 270 Gen 3:5. 271 1 Jn 3:8; Jn 8:44.
His Name
The name Satan means _______________________ (“devil” means __________________________)
When this word is used as a proper noun, it describes the chief of the fallen spirits, the most malevolent adversary of God and man, (Jn 1:6, 12; 2:1; Zech. 3:1), hostile to everything good or pure.
His Aliases & Titles:
Matt. 12:24 “B_____________________” (means ______________________________________)*
John 8:44 (two) “a murderer” and the “F___________________________________________”
John 14:30 “the ______________________________________________________________”
2 Cor. 4:4 “the ____________________________of this world”
2 Cor. 6:15 “Belial” (In common use, a Hebrew word for “ __________________________” )
Eph 2:2 “the P______________________________________________________________”
Rev. 9:11 (two names)
“A_________________________” (means ______________________________)
“A_________________________” (means ______________________________)
(This passage also refers to him as “the angel of ___________________________” )
Rev. 12:10 “A __________________________________________________ “
Rev. 20:2 “the D_________________, the A______________________________”
His Origin
Nowhere does Holy Scripture specifically explain the origin of Satan, but two passages that biblical scholars often point two as possible “poetic” descriptions are: Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 29:12-19 (Look up both passages, read them together. What words or phrases suggest to you that the prophets are talking to someone “beyond” the person they are addressing?)
If these passages do disclose something to us about the origin of Satan, what do you “sense” might have happened? What was the root of his sin?
His Personality
Satan is a real, spiritual, being – a “person” in the same way the Holy Spirit is a “person.” Sacred Scripture teaches that he has:
1. (2 Cor 11:3) _____________________________;
2. (2 Tim 2:26) _____________________________; and,
3. (Rev. 12:10) _____________________________.
Furthermore, he is treated by God as a morally responsible being, not an impersonal power or thing, who of his own “free will” chose to rebel against God, and will suffer the due punishment. (Matt. 25:41, see also CCC par. 392-393)
His Strategy
Satan is totally obsessed with hatred for the Almighty and all things holy and good. He never tires of trying to get others join him in his rebellion against the authority of the Almighty God, the Holy One. By his deceit, he lured Adam and Eve into sin against God, thereby stealing their innocence from them, and making them – and all their descendents – his slaves. Every redeemed child of God who has confessed faith in Christ, all who have been baptized in the name of the Triune God, marked with the Cross and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, have been released from his dominion (Col. 1:13) – and have entered the battle against him. (cf. Liturgy for the Sacrament of Holy Baptism)
Satan’s battle-plan is simple, but deadly:
1. To lure people into sin (Genesis 3:1-12), and make them his slaves ( John 8:34).
2. To oppose, hinder, and counterfeit the plan of God. (Daniel 10:10-14; Rev. 13:1-10)
3. To blind the minds of unbelievers, and snatch the Word of God from their heart. (2 Cor. 4:4; Luke 18:2)
4. To deceive and destroy believers, (2 Cor. 11:14; I Pet 5:8), tempting them to sin and to shipwreck their faith. (Acts 5:3; Heb 3:12-13; 2nd Tim. 4:9-10a; 1st Tim 1:18,19)
BUT… and this is crucial to remember: “The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature- to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.”275 “ (CCC 395) 275 Rom 8:28.
His Ultimate End
Though he is a spiritual being of enormous power, cunning, and wrath, the Devil is NOT equal with God. He is not invincible. He can be - and, in fact, has been – defeated, and faces eternal punishment.
1. Judgment pronounced in Eden (Gen. 3:14-15)
2. Judgment prophesied by Christ ( Luke 10:18)
3. Judgment sealed at the Cross (John 12:31,32)
4. Cast into the Lake of Fire at the end of time. (Rev. 20:10)
Saints ALIVE!
November 1, 2009
There stands in Arlington National Cemetery a monument — a large white tomb — which is so hallowed and revered that it receives an honor guard that stands watch 24/7, an elite honor guard whose members are chosen from only the very finest, an honor guard whose sense of duty to that hallowed monument will cause them to stand that watch in the face of blistering heat, bitterly cold winter winds, and torrential rains — even when their superiors give them permission to seek shelter. The monument is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and it honors all those soldiers who have died in service to their country, whose remains could not be identified, and whose names are known only to God.
The Feast of All Saints, which we observed this Sunday, is just such a monument for the Church. From the early centuries of the Church, a day was set aside in which all those who had died in the Faith — most of them martyrs, having been put to death for their confession of Jesus as Lord, and most of those unknown by the Church, but known by God – a day in which these saints would also be honored by the Church. In the Church of the East, the day was observed on the Sunday after Pentecost. There is a certain logic to that — the thought being that Pentecost is the “birth” of the Church, and the Church grows, in spite of persecution, because of the faithful witness of many who will suffer death before they deny the Lord who died for them, redeemed them by His blood, and rose again. As one early Church Father wrote: “The blood of the martyers is the seed of the Church.”
In the West, the Feast of All Saints is traced to the foundation, by Pope Gregory III (731-741), of an oratory in St. Peter’s for the relics “of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world,” with the day set for November 1st. While “All Saints” is meant to honor those who have passed from this life, it would be a mistake for us to misunderstand or mis-interpret the word. When we speak of saints, we automatically think — almost unconsciously — “really holy” and “dead.” But one of these ideas needs to be re-examined.
One day, not long after Jesus had entered Jerusalem for the Passover — His “Passover” — He was teaching in the Temple. On that day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. Now there were seven brothers among us, the first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, whose wife will she be in the resurrection, since all of them were married to her?”
Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead — have you not read what God said to you, ‘I AM the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, BUT OF THE LIVING.”
St. Matthew tells us that when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. And it is pretty astonishing — the declaration that God is no a God of the dead, but of the living; that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob — the holy patriarchs, having long passed from the earth, are NOT dead, but alive!
So what’s the connection to “All Saints”? Simply this: the saints who have gone before us, who have passed from this life, are not dead — they LIVE. They live IN CHRIST, who is LIFE. The saints LIVE, the ones known to the Church, and the ones known only to God. But unlike the honor guard keeping watch at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the saints — known and unknown — keep over us, a never-sleeping, ever-present, always watchful, honor guard.
“… since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, … let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us…”
“with Angels and Archangels…” St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael
September 29, 2009
“In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the funeral liturgy’s In Paradisum deducant te angeli… ["May the angels lead you into Paradise"]). Moreover, in the “Cherubic Hymn’ of the Byzantine liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels.)” CCC, 335
St. Michael (”Who is like God?”) is the archangel who fought Satan (Rev. 12). He is the protector of all humanity and reminds us of the real existance of the devil and demonic activity. For protection from the snares of the devil, it is good to have recourse to St. Michael (Daily Roman Missal, MTF)
Gabriel (Strength of God”) announced to Zechariah the birth of John the Baptist; and to Mary, the birth of Jesus. His greeting to the Virgin, “Hail, full of grace,” is one of the most familiar and frequent prayers of the Church. (Daily Roman Missal, MTF)
Raphael (”Medicine of God”) is the archangel who took care of Tobias on his journey [and provided the medicine which ultimately healed his father, Tobit ]. Every person on his or her pilgrimage through this life also has a guardian angel with a mission similar to that of Raphael. (Daily Roman Missal, MTF)
Sept. 29th is also refered to as “Michaelmas”, or “St. Michael and All Angels” (I took the name “Michael” at my confirmation/reception into full communion, in honor of St. Michael).
“St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle…”
“Heretic Philosopher-Playboy becomes Catholic Bishop — Writes Bestseller About His Conversion.”
August 28, 2009
It sounds like a headline ripped from a contemporary newspaper –even in today’s tabloid tell-all saturated society, it would make for an eye-catching headline. And the story is true, even if it isn’t necessarily “news.” The subject of the story lived over 1500 years ago, and his name was Aurelius Augustinus; we know him as St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.
Augustine was born in 352-54, in the small city of Tagaste, Africa, where today stands the Arab village of Souk-Ahras, near the eastern border of Algeria. He grew up in a time of the ascendancy of the (Catholic) Church — the great Council of Nicea having taken place barely a quarter of a century earlier — and the growing decline of the Roman Empire. His father, Patricius, was a minor official in the Roman ruling class in the community, and unapologeticly pagan. Augustine’s mother, Monica, was much younger than her husband, and deeply devoted to Christ and His Church.
One contemporary translator of his famous “Confessions”, Msgr. John K. Ryan, writes: In keeping with the unfortunate custom of the time, Augustine was not baptized in infancy, although he was enrolled as a catechumen. His devote mother gave him some instruction in Christianity and he learned to revere the name of Christ and to have devotion to the martyers, and to have a great desire for immortality. Seriously sick [at one point in his childhood], he begged to be baptized, but he recovered and his baptism was again delayed.
He must have given evidence of intellectual and literary powers from his earliest years… and as a child he was sent to school in Thageste to acquire the fundamentals of the education necessary for a successful public career. He was taught badly by a brutal master, and as a consequence he never acquired a mastery of Greek, although before the end of his life he came to have considerable knowledge of the language. Probably at age eleven, he was sent to Madauros… twenty miles to the south of Thagaste, for further studies. There he studied pagan liturature and perhaps made some aquaintance with the works of Plato. Madauros was a stronghold of paganism and the two or three years that he spent there must have had a bad effect upon his moral formation.
The worst was yet to come, however. Because his father did not have the financial ability to keep him in school, young sixteen year-old Augustine spent a year at home, with too much free-time on his hands. It led to increased moral corruption, which was completed when he then attended the rhetorical schools of Carthage. He took a concubine, with whom he had a son, (Adeodatus), and became a member of the pseudo-Christian sect known as the Manicheans. This sect, which was gnostic in essence, held to an extreme metaphysical and moral dualism — seeing both good and evil as equal realities, equal “positive” powers. Manicheism rejected the Old Testament, and attacked certain teachings of the New Testament, seeing the body as evil. For decades, Augustine would live in slavery to his lusts, trapped in false religion.
He ultimately became a teacher, first in Thagaste, then Carthage, later in Rome, and finally in Milan. Along the way he began to read a great deal of philosophy, and his knowledge of philosophy grew in depth and extent. All during this time, he continued to struggle with chastity, (or the lack thereof), and intellectual pride, which served as a barrier to his acceptance of the Christian (Catholic) faith.
Finally, after serving two years as a professor of rhetoric in the imperial city of Milan, he grew more and more dissatisfied with his moral, intellectual, and spiritual state. He desire to live a good life, but was too weak to do so. The mother of Adeodatus was sent back to Africa, a break that was as hard on Augustine as it was on her. A future marriage was arranged, but had to be delayed because the bride-to-be was underage. In the meantime, Augustine took up with another mistress.
During this time, Augustine came under the influence of St. Ambrose, who was then bishop of Milan. Slowly Augustine’s understanding of the depth of Catholic teaching grew. His heart and mind at once desiring to receive the new life, but fearful of giving up the old, he found himself in deep turmoil. Msgr Ryan recounts: At the height of his soul’s turmoil he heard a voice, like that of a child, chanting, “Take and read! Take and read! He seized an open copy of the New Testament, and the first words to meet his eyes were those of St. Paul: “Not in chambering and drunkeness, not in debauchery and wantoness, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and as for the flesh, take no thought for its lusts.” It was late summer, 386. The fervent prayers and ceaseless tears of his mother, (Saint) Monica, were answered on the Easter Vigil of 387, when Augustine was baptized, (along with Adeodatus), by St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.
Ever feel that you’ve lived so long as a “prodigal son” that you would never be able to return to the faith of your youth? Ever felt so lost you don’t think the grace of God will ever be able to find you? Ask St. Augustine, the heretic philosopher-playboy, who ultimately became one of the greatest theologians and “Doctors of the Church” to pray for you. Ask Monica, who never gave up on her son, and prayed unceasingly for his conversion, to consider you a “son” as well. Ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of all Christians, Our Lady of Grace, to pray for you. And never forget that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is seeking you more than you are seeking Him.
St. Augustine: pray for us.
St. Monica: pray for us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary: pray for us
Sacred Heart of Jesus: have mercy on us!
St. Augustine’s feast day is August 28th. (Which, intentionally, was the day of my ordination as a Lutheran pastor, seventeen years ago.)
Justification by Faith vs. Justification by “Faith Alone”.
January 27, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI has been using his weekly general audience to provide the faithful an in-depth teaching regarding St. Paul and his letters. In November of last year, he spoke about St. Paul’s teaching on justification. What follows are excerpts of his message on November 19th; the English translation is courtesy of the National Catholic Register.
…
The Letter to the Philippians is a moving testimony to Paul’s journey from justice based on the Law and achieved by observing a set of prescribed works to a justice based on faith in Christ. He realized that everything that had seemed to him as gain up until that point was, in reality, a loss before God.
…
It is precisely because of this personal experience of a relationship with Jesus that Paul places at the center of his message an irreducible contrast between two alternative paths to justice: one based on the works of the Law and the other founded on the grace of faith in Christ.
Therefore, this juxtaposition of justice through the works of the Law and justice through faith in Christ becomes a dominant theme throughout his letters: “We, who are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles, yet who know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” (Gal. 2:15-16)
He goes on to tell the Christians of Rome that “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-24).
Furthermore, he adds, “For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of law” (Rom. 3:28). Martin Luther translated this point as “justified by faith alone.” I will return to this at the end of my catechesis.
Freedom from the Law
First of all, we must clarify what is the “Law,” from which we have been freed, and what are those “works of the Law” that do not justify.
Within the community of Corinth, the opinion already existed — a question that would return systematically throughout history — that maintained it was a question of moral law and that Christian freedom consisted, therefore, in being free from ethics.
So, the catchphrase “everything is licit for me” was circulating in Corinth. It is obvious that this interpretation is erroneous: Christian liberty is not libertinism; the freedom of which St. Paul speaks is not freedom from doing good.
Therefore, what is the meaning of the Law from which we have been freed and that does not save?
For St. Paul, as well as for all his contemporaries, the word “Law” meant the entire Torah, that is, the five books of Moses.
According to the interpretation of the Pharisees, the Torah involved — and this is what Paul studied and made his own — a collection of attitudes and actions that ranged from a core of ethics to ritual and cultural observances that determined, in essence, the identity of a religious man, (particularly circumcision, precepts regarding clean food and ritual cleanliness in general, rules regarding the observance of the Sabbath, etc.)
…
In order to counter [Hellenistic] cultural pressure, which not only threatened Jewish identity but also its faith in the one God and His promises, a wall of distinction and a shield of defense was needed in order to protect the precious heritage of faith. This wall consisted of observing all the Jewish precepts.
A People Set Apart
Paul, who had learned these observances precisely in their function as a defense of God’s gifts and of the heritage of faith in the one true God, saw the freedom of the Christians as a threat to his identity: That is why he persecuted them.
During his encounter with the risen Christ, he realized, however, that the situation had changed radically with Christ’s resurrection. With Christ, the God of Israel — the one true God — became the God of all peoples.
The wall, he says in his letter to the Ephesians, between Israel and the pagans was no longer necessary. Christ protects us against polytheism and all its deviations.
Christ unites us with and in the one true God. Christ guarantees our true identity within the diversity of cultures. The wall is no longer necessary. Our common identity within the diversity of cultures is Christ, and it is He who makes us just.
Being just simply means being with Christ and in Christ. That is all. The other precepts were no longer necessary.
For this reason, Luther’s use of the expression sola fide (faith alone) is true if faith is not placed in opposition to charity, to love.
Faith is looking at Christ, trusting in Christ, adhering to Christ, and being conformed to Christ and to His life. The form of Christ, and of Christ’s life, is love. Therefore, believing is being conformed to Christ and entering into His love.
That is why St. Paul, in his Letter to the Galatians, where he developed to a large extent his doctrine on justification, speaks about faith that works through charity (see Galatians 5:14).
Love of God and Neighbor
Paul knows that the Law is present and fulfilled in a two-fold way — love of God and love of neighbor. Thus, the entire Law is fulfilled through communion with Christ and through faith that creates charity.
We become just by entering into communion with Christ who is love.
…
Charity is the realization of communion with Christ. Thus, united with Him, we are just — and in no other way.
In the end, we can only ask the Lord to help us believe — to truly believe. Thus, belief becomes life, union with Christ and a transformation of our life.
Transformed by His love, by love for God and love for neighbor, we can truly be just in God’s eyes.
Advent 1: Watch
December 2, 2008
“Oh that you would rend the heavens, and come down.” Isaiah 64:1
The Catholic Church, (and following it, the Lutheran and Anglican communities), marks time in a way different from the world around it. Our calendar is a “liturgical” one, and our “New Year’s Day” does not occur on January 1st. Rather, our new year begins on the 1st Sunday of the liturgical season of Advent, which we observed this past Sunday. So, “Happy New Year” to all of my brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those who observe the season of Advent.
Advent, (from the Latin, “to come”), is a season of preparation and anticipation, a time of longing for, and waiting and watching for, the long-promised Messiah who is to come. Thus we sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel…”, a hymn whose every phrase echos a deep longing of the heart.
Our hearts are filled with infinite longings — not just “wants” or even “needs”, at least not in the material sense. The deepest longings of our hearts are spiritual and emotional. We are weary of the pain and suffering of Earth, weary of the “wars and rumors of wars,” weary of seeing, again and again, the rich and powerful consuming the poor and powerless. We long for peace — true peace, peace in our hearts and peace in our world. We long for a new kingdom, a kingdom of justice and righteousness; we long, in fact, for a new heaven, and a new earth. And so we cry out, as does Isaiah, “Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? … Oh, that You would rend the heavens, and come down.”
And in the midst of our pain and suffering, our waiting and watching, our deep and prayerful longing, He comes. Daily. On altars all around the world, as He — through the hands of His priests — deigns to take on sacramental “flesh and blood”, to feed His flock, to strengthen His people, to heal the lame of spirit and sick of soul.
And so we live, day by day, in the hope of His promise, and longing for the day when our faith shall be sight.
“Straight shall be what long was crooked, and the rougher places plain; Let your hearts be true and humble, as befits His holy reign. For the glory of the Lord, now on Earth is shed abroad; and all flesh shall see the token, that God’s Word IS NEVER BROKEN!”
The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church
October 18, 2008
In keeping with the practice instituted by Pope Paul VI in 1965, Pope Benedict regularly calls the bishops of the Church together in a “synod” to discuss some aspect of the Church’s teaching, with a view toward the Church’s mission. The theme of the 12th Synod of Bishops, meeting now in the Vatican, is “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.” In my estimation, the choosing of this theme — coinciding with the “Year of St. Paul” — is anything but coincidental. It seems clear that getting Catholics into “the Word”, and getting the Word into Catholics, is a crucial part of Benedict’s personal mission as pope.
But here is where to need to consider carefully exactly what we as Catholics mean when we use that term - “the Word of God” - especially in our conversions with Protestants. We must be aware that we may be using the same VOCABULARY, but we are not using the same DICTIONARY; the same terms are often “loaded” with different meanings on the other side of the Tiber. And the phrase “the Word of God” is a prime example of our being divided by a common language.
When a Catholic — a well-formed and well-informed Catholic — uses the phrase “the Word of God”, the dictionary behind the vocabulary provides three related, but distinct, meanings:
1. Jesus Christ, the “Word made Flesh” — the ultimate “Word” (St. John 1:1,14 and CCC 65,101-102);
2. the spoken communication of God’s revelation to mankind, the “Word proclaimed” – as in “the Word of the Lord came to me, saying…” (eg. I Samuel 3:1; II Samuel 7:4; Isaiah 2:1; Jeremiah 1:4, etc. and CCC 1101,1102)
3. the written communication of God’s revelation to mankind, the “Word inscribed” — as in “all Scripture is inspired by God…” (II Tim. 3:16), and the generally accepted truth that “The Bible is the Word of God.” (CCC 104)
… and it is this last definition which is most often intended by our Protestant brothers and sisters when they use the phrase “the Word of God”; they mean “what is found only between the covers of the Bible.”
While the phrase “the Word of God” may have different shades of meaning within Catholic theology and thought, the focus of the Synod of Bishops seems to be “what is found between the covers of the Bible.” Not a bad thing, as Catholics seem, (in my brief and limited experience), not to be terribly familiar with Sacred Scripture. (Is there a vague sense that the Bible is, after all, a “Protestant” book?? Hmmm…)
This brings me to “Spiritus Gladius Ministries”, and the purpose of this newly created apostolate. As a former Lutheran pastor, who received his vision for ministry through an evangelical, para-church ministry that focused on getting you into the Word, and the Word into you, a ministry that was built on the concept of one-to-one discipleship and raising up laborers for the harvest, I want to help every Catholic I know to grab the “Sword of the Spirit” and be thoroughly trained in using it to live, share, and defend the Faith.
Will you join me? Will you commit to being trained with “the Sword of the Spirit” to live, share, and defend your faith/the Faith? Will you make it your mission “to know Christ, and to make Him known” ? Will your motto be:
NO RUSTY SWORDS!!
