RAGING AGAINST GOD

One thing that happens frequently is an individual begins to rage against God when something unexpectedly painful and unjust occurs. Commonly, when someone whom one loves is tragically taken because of accident or illness, the surviving spouse or family member begins to become angry at God. Some even lose their faith that God exists. Typically, the thought, “Why would God let this happen?” is raised with vigor.

The usual answer that is given is, “God doesn’t make bad things happen. We humans have free will and choose things that lead to death and pain. Look at the Garden of Eden and what happpened there.”

This answer usually ends up only upsetting the grieving person even more, even though there is truth to it. The person is angry at God and sees death as an act of omission by God who, if he is all-good, would never allow such tragedy to occur. Often, that is as far as the conversation goes, with no resolution for either party.

The problem here is in our understanding of God, who he is and how he is. This is exactly why God as Trinity is so important to consider. Three Persons, one God. One of those persons, Jesus Christ the Son of God, assumed human nature and became irrevocably one of us. Not only that, he chose death out of love for us, and his death was tragic. His Father did not prevent it. The Father, instead, cried in grief and loved intensely for the Father and the Son and the Spirit, one God in eternal communion and relationship, never separated but worked in all ways together. In his death, Jesus, God the Son, did not rage against his all-loving Father but embraced his Love for him and for all the world. The Father and the Spirit, one God, rejoiced it the love of Jesus’ sacrfice.

The reason we humans often rage against God when we experience tragedy is because our pain keeps us from recognizing God’s never-ending presence in our lives and his willingness to share our pain. Pain can blind us to God’s presence. It is pain that we see. It is a thick curtain, a foggy mirror, an eclipse of the sun, that will rob us of our vision if we allow it.

Those who rage against God in their grief don’t need theological truth as much as they need recognition of their pain and a human presence in its midst that will lead them back to faith, to clear vision, to another experience of God in their lives.

Some times, this takes years. May God assist all of us who minister to them. This entry was posted in General Interest on August 29, 2012.

FEELING TRAPPED

By David Sears

Sometimes I feel like there are so many rules and there is no way out. Like it is almost impossible to keep every rule. Almost like we are under the Jewish law, but different. There are some rules that I can accept (fornication, lust, pornography, etc.) but there are some that are really difficult for me to wrap my mind around. For example, I date. I am in a relationship with a girl that, if I could marry right this second, I would. But I cant for another three years when she is 18 and I'm 19. I told her that I am not comfortable going farther than French kissing. Now I thought what I was doing was right, but some Catholics jump on me saying "French kissing is a mortal sin!"

I thought I was doing the right thing.... It is how we show affection because I know we cannot do anything sexual. I am not using her, it is just... We can't fully give ourselves to each other until marriage and sometimes an "I love you" isn't enough. Some even say cuddling shouldn't be done until marriage. I know my limits and I know that I shouldn't push them. I am not tempted to go further. Masturbation is a sin. At 16, I feel like I am constantly at war with myself to fight it and I constantly fall. I am just better off being castrated. And to avoid any near occasion of sin, just never leave the house (unless I go to church, in which case, I'll have to go the back way because there is an Italian bakery on the way and I may fall into the sin of gluttony, and I shouldn't talk to anyone at the church at the risk of saying something bad).

 Suicide is a sin, so you can't end it (not that I would ever, I'd be too scared)! You're here, and you are fighting a war against yourself, against the bad guy, trying to what God wants, but there are 30,000 different denominations telling you what He wants! It seems as though that LOVING someone could be a near occasion of sin, because I love my girlfriend, I do. And if French kissing or cuddling is a sin before marriage, then there should be no dating period. Just your family picking a woman for you like they did back then. If I can't be affectionate without someone telling me I'm sinning, then why bother?

ALMOST EVERYTHING IS A MORTAL SIN TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH! I feel like I'm walking on eggshells! Fear that I am going to do something that will send me to hell! And I love God! Above all things! I live for the Trinity. And that is all I'm going to say. I know I am probably going to get a lot of sharp tongues for posting this, but this is how I am feeling today.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Such as the men of Europe. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity, but Christ has not penetrated them. Christ does not live in them." - Cardinal Lamberto, The Godfather: Part III

SALVATION - ARE YOU SAVED?

By Katrina J. Zeno

Everyone knows this is an important question—so how should Catholics answer it?

Many Catholics just don’t know what to say when someone asks them whether they are saved. However, there’s really no reason to be confused, because the Catholic understanding of salvation in Christ gives the perfect answer, and Katrina Zeno is here to explain it.

As Catholics, we’re vaguely familiar with "saved" language. We don’t usually ask someone, "Are you saved?" and when someone asks us this question, we often stutter and fumble for an answer. So how should we answer: "Are you saved?" Constantly.

We are constantly being saved by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? Because salvation is dynamic, ongoing. It’s a past, present, and future reality. Let me explain.

Salvation is a past reality: We have been saved by the death of Jesus Christ. While we were still sinners, Jesus’ death canceled the bond that stood against us (Col. 2:14). In other words, the guilt of original sin has been wiped away. God pardoned our sins. But being pardoned isn’t the same as being holy.

Being pardoned gives us back our freedom to choose the road to holiness, to walk the narrow path. Right now, today, we are being saved. Grace is wooing us down the narrow path. We are becoming holy. Salvation is an ongoing event.

We can easily verify salvation as an ongoing event—just look at the world around us. If salvation was a past event, then Mother Theresa and Pope John Paul II would be a dime a dozen. Instead, they shine like stars in the darkness. The world is a cultural and spiritual battleground—a collision between the culture of life and the culture of death.

This, however, is nothing new. St. Paul described man’s predicament in these terms: "What happens is that I do, not the good I will to do, but the evil I do not intend. But if I do what is against my will, it is not I who do it, but sin which dwells in me" (Rom 7:19-20).

Whether you’re St. Paul, Pope John Paul II, or living in St. Paul, the reality is the same: We are being saved because grace has not yet fully transformed every area of our mind, emotions, desires, and will into the mind, emotions, desires, and will of Christ.

And when this transformation takes place, what will we be? The body of Christ. We will be one with Christ. Too often we think of salvation in terms of what we’re saved from. It’s absolutely critical to be saved from hell, damnation, and the stain of original sin, but what are we saved for?

This is the ultimate question and the reason why salvation is a present and future reality. We are saved for union with Christ. Or, to put it in more poetic terms, we are saved so that the two may become one.

Wow, what a completely different view of salvation! Salvation is not only a legal event where the guilty prisoner is set free (hallelujah!), but a nuptial event—the two becoming one. God and man becoming one.

God and I becoming one.

If this is true—if salvation means the two becoming one—then our view of what "saves" us needs to back up. Scripture is quite clear that we are saved by the cross of Christ, but what makes the cross possible? It is the Incarnation, God and man becoming one in the person of Jesus Christ. The Incarnation is the supreme nuptial event of salvation history and, therefore, it reveals what we are saved for—the two becoming one.

This nuptial re-union of each person and God is only one dimension of salvation. The two becoming one also extends to the body and the spirit, to each person and his neighbor, to nation and nation. Salvation is a multi-layered affair because sin was a multi-layered affair.

Original sin not only ruptured man’s relationship with God (being cast out of the Garden), but it also ruptured Adam and Eve’s relationship with each other and creation, and their inner harmony of body and spirit (i.e., St. Paul’s lament).

Nuptial salvation, then, cannot simply mean being saved from God’s wrath or punishment. Nuptial salvation is the freedom to become successively and ever more profoundly one with the Trinity. It is the re-marriage of body and soul in love and harmony. It is the wedding of social and economic systems with Christ so as to restore human dignity and create "one new man from us who had been two" (Eph 2:15).

Finally, salvation is a future event. After the veil of this life is ripped in two, we shall be fully liberated to become one, but not all at once. In God’s mysterious and progressive plan, our nuptial salvation is completed only with the resurrection of the body.

It is then that body and soul will return to perfect unity, and in this perfect unity, we will enter into perfect unity with the Trinity. The two will truly and definitively become one—body and soul, God and man, man and neighbor.

Then, when we confront that old question: "Are you saved?" we can answer "Finally!"

CHOSEN IN HIM

The Catholic Teaching on Predestination

Issue: How does the Catholic Church understand predestination?

Response: Predestination is a term used to identify God’s plan of salvation, in which according to His own decree, He “accomplishes all things according to his will” (Eph. 1:11). God gives us the gift of salvation through grace and faith. In turn, we must use our free will to persevere in good works “prepared beforehand” by God Himself (Eph. 2:8-10; cf. Phil. 2:12, 13).

Discussion: There are two opposite and equally erroneous positions about predestination that have always been rejected in authentic Catholic teaching. The first is that of the Pelagians.[1] Pelagius taught that a person, by the exercise his free will, could obtain salvation unaided by grace. The obvious error here is that God has nothing to do with salvation.

Calvinists and Jansenists teach the second error.[2] They teach that Christ died only for the elect; those predestined to salvation. The rest He predestined to eternal damnation by His own decree. Furthermore, they taught that if God predestined someone to eternal life, it is impossible that he should fall away. Likewise, one chosen for damnation has no choice in the matter, but will surely perish in hell. In short, the individual has nothing to do with his own salvation.

There are various schools of thought among Catholic theologians and philosophers through the ages. Most notably we should mention St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. There are also theories by Molina, St. Robert Bellarmine and the Franciscan Duns Scotus. It is outside the scope of this Faith Fact to look at these in great detail. However, to understand how the Catholic Church views predestination, we must first understand some fundamental concepts.

First, the Catholic Church unequivocally teaches that the source of all things is God. This includes grace, the act of faith and even our good works (Eph. 2:8-10; Jas. 1:17, 18). God alone initiates salvation. He always turns toward man first and seeks him, as when God walked in the Garden (Gen. 3:8).

Man does not seek God or turn to him without God first calling man to Himself (Jn. 6:37, 44; 1 Jn. 4:10,19). Second, God’s initiative does not exclude man’s free response, but demands it (Catechism of the Catholic Church [Catechism], nos. 154, 155, 2002; Phil. 2:12, 13). In other words, God wills that man be free to choose His grace or reject it. Third, salvation is extended to each and every human person, not limited to just some, and one can fall away from grace (Heb. 2:1-4; 6:4; 2 Pet. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Jn. 5:16, 17).

Furthermore, it is imperative that once one is touched by grace, he perseveres in charity lest he forfeit the free gift of salvation (Lumen Gentium [LG], no. 14). Within the confines of these principles, Catholics have sought to understand the mystery of predestination. Though opinions and formulations have varied among Catholic theologians, with these principles left intact, there is room for legitimate speculation.

The only proper framework to understand predestination must be rooted in the notion of a communion of persons in love. Why? The nature of God as Trinity is this very kind of communion and God created man to share in that “blessed life” (cf. Catechism, no. 1). This communion of love demands freedom of will. For love is not something thrust upon a person, but offered as a gift.

This communion of love in the Trinity is also the basis for evangelization in the Church (cf. Catechism, no. 850). As this is the very essence of the relationship between God and man, everything in one way or another must refer back to it and be measured by it. As this was God’s purpose in creating man, it is also intimately tied to our redemption and our ultimate destiny. God is love (1 Jn. 4:8).

Salvation is the gift of God alone: Grace

God alone is uncreated. All that is, including man, owes its existence to God. He created man freely and out of “sheer goodness” (Catechism, no. 1). Man has nothing that he did not receive from God. Anyone who would charge the Catholic Church of teaching salvation by works alone or that salvation originates in any way in man, does so in contradiction to the whole history of authentic Catholic teaching.[3] No one can come to Christ, except that the Father draw him (Jn. 6:37, 44). We love Him, because He first loved us (1 Jn. 4:10, 19). The fount and source of these things is the grace that comes from God alone.

Grace is God’s favor. It means “gift.” In other words, it is not something received in return for anything, but is free and unmerited. It is a participation in the life of God, which comes to us by the Holy Spirit (Catechism, nos. 1997, 1999). God is the “high and lofty One who inhabits eternity” (Is. 57:15). He must reveal Himself to us if we are to participate in His divine life unto eternal salvation. It is not possible to know Him, except He reveals Himself (Catechism, no. 1998). Thus, this initiative which is freely made by God alone in revealing Himself is a gift we call grace. Because it is a gift, it can be rejected.

There are many effects and purposes of grace. We even have different terms to express the varying functions of grace (sanctifying, habitual, etc.). Grace enables us to respond to God’s call that we may become His adopted sons (Catechism, no. 1996). Grace sustains us and helps us grow in holiness towards Christian perfection. The Holy Spirit gives all the graces that we receive. He employs several means, such as the Sacraments, direct intervention, Mary, prayer, etc., through which He communicates grace to us.

Faith

The proper disposition to receive grace is faith, which is itself “a work of grace” (Catechism, no. 2001). The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum [DV]) reminds us: “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God.”[4]

It is equally true that we need grace to sustain us in faith. Faith is not a once for all event. Rather, “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4). It must be preserved, nourished and be made to grow, as Holy Scripture reminds us often (cf. 1 Cor. 16:13; 2 Cor. 10:15; Col. 1:23 2 Thess. 1:3).

Work…for God is working in you

Good works are a fruit of God’s grace. Jesus emphasizes this with the imagery of the vine. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).

What is clear is that grace must be antecedent to any act on our part, whether of the act of believing or any good work. The question that this often raises is that of the nature of our response to grace. Is it free? And if it is, how does grace work with freedom of will?

St. Paul reminds us that we are to work out our own salvation “with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). God provides grace and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, works within us in order that we might persevere on the way to salvation. Salvation is not just a one-time event, but a continual process of growth. The freedom of our will is necessary for this growth. Exactly how our will cooperates with this grace is a mystery.

This mystery of how grace works with human nature is reflected in the Catechism. “Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is not less true that believing is an authentically human act” (Catechism, no. 154).

Working from the premise that God created us to share in a loving communion with Him, the necessity of free will becomes apparent. Some narrowly understand the cooperation of the will with God as “helping God out” as if He is somehow limited. Some find it objectionable that man has any free part to play in His eternal destiny.

If that eternal destiny is a communion of love, how else could it be but truly free (cf. Catechism, nos. 2001, 2002)? Further, there is no logic in the notion that an absence of free will necessarily follows God’s sovereignty, or that from free will it necessarily follows that God needs our help. God wills our free will in love. That is His design.

For whom did Christ die?

God created man for heaven, not hell. Hell is the ultimate isolation and a free choice by an individual. As stated above, man was created for love, to love God, to love others and to be loved. This “civilization of love” or “communion of persons” is central to man’s being. Each and every person was created both to be his own end (“willed for his own sake”) and to make a gift of that self to others. The Decree on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), especially paragraphs 12 and 24, is particularly helpful reading to see this “dyadic” structure of the human person.

As is clear in Matthew 25:41-46, there will be those who find themselves in Hell. Some would explain this by asserting that Christ did not die for everyone, but only the “elect.” Scripture, to the contrary, confirms that God does wish for all to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).

Christ did die for the sins of the whole world, but it is necessary, enabled by grace, that one respond to the free gift and persevere until the end. We can have confidence that Christ can see us through to the end. He is called the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). St. Paul encourages us that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

In his second epistle, St. Peter reminds us that God has granted us all things that “pertain to life and godliness” (1:3) and that through His promises we may escape corruption to become “partakers of the divine nature” (1:4). Because of this, he exhorts us:

For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed form his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you and entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:5-11).

Let us freely accept the gift of God’s grace and rejoice in Jesus Christ who upholds “the universe by his word of power” (Heb. 1:3). And with St. Paul, let us say:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:3-6).

Recommended Reading:
Holy Bible
Catechism of the Catholic Church (Paperback and hardback available)
St. Francis de Sales, The Catholic Controversy
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (questions 22 and 23 deal with predestination issues)
St. Augustine, City of God (Treatise on Free Will)
Rev. Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma
Rev. R. Garrigou-LaGrange, O.P., Predestination
Rev. R. Garrigou-LaGrange, O.P., Providence


[1] Named for the Irish Monk Pelagius (355-425), who incorrectly took St. Augustine’s teaching on grace to imperil the use of free will. Any good encyclopedia would provide reference to Pelagius and Pelagianism. Also highly recommended is Augustine’s many writings against Pelagianism.

[2] Named for Cornelius Jansenius (1585-1638), a theologian at Louvain and then Bishop of Ypres who taught a system of grace and predestination similar to Calvin. In 1653, Pope Innocent X condemned his teaching as heretical. Subsequent popes repeated and affirmed the condemnation.

[3] Council of Orange, A.D. 529; Council of Trent, Sessions V, VI (especially the 33 Canons on justification).

[4] DV, no. 5; Cf. Catechism, no. 153.