"To suffer and be despised for Thee"

Today, December 14, is the memorial of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591).  He was proclaimed a doctor of the Church by Pius XI in 1926.  Teresa of Avila persuaded John to help her reform the Carmelite order and in so doing, he suffered much at the hands of his bretheren.  When Christ asked John what reward he would ask for his labors, John answered: "To suffer and to be despised for Thee."  What would I have said?  I don't want to suffer.  I don't want to be despised.  What is the lesson here?

John had an unusually intimate relationship with Christ and his Passion.  He had to in order to want to be despised.  The paradox, the thing that we do not clearly see at first blush is that there is power in the weakness that comes from suffering and being hated.  We are told to "be in the world but not of it," but what does that really mean and how hard is it to truly live that way?  We seek the affirmation of others and the rewards of this world -- money, power and status.  John showed us what it really means to live for Christ.  God grant me the grace to follow, even in a small way, that example.

Encountering the Numinous in the Sacraments

In the past weeks, I have had a few occasions to relay to friends my personal experiences of having received grace through the sacraments.  Their verbal and non-verbal responses to what I said revealed their incredulity.  This post is my attempt to explain the supernatural nature and power of the sacraments. 

If we wish to obtain a supernatural end, we should avail ourselves of the supernatural means instituted by God for obtaining that end.  Catholics believe that the sacraments are one of the means to such an end.  The end to be obtained, in the case of sacraments, is sanctity.  The Catechism of the Council of Trent defines a sacrament as:  "Something perceptible by the senses which by Divine institution has the power both to signify and to effect sanctity. . .."  Three things are necessary:  an outward sign (e.g., water as in the case of baptism), grace and Divine institution (i.e., God has to have created the sacrament).  Note too, that the person must be properly disposed to recieve the grace given in the sacrament, or stated differently, if the person intentionally places an obstacle in the way of the grace being infused, then the grace will not flow to the person.  For example, in the case of the sacrament of confession, if contrition is absent in the penitent, the sacrament will not "work" -- the grace will not flow.  Faith and human will need to work in cooperation with God's free gift of grace in order to make the sacraments efficacious. 

There are seven sacraments.  Two are the sacraments of the dead and five are the sacraments of the living.  The sacraments of the dead are baptism and confession.  They are called sacraments of the dead because the effect of those sacraments is to remove what is dead in us, namely sin.  The sacraments of the living are confirmation, eucharist, marriage, priestly ordination and annointing of the sick.  In order to receive one of the five sacraments of the living, the recipient must be in a state of grace (i.e., not in a state of mortal sin).  If one is properly disposed, the grace will in fact be conferred.  It is not a "sometimes" thing, it is an "every time" thing and therein lies the power and the awe.  Think about it for a minute.  If you ask, in the case of the sacraments, for grace, and you follow the means laid down by Christ for getting the grace, you WILL get it.  That is a little hard to comprehend, but comprehend and partake, we must.   

For the believer, reception of the sacraments, including frequent and regular reception of those sacraments that can be received more than once (e.g., confession, eucharist), is the manner in which participation in the life of Christ is made most fully possible.  This is so, again, because the supernatural end that is being sought is holiness.  All Christians believe that following Christ and seeking to do his will (i.e., seeking to be more holy -- even if we fall short -- and we do) results in a closer relationship with Him.  The grace that He pours into our hearts also has a healing effect in our lives by removing the stain of sin and the later proclivity to commit sin.  Wow!

Proofs of the dogma of the sacraments are not found in Scripture alone, but in Scripture and Sacred Tradition.  In Sacred Scripture we find expressions which clearly indicate that the sacraments are more than mere signs of grace and faith: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5);  "He saved us, by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5); "Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:17); "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life. For my flesh is food indeed: and my blood is drink indeed" (John 6:55-56).  For Sacred Tradition's part, it is enough to say that the Church has, since Christ created the Church, confected the sacraments in the same manner.  There is nothing new under the sun here -- Christ taught the apostles how to do it and the Holy Spirit has safeguarded those teachings down through the ages to the present day.  A quick review of the writings of the early Fathers of the Church makes this abundantly clear. 

It is important to mention that the sacraments are not the only means of receiving God's grace and to suggest otherwise would be to foolishly place limits on the omnipotence of God.  It is sufficient to say that the sacraments were instituted by God as an ordinary, but not the only, way of conferring grace.

For more exegesis on the subject of the sacraments, see the Official Catholic Encyclopedia.

Encountering the Numinous (continued)

In a recent post, I mentioned the three things that all of the major religions have in common from the Introduction to The Problem of Pain, a classic C.S. Lewis work.  They are: [1] an awareness of the numinous (or supernatural) elements existent in the universe, [2] an understanding that the moral law is written on the human heart (i.e., not learned), [3] an eventual awakening that [1] and [2] are necessarily related to each other which is another way of saying that all of the major religions deduce that God put morality in us when he made us. 

Christianity has a fourth thing which is an historical event:  the coming of a Jewish messiah, born of a virgin, and who claimed to be the son of God and also one "in being" with God.  He made a most extraordinary claim, a claim that he came to redeem us, that is, to take our sins away.  No one had ever said that before.  It is extraordinary in the sense of its universality.  What I mean by that is this:  I can forgive you if you sin against me and in some small measure redeem you, but Christ claimed that he could forgive the sins that I commit against you, that you commit against me and all other sins that are being commited and that ever will be committed to the end of the world.  The redemption in the case of Christ's forgiveness restores our friendship with God, opens the gates of heaven, and changes the world for ever.  But he had to pay a price for this universal redemption.  He not only claimed that he had to suffer brutally, and die on a cross for us, an act of unequalled love, but he did it. 

So Lewis makes the point that a person who would make such fantastic claims:  "I am God," "I forgive the sins of all," "I must die to accomplish that forgiveness," and then who in fact does die, must be either who he says he is, the God of the universe, or a raving lunatic.  Lewis posits that there can be no middle way.  He was not just a great teacher, prophet or king.  God or a madman.  Pick one.