Chapter 21: Dispensing the Gifts

1. A Social Religion
   • A Social Being Needs a Social Religion
     • “Religion is a relation of man to God, and a true religion must be true to [the nature of] both [God and man]” (289-3).
     • One of the first things we notice about the nature of man is that he is a social being. He has needs that cannot be satisfied apart from other men, and he has powers that cannot be used apart from other men (289-4).
     • Having created man to be social in nature, it would strange (“monstrous”), to say the least, if God were to ignore this element of His creation in His relations with man (290-1).
     • “[Consequently,] a religion which should consist [solely] in an individual relation of each person to God would be no religion for man. A social being requires a social religion” (290-1).
     • It is true that each individual will have his own special religious needs and experiences, but these will exist in his relationship with God in union with other men (290-1).
       • For example, we have a need to worship as a community, but we also have a need to pray in private.
         • “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20).
         • “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Mt 6:6).
   • The Fallacy of Individualist Religious Theories
     • “[Promoters of] individualist religious theories . . . have never been able to carry out the full logic of their individualist theory” because their human nature has always stood in the way (290-2).
     • The individualist “Bible Christian” who despises the concept of priesthood and an organized Church nevertheless depends on the Bible which God gave to us through men, that is, through the Church, and in particular through the Bishops of the Catholic Church (290-2).
       • To be logically consistent, the promoter of individualist religious theory should reject the Bible just as he rejects the Church.
       • He readily accepts the social aspect in regard to the obvious need to first become acquainted with God by receiving teaching about Him from others, but then, at some point, he arbitrarily rejects this social aspect as an ongoing need and invents for himself the doctrine of private interpretation of Scripture, which is in direct contradiction to Scripture itself:
         • “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation” (2 Pet 1:20).
     • “A religion wherein the soul finds and maintains a relation[ship] with God with no dependence upon men is impossible, and what make it impossible is the nature God gave man” (290-2).
       • There is no support in Scripture for the individualist theory. Rather, there is an insistence that all of the sheep belong to a single flock:
         • “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10:16).
     • The only question, then, is whether religion will “wholly accept and glory in the social element as something given by God” or form itself into a system that ignores this fundamental principle of man’s nature to a greater or lesser degree (290-2).
     • “In giving man the religion of the Kingdom, God showed what His own answer is” (291-1).
   • The Old Covenant Perfected in the New
     • We saw in the previous chapter that Jesus banded His followers into “a flock, a society, a Church” with Peter as its temporal head (291-2):
       • “[He] gave Himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for Himself a people [note the singular] of his own who are zealous for good deeds” (Ti 2:14).
     • “What the Jews had been, the Church now is” (291-2)
     • The people of Israel were bound to one another and to God through Moses’ words (291-2):
       • “Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words’” (Ex 24:8).
     • Similarly, we are bound to one another and to God by the new covenant that is superior to the old covenant (291-2):
       • “And likewise the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” (Lk 22:20).
       • “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises” (Heb 8:6).
       • Considering the superiority of the new covenant to the old covenant, it follows that the bonds among us should be greater than the bonds among those in the old covenant.
     • It follows that the same solidarity by which God spoke of the Israelites in the singular as His first-born son applies equally to the society that has become the fullness of Israel, the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:2, 291-2).
       • “Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son” (Ex 4:22).
       • “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos 11:1, Mt 2:15).
       • “Have mercy, O Lord, upon the people called by thy name, upon Israel, whom thou hast likened to a first-born son” (Sir 36:12).
     • “The brotherhood of every Christian with Christ involve[s] the brotherhood of all Christians with one another. His normal way of giving them His gifts of truth and life was to be through the society” (291-2).
       • This is what is meant by the ninth article of the Apostles Creed: I believe . . . in the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints” (291-2).
       • “We fell in Adam and rose again with Christ; in the same solidarity, we live the new life” (291-2).
     • As was said earlier, it is true that each individual has his own special spiritual needs for his own particular circumstances.
       • However, “the great needs of the soul [i.e., the need for truth and life,] are not peculiar to the individual.” Rather, they are the same for all; consequently “it is through the society that God offers to all men the spiritual gifts by which these needs common to all are supplied” (291-3).
       • Hence, Christians are related to Christ “not one by one but in virtue of their membership in His Kingdom” (291-3).
   • Excursus: Superiority of the New Covenant; Unity in the One Body
     • The new covenant is superior to the old because it is an “eternal covenant”; hence, it perfects the old covenant:
       • “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17).
       • “The law made nothing perfect” for “it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins (Heb 7:19, 10:4).
       • “May the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Heb 13:20-21).
         • Notice that the covenant is not eternal because it will last forever, but because the One who made the covenant is Himself eternal, the Son of God.
     • Just as the old covenant bound together all of the Israelites, so the new covenant binds all who have entered into it into one body through Baptism.
       • “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:41-42).
       • “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4-6).
       • “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:17).
       • “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10:16).
       • “And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one” (Jn 17:11).
2. Truth: The First of the Two Great Gifts
   • Man’s Needs and the Law of Proportionality
     • “The close correspondence of religion with the nature of man is continued in every detail of the provision God made for the communication of His gifts of truth and life” (292-1).
     • The principal operations of spirit are knowing and loving. It follows that man is not merely capable of knowing but also has a genuine need to know (292-2).
     • “Man not only needs knowledge, he craves it and is capable of astonishing energy and even astonishing sacrifice in the pursuit of it” (292-2).
     • This aspect of man’s nature is “superbly provided for” in the Kingdom, where “[there] is no limit to the possibility of man’s growth in knowledge [of truth]” (292-2).
       • However, this growth in knowledge requires man’s intellectual effort. “It is to be noted that if Christ came to save men, He certainly did not come to save them trouble” (292-2).
     • In dealing with mankind, there is a principle that determines what God will do for man: “It is not part of His purpose to do for men what they can very well do themselves, but only what they cannot.” He leaves the rest for man to do (292-2).
       • This can be called the principle of mutual dependency in providential activity. It is stated superbly by St. Augustine with respect to our restoration:
         • “He who has created you without yourself, does not justify [i.e., make the restoration applicable to] you without yourself. Thus He created you without your knowledge, but only with your agreement and your will does He justify you” (Augustine, Sermo 169, II, 13; as quoted in Ott, “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma,” p. 252).
     • “Just as in the act of atonement the humanity of Christ gave all that humanity had to give and the divinity of the person supplied only what human nature could not give” (292-2).
       • St. Paul writes: “In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24).
     • The same principle applies in the matter of dispensing truth to man. “God supplies what man cannot [supply], but expects man to do the uttermost that he can” (292-2).
   • Truths Man Cannot Learn on His Own
     • There are many things that man needs to know, in order to be fully man, but that he is incapable of knowing on his own (292-3). For example:
       • Has God spoken to man?
       • What awaits us after death?
       • Is every human being equal in dignity?
       • What actions of our own are necessary to bring us to our true destiny?
     • Because we are incapable of knowing these things on our own, God has supplied them in the treasury of knowledge He left with the Apostles (293-1), that is, the “[Deposit of] faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).
     • The Apostles would be able to recall all of these things with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, as promised at the Last Supper (293-1):
       • Jesus, to the Apostles: “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26).
       • Jesus, to the Apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20).
       • “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:41-42).
     • Note that the fullness of revelation existed exclusively in the minds of the Apostles for approximately twenty years after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven.
       • The Ascension of the Lord took place in 30 A.D. and the first “book” of the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians, was written around 48 A.D.
       • These revealed truths, the Deposit of Faith, make up Apostolic Tradition, which has two parts: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
     • This Deposit of Faith, because it is the Word of God, is an inexhaustible treasury of truths that the minds of Christians can profitably work on by study and meditation, and by striving to live according to these truths (293-1).
   • The Need for Certainty
     • There is the problem that when a man applies his mind to supernatural truth, so as to derive additional knowledge from it, he cannot be certain that the conclusions he draws are free from error (293-2).
       • Even in the history of human religious thought within the Catholic Church, there are to be found many diverse and conflicting opinions, for example:
         • The Catholic priest Arius taught that Jesus was a creature (ca. 325), and the Catholic bishop Nestorius taught that Jesus was both a human and a divine person (ca. 431). They reached erroneous conclusions in their attempts as individuals to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of Jesus.
           • In both cases, councils were called to settle the question. These teachings of Arius and Nestorius were rejected by the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Ephesus (431), respectively.
         • St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) and St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), both Doctors of the Church, argued against the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Blessed John Duns Scotus (d. 1308), on the other hand, argued in favor of the Immaculate Conception.
           • The objections of Bernard and Thomas were eventually shown to be based on a faulty premise (the means by which original sin is transmitted), and the doctrine was formally defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX.
     • “If God had given men a deposit of truth and left it to their mercy, there would soon have been no certainly of truth left in the world” (294-1).
       • There are some questions to which man needs to have an answer, for his actions will vary based on the answer to those questions.
         • For example, man would find little motivation for living according to God’s law if he knew there was no afterlife.
         • On the other hand, a significant motivation for living according to God’s law comes from knowing that we will live forever.
   • Truth Infallibility Taught by the Bishops
     • Since man, left to himself, is incapable of providing theological certainty in matters relating to the Deposit of Faith, God supplies what is lacking, according to the principle mentioned earlier (i.e., mutual dependence in providential activity). “That is the whole point of the doctrine of infallibility” (294-1, 2).
     • It is surprising to see the littleness of what is meant by this doctrine and yet how totally effective it is (294-2).
     • “When we say the Church is infallible, we mean the bishops, for they are in the fullest sense successors of the Apostles; and their infallibility means simply this: that whatever is taught as to the revelation of Christ by the bishops of the Church cannot be wrong: God will not allow it” (294-2).
       • The teaching authority of the college of bishops is called the Magisterium.
       • Note two things regarding the infallibility of the episcopate that are stated in “Lumen Gentium,” # 25:
         • First, the phrase “bishops of the Church” does not extend infallibility to individual bishops or to local groups of bishops. Rather, it refers to the bishops of the world collectively where it can be said that a teaching is the teaching of the episcopate as a whole, though the bishops do not need to be absolutely unanimous.
         • Second, the body of the episcopate possesses the charism of infallibility only when the successor of Peter is included in the body.
       • As stated in the notes for chapter 20: “[Church] Councils are based on the principle of moral unanimity, and that in turn does not simply appear as an especially strong majority. It is not consensus that offers a basis for the truth, but the truth that offers [a basis] for consensus: the unanimity of so many people has always been regarded as something that is humanly impossible. Whenever it occurs, this makes manifest how people have been overpowered by truth itself” (Ratzinger, “Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith,” p. 257).
   • Truth Infallibility Taught by the Successor of Peter
     • It may happen that a matter of faith or morals is in urgent need of definition and either the episcopate is divided in its thinking on the matter, or there is no opportunity to collect the opinions of the episcopate. God has provided for such cases by extending the charism of infallibility to the successor of Peter (294-3).
     • Just as the bishops are the successors of the Apostles and, so the Pope is the successor of Peter. As the head of the body of bishops, the Pope has the unique power to define a matter of faith or morals on his own authority when the need arises (294-3).
       • This power is clearly found in Mt 16:18-19 and Lk 22:31-32, which were discussed in the previous chapter. An example of the exercise of this authority is found in Acts 10:34-35, 47, where Peter abrogates the Mosaic Law for Gentiles.
     • “Notice [that] it is one and the same infallibility whereby God safeguards the bishops as a body and the bishop of Rome as head of the body from teaching error to His church” (295-1).
     • Two additional notes regarding infallibility:
       • First, neither the Pope nor the episcopate have access to any “special knowledge” that is unavailable to the other members of the Kingdom (295-1)
       • Second, the charism of infallibility does not imply divine inspiration of any sort. Both the Pope and the bishops must learn their doctrine just like everyone else (295-1).
   • Infallibility of the Faithful
     • “The entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One, cannot err in matters of belief. They manifest this special property by means of the whole peoples’ supernatural discernment in matters of faith when ‘from the Bishops down to the last of the lay faithful’ they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals” (“Lumen Gentium,” 12).
     • The sensus fidelium played a key role in the definition of the Immaculate Conception:
       • Eadmer of Canterbury [d. 1124] argued that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin, but “[he] could not have taken up this position in defense of the Immaculate Conception against the majority of theologians of his time, did he not also have the conviction that God makes his truth known in the humility and lowliness of simple folk, who had been celebrating the feast of the Immaculate Conception out of affection and sincere devotion to the Mother of God and who would feel offended if they heard someone say that Mary was stained by sin” (Bastero, “Mary, Mother of the Redeemer,” 189).
       • Spanish theologian Melchior Cano writes in the late sixteenth century that “every time the common people hear that the Virgin contracted the stain of original sin, ‘they immediately feel upset, offended, tortured’” (Ibid. 189).
3. Infallibility
   • A Gift That Takes Away
     • The charism of infallibility is, in a sense, a gift of subtraction rather than addition (295-2).
     • It does not save the mind any trouble in the effort required to make a theological conclusion about the aspect of the faith under consideration (295-2).
     • It does not account for any of the truth in a doctrinal definition; it only accounts for the absence of error (295-2).
       • Note the significance of this. The doctrine proclaimed may not be stated in its fullest sense, and it may not be stated in the most perfect manner. We can only be certain that what is stated is without error.
       • The Nicene Creed, in its original form, said only of the Holy Spirit that “[we believe] in the Holy Spirit.” This statement was expanded by the Council of Constantinople, in 381, to say in addition, “the Lord the giver of life . . . who has spoken through the prophets.”
     • It does not increase the Pope’s (or the bishops’) options for making doctrinal statements. Rather, it limits the options; it rejects the mind’s false findings (295-2).
     • “The result is that the thinker can have all the luxury of thinking, yet the truth is safe: the flock of Christ is fed, and there is no poison in the food” (295-2).
   • The Intellect’s Need for Activity
     • “Infallibility is God’s device to make it possible for the human mind to exercise its activity upon His revelation without destroying the revelation in the process” (295-3).
       • One might ask: Why God didn’t give us a set body of doctrinal formulas that were completely worked out so there was no need for the mind to think about them?”
       • The problems with such an approach is that “the mind is so constituted that it cannot get much use out of what it cannot think about. Such a system . . . would have reduced [the Deposit of Faith’s] fruitfulness for living almost to nothing” (296-1).
     • There must be human mental activity on divine revelation, due to the nature God gave man (296-2).
     • Consequently, since man lives by “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4), we see that the need of a safeguard is intrinsic to revelation itself; revelation demands the safeguard.
       • There is little value in an inerrant Revelation that cannot be interpreted infallibly.
     • The lack of such a safeguard could only produce doctrinal chaos, for Revelation cannot defend itself (296-2).
       • Doctrinal chaos is exactly what is found in the thousands of Protestant denominations that exist today.
   • The Need for Infallibility: Science vs Religion
     • The physical sciences get along “fine” without having their own charism of infallibility. But they do not have the same need for protection from error that the Deposit of Faith has (296-2). There are two reasons for this:
       • First, the conclusions of the physical sciences do not impact man’s salvation whereas “the truths of religion are the indispensable minimum that man needs to live by” (296-2).
         • “[Jesus] answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”’” (Mt 4:4).
       • Second, experience in this world provides certain tests that eventually correct erroneous scientific ideas, whereas “with religion, the decisive testing takes place after death” (297-1).
         • As stated, this is a false analogy. Sheed is comparing the testing done by science as a whole to decisions made by an individual.
         • The comparison should be between the teaching of science and the teaching of the Church. If there is an error in the teaching of science, the error will eventually be found by man and corrected. If God permitted errors in the teaching of the Church regarding revelation, man could only learn that the teaching was erroneous in the afterlife.
         • At one time, the belief that science would eventually correct its errors seemed to be true. However, in our day, science has become so heavily politicized that such is no longer the case.
           • https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/05/scientific-regress
     • On the other hand, man’s salvation is dependent on a correct understanding of the Deposit of Faith. Getting it wrong can have everlasting consequences” (297-1).
   • Infallibility: The Reconciliation of Revelation and the Intellect
     • “Revelation and mental activity can be reconciled only by infallibility” (297-2).
       • The reason for this is that, as was stated above, man must be capable of exercising his mental ability on revelation, due to the nature God gave man, but that nature is fallible.
     • God could have given individual infallibility to each human being. We know empirically that He did not do so (297-2).
       • The multitude of doctrinal contradictions outside the Church provide the evidence for the claim.
       • Protestantism, while rejecting the idea of infallibility of Pope and the episcopate, essentially teaches individual infallibility with its doctrine of private interpretation. God could have safeguarded the Deposit of Faith in this manner, but He quite obviously chose not to do so (297-2).
         • “No prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation” (2 Pt 1:20).
     • Rather, He chose a different “arrangement which, on the principle of leaving men to do as much as possible for themselves, with God supplying only what men cannot supply, is at once an indispensable minimum yet totally effective” (297-2).
     • In summary, given “that there is immense difference of opinion upon the meaning of every teaching Christ gave, there is no way of settling the difference; that is, there is no way of knowing with certainty what Christ means, unless there is here upon earth a living teacher who can settle it without the possibility of error” (297-2).
       • It is noteworthy that among Christians, only the Catholic Church is prepared to formally commit herself forever to what Revelation means (297-3).
         • A religious body that does not claim infallibility as a safeguard against error in its teachings essentially teaches that its doctrines could be erroneous.
       • Note that the charism of infallibility, in addition to giving us a certain statement on some aspect of Revelation, also ensures that what is defined by the doctrine will not be subject to a future change prompted by the “spirit of the age.”
     • We find empirical evidence that supports the Church’s claim to infallibly in those whom the Church declares to be saints:
       • The saints live their lives in heroic adherence to the teaching of the Church. Because such a life is humanly impossible, it follows that their lives are inspired by the same Holy Spirit who inspired Scripture. Hence, the lives of the saints, as a group, provide a unanimous witness to the Church’s teaching in every age, place, and walk in life.
       • “The saints are actually the best examples we have of biblical exegesis” (Thomas Dubay, “Happy Are You Poor,” p. 28).
       • “The most profound interpretation of Scripture comes precisely from [the saints] who let themselves be shaped by the word of God through listening, reading and assiduous meditation” (Benedict XVI, “Verbum Domini,” p. 48)
       • “The Holy Spirit who inspired the sacred authors is the same Spirit who impels the saints to offer their lives for the Gospel. In striving to learn from their example, we set out on the sure way towards a living and effective hermeneutic of the word of God” (Ibid., p. 49)
4. Life by Way of Sacraments
   • The Principle of Supernatural Life
     • The second of the two great gifts Christ gives us through the Church is supernatural life, the life of grace.
       • Note: The life of grace has been discussed at a high level on pp. 185 – 186, and will be discussed further in chapter 30, which is dedicated to the topic.
     • This gift has the same close correspondence with human nature as that of the gift of Truth. That is, man has a need for this supernatural life and the need is supplied by God through the Apostles and their successors (298-1).
     • Supernatural Life: Summarizing what has been discussed in an earlier lesson about the supernatural life of the soul (see Chapter 13):
       • Man was made for the Beatific Vision, which is a direct and conscious contact with God himself (185-2)
       • By nature, we can only know a thing by way of an idea; the thing known is never in our mind. However, our destiny is to know God directly, without an intervening idea (185-2).
       • Because it is impossible, naturally, to know a thing directly, we need a principle of supernatural life in order to have the Beatific Vision (176-3, 185-2).
         • Note that the gap between non-living and living beings is not so great as the gap between natural life and supernatural life (185-2).
       • This principle of supernatural life is not a development of our natural powers. We could not have this principle apart from it being a direct gift from God (185-3).
       • “Grasp clearly that the [principle of] supernatural life, which we call also sanctifying grace, is not simply a passport to heaven: it is the power to live in heaven” (186-1).
     • Because sanctifying grace is the power to live in heaven, it follows that living there requires “new powers of knowing and loving . . . over and above the natural powers of [the] intellect and will” (298-1).
     • Consequently, a new life-principle must be given to man’s soul (298-1).
     • God has ordained that while this new life principle is primarily intended to enable man to live in heaven, it is given to him while he is still upon earth, and can only be acquired during each man’s life on earth (298-1).
     • “[The] acquisition and preservation [of this supernatural life] are man’s principal business on earth” (298-1).
       • “And this must be our business, to strive to overcome ourselves, and daily to gain strength over ourselves, and to grow better and better” (IOC, I, 3, 3).
   • Effects of the Gift of Sanctifying Grace in This Life
     • Though the primary effect of this life-principle is for life in heaven, nevertheless, it has a great effect upon the soul in this life (298-1).
     • It elevates the intellect to the level of the theological virtue of faith (298-1).
     • It elevates the will to the level of the theological virtues of hope and charity (298-1).
     • It does not possess the property of permanence, in this life; It can be lost, but it can also be restored (298-1).
     • “It is . . . a result of the energizing of God’s life in our souls, and . . . because God’s life is infinite there is no limit to the increase of its energizing in us” (298-1).
       • “The [Holy] Spirit indwells and does many things in man to render him sacred. This is uncreated grace. . . . It is by sanctifying grace that we are united to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. . . . [who] communicate themselves to men, impress themselves ‘into’ us. It is created grace that renders us capable of receiving this communication, but it is the communication that causes the created grace” (Dubay, “God Dwells within Us,” p. 112, 114-115).
         • In other words, God Himself is uncreated grace, and His self-communication to men produces the created grace that we call sanctifying, habitual, or deifying, and the grace of justification (CCC 1999, 2000). God’s self-communication to us gives us a participation in His life. Sanctifying grace is not that participation; rather, it makes that participation possible.
       • “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal 4:6)
       • “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” (Rom 8:15-16)
   • Seven Ways in Which the Life Can Be Received
     • The Life first comes to us in Baptism, which opens the door to all the other sacraments (298-3).
       • “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5).
       • “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16).
       • If Baptism is necessary for salvation, then what is the fate of those who die without the opportunity for Baptism? See below for the excursus, “Salvation for Those Who Die without Baptism.”
     • The Life is sustained with the Holy Eucharist, for which He gave the Apostles the power to change bread and wine into His body and blood at the Last Supper (299-1, 302-2).
       • “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53).
       • “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” (1 Cor 11:23-25).
       • “Breaking one and the same Bread [i.e., the Eucharist], which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but [which causes] that we should live forever in Jesus Christ” (Ignatius of Antioch, Ephesians, 20, ca. 115).
     • The Life is restored by the sacrament of Penance.
       • “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you retain, they are retained” (Jn 20:23).
         • Because they have the power to forgive and to retain, it is evident that they must know what the sin is; hence, sins must be vocally confessed (299-1)
     • These three sacraments, Baptism, Penance, Eucharist, are found in the Gospels (299-1).
     • We find a fourth sacrament, Anointing of the Sick, in the Letter of James where the presbyters of the Church have the power to anoint a sick person with the result of his sins being forgiven (299-1)
       • “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (Jas 5:14-15).
     • A fifth sacrament, Holy Orders, provides for the Church’s continuing ability to dispense the gifts of Truth and Life so as to fulfill the Catholic Commission’s directive to teach all things to all nations for all time (Mt 28:19-20) (299-2).
       • There are multiple accounts of this in the New Testament, and they always involve the imposition of hands (299-2).
       • “Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterance when the council of elders laid their hands upon you” (1 Tim 4:14).
       • “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19).
       • “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:19-20).
     • In the Acts of the Apostles we find a sixth sacrament, the Sacrament of Confirmation, by which a baptized person receives the Holy Spirit in a manner that completes Baptism and prepares the confirmed for the battle of the Christian life. This sacrament too is conferred through the imposition of hands (299-2).
       • “[Peter and John] came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:15-17).
       • “On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:5-6).
       • “My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials” (Sir 2:1).
     • These six sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Holy Eucharist, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick are evident in Scripture. “And there is enough in Scripture to prepare our minds for the Church’s statement that there was a seventh sacrament . . . Matrimony” (300-2).
       • “There was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.’ . . . [To provide for the needs of the wedding guests He changed water into wine.] This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (Jn 2:1-11)
       • “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Mt 19:4-5).
       • “‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church” (Eph 5:31-32).
         • The word “mysterion” translated here as “mystery,” would be more appropriately translated as “sacrament,” which makes Matrimony the only sacrament that is called such in Scripture (Haffner, “Sacramental Mystery.”p. 201).
       • There is currently (late 2016), at the highest levels in the Church, a debate regarding the indissolubility of marriage. The state of the discussion is nicely summarized in this article by Fr. Raymond de Souza:
         • http://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/debating-amoris-laetitia-a-look-ahead#.WHEEMPkrLDe
   • Excursus: Salvation for Those Who Die without Baptism
     • For those who die without baptism, through no fault of their own, we have two items to consider:
       • First, if such individuals have not rejected God at the moment of death, it would seem as though hell is closed to them.
       • Second, because these individuals lack sanctifying grace, the power to live in heaven, which would have been obtained via baptism, it would seem as though heaven is closed to them.
     • We have here a problem that is not resolved in Scripture. If such individuals are closed off from both heaven and hell, there must be a third terminal state in which they can reside, but Scripture is silent about such a state.
     • “Limbo” is an attempt at a theological solution to this problem; it is described as a place where its inhabitants experience natural happiness (thus, they are not in hell) but are deprived of the beatific vision (thus, they are not in heaven).
     • Consider the following verses:
       • “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:14).
       • “[God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4)
     • From these two verses, one can argue that it is incomprehensible to think that the same God who “desires all men to be saved” and who does not want the “children” to be hindered because “to such belongs the kingdom of heaven,” would create human persons who were destined to be cut off from the beatific vision through no fault of their own, for the beatific vision is the very purpose for which all of mankind is created. The concept of limbo, however, proposes exactly that.
     • In addition, consider this from Garrigou-Lagrange:
       • “Our will has a depth without measure. Hence beatitude, that true happiness which man desires naturally and inevitably, cannot be found in any limited good”. For “our will, although finite, is made to love a good that has no limits” (“Life Everlasting, p. 9, 11).
         • He refers to the will’s “depth without measure” as “soul immensity”.
     • Limbo, which is, in concept, a place of natural happiness, is clearly a limited good. Hence, it cannot satisfy man’s soul immensity, the immeasurable desire of the will for that which is good.
     • It would seem as though the situation in which a soul, having a natural desire for true happiness, and having, as well, full knowledge that it’s natural desire could never be satisfied (i.e., would not have access to the beatific vision), would not be conducive to natural happiness, and could even be a source of anguish.
     • Since Limbo is supposed to be a place of natural happiness, the concept of Limbo seems to be a contradiction. That is, Limbo would be a place of natural happiness for souls who are cut off from the only thing that can satisfy their desire for natural happiness.
     • The International Theological Commission addressed the topic of Limbo about a decade ago, at the request of Pope Benedict (who was of the opinion that the idea of Limbo should be discarded). The ITC essentially came to that same conclusion, though it stated that one can still hold to the concept of Limbo without being contrary to the teaching of the Church, for the concept of limbo has never been taught as a matter of faith, that is, as something revealed by God.
       • http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html
     • Limbo is a human “solution” to a divine mystery, but divine mysteries don’t have human solutions.
       • Recall that Sheed advises us to take the apparently irreconcilable elements of a mystery at white heat and not be concerned about the tension between them.
     • In the specific case of a child who dies before reaching the age of reason, such a child cannot die in a state of final impenitence. Hence, Hell cannot be the child’s destination, nor can Limbo, if the argument above is valid.
     • The most that we can say about the state of those who die without baptism through no fault of their own, and are not rejecting God at the moment of death is that we simply don’t know how He handles the destiny of such individuals; but we can say this:
       • “God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but He Himself is not bound by his sacraments” (CCC 1257).
5. The Sacraments Parallel the Nature of Man
   • The Sacraments: Matter and Spirit
     • Just as man has a body and a soul, a material and a spiritual element, each of the sacraments, likewise, have a material and spiritual element (300-1).
     • The material element is the “vehicle by which the gift is brought to us,” whereas the spiritual element is the gift of the grace received (300-2).
     • For the material elements of each sacrament, we have the following:
       • Water for Baptism
       • The oil of chrism for Confirmation
       • Bread and wine for the Eucharist
       • The penitent’s sorrow and repentance for the sacrament of Penance
       • The oil of anointing and the body to be anointed for the Sacrament of the Sick
       • Publicly expressed mutual consent to a permanent union and procreation for Matrimony
       • The imposition of hands for Holy Orders
   • Sacraments and the Nature of Man
     • We find in the sacraments, as in the society, the principle that God deals with us according to the way He made us (300-2).
     • Just as He provided a social religion for us because He created us as social beings, so does He provide us with the supernatural life-principle through sacraments that are spirit and matter because He created us as spirit and matter, soul and body (300-2).
       • “A religion which took no proper account of man’s body and left it inactive and unsanctified would be as monstrous as a religion which left out of account his essential relation with his fellows” (300-2).
       • This is important because religion is the act of man, and man is a union of body and soul; he is not soul only. Granted, the soul is the greater part of the union, but the body is, nevertheless, an essential part of the union. In life generally as well as in religion, the body has a real part to play (300-2).
     • Note that the supernatural life builds on the natural. It is not a matter of receiving a new soul; rather, the supernatural life enters the soul we already possess. Similarly, it does not give the soul new faculties; rather it elevates the faculties the soul already possesses (300-3).
     • Because the supernatural life builds on nature, it follows that “the more fully man is man, the better his nature serves for the super-nature that is to be built upon it” (301-1).
     • Hence, “whatever damages man as man,” that is whatever damages man in the natural order, also damages him in the supernatural order, that is, in his relationship to God (301-1).
     • Consequently, we must strive to maintain a proper balance between the body and the soul, but we find this balance incredibly “difficult to keep and calamitous to lose” (301-1).
       • The balance is lost when we sin. It is difficult to keep because of sin’s attractiveness to our fallen nature:
         • God to Cain: “Sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:7).
     • When the balance leans to the body, man becomes a beast (301-1).
     • When the balance leans toward the spirit there is the danger of “a spiritual pride leading to contempt for the body, which can bring [one] pretty close to [being like] the Devil” who despised the thought of the Incarnation (301-1).
       • “Although nothing definite can be known as to the precise nature of the probation of the angels and the manner in which many of them fell, many theologians have conjectured, with some show of probability, that the mystery of the Divine Incarnation was revealed to them, that they saw that a nature lower than their own was to be hypostatically united to the Person of God the Son, and that all the hierarchy of heaven must bow in adoration before the majesty of the Incarnate Word; and this, it is supposed, was the occasion of the pride of Lucifer” (NewAdvent, Catholic Encyclopedia, “Devil”)
   • Sacraments and the Shape of Man’s Natural Life
     • The sacramental principle corresponds not only with the structure of man (i.e., body and soul) but also with the shape of man’s natural life (301-3).
     • There are five sacraments that correspond to the four “determining points” of man’s life (301-3).
       • Natural birth corresponds to the supernatural rebirth of Baptism (301-3)
       • The bodily maturing of the child corresponds to the spiritual maturing of Confirmation, by which he gets a function in the Kingdom (“miles Christi”) (301-3).
       • One’s entry into a state of life corresponds to either Matrimony or Holy Orders, both of which give a fuller function in the Kingdom, but in different ways (301-3).
       • Natural death corresponds to Anointing of the Sick (301-3).
     • As life flows from one moment to the next, there are two other notable needs, the need for food and the need for healing. Each corresponds to a sacrament (301-3).
       • The bodily need for daily food corresponds to the soul’s need for spiritual food, which is met in the Holy Eucharist (301-3).
       • The bodily need for healing, when sick, corresponds to the soul’s need for healing from sin, which is met in the Sacrament of Penance (301-3).
     • Clearly, man has a need for supernatural life, the gift of sanctifying grace. The need is satisfied most appropriately through the sacraments, which take into account the structure of man and the shape of his natural life.
6. The Sacrament of Sacraments: The Holy Eucharist
   • Jesus Is Present in the Holy Eucharist
     • In the other sacraments, we receive the “life of Christ,” but in the Holy Eucharist we receive Christ Himself (302-2).
     • The Holy Eucharist is the basis of all the other sacraments, for it is Christ Himself from whom all the sacraments flow. “It is the very food of the soul, and without food there can be no continuance in life”; in other words, the supernatural life of the soul cannot be sustained without the Holy Eucharist (302-2).
       • “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53).
       • “The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’” (CCC 1324).
   • The Holy Eucharist in the Lives of the First Christians
     • We find multiple references to the Holy Eucharist (i.e., the Breaking of the Bread) in the New Testament, beginning on the day of the Resurrection. The disciples who were on their way home to Emmaus recognized Jesus in the Breaking of the Bread.
       • “When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight” (Lk 24:30-31).
     • The Holy Eucharist was a central component in the lives of the first Christians:
       • “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).
     • Here, the “breaking of the bread” is clearly not simply a reference to a meal for two reasons.
       • First, the importance of the very natural act of eating a meal is not in the same league as the Apostles’ teaching and the unity of the Apostles’ fellowship, both of which have supernatural elements.
         • The content of apostolic teaching is divine revelation (supernatural knowledge that is beyond the power of human reasoning to acquire) and it has a supernatural guarantee of infallibility.
         • Apostolic unity (fellowship) is supernatural: “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (Jn 17:20-21).
       • Second, only a hedonist or a glutton would devote himself to eating meals.
   • The Holy Eucharist and the Last Supper
     • At the Last Supper, Jesus changed bread and wine into His body and blood. It retained the appearances (accidents) of bread and wine, but it underwent a change of substance so that what appears to be bread and wine is truly the body and blood of Christ (302-3).
       • All three of the Last Supper accounts in the Gospels speak of the institution of the Holy Eucharist:
         • “Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Mt 26:26-28).
         • “And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many’” (Mk 14:22-24).
         • “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” (Lk 22:19-20).
       • The second half of the sixth chapter of John is dedicated to Jesus’ exposition of the Bread of Life.
         • The Last Supper account is not found in John’s Gospel, but that “loss” is more than made up for in Jn 6.
   • St. Paul on Christ’s Presence in the Holy Eucharist
     • St. Paul insists on the reality of the Holy Eucharist being the actual body and blood of Christ.
     • Writing to the Corinthians at least 20 years after the Last Supper he repeats the institution narrative of the Last Supper, and states that he received this teaching from the Lord Himself:
       • “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” (1 Cor 11:23-25).
       • Then he goes on to admonish the Corinthians that a failure to recognize the Eucharist as the body and blood of the Lord is gravely sinful:
         • “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself” (1 Cor 11:29).
       • It should be noted in what Paul says here that when Jesus said “Do this in memory of me,” the “this” He had just done was the changing of bread and wine into His body and blood, and they were to perpetuate the sacrament until the end of time (“until He comes”) (302-3).
     • In chapter 10 of the same letter, he emphasizes the reality of the Holy Eucharist being the body and blood of Christ, rather than it being a mere symbol, by calling our participation in this sacrament a participation in the body and blood of Christ:
       • “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16).
   • The Eucharist Is the Whole Christ
     • Note that because Christ is risen from the dead, His body and blood are no longer separated, for the separation of His body and blood means death:
       • “We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him” (Rom 6:9).
       • “The body of Christ is indeed present under the species of bread by the power of the sacrament, while the blood is there from real concomitance. . . . If this sacrament had been celebrated [while He was dead] the body of Christ would have been under the species of bread, but without blood; and under the species of wine, the blood would have been present without the body, as it was then in fact” (Summa III, q. 76, a. 2).
     • Thus, when we receive the Body of Christ under the form of bread, by reason of concomitance we also receive the Blood of Christ, and vice versa.
       • Concomitance: The natural occurrence or existence together or in connection with one another (The Free Online Dictionary).
       • “By reason of a natural concomitance . . . there becomes simultaneously present all that which is physically inseparable from the parts just named, and which must, from a natural connection with them, always be their accompaniment” (Catholic Encyclopedia, The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist).
     • In other words, when we receive the host, we receive the whole Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity. Similarly, when we drink from the chalice, we receive the whole Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity (303-2).
       • At the time of consecration, “The whole substance of the bread is changed into the whole substance of Christ’s body, and the whole substance of the wine into the whole substance of Christ’s blood. . . . [This is a] substantial conversion . . . with a name of its own . . . transubstantiation” (Summa III, q. 75. a. 4).
   • Christ’s Substantial Presence in the Holy Eucharist
     • Christ’s presence in the Holy Eucharist is a substantial presence, not a physical presence. By the word “physical” we refer to that which is detectable by the senses. In the Holy Eucharist, our senses detect neither human flesh nor human blood.
       • “Christ’s body is substantially present in this sacrament. But substance, as such, is not visible to the bodily eye, nor under the imagination, but solely under the intellect, whose object is what a thing is” (Summa III, q. 76, a. 7).
     • The sacrifice of the Mass is an unbloody sacrifice; it is a sacrifice in which blood is not physically present (i.e., the blood of Christ is not present to our senses as blood, but as wine).
       • “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice . . . only the manner of offering is different . . . the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner [in the Mass]” (CCC 1367).
     • Philosophically, when we speak of “substance,” we are speaking of that which exists independently of other things. Accidents, on the other hand, only exist in some other thing; they depend on some other thing for their existence.
       • The characteristics by which a substance is made known to our senses are necessarily physical in nature, but they are accidents of the substance and not the substance itself.
       • However, “the mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as ‘the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.’ In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.’ ‘This presence is called “real” – by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be “real” too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present” (CCC 1374).
       • “The soul of Christ is in this sacrament not by the power of the sacrament, but from real concomitance. . . . For since the Godhead never set aside the assumed body, wherever the body of Christ is, there, of necessity, must the Godhead be. . . . Therefore had this sacrament been celebrated during those three days when He was dead, the soul of Christ would not have been there, neither by the power of the sacrament, nor from real concomitance” (Summa III, q. 76, a. 1, ad. 1).
7. Continuance of Sacrifice
   • Ministers (Priests) and Teachers
     • Considering what has been said thus far in this chapter, it is evident that the Kingdom should have ministers and teachers to dispense the gifts of life and truth, for these gifts would be needed for all time (303-3)
       • Ministers are needed so the gift of supernatural life (sanctifying grace) can be given to us (by way of sacraments).
       • Teachers are needed so the gift of supernatural truth (divinely reveled truth, Scripture and Tradition) can be given to us.
   • Priests
     • It is not so evident that the Kingdom would need priests (303-3), the reason being that the primary function of a priest is to offer sacrifice to God, and Jesus “has [already] offered the totally effective sacrifice, and it cannot be added to” (303-3).
       • “He did this [i.e., offered a sacrifice for the people] once for all when he offered up himself” (Heb 7:27).
       • “We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10)
       • “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12).
     • However, in the divine plan of redemption, it was not sufficient that the perfect offering made on the cross be made without our participation. But it was not possible for the beneficiaries of Christ’s redemptive act to actively participate in His sacrifice at the time it was offered. The solution to this dilemma is a “continuation” of the one sacrifice of Jesus.
     • This “continuation” of the sacrifice means that the one eternal sacrifice of Christ had to be made available to us in time so that we could participate in it. Hence, there is a continuance of presence, but not a continuance in time of the “once for all” sacrifice itself.
       • “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice . . . only the manner of offering is different” (CCC 1367).
       • “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16).
       • The kingdom needs priests “because in His incarnate divine person [Jesus] has in some way united Himself to every man, ‘the possibility of being made partners . . . in the paschal mystery’ is offered to all men” (CCC 618).
     • Our participation in the Eucharist does two things:
       • First, it makes it possible for us in the realm of time to unite our “prayers, works, joys, and sufferings” to the eternal sacrifice of Christ.
         • “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24).
         • “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father” (prayer at the end of the Offertory).
       • Second, it enables us to receive the fruits of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross
         • “The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its [i.e., the sacrifice of the cross’] memorial and because it applies its [i.e., the sacrifice of the cross’] fruit” (CCC 1366).
   • The Sacrifice’s Continued Presence in the Society
     • We see the need for priests in the fact that there was to be a continual presence of the sacrifice. But note that what is true of the Gifts of Truth and Life is also true of the Sacrifice: it is Christ who teaches through His teachers, it is Christ who ministers through His ministers, and it is Christ who offers Sacrifice through His priests (303-3).
       • In each case, man is merely the instrument through which Christ works (303-3).
     • St. John insists on both “the unique priesthood of Christ, and upon the continuance of sacrifice in Christ’s Kingdom” (303-4):
       • “For you were slain and by your blood did ransom men for God from every [i.e., all time] tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth” (Rev 5:9-10).
         • The “continuance” is seen in the reference to “every tribe and tongue and people and nation,” all of which come and go over time, but there is never a time when all exist simultaneously, or even in a particular era.
       • Regarding the Sheed’s use of the word “continuance,” we must note that it ordinarily implies something that is ongoing in time. That cannot be the case for the eternal sacrifice, and it is not the sense intended by Sheed.
     • That there would be priests in the New Covenant was prophesied under the Old Covenant by Isaiah (304-2):
       • “They shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the LORD . . . And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD” (Is 66:21).
     • The sacrifice itself was prophesied by Malachi in a rebuke to the priests of Israel (304-2):
       • “I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts” (Mal 1:10-11).
         • Note that man cannot make a pure offering in the natural order, for all that he has to offer is tainted. Therefore, Malachi must be speaking of an offering in the supernatural order.
8. A Society Human and Divine
   • The Historical Church: An Unsettling Picture
     • Thus far we have seen the Church primarily with respect to the key phrases in Scripture that speak of God’s design for His Church. However, to really know the Church, we must see it as history shows it. This can be a startling experience (304-3).
     • The Church is referred to in Scripture as the “heavenly Jerusalem.”
       • “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,” (Heb 12:22; also see Rev 3:12, 21:2)
     • However, this heavenly Jerusalem has often appeared as a very earthly Jerusalem, in terms of the lives of its members, who have practiced every sort of abomination at one time or another (304-3).
     • Despite the unsettling aspects a study of the Church’s history unearths, “not to make the study dooms one to an incomprehension of what was in the mind of Christ” when He established the Church (305-1).
   • The Church: A Human Society
     • Note: This is a return to the theme that opened the chapter.
     • There are two consequences that flow from the fact that the Church is a human society: (1) The need for officials and (2) the mixed bag those officials are (305-2).
     • Regarding the need for officials, the Church must have them, and it has to have authority; otherwise, we would have nothing but a chaotic group of individuals rather than a society (305-2).
     • Through these officials, Christ gives the gifts of Life and Truth and preserves the unity of the Church. He uses the pope as ultimate custodian of the teachings (gift of truth) and the sacraments (gift of life), and as the ultimate authority for the preservation of unity (305-2).
       • Note that the gifts come through the society; they do not come from it. The gifts themselves are from Christ and their value is from Him (305-2).
     • “For these specified purposes, the officials . . . represent Christ. And so far as they represent Christ, there is no defect in them” (305-3).
       • No error is given as truth
       • The sacraments retain their integrity
       • The unity of the Society is maintained
     • “Outside their representative capacity, the officials . . . are simply themselves and must answer to God for their conduct” (305-3).
       • God has chosen to give His gifts through these representatives; “it would be sheer impertinence to suggest to God that He should give us gifts so vast in some other way” (305-3).
9. Regarding the Makeup of the Church’s Officials
   • Saints and Sinners
     • Regarding the make-up of those officials, the instruments through whom Christ chooses to dispense His gifts are a mixed bag of genuine saints, abominable sinners, and everything in between (306-1).
     • Men do not become saints merely by entering the Church, and they do not cease being men merely by entering the Church (306-1).
       • Rather, they retain their free will and their ability to fix their attention on anything they so desire, be it good or evil (306-1).
     • Thus, in the Church we find some who have attained sanctity, some who are close to it, some who are not so close to it, some who appear to have given up the struggle for sanctity, and some who appear to be headed viciously away from it (306-1).
     • It is through this sometimes scandalous society that Christ is operating. He works through the humanity that actually exists, not some fictitious ideal humanity (306-1, 3).
     • “He guarantees that the truth and the life and the unity shall not fail. But He fulfills His guarantee without doing violence either to the nature of man or to the nature of human society” (306-2).
       • “There is a certain kind of spiritual man who finds all this intolerable. His every instinct is revolted at the thought of Christ’s working in and through, and of himself being sanctified in and through, the mixed crowd of human beings” (307-1).
       • “This is preciousness and folly.” It is like a blind man refusing to be healed by spittle and clay because he is too refined for such a method of healing (307-1, Jn 9:6; like Naaman in 2 Kg 5:11)
     • The bottom line is that we don’t join the Church for the company we may find there. We join it for the gifts (307-1).
10. Regarding the Makeup of the Church
    • A Non-Exclusive Cross-Section of Humanity
      • Most enter the Church as a result of being born to its members and baptized accordingly (307-2).
        • There is no way of testing babies for their fitness to be Catholics (307-2)
        • Those who join later in life do not have to pass an intelligence test, and not even a character test (307-2).
      • “The plain truth is that Christ has chosen to unite to Himself and work through not an elite but an utterly unexclusive free-for-all cross-section of humanity” that He assists to the degree that it wants to be assisted by way of the gifts, but He does not force it (307-2).
      • “He does not ‘interfere’ with it beyond what is necessary to carry out His guarantee that the truth and the life and the unity shall abide in it” (307-2).
        • “Cum magna reverentia disponit” [He disposes [our wills] with great reverence (Wis 12:18)] (De Concilio, The Knowledge of Mary, 72).
    • The Office of the Papacy (308-1)
      • One of the most prominent ways in which we see the lack of Christ’s direct involvement in the Church is the fact that apart from its first officials, the Apostles, He does not pick the officials and He does not specify how they should be chosen (307-2).
      • Even with respect to the pope, “the ultimate authority for the preservation of unity” (305-2), He has not specified how he should be elected; the manner of election has varied considerably over the centuries (308-1).
        • For example, in the tenth century, the scandalous Theophylact family was able to force its choice for Pope on the Roman people for nearly 50 years (308-1; Laux, “Church History,” p. 266).
        • “This is the period of the ‘Pornocracy.’ . . . In it we see popes complicit in the murders of their predecessors, all under the ruthless tyranny of the Theophylact family of Rome. Some of the charges against John XII (955-964)—elected at 18 years old—are not fit for digital print.”
          • See: https://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/lets-raise-a-glass-to-the-bad-popes)
        • “The demerits of some of the popes can be broken down into three categories: the inept, the imprudent, and the immoral. It is astonishing [that] among the 265 [now 266] holders of the office that so few can be charged with [being inept, imprudent, or immoral] (indeed around a third of all popes are recognized as saints)” (ibid.) (Note: 31 of the first 32 popes are martyrs)
        • “[Regarding the less-than-stellar occupants of the Chair of Peter] I would propose that it is precisely these weak and sometimes sordid men who offer one of the most startling historical and apologetical claims for the indefectibility of the Church” (ibid.)
    • The Men Who Assume the Papal Office
      • “Anyone who knows what Europe has been like in the [twenty] centuries of the Church’s existence would be prepared for anything in the characters of the popes. And that is just about what one will find. Anything. Everything” (308-2).
      • The electors, whoever they may be, elect the pope and God makes him infallible when teaching matters of faith and morals, which means that “God will not allow him to teach the Church anything that is erroneous” (308-2).
        • Notice that this says nothing about the faith and morals of the man himself.
      • The pope has to struggle to save his soul (with the help of God’s grace, of course) as does everyone else; the papacy offers no guarantee of salvation.
        • “The only guarantee is that he will not teach the Church error [and that under his custodianship] the gifts of life and truth . . . shall not fail” (308-2).
      • “The office of pope is not for the advantage of the pope; it is for the advantage of the Society” (308-2).
11. The “Scandalous” Twofold Nature of the Church
    • The Church Mirrors the Twofold Nature of Christ
      • Returning to the idea that “a true religion must be true to [the nature of] both [God and man] (289-3), we should notice that the Church itself has a twofold nature, as does man.
        • “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor 12:27).
        • Every living body must have a soul, an animating principle. The soul of the Church is the Holy Spirit.
          • “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26).
          • From the notes for chapter 8: “The Holy Spirit is the vital [life-giving] principle [i.e., the soul] of the Church, intimate yet transcendent” (John Paul II, “The Spirit,” p. 321, 2).
          • “Let it suffice to state that, as Christ is the Head of the Church, so is the Holy Spirit her soul. ‘What the soul is in our body, that is the Holy Spirit in Christ’s body, the Church’ (St. Aug., Serm. 187, de Temp.)” (Leo XIII, Divinum Illud Munus, 6). This is quoted by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical “Mystici Corporis Christi”
      • It must be kept in mind that the twofold nature of the Church, while being analogous to the twofold nature of man [i.e., having body and soul], is more precisely a reflection of the two natures of Christ, human (our part) and divine (the Holy Spirit’s part).
    • The Scandal of the Twofold Natures
      • The twofold nature of Christ is scandalous to the world. To some He is too divine (e.g., He raised Lazarus from the dead, and calmed the stormy sea) (309-1).
        • “When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead” (Jn 12:9).
        • “And they were filled with awe, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?’” (Mk 4:41).
      • To others He is too human:
        • “The Son of man has come eating and drinking; and you say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (Lk 7:34).
      • Similarly, the twofold nature of the Church is scandalous to the world. There are two aspects to consider:
        • First: Insofar as the Church is teaching the truth, administering the sacraments, and maintaining the Society’s unity, it is perfect, for in all of these things it is Christ who is working through the members of the Church (309-1).
        • Second: Insofar as the other activities of the Church are concerned, “[its] actions and policies will be affected by the limitations and imperfections of its human members”; herein lies the source of scandal (309-1).
        • The first of these two aspects of the Church is a great gift; we should not expect anything more. However, He does give more: “It would be hard to follow the Church’s history without the recurrent feeling that we are in the presence of something more than human” (309-1).
        • As noted earlier, we find anything and everything in the men who have sat on the Chair of Peter, some have been edifying; others have been scoundrels (309-2).
        • Nevertheless, what matters is not what we find in the Church’s earthly rulers, but what we find in the Church: “the grace of the sacraments [Life], the offering of the sacrifice, the certitude of Truth, the Unity of the Fellowship, and Christ, in whom all these are” (310-1).
      • On page 318-2, Sheed speaks of the world’s reaction to “scandalous” two-fold nature of the Church.
12. The Stream of Truth and Life and the Members of the Society
    • The Inevitable Effect of the Stream of Truth and Life
      • Sheed is of the opinion that what he has said of the popes applies to Catholics in general.
        • That is, the number of scoundrels is smaller than that of the population at large, and the number of good people is larger than that of the population at large, because “all that stream of truth and [life], flowing through every channel that Christ made to carry the flow to men’s souls, does not go for nothing” (310-2).
      • Regardless of whether Sheed’s opinion is correct, “if we want to form to ourselves some notion of the richness of the stream [of Truth and Life], we must look . . . at the saints” (310-2), for they are the true measure of what is available to us in the Church.
        • We do not give ourselves wholly to the stream of Truth and Life; the saints do, as can be seen by reading any good biography of a saint.
        • The saints have gone out into the stream of truth and life stripped of everything that would block the stream. “There, but for the resistance to the grace of God, goes every one of us” (310-2).