Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: Writing in a recent parish bulletin, Fr. George Rutler of the Church of St. Michael in New York City said that “we need a historical sense to appreciate the contrast between civilization before and after Christ changed the world. He contrasts the world redeemed and unredeemed in his imagery of the Good Shepherd who ‘lays down his life for his sheep’ versus the wolf that ‘attacks and scatters the sheep.’ The contrast is vivid again today, in the saints who follow the Good Shepherd and the evil people who terrorize humanity as wolves.
“Often, the wolves do not look like wolves at all. It is easy to spot a terrorist, but most moral degenerates can disguise themselves well. Some wolves are sociopaths with such characteristics as superficial charm, few close friends, unsettling obliviousness to danger, lack of empathy with suffering people while claiming to feel their pain, chronic lying, manipulation by habitual laughter and feigned cheerfulness, and a restless ego.
“Although they have no ‘concern for the sheep,’ their antisocial skills paradoxically help them attain high places in society, supported by the very sheep they would devour. In contrast, the Good Shepherd ‘is one who lays down his life for his sheep’….
“Putting aside the tendency to nostalgia, there certainly is enough evidence to warrant a fear that our culture is being seduced by wolfish leaders into a new barbarism as the end of a cycle of civilization. The innovative philosopher of history, Giambattista Vico, described the pattern: ‘Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance.’
“The new barbarism would be worse than the old, in the words of Churchill in 1940: ‘…a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.’ He also warned that the worst enablers of social vandalism are not wolves in sheep’s clothing, but sheep in sheep’s clothing. Ignorant of the difference between sin and virtue, they naively ‘waste their substance’ and welcome wolves while deaf to the voice of the Good Shepherd.”
Q. I know you are faithful to the Magisterium, but what would you do if it approves homosexual unions and says that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Holy Communion? Cardinal Kasper’s group is pushing for that. If the Pope is a good Pope, why doesn’t he put a stop to this? — M.G., Alabama.
A. If the Magisterium, that is, the Pope and bishops united with him, were ever to approve homosexual unions or Communion to those in adulterous relationships, it would mean that the “gates of hell” had prevailed against the Church, something that Jesus promised would never happen (cf. Matt. 16:18). We say in the Creed every Sunday that the Church is “apostolic,” which means that if one is looking today for the Church founded by Christ, one must look for a Church that is teaching exactly what the apostles taught 2,000 years ago. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“The Church is apostolic. She is built on a lasting foundation: ‘the twelve apostles of the Lamb’ (Rev. 21:14). She is indestructible (cf. Matt. 16:18). She is upheld infallibly in the truth: Christ governs her through Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of bishops” (n. 869).
There is only one Church that meets that description in 2015, and that is the Catholic Church.
So when all is said and done at the end of the Synod on the Family next fall, there will be no change in the Church’s teachings about the immorality of same-sex or adulterous unions. To make such a change would be to compromise the truth and would undermine what St. Paul said about the Church being “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).
Q. The Letter of James (2:24) says that “a person is justified by his works and not by faith alone.” Can you clarify what is the meaning of redemption, salvation, justification, and works? — C.G.D., Maryland.
A. Relying on the glossary at the back of the Catechism, and paragraphs in the body of that compendium of Catholic teaching, redemption may be defined as the action of Jesus on Good Friday whereby “Christ paid the price of his own sacrificial death on the cross to ransom us, to set us free from the slavery of sin, thus achieving our redemption.”
The Catechism (n. 517) also says that “Christ’s whole life is a mystery of redemption. Redemption comes to us above all through the blood of his cross [cf. Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:13-14; 1 Peter 1:18-19], but this mystery is at work throughout Christ’s entire life.” It mentions specifically Jesus’ Incarnation, His hidden life, His words, His healings and exorcisms, and His Resurrection.
Salvation means “the forgiveness of sins and restoration of friendship with God, which can be done by God alone.” This means, says the Catechism (n. 169), that “salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: ‘We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation’ [Faustus of Riez, De Spiritu Sancto 1, 2: PL 62, 11]. Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.”
Justification is “the gracious action of God which frees us from sin and communicates ‘the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ’ (Romans 3:22). Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.” The Catechism (n. 1987) also says that “the grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us ‘the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ’ and through Baptism” (Romans 3:22; cf. 6:3-4).
Works refer to those good actions we take, for example, the Corporal Works of Mercy, which confirm the faith that we have in God and our desire to conform ourselves to Jesus’ command to love one another. Protestants accuse Catholics of thinking that we are saved by works, but Catholics actually believe that they are saved by the grace of God, which is made manifest by the works we do.
Jesus made clear in Matt. 25 that whatever we do for the least of our brothers and sisters, we do for Him. So to those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, etc., the Lord will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). Conversely, Jesus will say to those who failed to help their needy brothers and sisters, “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (25:40).
So Catholics do not agree with Protestants that we are saved by faith alone, and they cite the Letter of James to show just how deficient that theory is:
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
“You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble. Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called ‘the friend of God.’ See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
“And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route? For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26).
