By JOHN YOUNG
Some people claim that true religion is very simple, and that if we delve into difficult theological questions we will lose that simplicity. Jesus said we must become as little children if we are to enter God’s Kingdom; He didn’t say we must become theologians.
Frank Sheed’s response to the claim that religion should be kept simple was: “Having one leg would be simpler than having two, but it would complicate walking.”
Christians who advocate a simple religion often claim that this is found in the New Testament, and that it was the later theologians who complicated things. They see Jesus as proposing a very simple way of life, a way that the earliest disciples put into practice.
But is that what we really find in the Gospels and the other New Testament writings? An indication that it is not is the fact that Jesus’ disciples, including the chosen Twelve, often misunderstood Him, and that misunderstandings continued in the early Church. They didn’t find it simple.
His teaching about God included references to the Holy Spirit, and He claimed that He Himself was divine. It is precisely because of His claim to divinity that the Jewish leaders condemned Him.
He spoke of Heaven and Hell as final destinies, depending on how we live in the present life. He preached the resurrection of the dead at the end of time, when each will be reunited with the body.
He declared the Eucharist to be His Flesh and Blood, even though this apparently incredible teaching lost Him many of his disciples, and He gave His apostles the power of consecrating the Eucharist after He had gone.
He spoke often of evil spirits, cast out many of these from afflicted people, and warned against their leader, Satan. He spoke also of good angels who see the face of His Father in Heaven.
Jesus taught a demanding moral code, including the indissolubility of marriage, and the evil of adultery. He required that His followers love Him above all others, even their father and mother.
The whole of the New Testament contains deep truths, and it was written for ordinary Christians. St. John’s Gospel begins with one of the most profound statements ever made: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The whole of that Gospel contains sublime teachings, so full of content that the best minds have not plumbed its depths.
The same applies to the New Testament epistles, especially those of St. Paul. Consider, for instance, the Epistle to the Romans, with its analyses of law and grace, including the natural moral law; and its comparison of the Old Law given to the Jews and the New Law preached by Christ.
Contrasting interpretations of the teaching of Christ were inevitable, and the right interpretation had to be found if chaotic thinking was to be avoided. Some of mankind’s greatest minds have given themselves to this task in the early centuries and down to our own time. The many ecumenical councils, from Nicaea to Vatican II, clarified questions and deepened the understanding of God’s Revelation.
If we look at sermons of the fathers of the Church in the early centuries, sermons given to ordinary people, not theologians, we find that much would be over the heads of the average congregation today. Yet presumably they were understood by the people to whom they were addressed, since the preachers knew their people.
Contrasting them with the typical homily we hear today the difference is striking. We live in a superficial, secular age, with the average churchgoer lacking the religious insight of Christians in the early centuries.
Christianity is God’s Revelation to the human race, revealing to us truths that we could never have attained by our own efforts, as well as confirming the truths that reason can reach by its own power. We are therefore given a vast panorama of reality, encompassing this material world and our place in it, the eternal destiny to which we are called, and God our Creator and Last End.
The moral laws revealed by God are a blueprint for the leading of a happy life, a blueprint needed especially in confused times like the present.
So Christianity is not simple. But it is not something that only intellectuals can understand. There is a paradox here, with ordinary people who lead a holy life having an insight into doctrine that a materialist-minded intellectual does not have.
Before ascending into Heaven, Jesus promised His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to enlighten them further. We see from the Acts of the Apostles how this enlightenment transformed their understanding, giving them a penetration into the fullness of divine Revelation.
The same thing happens, in a lesser degree, to all who have faith in Christ and leave themselves open to enlightenment from the Holy Spirit, especially in the Church, which is “the pillar and ground of truth”(1 Tim. 3:15).
This brings us back to the question of simplicity. Jesus said we must become as little children if we are to enter the Kingdom of God. St. Paul criticizes “the wisdom of the world,” which doesn’t understand the Gospel, whereas simple people do.
We are called to a spiritual simplicity, an openness to God, humility. But that is perfectly compatible with a deep knowledge of theology — in fact, that attitude makes a deeper understanding possible.
Spiritual simplicity like the simplicity of a child allows the virtues of faith, hope, and charity and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to work in us, so that we see the many truths of the faith, and see them in a unified vision.
St. Paul, having severely criticized worldly wisdom, continues: “Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification” (1 Cor. 2:6f).
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