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THE FATHER SPEAKS

BY GRACE ALONE
By Fr. KJ Veeger, MSC

In the first decades of last century the Catechism of the Catholic Church started with the words: “to what purpose are we on earth?” and the answer was: “to serve God and in doing so to achieve heaven.” The opening words of the New Catechism (1994) sound quite different: “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in Himself, in a plan of sheer goodness created man to make him share in His own blessed life.”

In the same old days, Catholics were categorized into practicing and non-practicing. Nowadays, not any longer! “Practicing” was understood as going to church on Sunday, receiving the sacraments, almsgiving and other good works. So the emphasis was rather on what people DID, and not so much on faith in God’s Love and Intentions with man. I remember from the fifties, that catechumens repeatedly asked me just to tell them what they had to do in order to be a good Catholic.

Reversely since almost five hundred years ago the followers of Martin Luther or Protestant Christians strongly emphasized inner spirituality or faith in God’s Loving Work of Salvation and Justification of man, without attributing any role to good works by man in the process. Once in 1531 Martin Luther stated, that he would call the Pope “Holiest Father”, and “would not only kiss his feet, but lavish every kind of care and attention on him, IF only we could come to agree, that by God’s Grace alone we achieve salvation”, and not by our good works too. That agreement had a long time before reaching maturity. But recently, on October 31, 1999, Reformation Day, in the German town of Augsburg, the Catholic Church and the World Federation of Lutheran Churches signed following Joint Declaration of Justification: “together we confess that by grace only, in faith in Jesus’ saving work, and not because of any merit on our side, we are accepted by God and receive the holy spirit, who renews hearts, while equipping us and calling us to good works”.

A heartfelt wish of Pope John Paul II was fulfilled. Before stepping into the third millennium, both sides declared officially, that their teachings are not fundamentally in conflict. There are no longer any reasons to be in discord or divided on base of for reason of this most basic issue of justification. Catholics can hold on to the importance of good works, and Protestants can maintain their unrestricted hope in God. However, Catholics should not see their religious practices like going to church, receiving the sacraments, virtuous life, religious vows, pilgrimage, as the SOURCE or CAUSE of being accepted and saved by God, but only as their freely given RESPONSE and assent to God, who in His power and love surpasses man and whatever he does infinitely. God’s justifying Power and Love are freely offered to everybody, who in His freedom can either accept and allow God to transform his life, or refuse.

Following illustration may help us to understand a little bit better what God is doing. It is taken from GRAHAM GREENE’s book “BURNT-OUT CASE”. He describes the life of a medical doctor and an architect in Congo. Both did not go to church, neither did they pray in the traditional manner. They were non-practicing Catholics. Yet they invested their whole life in the cause of Love. They took care of a Catholic leprosy, together with some priests and nuns. The doctor had lost his wife victim of the sleeping sickness. She was buried in the graveyard where also the dead of the leprosy were buried, however without a cross on the grave.

It is certainly not given to us to judge him. We cannot condemn him for not receiving the sacraments, because we don’t know why he did not. But we may be sure that God recognized a bit of His Love reflected in his life inspite of his non-practicing.

Nearby the colony lived the manager of a plantation. He was a former seminarian, who had left the seminary because, as he said quoting St. Paul, that it is better to marry than to burn.” He was married with a much younger girl. He was a practicing Catholic, who donated substantially to the Church and loved to discuss religious subjects. Yet he hated the architect, as he suspected an affair with his wife. One day he accused and killed him after a fight calling him adulterous.

Did God justify him because of being a practicing Catholic? By now we understand that, in case he was justified, it was not because of his being a practicing Catholic, but thanks to God’s Grace alone. Whether his going to church, receiving the sacraments, his donations and religious discussions as well as whatever good there was in his life, were the fruit of his belief in God’s justifying Love, expressed and incarnated his faith and were his free response, or were no more than just external conformity, we do not know and can not know. We can only hope, that the Father of us all still saw in him too a remnant of true love. For we believe, that God does not put out “the flickering flame”, but sees it as man’s response to Him.