Theology – Page 12

Hans Urs von Balthasar: 21 anniv of death

Just two days before he was to receive the cardinal’s red hat from Pope John Paul II (an honor he declined to accept before) the Swiss theologian Father Hans Urs von Balthasar died. He was preparing to celebrate the morning Mass when the Lord called him home.

Von Balthasar was a prolific author of articles and books. He’s widely known as the kneeling theologian, the starting point from he believed theology ought to be done. With Cardinals Henri de Lubac, Walter Kasper and Joseph Ratzinger he founded the Communio journal (which is published in a numerous languages).

O Lord, we pray Thee that the soul of Thy priest. Thy servant Hans Urs von Balthassar, which, while he abode in this world, Thou didst adorn with sacred gifts, may ever rejoice in a glorious place in heaven. Amen.

A short biography of Father von Balthasar can be read here.

Those wanting a fine and accessible introduction into the thinking of Hans Urs von Balthasar ought to read Jesuit Father Edward T. Oakes’ book, Pattern of Redemption.

The faith needs to be intelligible, Pope says

Using the method of Saint Cyril and Methodius Pope Benedict
spoke about the work of the Church in making the faith intelligible to people
using their own language. The task of inculturation is an extremely difficult
work because of the nuances of language and culture. Just look at the headaches
in translating catechisms, papal speeches and liturgical texts today. The
coalescing of faith and culture is a work the Church has done since the time of
Christ. Watch the video clip on the subject.

The Pope said, in
part:

This was a decisive factor for the development of the Slavic
civilization in general. Cyril and Methodius were convinced that the various
peoples could not consider that they had fully received Revelation until they
had heard it in their own language and read it with the characters proper to
their own alphabet.

To Methodius falls the merit of ensuring that the work
began by his brother would not remain sharply interrupted. While Cyril, the
“philosopher,” tended toward contemplation, he [Methodius] was directed
more toward the active life. In this way, he was able to establish the
foundations of the successive affirmation of what we could call the
“Cyril-Methodian idea,” which accompanied the Slavic peoples in the
various historical periods, favoring cultural, national and religious
development. Pope Pius XI already recognized this with the apostolic letter Quod Sanctum Cyrillum, in which he classified the two brothers as
“sons of the East, Byzantines by their homeland, Greeks by origin, Romans
by their mission, Slavs by their apostolic fruits” (AAS 19 [1927] 93-96).

The historic role that they fulfilled was afterward officially proclaimed by
Pope John Paul II who, with the apostolic letter Egregiae Virtutis
Viri, declared them co-patrons of Europe, together with St. Benedict (AAS
73 [1981] 258-262). Indeed, Cyril and Methodius are a classic example of what
is today referred to with the term “inculturation”: Each people
should make the revealed message penetrate into their own culture, and express
the salvific truth with their own language. This implies a very exacting work
of “translation,” as it requires finding adequate terms to propose
anew the richness of the revealed Word, without betraying it. The two brother
saints have left in this sense a particularly significant testimony that the
Church continues looking at today to be inspired and guided. (Wednesday Audience, June 17, 2009)

Humanity bears the profound mark of the Trinity

… we contemplate the Most Holy Trinity as Jesus
introduced us to it. He revealed to us that God is love “not in the
oneness of a single Person, but in the Trinity of one substance” (Preface).
He is the Creator and merciful Father; he is the Only-Begotten Son, eternal
Wisdom incarnate, who died and rose for us; he is the Holy Spirit who moves all
things, cosmos and history, toward their final, full recapitulation. Three
Persons who are one God because the Father is love, the Son is love, the Spirit
is love. God is wholly and only love, the purest, infinite and eternal love. He
does not live in splendid solitude but rather is an inexhaustible source of
life that is ceaselessly given and communicated. To a certain extent we can
perceive this by observing both the macro-universe: our earth, the planets, the
stars, the galaxies; and the micro-universe: cells, atoms, elementary
particles. The “name” of the Blessed Trinity is, in a certain sense,
imprinted upon all things because all that exists, down to the last particle,
is in relation; in this way we catch a glimpse of God as relationship and
ultimately, Creator Love. All things derive from love, aspire to love and move
impelled by love, though naturally with varying degrees of awareness and
freedom. “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the
earth!” (Ps 8: 1) the Psalmist exclaims. In speaking of the
“name”, the Bible refers to God himself, his truest identity. It is
an identity that shines upon the whole of Creation, in which all beings for the
very fact that they exist and because of the “fabric” of which they
are made point to a transcendent Principle, to eternal and infinite Life which
is given, in a word, to Love. “In him we live and move and have our
being”, St Paul said at the Areopagus of Athens (Acts 17: 28). The
strongest proof that we are made in the image of the Trinity is this: love
alone makes us happy because we live in a relationship, and we live to love and
to be loved. Borrowing an analogy from biology, we could say that imprinted
upon his “genome”, the human being bears a profound mark of the
Trinity, of God as Love.

(Pope Benedict XVI, 7 June 2009)

Trinitarian love alone makes us happy

God does not live in splendid solitude… watch the rest here.

Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity

The Church professes her faith in the one God, who is at the
same time the Most Holy and ineffable Trinity of Persons: Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. The Church lives by this truth contained in the most ancient symbols of
faith. Paul VI recalled it in our times on the occasion of the 1900th
anniversary of the martyrdom of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul (1968), in the
symbol he presented which is universally known as the Credo of the People of
God.

Only “he who has wished to make himself known to us, and who
‘dwelling in light inaccessible’ (1 Timothy 6:16) is in himself above every
name, above every thing and above every created intellect…can give us right
and full knowledge of this reality by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below in
the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light.”

God is incomprehensible to us. He wished to reveal himself, not only as the one creator and Almighty Father, but also as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This revelation reveals in its essential source the truth about God, who is love: God is live in the interior life itself of the one divinity. This live is revealed as an ineffable communion of persons. This “mystery the most profound, the mystery of the intimate life of God himself” has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ: “He who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (John 1:18). The last words with which Christ concluded his earthly mission after the resurrection were addressed to the apostles, according to St. Matthew’s Gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:119). These words began the Church’s mission and indicated her fundamental and constitutive task. The Church’s first task is to teach and baptize, to baptize means “to immerse” (therefore one baptizes with water) so that all may come to share God’s trinitarian life.

(Pope John Paul II, General Audience, October 9, 1985)

Catholics can’t be Masons

Questions surface from time-to-time about a Catholic being a Mason. Most people see Masonry in the USA as a benevolent society of men helping the elderly and sick children. There’s more to the Masons than this. The question of Catholics holding membership in the Masons must be asked. The answer is a short, No. The Masons are heretical in the technical sense of the word, and this is not mere sentiment.

To be clear, the teaching of the Catholic Church never changed but the matter was clouded by the fact that it wasn’t as clearly spelled out in the 1983 Code of Canon Law as it was in the 1917 Code. To compare the Codes:

The 1917 Code of Canon Law: “Persons joining associations of the Masonic sect or any others of the same kind which plot against the Church and legitimate civil authorities contract ipso facto excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.”

The 1983 Code of Canon Law: “A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; one who promotes or takes office in such an association is to be punished with an interdict” (1374).

For more than 300 years the Catholic Church has formally declared that Catholics who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion. Theologically, masonry is against the Christian dogma of the Trinity, a personal God encountered in the person Jesus, the authority of sacred Scripture and Tradition, ecclesial authority, that we adhere to Jesus Christ as Savior and don’t believe that salvation is found elsewhere. When it comes down to it, either you believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, or He is not. There is no middle ground. Hence, we believe the teachings of the Masonic Lodge have been and continue to be contrary to Catholic faith and morals. One should note that historically Masonic lodges have actively worked against the truth of Catholicism theologically and socially. They have tried to divide the Church.

With matters of faith and truth Catholics can’t adopt the attitude of ignoring the problem with the hope it will go away by attrition. Right thinking, right worshiping, right living are part of a package: this is a matter of salvation.

On Sunday, April 19, Father Tim Finnigan, an English priest and blogger (The Hermenuetic of Continuity) posted a piece on the republication of an older work on Masonic ceremonies and rites; plus, Father Tim adds the 1983 CDF teaching on Catholics and Masons. The matter is worth knowing about.

Canon 915: its full, objective application

A recent interview with His Excellency, Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (The Pope’s Chief Justice) regarding the application of Canon 915 is online here. Nothing new is presented but he states the truth of Catholic teaching.

Canon 915 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law reads: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”

I think he’s clear on the thinking of the Church on its application, don’t you? Is there debate?

Benedict’s interpretative lens of Vatican II, according to Edward Oakes

Jesuit Father Edward T. Oakes, a Mundelein Seminary Theology professor explains Pope Benedict’s VERY clear reasons for putting to bed the ex communications of the SSPX bishops while delving into the acceptance of (or not) “Vatican II theology.” What Vatican II said is a bone of contention of many, for a very long time….

You’ve got to read the article, Benedict’s Vatican II Hermeneutic in First Things!

The Beauty of the Church

From outside she [the Church] looks like an establishment, like one organization among others. From within she is the medium, one might almost say the magic, whereby God is able to be all in all within his creation, without suppressing the creature he has made free.

(Hans Urs Von Balthasar, In the Fullness of Faith)

The reassuring presence of angels

Today [March 1st] is the First Sunday of Lent, and the Gospel, with the sober and concise style of St. Mark, introduces us to the climate of this liturgical season: “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for 40 days, tempted by Satan” (Mark 1:12). In the Holy Land, west of the Jordan and the oasis of Jericho, there is the desert of Judah, which ascends to a height of over 1,000 meters through rocky valleys, stretching all the way to Jerusalem.

After having received baptism from John, Jesus enters that empty place, led by the Holy Spirit himself, which had descended upon him, consecrating him and revealing him as the Son of God. In the desert, the place of trial — as the experience of the people of Israel shows — there appears the dramatic reality of the “kenosis,” the emptying of Christ, who is stripped of the form of God (cf. Philippians 2:6-7). He, who did not sin and cannot sin, submits himself to trial and thus can have compassion for our infirmities (cf. Hebrews 4:15). He lets himself be tempted by Satan, the adversary, who had opposed himself to God’s salvific plan for men from the very beginning.

In the brevity of the account, in the face of this obscure and darksome figure who dares to
tempt the Lord, the angels, luminous and mysterious figures, fleetingly appear. The Gospel says that the angels “serve” Jesus (Mark 1:13); they are the counterpoint to Satan. “Angel” means “one who is sent.” We find these figures throughout the Old Testament who help and guide men in the name of God. Just consider the Book of Tobit, in which the figure of the angel Raphael appears to assist the protagonist through many vicissitudes. The reassuring presence of the angel of the Lord accompanies the people of Israel through every event, good and bad. On the threshold of the New Testament, Gabriel is sent to announce to Zachariah and Mary the joyous happenings that are the beginnings of our salvation; and an angel, whose name is not mentioned, warns Joseph, directing him in that moment of uncertainty. A chorus of angels reports the glad tidings of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds, as the glad tidings of his resurrection will also be announced by angels to the women. At the end of time the angels will accompany Jesus in his glorious return (cf. Matthew 25:31).

The angels serve Jesus, who is certainly superior to them, and this dignity of his is proclaimed in a clear though discreet way here in the Gospel. Indeed, even in the situation of extreme poverty and humility, when he is tempted by Satan, he remains the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters, we would take away a significant part of the Gospel if we left aside these beings sent by God to announce his presence among us and be a sign of that presence. Let us call upon them often, that they sustain us in the task of following Jesus to the point of identifying ourselves with him. Let us ask them, especially today, to watch over me and my co-workers in the Roman Curia as we begin our retreat this week, as we do every year. Mary, Queen of Angels, pray for us!

Pope Benedict XVI

1 March 2009, First Sunday of Lent

St Peter’s Square

PS: You may want to read the booklet, “All About Angels” published by the Catholic Information Service.