A friend of my posted the following text on her Facebook wall today. I thought it was so good I asked her if I could publish it here on the blog. One year since what she calls “the best day of my life”, here is her reflection on the seven things she learned as a Neophyte…
To put it in simple terms, a Neophyte is a new convert to a religion. New Advent describes Neophyte as originating from the word neophytoi meaning the newly planted and incorporated with the mystic Body of Christ. I converted to the Catholic Church from Protestantism last Easter, and have decided to do a bit of reflection on my last year. It has been filled with revelation after revelation but here are the top seven that have had the most impact on me.
1. Hungering for the Eucharist
To put it simply, hungering for the Eucharist is a real thing. To some that may sound crazy or impossible and to others, you may know exactly what I mean. For those reading this who aren’t Catholic, the Eucharist is what we call the transformation of the communion bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Early Church Father, St. Justin Martyr, writes in A.D. 151:
“For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and has both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food that has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.” [First Apology 66]
After partaking in my First Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil and the weeks following, I was somewhat stunned to find that I hungered for more of the Eucharist. I yearned for His Body and Blood, the peace that it brought, my human weaknesses obliterated by His strength, His divine life inside of me. This surreal and transcendent feeling is one I could never fully describe but pray all will come to experience.
Several years ago when I ran a weekly Bible Study, I would post my commentary on the Sunday Mass Readings. One of my friends who leads a weekly Bible Study is in Washington DC at the moment for the March For Life and has asked me to host the group in her absence.
Lord, inspire me to read your Scriptures and to meditate upon them day and night. I beg you to give me real understanding of what I need, that I in turn may put its precepts into practice. Yet, I know that understanding and good intentions are worthless, unless rooted in your graceful love. So I ask that the words of Scripture may also be not just signs on a page, but channels of grace into my heart. Amen.
– Origen of Alexandria (2nd Century)
Introduction
Last week’s Readings focused on God’s call to us. In turn, this week’s Readings focus upon our response to Him, our vocation and mission. Oh yes…and fish.
Having before you many examples of sinners who repented and were saved, be you also earnest in confessing to the Lord, that you may receive pardon for past sins, be made worthy of the heavenly gift, and inherit the kingdom of heaven with all the saints.
– St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. AD 386)
In the First Reading we hear of how Jonah (eventually) responded to God’s call and then how the people of Nineveh responded to God through the message of His Prophet.
In the Gospel we hear Jesus’ message: repent and believe for the Kingdom is at hand. He calls four fishermen to come and follow him, simple men who, later when He is gone, will become great pillars in His Church.
Readings
Reading I: Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Book Facts:
Set in the reign of Jeroboam II (786–746 BC), it was probably written in the post-exilic period, some time between the late 5th to early 4th century BC.
Unlike the other Prophets, the book of Jonah is almost entirely narrative, with the exception of the psalm in chapter 2
Jonah is sometimes known as “The Reluctant Prophet”. He did not want to go and preach to the people of Nineveh but did everything he possibly could to get out of his divinely-appointed assignment. In fact, he fled in the opposite direction! However, after his little stay in the belly of a sea creature he undertook the task that God had originally assigned him. The ideogram for Nineveh rather amusingly means “place of fish”. It would appear that the man who was once fish food was to now become a fisherman…
Full Text:
The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.
Questions:
What is the background to this week’s First Reading? What happened beforehand? Had Jonah wanted this mission?
Where was Nineveh? What does this tell us about God?
What does it mean to be a prophet?
What did Jonah preach? What is the significance of “Forty days”?
What is the result of his preaching? What does this tell us about free-will? What is the significance of the people’s actions? What place do these actions have in the liturgical life of the Church?
What is God’s response? What does this tell us about God? What does it mean when we say that God “repented”? Surely God does no “evil”?
What happens in the story after this? What can we learn from it?
When is Jonah mentioned in the New Testament? In what context?
Commentary:
The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding.
To be a prophet is to speak on behalf of God, rather than necessarily to predict the future. In this case Jonah is doing both – he is delivering a message on behalf of God and telling the Ninevites of a possible future if they continue on their current course.
It is worth noting that Nineveh was not in Israel, but the capital of Assyria, Gentile land. Assyria had destroyed Israel in 721 B.C. From this we can see that, even in the days of Jonah, Yahweh was concerned with the lives of those outside of His people of Israel.
In the New Testament Christ compares Himself to Jonah when speaking of his Death and Resurrection:
[Jesus] answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here. – Matthew 12:39-42
In Jonah we see a “type” of Christ. Not only in Christ’s resurrection, but in the proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles.
I’ve recently made an effort to get back into the water and go surfing each week. It is, after all, one of the perks of living somewhere like San Diego, bruh….
Last week, while I was sitting on my board waiting for the next round of waves, I was chatting (as you do) about philosophy and, in particular, one of my favourite people in the world, Dr. Peter Kreeft. I’m sure that many of you reading this post have heard of Dr. Kreeft. However, I would imagine that a good number of you were unaware that Dr. Kreeft loves surfing…
If you’d like more material like this, then I’d definitely recommend listening to his lecture on The Sea.
Since it is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Nessa and I are devoting the next to episodes to the two key doctrines of the Reformation: “Sola Fide” (Faith Alone) and “Sola Scriptura” (Scripture Alone). Today we’ll begin by looking at the first of these doctrines, Sola Fide.
• Over the next two weeks we’re going to look at “Sola Fide” (Faith Alone) and “Sola Scriptura” (Scripture Alone)
• Luther thought that Sola Fide was the central element of Christianity:
“If the doctrine of justification is lost, the whole of Christian doctrine is lost” – Luther, Lectures On Galatians
• I quoted from the Protestant apologetics site “Got Questions”:
“Sola fide or faith alone is a key point of difference between not only Protestants and Catholics but between biblical Christianity and almost all other religions and teachings. The teaching that we are declared righteous by God (justified) on the basis of our faith alone and not by works is a key doctrine of the Bible and a line that divides most cults from biblical Christianity…
If we abandon the doctrine of justification by faith, we abandon the only way of salvation…
The Bible teaches that those that trust Jesus Christ for justification by faith alone are imputed with His righteousness, while those who try to establish their own righteousness or mix faith with works will receive the punishment due to all who fall short of God’s perfect standard” – GotQuestions.org (Emphasis added)
• A key text for Luther in relation to his doctrine of Sola Fide was:
“For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” – Romans 3:28
However, when he translated it, he added an additional word:
“For we maintain that a person is justified by faith ALONE apart from the works of the law” – Romans 3:28
To justify this change, Luther responded thus:
“If your papist wishes to make a great fuss about the word sola [alone], say this to him: ‘Dr. Martin Luther will have it so, and he says that a papist and a donkey are the same thing.'” – An Open Letter on Translating by Martin Luther
(The term “papist” here refers to Catholics)
• Luther was a master at insults. So much so, that today you can generate an insult from the Luther Insult Generator.
• When Paul talks about “works”, he is talking about the works of the Mosaic Law. In fact, he spends a lot of time in his letters comparing the Old Covenant with Moses to the New Covenant with Jesus.
• There only verse of the Bible which speaks of “faith alone” is the following passage from the Epistle of James:
“You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” – James 2:24
Luther referred to this epistle as an “epistle of straw” and he moved it to the appendix of his translation of the Bible:
“We should throw the Epistle of James out of this school, for it doesn’t amount to much. It contains not a syllable about Christ. Not once does it mention Christ, except at the beginning. I maintain that some Jew wrote it who probably heard about Christian people but never encountered any.” – Luther’s works, vol. 54: Table Talk
• Nessa asked about what a Catholic should do if he “has a beef” with the Catholic Church. I suggested that it would probably depend upon the kind of issue at hand:
1. Doctrinal Issue
If you disagree with Catholic doctrine, first of all make sure that what you’re rejecting actually is the Catholic teaching on the matter and not some distortion of it. Once you have done this, find yourself a knowledgable Catholic to explain the basis of the doctrine.
2. Issues of Scandal
Reform yourself first! Be an example for others to imitate, imitating St. Francis and St. Dominic.
• I discussed my approach when discussing the Epistle of James. I ask a series of questions:
1. Can a dead faith save you? No? So you’re saying that you need a faith that’s alive?
2. Can a barren faith save you? No? So you’re saying that you need a fruitful faith?
3. Can an incomplete faith save you? No? So you’re saying that you need a complete faith?
• This then leads to another round of questions:
1. How is faith given life?
2. How is a barren faith made fruitful?
3. What is the difference between a complete faith and an incomplete faith?
The answer, according to the Epistle of James, is “Works”. In his letter, James teaches that faith must be living, fruitful and complete:
1. Living Faith “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead”
– James 2:17
2. Fruitful Faith “Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren?”
– James 2:20
3. Complete Faith “[Abraham’s] faith was made complete by what he did”
– James 2:22
• On the subject of faith and works, I quote CS Lewis who said:
“Christians have often disputed as to whether what leads the Christian home is good actions, or Faith in Christ…it does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most necessary”
– Mere Christianity
• The Catholic Church does not teach a works-based righteousness. She condemned this heresy (“Pelagianism”) in the Fifth Century!
• I quote Lewis a second time when he’s explaining how the divine life should be nurtured and protected:
“Your natural life is derived from your parents; that does not mean it will stay there if you do nothing about it. You can lose it by neglect, or you can drive it away by committing suicide. You have to feed it and look after it: but always remember you are not making it, you are only keeping up a life you got from someone else. In the same way a Christian can lose the Christ-life which has been put into him, and he has to make efforts to keep it. But even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam – he is only nourishing or protecting a life he could never have acquired by his own efforts”
– Mere Christianity
• The pithiest summary of salvation really comes from St. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians:
“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” – Galatians 5:6
• Pope Emeritus Benedict articulated this in one of
Being “just” simply means being with Christ and in Christ. And this suffices. Further observances are no longer necessary. For this reason Luther’s phrase: “faith alone” is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. And the form, the life of Christ, is love; hence to believe is to conform to Christ and to enter into his love. So it is that in the Letter to the Galatians in which he primarily developed his teaching on justification St Paul speaks of faith that works through love – Pope Benedict XVI, Wednesday Audience, 19th November 2008
With Book I of “Mere Christianity” complete, we now move on to Book II! Having concluded that the Moral Law points to God, C.S. Lewis now examines the “Rival Conceptions of God”.
Our San Diego C.S. Lewis Reading Group will starting a new book this week, The Four Loves.
Once again I will be providing an outline of the arguments presented in each chapter, together with quotations and explanatory notes. The chapters in this book are generally a good bit longer than our previous book (Mere Christianity), so I may well experiment with the format of these posts as I work through each chapter.
Notes and Quotes
1. Lewis thought that St. John’s statement that “God is love” would provide a clear plan for this book
“‘God is love,’ says St. John. When I first tried to write this book I thought that his maxim would provide me with a very plain highroad through the whole subject. I thought I should be able to say that human loves deserved to be called loves at all just in so far as they resembled that Love which is God”
2. He therefore divided love into two types:
(a) Gift-love
“The typical example of Gift-love would be that love which moves a man to work and plan and save for the future well-being of his family which he will die without sharing or seeing”
(b) Need-love
“…that which sends a lonely or frightened child to its mother’s arms”
3. These types of love reflect both divinity and humanity
(a) Divine Love
“Divine Love is Gift-love. The Father gives all He is and has to the Son. The Son gives Himself back to the Father and gives Himself to the world, and for the world to the Father, and thus gives the world (in Himself) back to the Father too”
(b) Relation to God
“…what…can be less like anything we believe of God’s life than Need-love? He lacks nothing… We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness. We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them if we are to know anything, even ourselves”
3. Lewis thought he could just praise Gift-love and disparage Need-love
“I was looking forward to writing some fairly easy panegyrics on the first sort of love and disparagements of the second… But I would not now deny the name love to Need-love… The reality is more complicated than I supposed”
In this section, Jack uses the term “panegyrics” which refers to a speech in which something is praised. He also refers to his “master, MacDonald” was an author and minister he greatly admired, George MacDonald.
Picking back up my notes for C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”…
1. Becoming a “son of God” is the entire point of Christianity
What I want to make clear is that this is not one among many jobs a Christian has to do; and it is not a sort of special exercise for the top class. It is the whole of Christianity. Christianity offers nothing else at all.
2. Becoming a “son of God” is not the same thing as “being good”
And I should like to point out how it differs from ordinary ideas of “morality” and “being good.”
(a) A person typically begins by recognizing the demands of the Moral Law upon his desires
We take as starting point our ordinary self with its various desires and interests. We then admit that something else call it “morality”… has claims on this self: claims which interfere with its own desires… Some of the things the ordinary self wanted to do turn out to be what we call “wrong”: well, we must give them up. Other things…turn out to be what we call “right”: well, we shall have to do them.
(b) We secretly hope that once we have met these demands, the natural self will be free to do what it wants
But we are hoping all the time that when all the demands have been met, the poor natural self will still have some chance, and some time, to get on with its own life and do what it likes.
(c) However, this will not work
…if you are really going to try to meet all the demands made on the natural self, it will not have enough left over to live on. The more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience will demand of you. And your natural self, which is thus being starved and hampered and worried at every turn, will get angrier and angrier.
I’ve recently made an effort to get back into the water and go surfing each week. It is, after all, one of the perks of living somewhere like San Diego, bruh….
