|
Hi Kris,
Thanks for your questions, but mostly thank-you for your zeal.
Trying to compare the various Christian sects can indeed give you a migraine.
At last count there were some 30,000 of them.
First and foremost, we must distinguish between those Protestants that
separated themselves from the Church 400 years ago from those
who are born into or otherwise join these sects today.
Luther was a Catholic priest. He was, for good reason, concerned with his
salvation and, for good reason, concerned with the manner in
which certain Catholic clerics were conducting themselves and even distorting
the Gospel, but let me be clear, the Church was not distorting
Her own Teachings, rather some priests and even bishops were.
During the Middle Ages, particularly in the Western Church:
- works
- mortification,
and
- fear of damnation
were over-emphasized above the work of grace and the
role of a believers faith. Against this background, Luther began to
study Paul's epistle to the Romans. During this study, he misinterpreted
Paul's understanding of faith and how it justifies the believer.
As a result, he misunderstood, not only how we are justified, but also what justification
is. He began to preach that man was justified by faith alone and that justification
was simply a legal acquittal.
In Luther's thinking, Christ who was
sinless died for all sinners and, on the basis of our faith in Him, God ignores
the believer's transgressions and nothing further is required from
man in order to attain salvation.
Luther was not entirely wrong:
- None of us can be saved by our own
works, and
- justification, in one sense, is a legal acquittal.
but that is
not the fullness of justification.
Justification makes us sons. God infuses Christ's righteousness
in us and gives us the power to become Sons of God. Hence, justification
is not just a one-time event. It is sonship, which must grow and manifest
Christ's righteousness if we are to inherit that which God wants
to give us. Hence, sanctifying grace intrinsically works in us through our
faith and our faithful cooperation with the understanding that both faith
and our cooperation are only possible by grace.
Therefore while we can't
say we are justified by faith alone, we can say we are justified by grace
alone.
Luther, on the other hand, simply viewed grace as external and forensic.
It was simply God's favor towards those that believe in Him. He therefore
concluded that justification was a one-time, legal declaration.
After erroneously concluding that man is justified by faith alone, Luther
then was faced with another problem.
- What was he going to do with 1,500
years of Church Teaching?
His solution was to throw it out. He then
fashioned yet another doctrine call Sola Scriptura or Scripture
Alone. This doctrine (or rather heresy) asserted that the Bible is
the only inerrant rule of faith. This of course led to everyone interpreting
the Bible subjectively to fit their own understanding of Christianity.
After Luther, Calvin and others came along with their own twists of Biblical interpretations and theology and
so the downward spiral began.
As for the Eucharist, which your question focused on, all these
Protestants began to re-interpret the exact meaning of the Eucharist.
Luther professed, that Christ was present in the bread and
wine only during the Liturgy. Luther, of course was wrong on two counts.
- Christ is not present in the species. Rather, the substance of the species changes from bread and wine to Christ's Body and Blood. The Body, Blood,
Soul, and Divinity are sacramentally and substantially present in what appears to be bread and wine.
- The Real Presence, remains until the species cease to appear as bread
and wine. In other words, the Eucharist Is A Who — not an It. Therefore, He is
worthy to be adored as long as He is Sacramentally Present.
Along with Luther, other Protestants starting reinventing the wheel. With
no Church Tradition to guide them, they all developed doctrines (or heresies)
based on their subjective understanding of the Scriptures.
Today there are almost as many views about Communion as there are denominations
and sects.
- Some believe that The Lord's Supper is a
institutional ordinance in which we simply remember Calvary.
- Others profess
that Christ is mystically present in the action or participation, just
as He is present in the proclamation of the Word.
- Still others believe
that by the believer's personal faith, one actually receives Christ
by participating and receiving.
That's just a handful of the many
views various Protestants espouse. Now in Christian charity,
we must realize that many folks just don't
know the Truth.
They have been brought up with certain beliefs. Even some fallen away
Catholics that have joined these Churches don't realize what they have
left and to some extent we need to ask:
- Where did we fail in presenting
the Truth to them?
The fact that all Christians don't share the fullness of the faith
ought to bother you (as you've so commented). Christ prayed for
His Church to be one. (See John 17)
The divisions in the Body of Christ
are a scandal to those that don't know Christ but we must always be charitable as we seek to heal those wounds. The
Catechism addresses this issue in detail. Poignantly, it recognizes that
these divisions occurred because men on both sides committed sins.
We are also called to pray, study, and act. We are called:
- to seek Christ
- to know Him
- to obey Him, and
- to allow Him to heals the wounds of division
through us.
Under His Mercy,
John DiMascio
|
