A Western Catholic Commentary.
I am a Western (Latin) Rite Old Catholic bishop, and a friend of Ken's
+S.B.Bassett
Mar Kenat'el Huffman (priestly1.1@juno.com) wrote:
In the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, Spiritual Life,
Growth and Maturity (i.e. perfection) is understood in the Mystical
(i.e. Sacramental) sense, and not in the Protestant Reformed (Mainline
Denominations & Pentecostal/Charismatic sects) external and
subjective sense.
Indeed -- and Western Catholic thought is much closer to the Orthodox
than to the Protestant view, and especially differs from the Calvinist.
The West tends to be less overtly Mystical than Orthodoxy -- in that we
tend to follow Thomas Aquinas' Aristotelian formulation of the faith,
which is excessively rationalistic. At base, however, we have to admit
that the Faith is a Mystery, and there are propositions which must be
accepted as Revealed Faith, which totally resist logical analysis.
The Trinity is perhaps the largest of these -- it simply defies
rationality how there can be one single God (The Creed says: "I believe
in One God...") and yet 3 distinct persons. But to deny the Trinity is
to deny Christianity itself.
Another is the Eucharist. It is equally far from rationality to believe
that what was once ordinary bread and ordinary wine becomes the
veritable Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Himself. Yet all of
Christendom fervently believed this until the 1500s, and the majority
still do.
Our whole Life in Messiah is understood as the externalization
(i.e. working out) of our inward spiritual transformation through
saving Grace.
Western Catholicism understands "Grace" as the living outpouring of
the power of God, not, as Protestants do, of "niceness' or God's
passive benevolence. There are potential graces, but the Sacraments are
very active graces, marking the soul, and helping the faithful move
towards God.
We do not say that at this moment in time and at that very
place we were saved.
To a Western Catholic, to be "saved" means to be in the immediate
presence of God in Heaven. We are not saved on this earth -- we, the
living, are still the Pilgrim Church, on our way toward that divine end
which the Father ordains for us.
If this were true of Salvation, then nothing more would take
place and perfection would be had and no works in Messiah would be
necessitated, nor would the working out of such a Salvation be required
of us.
The Protestant idea of "once saved, always saved" is in direct conflict
with the Western and Orthodox view. We cannot, by our very nature,
reach perfection in this life. We can strive -- and must.
We are being saved, and have been sealed unto such an
eventuality by the Holy Spirit upon our Baptism and Chrismation.
In Baptism and Confirmation (Western term for Chrismation), the Grace
of the Holy Spirit descends upon us, marks our immortal soul as
belonging to God, and opens the possibility of salvation.
These are not mere "ordinances", or signs of some intellectual assent
to a set of propositions. Nor are they theurgy -- by receiving these
Sacraments, we do not compel God to save us, as some Protestant
theology has it.
They are an outpouring of power and inspiration -- Baptism makes us
Children of God, members of the New Israel, inheritors of the
Patriarchs of old and of the Promise enunciated by the Prophets.
They do not make us holy or perfect -- but they help us on our journey
toward Holiness and Perfection.
I may say I am redeemed from the Kingdom of Darkness unto the
Kingdom of Light, but still I am in the Sacramental process of being
daily saved unto the Resurrection, at which time we all will have been
actually and truly saved complete and immortal.
Indeed, the Sacraments -- and especially Confession and the Eucharist
-- liberate us from the bondage of sin, from the selfishness and
self-absorbtion, the idolatry of ordinary life, and propel us toward
God through Jesus Christ, His Son.
Jesus did not merely _SAY_ the Word of Salvation, but left a structure
and tools to help us find the path to it. By reflection on the
Sacraments, and its meaning, we find entry to the Wisdom He shared with
us.
What is begun at conversion (i.e. planting of the Seed) is completed
only in the Resurrection (i.e. the Harvest), and the Seal of the Holy
Spirit (i.e. Charismation) is merely a transformative down payment
which will lead us to eventual Salvation in the First
Resurrection unto Life Immortal.
The West agrees that the final transformation is in the Second Coming,
the Final Judgment, and the Resurrection of all, which Christ promised
in the Gospel.
This final state is what we call "Theosis".....fully being
transformed into the likeness of the Resurrected Son, and therefore
completely participating in His divine nature by Grace through the
obedience of Faith
The West does not use the word "theosis" (We should!), and tends to
talk of the Holy Transformation in terms of the Second Coming of Christ
-- it some future time. The Eastern Church does not use the Book of
Revelations in its Liturgy or theology, so they do not share the
Western obsession with the Last Things.
There are good historical reasons for this -- in the roughly thousand
years between the Fall of Rome in the mid-5th Century, and the Fall of
Constantinople in the mid-15th, the West suffered crisis after crisis
-- from the Goths and Vandals to the Black Death. During this same
period, the Eastern Church suffered no such apocalyptic crises --
Constantinople stood firm (A sack or two by Crusaders aside).
Lacking also the Imperial pretensions of the Western Church -- when the
Western Roman Empire imploded, the only stable structure left was the
Church -- the East turned inward. The Mohammedan conquest of the Middle
East left all the Orthodox removed from civil power, and desperate to
preserve their ancient heritage and cultures against the depredations
of the savage conquerors.
Thus the East has turned inward, toward mystical contemplation, and
fervent piety. The depth of Eastern piety and emotional dedication to
the Faith is a lesson that all we Westerners -- Catholic and Protestant
alike -- could well take to heart.
...for Faith without such corresponding Works of obedient
righteousness in Messiah is a still-born assent to a set of beliefs,
and not an ardent conviction which produces the Fruits of the Holy
Spirit of Grace which is Life
Indeed -- St. James, in his Epistle, says that "Faith without good
works is dead." Jesus makes that same point several times in the
Gospel. It is not mere intellectual assent, it is not mere repetition
of a verbal formula which saves, but the passionate acceptance and
adherence to the Faith, and the passionate work of Christ, in loving
work, to bring all humanity, and all the Universe to God as an offering.
Jesus says: "Not everyone who cries 'Lord, Lord' will enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who _DOES_ the will of my Father." And
the Will of the Father is that we love Him, and love our neighbor.
Good works are, indeed, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but they are also
a necessity. Good works without Faith do not get us to Heaven -- but
neither does "mouth Christianity" -- crying "I take Jesus ans my Lord
and Savior" without at the same time, showing the Love to others that
He showed to us.
Therefore we see Living Faith and Works of Righteousness as a
synergistic working out of divine Grace within us and through us, ever
bring us closer to the final state of Theosis. "For God became like us
in order that we might become like Him."
Amen, Alleluia!
Now how do we Orthodox Christians determine the stage of
spiritual growth of a fellow Saint as he or she works out their
Salvation in fear and trembling?
In the West, we are a tad more pessimistic about the living, but feel
justified in declaring some of the dead to be saints -- i.e. in Heaven,
in the presence of the Father.
We determine these things Mystically also.
Again, the West is a tad more practical. Aside from the acclamation of
the people -- which we saw at the funeral of John Paul II, there is a
careful and studious procedure to Canonization.
We ask the following questions too:
Do they fully participate in the Mysteries (i.e. Sacraments)?
Do they exhibit a selfless devotion to and does His Image radiate
from them in words and deeds?
Do they serve His Image in others (i.e. the least of these His
brethren)?
Does he or she obey God's Commandments and those given by His Son
also?
Does this individual exhibit daily the inner work of Grace in their
exterior life?
Notice the active verb: "Does"
Both East and West have contemplative Saints -- those who cut
themselves off from the world to perfect their adoration of the One
God, but they effect the world by their witness (and often complain
that pilgrims will just not leave them alone to their contemplation).
Equally, both West and East have Saints who were actively in the world
-- Cosmas and Damien, Physicians, Vincent de Paul and his work with the
poor. In working out their own salvation, they are also working toward
Theosis -- the union of God's created world with His Glory.
It is by these Fruits produced by the Seed of the Word planted
within them
at Baptism via Grace that we objectively determine
spiritual growth and maturity.
Indeed -- "by their fruits ye shall know them." And too often, the
fruits of "mouth Christianity" are a nasty judgmentalism, and a
tendency to preach hellfire & brimstone, not a loving service
to others.
Maturity does not mean moral or spiritual perfection in the final
sense,
but merely that the Saint has been seeking, knocking and
finding.
There is no perfection this side of Heaven -- Adam's Sin broke the
perfection that God had ordained, and we live in the aftermath. The
best we can do is what the heroic exemplars of the Faith have don in
every generation form 30 AD onwards -- strive with all that is in us
toward that perfection, knowing that we will only achieve it in Heaven.
The East does not accept Augustine of Hippo's doctrine of Original Sin
-- that we all inherit the Sin of Adam. The rather say that Adam's Sin
broke the perfection and the peace of God's creation, and that our
natures, and the nature of the world are damaged because of that
breakage. It is thus diametrically opposed to the Calvinist idea of
Total Depravity, as well as its denial of Free Will.
That they have achieved that status before God and man in
which they are complete in their re-presentatin of the Life, Death and
Resurrection power of Messiah in their Life.
We see some who appear to have come very close to that ideal,
to that perfection -- Mother Theresa of Calcutta, for instance --
but
the final crown of Glory is given in the presence of the Father.
Spiritual Perfection in our view means one is complete and
appropriate for what God has called them to be and do. Thus one may be
spiritually full grown from the womb (i.e. John the Baptist &
Mary of Nazareth), or one may take years of personal struggle and self
denial to achieve that summoned status in Messiah (i.e. Paul etc.). But
one sign is a growing sense of humility and a childlike sense of
innocent tranquility in times of trial.
Western ascetic Saints tend to get the Stigmata -- Christ's wounds.
Eastern saints glow in the dark -- and the daytime. The West sees the
path as struggle and warfare; The East as detachment from the world and
its temptations.
Even so, we do not judge one another, but judge ourselves and
continually
seek to discern if we remain in Messiah. Saints are neither
antiseptic ascetics, nor are they embroiled in matters which distract
their goal.....they learn from Peter's sinking and keep their eye on
the prize...all the while not becoming so heavenly minded that they are
of no earthy use.
"Faith without good works is dead.
Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy is a Logical, Objective and
Practical spirituality in which it's Mystical (i.e. Sacramental) Life
in Messiah is a balance of Mysticism (i.e. Internal contemplations of
the Faith), Theology (i.e. Reasoned doctrines of the Faith) and Works
(External expressions of the Faith). This Trinity of Orthodoxy is the
Fullness of the Divine Trinity being manifested in and through us by
His transformative Holy Spirit of Grace and Love which enlivens,
empowers and directs His One Holy Apostolic and Orthodox Catholic
Church.
Of which the Western Church is a part -- just as the East is.
Comments? Email: FrSam@am-ath.
org