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Chapter One
Presentation of the Problem, Introduction to the Fathers
The question which
all Catholics face, in regard to every matter of Faith, is the same today
as it has always been: "What is the correct belief?" or, more accurately,
"What does God want us to believe?" The doctrines on human salvation, like
any other set of issues within the Faith, pose this same general question,
to which there are only two answers. First, we can believe what our own reason
and sensibilities dictate, or, second, we can accept the teachings of an
external authority.
Few people who would identify themselves as "Catholics" formally accept the
first of these answers. It would be illogical for a person, on the one hand,
to claim that Christ has revealed His Truth through a particular Church,
but, on the other hand, to forsake that teaching in favor of personal
preferences. Likewise illogical would it be to follow only those elements
of the Catholic Faith that comport with personal preferences. Is God so impotent
as to be entirely unable to invest His Church with the entire Truth, leaving
to the individual and arbitrary judgments of people the task of filling in
the missing pieces? This is not to say that there are not people, even a
majority, who attend Catholic services and at the same time refuse to accept
the authority of the Church's teaching over their beliefs. These people do
not, however, identify themselves as Catholics in the traditional sense,
as they do not accept the Church as the divinely blessed vessel of Truth,
but merely a place to enjoy the company of others and procure an emotional
or psycho-spiritual experience.
For the rest of those who have some connection with the Catholic Faith, the
determinant of Truth resides not in their own opinions, but in the teaching
of the Church.
How one submits to the teaching of the Church, however, is a much more complex
issue than it might seem. What precisely constitutes the teaching of the
Church? In order to know what the Church teaches in regard to eternal salvation,
we must first understand whose voice, in general and in regard to all issues,
contains the Truth of the Catholic Church, whose authority distinguishes
doctrine from falsehood, and whose wisdom defines the deposit of the Faith.
The natural response to this dilemma is to wonder what the most illustrious
members of the Catholic Church have believed on this matter. To whose authority
did they appeal in formulating the composition of their beliefs? Because
a great deal of the writings of even the earliest teachers and doctors in
the Church still remains extant, this is a fairly easy question to answer.
Examining the works of the saints, popes, councils, and theologians, we find
that, from the very beginning, the concept of doctrine was inseparable from
the concept of the inherited Truth of Christ. In his epistle to the Corinthian
church (ca. A.D. 80), Pope St. Clement, the third successor to St. Peter,
writes, "The Apostles received the gospel for us from the Lord Jesus Christ.
. . . Through countryside and city they preached; and they appointed their
earliest converts . . . to be the bishops and deacons of future believers."
This succession from Christ to His Apostles, and from His Apostles to their
disciples was, furthermore, established to continue on in perpetuity, for,
"Our Apostles . . . , having received perfect foreknowledge (through our
Lord Jesus Christ), . . . appointed those [as Bishops] who have already been
mentioned, and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should
die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry." Clement himself
is the result of such a perpetual line of succession, for he ascended to
the Holy See in Rome after the martyrdom of Cletus, who, in turn, had succeeded
Linus, the successor to Peter the fisherman. Considering this Apostolic chain,
a chain which preserves in perfect purity the Truth of Christ, Clement declares,
"If anyone disobey the things which have been said by Him through us, let
them know that they will involve themselves in transgression and in no small
danger."
According to Clement, his Faith, in all its precepts, is the Faith of Cletus,
the Faith of Linus, the Faith of Peter, and, necessarily, the Faith of Christ.
Furthermore, these precepts of the traditional Faith are in no way vague
or generalized, but consist of very specific actions and beliefs, both
theological and disciplinary in nature, as he cautions the Corinthians: "Since,
therefore, . . . we have looked into the depths of the divine knowledge,"
he writes, "we ought to do in proper order all those things which the Master
has commanded us to perform at appointed times. He has commanded the offerings
and services to be celebrated, and not carelessly nor in disorder, but at
fixed times and hours. He has, moreover, by His supreme will, determined
where and by whom He wants them to be carried out. . . . Those, then, who
make their offerings at the appointed times, are acceptable and blessed."
This conception of the Faith was by no means the innovation of Pope St. Clement.
The early Church found this teaching in the words of all its authorities.
The Epistle of Barnabas (ca. A.D. 100), so strongly respected in and around
2d through 4th century Alexandria that it was for some time included in the
early canons of sacred Scripture printed in that region at that time, reads,
"Take care, now, that the temple of the Lord may be built gloriously. Learn
in what way. When we received the remission of sins and set our hope in the
Name, we were made new and were created again in the beginning. Now God truly
dwells in us. . . . How? His word of faith . . . , the wisdom of His ordinances,
the commands of His teaching. . . . Although we had been enslaved to death,
He opens the door of His temple." That this "faith" is none other than that
preached by the successors to the Apostles, St. Ignatius of Antioch, during
this same time period, attests in his epistle to the church at Ephesus (ca.
A.D. 110), written during his journey to Rome (where, incidentally, he met
glorious martyrdom): "For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the will
of the Father, just as the bishops, who have been appointed throughout the
world, are the will of Jesus Christ," and again, "I will (send you further
doctrinal explanations), especially if the Lord should reveal to me that
all of you . . . , through grace derived from the Name, join in the common
meeting in one faith, and in Jesus Christ, . . . so that you give ear to
the bishop and to the presbytery [priesthood] with an undivided mind." In
like manner as the words of Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas and that of
Ignatius to the Ephesians demonstrate that the content of the Christian Faith
is no more than that which was possessed and communicated by the immediate
heirs to Christ's Apostles, the bishops of the various churches established
by the Apostles, and of those churches established within the same unity
of Faith.
Footnotes:
1 Pope St. Clement Epistle to the Corinthians (ca. A.D. 80) 42.1-5
2 Ibid., 44.1-3
3 Pope St. Clement Epistle to the Corinthians 59.1
4 Ibid., 40.1-5
5 This Epistle, thought among the early Alexandrian Christians
to be written by the Apostle Barnabas, has for centuries been known to have
another author. The identity of this author remains a mystery to modern
scholarship, however.
6 Epistle of Barnabas (ca. A.D. 100) 16.7-9
7 St. Ignatius of Antioch Epistle to the Ephesians (ca. A.D. 110)
3.2
8 Ibid., 20.2
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