On
the Perilous Cliff, or the Stalwart Rock?
In
my last few posts on this blog I’ve focused on the identity of boys
and men, but now I want to discuss an entirely different topic:
Protestantism. As a convert to the Catholic Faith, I have always been
very interested in analyzing Protestantism and Catholicism, and
comparing them in order to see the essential differences in
principles that shape our respective understandings of Our Lord Jesus
Christ and His Holy Church. As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us, ideas
always have consequences. Hence it is helpful, whether Catholic or
Protestant, to be aware of what separates us in our ideologies and
the perspective we come from as we approach the Sacred Faith of God
made man, Jesus Christ. In this post I want to talk about one of the
most striking differences that I have noticed in the fundamental
outlook of Protestants and Catholics regarding the relationship
between God and His Church.
In
the title of this post, I refer to a perilous cliff and a stalwart
rock; this analogy I use to compare the basic identity of the
relationship between God and the Church in the Protestant mindset and
the Catholic mindset. What strikes me so powerfully in the
conversations I’ve had with some of my Protestant family, and in my
own recollections of my thought prior to my conversion, is the sense
that the Protestant worldview is like a man clinging to the side of a
sheer cliff hundreds of feet off the ground. The Church of Christ in
their view is like that man, and the Cliff he is clinging to is like
Christ. In this mindset, suspicion abounds. No authority to them is
established by God and thus no authority is exempt from being
questioned, no ancient belief is out of bounds to be judged, and no
orthodoxy is safe from being condemned, all of these coming at the
whim or feelings of the individual Christian, feelings often
motivated by fear of falling off of that Cliff Who is God and His
Truth. It’s ironic, really, that as much as Protestantism
emphasizes the grace of God and the relationship between Christ and
an individual Christian, in the grand scheme of things regarding no
less of a matter than determining the content of the Christian Faith,
an individual Protestant cannot believe that the Church is protected
by grace and has an irrevocably covenant with God whereby God
steadies Her with His Hand and Spirit, and will not let Her fall nor
fail Her mission in the world: the mission of the salvation of souls
and the fighting of evil. Rather, the Church from Her earlier times
clings to the Cliff that is God, struggling to find a toehold,
fighting heresies without any authority to do so, and God will not
even lift a finger to keep Her on track. Eventually, She fragments
into tens of thousands of separate, broken shards as She falls from
the Cliff and shatters on the ground, and still, God will not right
Her nor pick up the pieces.
Contrast
this with the Catholic Truth. Catholic mindset regarding the Church
of Christ and her relationship with Christ her Divine Spouse may
indeed be likened to a stalwart rock. The individual Christian need
not trouble himself with worries that the Father’s grace and
promises in the Holy Spirit will not preserve the Bride of Christ
solid as a rock, and us in Her. Yes, the Catholic Church is as a
stalwart rock, and we dwell upon that rock, upon the Chair of Saint
Peter, the Pillar of the Church and the sure ground of unity and
truth. The Lord protects His Church by His Grace to remain ever what
She is, and His relationship to Her is steadfast, unfailing, and
unmovable, like a Protector husband. The reason why the Catholic
Church is solid and unmovable is because at Her core, you find
dwelling in the Church and in all the hearts of every Catholic the
Blessed Virgin, who is the Church personified and the ever-Virgin;
eternally faithful to the Triune God, and the Church Militant in Her
likewise.
Glory
to God for His promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail
against His Church!