FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 42, 4 November 1925, Page 51

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

-V (By the Right Reverend Monsiqnob Power, V.F., for the N.Z. Tablet.)

4 ' (17) MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH NECESSARY FOR SALVATION.

Ax- Adam fell from grace, and through him and in him his race fell also. But the human, race was promised a Redeemer Who would come in the fulness of time. Before He came, the hope of Him, and tlje observance of the covenant entered into with the Almighty would save the souls, of men. But this covenant would be temporary: it would bo revoked when the Messiah had come, had thrown His new Church open to all nations, and had drawn from these a new people peculiar to Himself. But now Christ has come, and henceforth there is no salvation except through Him; “This is the stone which was rejected by you the builders; which is become the head of the corner: Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name, under heaven, given to men, whereby we must be saved.” To the keeper of the prison Saint Paul said: “Believe, in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.” To the Romans lie wrote; “All have sinned, and do need the glory of God. Being justified gratis by His grace, through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus." If thou confess with thy mouth the Loud Jesus, and'believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him up from the dead, thou shalt he saved.” Now since' these words of,Saint Peter and Saint Pan], appointed witnesses of the Resurrection, show clearly that Christ and Christianity are our only means of salvaand since it is equally clear that Christianity is identical with the Church set Tip by Christ to carry out His own work'in the world, it follows that the Church is the means of salvation, and that those who are outside it through their own fault cannot he saved. It is through the Church that we are cleansed, and regenerated, and sanctified, and made God’s people, as if was , through the Covenant that Israel was chosen Tim teaching of the two Apostles is clear, distinct, and emphatic on this point: “Be you also as living stones set up, a spiritual house . . . acceptable to God by Jesus - . mt ... a chosen generation, * n royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased penpie . . . who in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God.” What Saint Peter thus writes about the spiritual . sanctifying house, Saint Paul also affirmsChrist also loved the Church and delivered Himself up for her, that He might sanctify What has thus been taught by the Apostles has been the teaching of the Church down to the present day. Saint Ignatius of Am tioch rites that “he who joins himself to a sectary, shall have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God.” Saint Polycarp calls heretics the “firstborn of Satan.” Lactantius says that “he who enters not into (the x Church), or departs from her, is so far from f the hope of eternal life and salvation.” Not S to multiply names let Saint Cyprian stand for many: “He who clings not to this unity clings neither to the law of God. nor to the faith in Father and Son, nor to life and salvation. . . He who has torn himself asunder from the Church must he . avoided and ~ shunned. Such a one is subverted, and sinnoth, being condemned by his own judgment, * . • He is an enemy of the. altar, a rebel

against the sacrifice of Christ, a renegade to the faith, guilty of perjury to religion, a disobedient slave. And does he dare, despised by the bishops and abandoned by the priests of God, to set up another altar, to pray with unhallowed words, and to profane the true sacrifice of the Lord with false sacrifices. . . He who has not the Church for his mother, neither lias he God for his father.” , Saint Cyprian is the author of the aphorism, “Extra clcslum nulla salus' } —Outside the Church there is no salvation. The Athanasian Creed says: “He who wishes to be saved, must first of all hold fast to the Catholic faith. Unless he keep this entire and inviolate, ho will surely perish for ever.” The Fourth Council of Lateran teaches that “there is but one universal Church of the faithful, and outside it no one at all is saved.” Pius the Ninth in one of his Encyclical Letters writes: “For we must hold it to be of faith that no one outside the Apostolic Roman Church can be savel.l. For she is the one Ark of salvation. Ho who enters her not, will perish in the Hood.” Thus we find Tradition from first to last teaching with the Apostles and the .Scriptures that there is no salvation outside the Church, and that he who is outside this one visible body of the faithful, through his own fault, cannot be saved. This teaching commends itself to the minds of all reasonable men. It was a supreme act of love on the part of Our Lord to make us His children by adoption and heirs of Heaven. He cannot permit ns to despise and reject this act of His bounty, wo must accept what He gives. His will in this regard is clearly made known to us. He sent His Apostles to make disciples of all nations, commanding them to teach all men what He had first taught them the believer should have eternal life, but the unbeliever should be treated as one who had despised Him and His Father. Our spiritual regeneration has cost Him too much to allow men the option of receiving or rejecting the Sacraments, the Sacrifice, the Priesthood, the Government, through which the merits of His Redeeming Blood would be applied to our souls. If the transgressions of the .precepts of the Old Testament were worthy of condemnation, more condemnable far are those of the New Law, which was given not by angels but by the words of Christ Himself. “For,” writes Saint Paul in his second chapter 'to the Hebrews, “if the word, spoken by angels, became steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? which having begun to be declared by the Lord, was confirmed unto ns by them that heard Him. God also bearing them witness by signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and distributions of the Holy Ghost according to His own will.” But is it not very unkind to -Catholics to tell them that there is-no salvation outside the Church? No, Christ our Lord is never, unkind; He is always merciful, and gracious as well as true. But we may he unkind, and often are; and we are unkindest .of all when we leave non-Catholics in darkness in regard to this most solemn teach-

ing of Christ. The Prince of the Apostles. has told us that we Have been called from darkness into His marvellous light by God that we might make known His deeds to others. What should we have to say for ourselves if false fear or shame led us to leave others in the dark This would be a sin against both God and our neighbor, and against both God and our neighbor, and would bring upon ns the malediction threatened by Cur Lord; ‘For he that shall be ashamed of Mo and of My words, in .this / adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of , Man also will he ashamed of him, when He • shall come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” The praise and approval of Christ would he better : “And I say to you : Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God.” Moreover, to hold that there is no salvation outside the Church, is not the same thing as to hold that all Protestants shall be lost. No one will be lost except through his own fault, and some in every social centre are outside the Church not through their own fault; they are in territories where the Gospel lias not yet penetrated, or, if living in lands civilised by the Church, they have been for one reason or another kept in ignorance of her. f shall conclude with two questions: Is it possible for Protestants to be saved? Yes, if they are in “good faith” and if they do everything else that God requires of them, if they keep free from mortal sin or have it forgiven by an act of perfect contrition. Those, however, who at any time have had reason to doubt their religious position, and through any motive neglected to make a proper enquiry, cannot be saved; they are in “bad faith,” they are outside the Church through their own fault. Will not,all Christians who live up to the principles of their various religious be saved? No, not all. For instance a member of a Church whose fundamental principle is .Faith without good works,” can. be saved only by setting his life against that principle and getting out of that false Church. lie same is the. case with a person who belongs to a- Church that is founded on divorce, and that repudiates the unity of marriage. The Church must be true, that is it must ho the one, holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and infallible Church of Christ, in order that fidelity to its principles should save a soul. Lot all men then shake oil’ the principles of unbelief; they have been divinely endowed with intellects to use and free wills to strngthen. Ignorance of Christian teaching is a. common cause of unbelief, corruption of morals is another. Pride of intellect, which is ignorance in its blindest form, effectually cuts a man oft from God. A man wedded to immorality in any form, a man whose pleasure or interest moves him to a violation of any dictate of the moral law, does not seek to know God, he does not want to know Him. Very often ‘it is the heart that makes the head ache.” The fogs that spring from the valley where the sea an (I river meet gradually lift themselves till they cover the mountain top, and the vapors of passion rise up from the depths of a wicked heart and hide the sun of truth from the eyes of the soul. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” : - V

—•; ; ' • Show me, 0 Lord, according to the multitude of Thy Mercies, the sanctity of poverty the grace of humility, and the fortitude of patience. . v . •. ■ : : .