Creed 43: '... for the forgiveness of sins'

This part of the creed — the forgiveness of sins — is quite often misunderstood or overemphasized. Indeed, this part of the creed is for some people the centre of gravity of their faith. When a fellow-monk one day repeated to Martin Luther these words of the Creed, 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins', Luther says that he saw the Scripture in an entirely new light 'and straightaway I felt as if I were born anew ...'

In fact, the need for a redeemer does not imply a sort of perverse ‘making one guilty’. First of all, it is important to note that the ‘forgiveness of sins’ occurs in the literary structure of the creed between ‘the baptism’ we acknowledge and ‘the resurrection’ we look for. In a sense, though important, the forgiveness of sins is ‘only’ a part of Christ’s mission because finiteness cannot be reduced to sinfulness. Sinfulness belongs to our frailty but this latter is larger that the former.

Secondly, it is interesting to note that for Aquinas, the three intentions of the Incarnation are “to preach the truth, to liberate from sins, and to have access through Christ to God" (ST IIIa q.40 a.1). Therefore, salvation cannot be reduced simply to the forgiveness of our sins. In a sense, we have to avoid the reaction of the prodigal son “I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Lk 15:21). This kind of making guilty is not what we confess by saying “we acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”. To feel sinful does not consist in a false humility or a way projecting guilt on ourselves rather than on others, in order to preserve them! Yet, to recognize our sins and to repent is absolutely necessary. Indeed, when we confess our sins, we discover that we are responsible and to consider oneself as guilty implies that we can discover the path of freedom by taking responsibility on oneself and growing in maturity and compassion.

Between our baptism and our death, we discover our frailty and we make mistakes, which turn us away from God’s love. Similarly, the Hebrews after the event of the exodus and their liberation (baptism) were in the desert (our sinful existence), hoping to enter the promised land (resurrection). In a way, in our earthly life, we are on the way to Mount Sinai, in the wilderness: looking back to God as liberator, and looking forward to the future, to a promise not completely fulfilled, to see God face to face.

Church fathers have developed this view and most of them have underlined the similarities between the wandering in the wilderness and the typological sign of the life of the Church awaiting the promised land. Therefore, in our lives, we are confronted with a dialectic between redemption as hope and redemption as a memory. Like the people of Israel in the desert, we remain a people that has been redeemed but that still awaits its redemption. On this path, we have to accept not only our sinful existence and our dependence on God but also the forgiveness given through baptism which sets us free.

Credo 42: 'We acknowledge one baptism ...'

The literary theorist Terry Eagleton began his memoir “The Gatekeeper” with a vivid description of performing just that role, as a prepubescent altar boy, in a convent of enclosed Carmelites close to where he then lived. We might conceive of baptism then as passing through a gate, into a new territory, with novel language and customs, into, in fact, a new life, our becoming caught up into the Trinitarian life of God.

In the early church, Christians became Christians through a lengthy and profoundly humbling process of public initiation, the catechumenate. Catechumens would be instructed, tested, and observed until they were judged worthy to join the congregation in celebrating the mystery of Christ’s presence among us – something which typically took several years. They would listen to the scriptures being read and commented on, but would leave before the liturgy of the Eucharist commenced, returning for a blessing at or after communion. The practice of reciting the Lord’s Prayer in silence until the final line, still sometimes found among the Benedictines, is supposed to reflect this early restriction of the central Christian rite to those who were members of Christ’s body.

Accordingly, Baptism is the rite of initiation that imprints the fundamental pattern of Christian life on the believer, who must therefore acknowledge a fundamental dependence upon others. We are baptised into a believing community. Not only individuals but the church as a whole is thus defined as a community whose way of living is henceforth a (continual) journey from slavery to freedom, from death to life, from self-centredness to a generous love in the way of the living Lord Jesus, as guided by the Holy Spirit. Learning to live out the promise of our baptism is the work of a lifetime; nevertheless, to be Christian just is to have received this sacrament, the one all Christian churches agree is necessary. Baptism is birth into Christian life, incorporation into the life of the Triune God through Christ, and as such overrides all the scandalous divisions human sin has incorporated into Christ’s church: “we acknowledge one baptism”.

Matthew’s Gospel (which St Dominic always carried with him) concludes with the Dominical command to the eleven disciples, some or all doubting or hesitant, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Mt 28:19). One does not have to be a convinced believer, or even a believer at all to baptise (Can. 861, §2), providing that the intention of the baptiser is to confer the sacrament on the recipient (because the minister of the sacrament is, in fact, Christ himself), using the Trinitarian formula with the intention of doing what the church does.

This usage is critical, as emphasised by two recent canonical decisions. The first was internal: in a somewhat over-enthusiastic effort to render church language more gender-inclusive and so supposedly intelligible to our contemporaries, an Australian priest a few years ago baptised in the name of “the Creator, the Saviour, and the Sanctifier”. These ‘baptisms’ were ruled invalid and had to be repeated. Why so? Essentially because such terminology disregards a longstanding church tradition, dating back to the Fathers, of the normative theological priority of biblical terms and their inherent biblical meaning. While it is true that such designations can be truly applied to God, that truth is limited only to God conceived as acting towards us, and does not adequately designate who God is in himself: that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. If one is to be incorporated into the Trinity as the Trinity is, then one must be baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Similarly, externally, in 2001, the Vatican declared that the baptism of the Mormon church was invalid, because there was no real invocation of the Trinity: for the Mormons, the “Father”, “Son” and “Holy Spirit” are not three persons in which one divinity subsists, but three gods who form a divinity. Such divergence in doctrine implies that the Mormon minister does not have the intention, when baptizing, of doing what the church does when it confers baptism.

The ‘one baptism’ we acknowledge creates a radical equality among all the faithful, of whatever communion, of whatever status (although ministry in the church should, of course, always be conceived in terms of service rather than of privilege and power). All of the baptised are equal in the sight of the Lord, all are equally responsible for the body of Christ, and equally responsible to him; whether male or female, slave or free, Jew or Greek, pope or laity (cf 1 Cor 12:13). That is our glory, and our challenge.

"Time to take a different path"

Recently, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and Cardinal Keith O'Brien wrote an open letter on behalf of the bishops of England, Wales and Scotland. They said:

"The Catholic faith lets us see the radiant glory of human life from its beginning to its end. When we know that every person whatever their age, race or condition carries the image of God, we see their infinite value and dignity. Whether we have this vision of faith or not, cherishing life is the central value of every society that wants to flourish.

The Catholic Church offers to participate with others in working for this timely change of heart and mind. We hope and pray for the sake of our common humanity, and the lives at stake, that the next 40 years will tell a very different story. The time to take a different path is now."

On Saturday 27 October, the Oxford University Pro-life Society organized a peaceful act of witness on Oxford's busiest shopping street to raise awareness about the tragedy of abortion in our society and to encourage people to re-examine the issues. They were joined by six Dominican students. Below are some photos from this occasion:

Credo 41 - We believe in [one] ... apostolic Church

It all began with the resurrection of Christ. The apostles, called by name by Jesus himself, were those who bore witness in public to the life and mission of the Lord:

‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -- the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us -- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.’ (1 John 1:1-3).

They joined in Christ’s mission of preaching the Good News, and thus commissioned, were made pillars of the newly-born Church.

When we say that we believe that the Church is apostolic, we mean that we believe that it still participates in the same mission of Christ, through the apostles and bishops - their successors.

Even though by the laying on of hands (the apostolic succession) bishops are particularly responsible for preaching the truth about Jesus Christ and his redemptive mission, all the baptized share in various ways in the apostolic mission of the Church by virtue of the common baptism. We never stop being on the mission, until the Lord returns!

Creed 40: ... catholic...

To profess that the Church is 'catholic' is to say something about the very essence of the Church. When we say this in the Creed, we are not using the word as a title, or a proper noun. We are saying something about the nature of the Church; we are speaking of a spiritual reality rather than something geographical or statistical. The word 'katholikos' in classical Greek was used by philosophers to indicate a universal proposition. Thus, when this idea is applied to the Church, then, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, "The translation of catholic is 'including the whole'; it signifies 'relating to the whole'. It is a way of expressing the fact that the Church belongs to the whole world, to all cultures and every age."

Why is the Church universal? Speaking of the Church, St Augustine explained: "You unite together the inhabitants of the cities, the different peoples, nay the whole human race, by belief in our common origin, so that human beings are not satisfied in being joined together, but become in some sort brothers." This belief in the fraternity of all humankind is thus rooted in the reality of God's fatherhood over all. Moreover, because of the universal salvation that Christ alone won for all creation, so "God has willed that the Church founded by him be the instrument for the salvation of all humanity (see Acts 17:30-31)." So, the Church's duty as 'catholic' is to gather all people in the Spirit of love, to reconcile the world in Christ and to bring all into communion with the Father.

This belief flows into three aspects of the Church's life. Firstly, the Church has an intrinsically missionary orientation as she seeks to serve humanity by proclaiming the Gospel, by word and deed, to all people. As the Second Vatican Council says: "Though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6), yet a necessity lies upon the Church (1 Cor. 9:16), and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the Gospel. And hence missionary activity today as always retains its power and necessity." Such activity is an expression of the Church's faith in the catholicity of the Gospel.

Secondly, when the psalmist says in Psalm 87:5, "Zion shall be called 'Mother' for all shall be her children", these words have been seen in the light of Christ to refer to the Church who has been constituted by Christ as 'mother' of all peoples. As such, Vatican II also teaches that "In virtue of her mission and nature [the Church] is bound to no particular form of human culture, nor to any political, economic or social system." Rather, in the universality and diversity of the Church, she expresses more clearly her motherhood over all people. As Pope Benedict has said: "[The Church should] bring the whole wealth of human existence, in all its languages, to God - and should be thereby herself a power for reconciliation among people." So, the Church's diversity and expanse is a mark of her catholicity.

Thirdly, in the work of reconciliation that the Church is engaged in, by the Christian unity that she constantly strives for, and by the peace among all people that she mediates, the Church becomes an ever clearer sign of universal salvation in Christ under the one God and Father of us all (see Ephesians 4:6). For the sign she displays through such activity is ultimately one of charity, and such charity is itself a mark of the Church's intimate union with God. It is this same communion with the living God that she offers to all humankind by virtue of her being catholic.

Credo 39 - We believe in [one] holy ... Church

If one were to consider the Church as a merely human institution, it would be hard to assert that it is holy, for all too often we encounter signs of the sinfulness of its members. Moreover, it would make little sense to profess belief in a human institution. However this article of the Creed does just those things, so it must challenge us to go beyond this limited view of the Church. Rather, it invites us to make a declaration of faith in the very nature of the Church, which the Scriptures refer to as Christ's Mystical Body (see Col 1:24), the Bride of Christ, called to be "holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:27), and a "holy people" consecrated to God (see 1 Pet 2:9). What does it mean, then, to say that the Church is holy?

With faith, we profess this because Jesus Christ, her Head, is holy. Where Jesus has gone, we hope to follow (see Preface of the Ascension), but as yet we are clearly still very much engaged in fighting the good fight against sin. For this reason, the Church on earth is also called the Church Militant. In this struggle, God's holy Church is our refuge, our help and our inspiration, for in the Church, we have the abiding Presence of Christ, and through the Church Jesus continues to feed and teach sinners, and he persists in his mission to call those who are tired and burdened to himself.

This is the mystery of the Church which clasps both sinners and saints to her bosom. When we profess the Church to be holy, we do not ignore the sinfulness of her members, but rather we joyfully proclaim that God has given her the gift of the sacraments through which her members are sanctified. In spite of human sinfulness, and indeed, because of it, God provides the means for holiness in the Church and this has been eloquently attested to in the life of her saints. As Cardinal Ratzinger said, "the Church is the institution sanctified by [Christ] forever, an institution in which the holiness of the Lord becomes present among men." Indeed, the holy Church transcends the sinfulness of her individual members and so in the Mass we ask the Lord to "look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church".

However, the final fulfillment of the promise of holiness given to the Church belongs only to the saints in heaven, whom we call the Church Triumphant, for they, by God's grace, are victorious over sin and death. That is the end towards which we all strive; as St Thomas Aquinas explains: "to be a glorious Church, with neither spot nor wrinkle, is the ultimate end to which we are brought by the Passion of Christ. Hence, this will be the case only in the heavenly homeland, not here on the way of pilgrimage, where 'if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves'..." (Summa theologiae III 8,3). As such, each of us in the Church is called to strive for holiness, to reform and to renewal in the Spirit, but at the same time, we should not be too surprised that sin exists in the Church. We need only examine our own lives as Christians to realize how we are still very much in the process of becoming sanctified.

Baptism is just the first step of this journey. As we undertake Life's pilgrimage, we have the witness of the saints who have gone before us and we have the Church, our Mother and Teacher, whom Christ has endowed with "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places... [so] that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph 1:3-4).

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If you are interested in more on this fascinating topic, you may want to read Memory and Reconciliation: the Church and the faults of the past.

Quodlibet 6 - Vows and Sacraments

'Why is religious profession a sacramental and not a Sacrament? Similarly, a priest is eternally a priest...is a religious eternally a religious and why...is it because the vows are eternal and it is a realization of God's call, or is there some other reason?’

The simple answer to the first question is: because the Church has discerned that profession is not a sacrament. But this in itself can tell us a lot. The seven sacraments that have been defined by the Church deal with stages in our life as Christians, which, in a sense are not unconnected with the biological and psychological stages of our life. Our Baptism is the beginning of our Christian lives, Confirmation marks Christian maturity, the Eucharist nourishes us on our journey. When we are weakened in body or soul we receive strength and healing through Anointing of the Sick and Confession. All humans are made to seek God in communion with one another, and need to be guided and lead. For this we have Marriage and Holy Orders. The Church’s discernment is that these are the seven special gifts of Christ to the Church, by which the Church becomes more perfectly Christ-like, and that have permanent value in the Church.

Sacramentals, on the other hand, ‘bear a resemblance to the sacraments’ (CCC, 1667). Religious profession is a particular means of living out our baptism in such a way that we become conformed to Christ, but (and this may be shocking for religious amongst us) is not necessary for the survival of the Church in the way that sacraments are. It is a sobering thought that religious will continue to exist as long as they are useful to the Church in their prayer, witness and ministry. It is nevertheless a ‘gift from [the] Lord’ so that the Church can ‘show forth Christ and acknowledge her to be the Saviour’s bride’ (CCC, 926).