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CHRIST KEEPS HIS CHURCH
INCORRUPT AND EVER-FAITHFUL
By JAMES LIKOUDIS
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Recently, "The Christian News (April 5th, 1993), edited by
Herman J. Otten, printed my article, "The Bible Is Not the Ultimate
Authority." Therein I had noted that it IS the Catholic
Church that is the "ultimate authority" in religious matters since
without the Catholic Church as an infallible divine authority giving witness,
no one living thousands of years after the Old and New Testaments were
written could possibly know with certitude:
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that there is such a thing as a "Bible";
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that it contains 73 books (recall that Protestants lack seven of these
books);
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that all 73 are divinely inspired and inerrant; and,
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the true meaning of scriptural texts (which remain hotly disputed).
I added that 16th-century Catholic apologists correctly perceived that
Protestantism masked an illogical fideism which led directly to infidelity
and unbelief regarding divine Revelation. Today we certainly see the utter
intellectual bankruptcy of Protestantism as it has dissolved into an agnostic
or even atheistic liberalism. A credible belief in a 'Bible' demands a
rule of faith external to it and guaranteeing its exact content, inspiration,
and proper interpretation. That external rule of faith is the visible
Catholic Church which was founded by Christ Himself (cf. Matt. 16:18 ff.).
It is interesting to observe how Protestants fail to recognize that the
revealed truths of Christianity are fully known to believers only through
their transmission by the teaching authority (Magisterium) of the Catholic
Church, i.e., the Pope and bishops as the successors of the Apostles and
gifted with the charism of teaching, governing, and sanctifying the People of
God.
In rejecting the Church's hierarchical structure, Protestants are left with
subjecting the truth or falsity of dogmas to their own private understanding
of "the Scriptures" or on their own evaluation of a certain dogma's
"reasonableness" or
"unreasonableness."
Conveniently forgotten is the truth that "the Scriptures" constitute the
Sacred Book of the Church and that they contain things "hard to understand
which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction" (II Pet.
3:16). The history of scriptural exegesis shows the fantasies indulged in not
only by arrogant "modern scholars" who deny practically every key doctrine of
historical Christianity but also by such pathological sectarians as Jim Jones
or David Koresh. The essence of every species of Protestantism is the denial
of the Catholic Church as a divine religion, which, like her Master, speaks
"with authority."
Having established His Church as a visible society upon the Rock-foundation
of Peter, Jesus Christ declared that the gates of Hell (or the "jaws of
death" or the forces of evil) would never prevail against it.
If words mean anything, these words of the Lord of History certainly imply
the Church's perpetual retention of the truths taught it. The Church can
never become so corrupt as to betray her divine commission. For the Church
(One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic) was commissioned by Christ to "teach all
nations whatever I have commanded you." To this same Church was given the
Spirit of Christ Who is the source of the Church's incorruption in faith and
morals.
The basic falsehood promoted by separated churches and sectarians is that the
historic Catholic Church became doctrinally corrupt at some time or other,
though they all contradict one another as to whether such corruption occurred
in the third, fourth, seventh, tenth, thirteenth, or sixteenth century.
To declare that the visible Church established by Christ (at the price of His
Precious Blood shed on Calvary) became at any time doctrinally corrupt is to
make a liar of Christ and His sanctifying Spirit.
With respect to the Church's indispensable role as the interpreter of Holy
Writ, Protestants engaged in endless polemics against various teachings of
the Catholic Church could not do better than to meditate on the following
words of a doctor of the Church who had an unparalleled knowledge of
Scripture. St. Francis de Sales wrote this beautiful "Letter to a Gentleman"
in 1619, expressing facts which have brought many to finally embrace the
Catholic Church as the "Pillar and Ground of the Truth" (I Tim. 3:15):
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It is very true that Holy Scripture contains a very clear statement
of the doctrine necessary for your salvation and I never thought the
contrary. It is also true that relating various passages one to
another and reducing the whole to an analogy of the faith is a very
good method of interpreting Holy Scripture; and this too I have
always maintained.
At the same time, I most firmly believe and shall not cease to
declare that in spite of the admirable and lovely clarity of the
Scriptures in the matter of things necessary to salvation, the human
mind does not always find out their true meaning but can err and in
fact very often does err in understanding those passages which are
most clear and most necessary for establishing the faith: Witness
Lutheran errors and Calvinist books which under the conduct of the
fathers of the Reformation, so-called, remain in irreconcilable
contradiction on the meaning of the words of institution of the
Eucharist; and although each side prides itself on having carefully
and faithfully examined the meaning of these words by relating and
comparing them with other passages in the Scriptures and adjusting
the whole to the analogy of faith, they nevertheless continue to
differ completely in their way of understanding words of such
paramount importance.
Holy Scripture is therefore clear in its words; but the mind of man
is dark, and like an owl, it cannot see such a clear light. The
method described above is very good, but the human mind does not know
how to apply it.
It is God's Spirit, Sir, which gave us the Scriptures, and it is this
same Spirit which gives us their real meaning, and gives it only to
His Church, "the Pillar and Ground of the Truth"; the Church by the
ministry of which this divine Spirit guards and maintains His truth,
that is to say, the real meaning of the word; the Church which alone
has the infallible help of the Spirit of Truth in finding the truth
rightly, surely, and infallibly in God's word.
So that anyone who looks for the truth of this heavenly word outside
the Church which is its guardian will never find it; and if anyone
wants to know it except by the ministry of the Church he will be
espousing a vain cause instead of truth; instead of the sure light of
the sacred word he will be following the will o' the wisp of that
false angel who disguises himself as an angel of light.
This is what all heretics have always done on the pretext of having a
better understanding of Scripture and of wanting to reform the
Church, seeking the truth in vain away from the bosom of the Bride to
whose keeping the celestial Bridegroom has confided it as to a
faithful trustee and guardian. She will distribute it to the dear
children of their rightful marriage, which is without stain and will
be so forever.
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The above article was first published in "SERVIAM", the newsletter of
Credo, the Buffalo, N.Y.'s chapter of Catholics United for the Faith, issue of
April, 1993
It was reprinted in "THE WANDERER" Newspaper, issue of July 22 1993.
Mr. James
Likoudis' Homepage
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