Reformation Day Revisited
Today is Reformation Day. To those of you who know that I am now a Catholic, it will be obvious to you that my view on the Reformation has “changed” somewhat. I’ve done a great deal of thinking and would like to share a few things.
Jesus says in the Gospel of John on the evening before he was to suffer:
“That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Naturally, looking at the many divisions within Christianity, this is not fully realized. Many would say that we are in fact one, spiritually speaking, but in light of the incarnational nature of Jesus Christ, of which all who are baptised are members of his body, this calls for a visible and an invisible unity. Furthermore, the language in John 17 speaks to a deep and perfect unity among Christians. We all are one in Christ through baptism, but we should not stop there. Think of family member who you are really close to. You have more in common with them than just shared ancestry. My brother and I grew up together. All the inside jokes, family drama, hours playing Goldeneye 007, crying when Boston College beat Notre Dame in 1993, and me being the best man at his wedding, makeup who we are–together. I would lose a part of me if he were gone. Now, we could have grown up apart and never know each and still be brothers. But it is not the same at all. So it is with Christians. God calls us to complete unity, not unity of the lowest form. The church in the West is akin to brothers that have been separated for 495 years. For the sake of the Church Christ founded, we all need to be under one roof, sharing one loaf, so the world will know the love of God.
Now to the Reformation. Instead of the typical polemics, let’s talk about early 16th century Europe. The Catholic Church was fat. The Church’s teaching was still holding fast to the Traditions the apostles handed to them, but in a lot of places practical abuses crept in. Think of it as “do as I say, not as I do.” What the Church was saying may be correct, but her actions were undermining that teaching. Enter Martin Luther. This is what he saw: he saw Bishops, the successors of the Apostles themselves, living in open sinful lifestyles, using political clout to win favors to gain ecclesial offices, never actually shepherding their flock by living in some palace miles and miles away from their diocese. Priests, who were supposed to be celibate, regularly had mistresses. Since there were no seminaries, many priests did not know Church doctrine as they should. There were some unsanctioned abuses with indulgences that led to the building of a beautiful building in far away Rome which was for an aloof pope who appeared to be more interested in hunting than being a “fisherman”. In short, it was a mess. The Church needed reform and Luther was not afraid to be a whistleblower.
Luther nailed his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, and one thing led to another and now we have 35,000+ separated churches around the world–not his intention, of course. But in a nutshell, and this is no surprise, I believe Luther went to far. I believe he was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT in calling out the abuses in the Church and his efforts in large part brought about the Counter-Reformation that purged the Church of many abuses, led to a huge Catholic revival that deepened the faith and sent missionaries all over the world. Saints like John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier affected or were affected by the Catholic Reformation. I do manifestly believe that Luther was ABSOLUTELY WRONG in his invention of Sola Scriptura which led to private interpretation of truth over the Church's. But I’m not going to give proofs for that here. That is not my point at this time.
So is Luther to blame for the Church split? Partially. He did set up his own church.
So who else shares in the blame? “Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa.”
If many in the Catholic Church would have been living as members of the Body of Christ were intended to live–salt and light to the world–Luther’s revolution might have been avoided. But that is not how it played out. Was the Church Magisterium preaching heresy? No. Was the Church apostate as Luther and his associates said? Emphatically no. But many in the Church were not seeking first the Kingdom of God. We are called not just to preach the Gospel message, but to LIVE the Gospel. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, the Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, is the Gospel. If I am in Christ I am to live a life of faith, hope and love in obedience to the one who has set me free. He has won for us the merits of Eternal Life, and his free gift of grace showers on us. News like this compels us to love.
Martin Luther saw the disconnect. He, understandably in some way, split with Rome, and it was ugly. Ugly on both sides–read about the Peasant’s War and the Wars of Religion in the 17th century for starters. Liken the split to a divorce. One spouse has been abusing his/her relationship with the other. The other calls out the former and threatens to leave. Instead of seeking the other in love, a fight breaks out, and ultimately ends in a divorce. No love. In the same breath as John 17, in chapter 15, Christ gives his Apostles a mandate: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” This is what was lacking the dialogue between Luther and the Church. Love compels us to seek out the other, repent and strive for communion. Both the Reformers and the Catholic Church are guilty of not approaching the other with the love of Christ. The Catholics of course did try to reconcile, but it took decades. By then, the pain was too deep and animosity reigned. On one level I know why Protestants celebrate Reformation Day, of course, I was one for 28 years, but at the same time it must also be looked at as a tragedy. The greatest triumph would have been a Reformation within, led in part by Luther, that would have kept the Church united and set the stage for the Church to be the guiding shepherd at the dawn of the Modern Era.
A new Reformation is needed–one that unites our scattered brothers and sisters around the world into one fold. We must come together and understand each other. Only then can we resolve disagreements. But even with super-sized disagreements that are not trivial but are very, very important, all is not lost. As the modern secular world of moral relativism erodes everything around us, Christians are starting to unite. The spirit of ecumenism and the "New Evangelization" of John Paul II and Benedict XVI is taking root, but there is so much to overcome. There is only one possible way that the Church can be one: looking to Christ. The love of the Father to us is manifested in his Son, Jesus Christ. We are called to be imitators of Jesus in all things, and chiefly in sacrificial love. That love comes not from our own strength but from the one who came down from heaven, took the form of a man and entered willingly into his Passion. We are his and he keeps us. Only the love of God can end ugly divisions. Love is stronger than all that would stand our way. The love of God has already won the battle. Love has overcome the world. Christ is in us and shares with us this love which comes from the Father. This is the greatest source of hope imaginable. At the end of Jesus’ prayer in the Upper Room he speaks to the Father about revealing his manifold love:
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
May the love of the Father, which is manifested through His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be with us all.
Jesus says in the Gospel of John on the evening before he was to suffer:
“That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Naturally, looking at the many divisions within Christianity, this is not fully realized. Many would say that we are in fact one, spiritually speaking, but in light of the incarnational nature of Jesus Christ, of which all who are baptised are members of his body, this calls for a visible and an invisible unity. Furthermore, the language in John 17 speaks to a deep and perfect unity among Christians. We all are one in Christ through baptism, but we should not stop there. Think of family member who you are really close to. You have more in common with them than just shared ancestry. My brother and I grew up together. All the inside jokes, family drama, hours playing Goldeneye 007, crying when Boston College beat Notre Dame in 1993, and me being the best man at his wedding, makeup who we are–together. I would lose a part of me if he were gone. Now, we could have grown up apart and never know each and still be brothers. But it is not the same at all. So it is with Christians. God calls us to complete unity, not unity of the lowest form. The church in the West is akin to brothers that have been separated for 495 years. For the sake of the Church Christ founded, we all need to be under one roof, sharing one loaf, so the world will know the love of God.
Now to the Reformation. Instead of the typical polemics, let’s talk about early 16th century Europe. The Catholic Church was fat. The Church’s teaching was still holding fast to the Traditions the apostles handed to them, but in a lot of places practical abuses crept in. Think of it as “do as I say, not as I do.” What the Church was saying may be correct, but her actions were undermining that teaching. Enter Martin Luther. This is what he saw: he saw Bishops, the successors of the Apostles themselves, living in open sinful lifestyles, using political clout to win favors to gain ecclesial offices, never actually shepherding their flock by living in some palace miles and miles away from their diocese. Priests, who were supposed to be celibate, regularly had mistresses. Since there were no seminaries, many priests did not know Church doctrine as they should. There were some unsanctioned abuses with indulgences that led to the building of a beautiful building in far away Rome which was for an aloof pope who appeared to be more interested in hunting than being a “fisherman”. In short, it was a mess. The Church needed reform and Luther was not afraid to be a whistleblower.
Luther nailed his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, and one thing led to another and now we have 35,000+ separated churches around the world–not his intention, of course. But in a nutshell, and this is no surprise, I believe Luther went to far. I believe he was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT in calling out the abuses in the Church and his efforts in large part brought about the Counter-Reformation that purged the Church of many abuses, led to a huge Catholic revival that deepened the faith and sent missionaries all over the world. Saints like John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier affected or were affected by the Catholic Reformation. I do manifestly believe that Luther was ABSOLUTELY WRONG in his invention of Sola Scriptura which led to private interpretation of truth over the Church's. But I’m not going to give proofs for that here. That is not my point at this time.
So is Luther to blame for the Church split? Partially. He did set up his own church.
So who else shares in the blame? “Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa.”
If many in the Catholic Church would have been living as members of the Body of Christ were intended to live–salt and light to the world–Luther’s revolution might have been avoided. But that is not how it played out. Was the Church Magisterium preaching heresy? No. Was the Church apostate as Luther and his associates said? Emphatically no. But many in the Church were not seeking first the Kingdom of God. We are called not just to preach the Gospel message, but to LIVE the Gospel. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, the Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, is the Gospel. If I am in Christ I am to live a life of faith, hope and love in obedience to the one who has set me free. He has won for us the merits of Eternal Life, and his free gift of grace showers on us. News like this compels us to love.
Martin Luther saw the disconnect. He, understandably in some way, split with Rome, and it was ugly. Ugly on both sides–read about the Peasant’s War and the Wars of Religion in the 17th century for starters. Liken the split to a divorce. One spouse has been abusing his/her relationship with the other. The other calls out the former and threatens to leave. Instead of seeking the other in love, a fight breaks out, and ultimately ends in a divorce. No love. In the same breath as John 17, in chapter 15, Christ gives his Apostles a mandate: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” This is what was lacking the dialogue between Luther and the Church. Love compels us to seek out the other, repent and strive for communion. Both the Reformers and the Catholic Church are guilty of not approaching the other with the love of Christ. The Catholics of course did try to reconcile, but it took decades. By then, the pain was too deep and animosity reigned. On one level I know why Protestants celebrate Reformation Day, of course, I was one for 28 years, but at the same time it must also be looked at as a tragedy. The greatest triumph would have been a Reformation within, led in part by Luther, that would have kept the Church united and set the stage for the Church to be the guiding shepherd at the dawn of the Modern Era.
A new Reformation is needed–one that unites our scattered brothers and sisters around the world into one fold. We must come together and understand each other. Only then can we resolve disagreements. But even with super-sized disagreements that are not trivial but are very, very important, all is not lost. As the modern secular world of moral relativism erodes everything around us, Christians are starting to unite. The spirit of ecumenism and the "New Evangelization" of John Paul II and Benedict XVI is taking root, but there is so much to overcome. There is only one possible way that the Church can be one: looking to Christ. The love of the Father to us is manifested in his Son, Jesus Christ. We are called to be imitators of Jesus in all things, and chiefly in sacrificial love. That love comes not from our own strength but from the one who came down from heaven, took the form of a man and entered willingly into his Passion. We are his and he keeps us. Only the love of God can end ugly divisions. Love is stronger than all that would stand our way. The love of God has already won the battle. Love has overcome the world. Christ is in us and shares with us this love which comes from the Father. This is the greatest source of hope imaginable. At the end of Jesus’ prayer in the Upper Room he speaks to the Father about revealing his manifold love:
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
May the love of the Father, which is manifested through His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be with us all.
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