In the following reflections I sketch a preliminary defence of the Catholic understanding of justification as inner transformation (we are made objectively pleasing to the Father). This contrasts with the Protestant view of justification by external imputation (the Father treats us “as if” we were righteous). The particulars of that disagreement will follow later. For now, let me simply introduce four propositions which I intend to explore and defend in the next few posts. My hope is that these propositions will form the basis of a Catholic theology of justification.
☞
Thesis 1: The Father’s mercy precedes and makes possible the Redemption
Thesis 2: The Father’s mercy precedes and makes possible our faith and works Thesis 3: The Father’s creative vision for each of us is eternal and unwavering Thesis 4: The Father’s creative vision for each of us is centred on Christ. Note: I will eventually explain what I mean when I say that “Protestants tend to be too negative and pessimistic about human nature” as I promised in the last post. The following reflections will help me get to that point.
[one]
The heart of the Father is an inexhaustible wellspring of pure love. In response to our sin, this love of the Father manifests itself as unlimited compassion, boundless mercy. We cannot fathom the depths of God’s mercy. God – the Father, who cannot be divided from His Son and Spirit – God the Father always knew that we would fall. He always knew the depth of sin into which we would descend. He has never been ignorant of the ugliness that we would clothe ourselves in, the darkness that we would let into our lives. And yet He did not refuse to offer us the Gift of Himself in the fullness of time, by sending us His Son and Spirit.
God – not just the Father, but the whole Trinity undivided – God did not give up on us. The Father did not reverse His original plan for mankind. He did not react to our infidelity in the way that we might, by deciding that it would be better not to be in relationship with us after all. He did not abandon us, leaving us to our own devices forever. Yes, God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden as His justice demanded (Gen 3:22-24). But God has always kept open a lifeline of communication between Himself and all of mankind. Step by step, with loving patience, as a father gradually teaches and shapes his child, God opened the way back to Himself. And so man, both individually and collectively, has always been able to take the next step along the way back to friendship with God. God stayed true to His original plan for mankind. He did not waver in His will to raise mankind up for eternal life and communion with Him. From all eternity, in foreknowledge of our sin, the Father ordained to send His Son for our redemption in the fullness of time. God was not affected in His creative intention. His ultimate purpose for mankind remained the same. In a certain respect, it was as if the fall would never happen. But the precise means by which God would bring about that purpose would have to accommodate the (contingent) fact of our estrangement from God. Plan B, rather than Plan A, would be enacted, but the final goal would be essentially the same. What is this final goal? A creation clothed with the divine glory – pervaded and transformed by the Spirit, not just covered over externally – while still remaining finite and other as creation. Humankind living in the Divine Will, giving God’s glory to Himself, and thereby sharing in the same glory in communion with the divine persons. The agape of the Father has never wavered. At no point has the Father’s agapeic disposition toward us been dependent on our response. By sending His Son, the Father has revealed, once and for all, His unwavering readiness to heal us and raise us up for communion with Him. That is to say, He revealed himself to us as our Father. And He did all of this before we could even think of responding – indeed, even when we were in sin: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (Rom 5:6 NIV). But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8 NIV). The Father has already made the first move in bridging the gap; He has already come to us in His Son and Spirit. Apart from the work that must be done in us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, there is nothing left for the Father to do on His side in order to bring about the reconciliation and communion that He so desires. His Son has already completed everything. All that remains to be done, on our side, is the act of accepting the gracious offer of divine Life, and then putting that Life into action. We respond to the antecedent mercy of God first by allowing God to claim us and transform us into Christ, and then by allowing the indwelling Spirit of Christ to come into expression in our lives.
Before the foundation of the world, the Father envisioned each human person as grafted into Christ. This envisioning is powerful in the sense that, in view of His creative vision for each person, God also provides sufficient means to make its realisation possible. But the Father’s envisioning is not irresistible. It is not Calvinistic pre-destination (pre-determination, by divine decree, of the final outcome for each person’s life). What the Father envisions for someone may not be realised – not through any fault of God, but because of free-will. Free-will makes unresponsiveness on the side of the one called a genuine possibility. Unless God intervenes in a person’s life with an extraordinary outpouring of special grace (which presumably is rare), each person is left free to resist the call of God – it is genuinely possible for him not to respond as God wants.
And yet: The Father’s prior, agapeic envisioning of each of us in Christ does not depend on our faith, let alone on our works (if it makes sense to distinguish the two). For me to exist in Christ, as a branch grafted into the True Vine (Jn 15:1) is the Father’s unwavering will for me. This is the “true idea” or “true identity” that the Father always had in mind for me (and by this I mean: for each of us). In every dealing with me, in every moment of His relationship with me, the Father stays true to His creative vision for me as someone He has destined for life in Christ.
Comments
|
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Brendan Triffett ArchivesCategories |