Hardness of Truth
Some great posts going on at Carl Olson’s blog. One quote from Pope Benedict he cites:
A Jesus who agrees with everyone and everything, a Jesus without his holy anger, without the hardness of truth and genuine love, is not the real Jesus as he is depicted in the Scriptures, but a pitiable caricature. A concept of “Gospel” that fails to convey the reality of God’s anger has nothing to do with the Gospel of the Bible. True forgiveness is something quite different than weak indulgence. Forgiveness is demanding and requires both parties, the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven, to do so with all their minds and hearts. A Jesus who sanctions everything is a Jesus without the Cross, for such a Jesus would not need the torment of the Cross to save mankind. As a matter of fact, the Cross is being increasingly banished from theology and reinterpreted as just a vexatious mischance or a purely political event. The Cross as reconciliation, as a means of forgiving and saving, is incompatible with with a certain modern mode of thought. Only when the relationship between truth and love is rightly comprehended can the Cross be comprehensible in its true theological depth. Forgiveness has to do with the truth. That is why it requires the Son’s Cross and our conversion. Forgiveness is, in fact, the restoration of truth, the renewal of being, and the vanquishment of the lies that lurk in every sin; sin is by nature a departure from the truth of one’s own nature and, by consequence, from the truth of the Creator God. (Entry for April 27; page 139).
That is such a solid point. What he does not say is ill equipped many churches are to deal with this. That the constant watering down of the truth has really made the central message of the cross incomprehensible. There are some lone voices in protestantism who see this but why should we listen to them? For every James Dobson there are many Joel Osteen’s and the ratio is getting worse every year. How are they supposed to know who to listen to? They don’t. Church after church drifts towards the spirit of the age.
But Jesus has not left us orphaned. This is what we have coming from the Chair of Peter. As the crisis of truth deepens and the Sola Scriptora crowd can say nothing except “my reading of scripture is better” we have Pope Benedict saying over and over that there is a solid foundation on which to base the truth claims of Christ. It is a way that restores the gospel and all its power. It removes the caricature of Jesus and replaces the cross in the center of the faith. It defends the scripture against endless re-interpretations.
The contrast is huge. On one hand we have the word of God that has been breaking apart for 500 years. Slowly each layer of the church has been chipped away. Only now has it started to move so fast that in one generation you can see a big decline. On the other hand you have the Catholic church which has not only stood firm but actually grown and developed its teaching. To be sure, some of the developments have been due to protestant thinkers. Still it is doctrinally stronger now than it was 500 years ago. So to move from one to the other has become a giant leap. Not only do you have to reclaim everything that has been lost since the reformation but you have to embrace new developments as well. Some of them in some very hard areas like sexuality, Marian devotion, papal infallibility, etc.
Excellent quote and post. Thanks for sharing!
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:26 pm