The more I’ve worked on the Marks of the Church posts, the more difficulty I’ve had getting them to come out correctly and with any amount of brevity. I think it best to start things off a little differently than I had originally planned. I want to post a preface to the main discussion first. Hopefully, this preface will lay the groundwork for what comes next, and thus make what follows a bit easier to get into.
There are two fundamental things to consider. First we need to think of faith.
Think of the most beautiful stained glass cathedral windows and how different their appearance to insiders is from outsiders. Standing on the outside, the windows appear to be a meaningless mass of lead and dull colors, but their beautiful colors and vibrant designs captivate you once you step inside. – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
There are times that the Church itself is like the stained glass window. Without light shining through, the beauty is either diminished or lost entirely. But in this case the necessary light is the light of faith. Seen with the light of faith shining through the magnificence and richness is revealed.
Scott Hahn has said that acceptance of the Catholic Church is the “final exam” of faith. All Christians can express a faith in God, but it’s raised to the level of the final exam when extended to the Church. Peter was told, “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Peter was given the grace of faith in Christ. To see the Church as the One True Church, a holy and supernatural organism, universal in its scope and apostolic in its origins and structure – as nothing short of the Mystical Body of Christ – to see the Church in these ways takes the same grace of faith. To gain that grace of faith is to reach the final exam.
This brings us to the second thing to consider: mystery.
Many Protestants – and from my experience this is at times true of both high and low Protestants – don’t have room for mystery in their faith. ΜυστηÏ?ιον is the word St. Paul used – pronounced moo-steer-ee-on – in English is becomes our word “mystery”. His meaning is something that can’t be understood by human reasoning or tested with the five senses. Therein lies the rub.
Such mystery is accepted by Catholics. The Church has a mysterious nature – a nature that extends beyond our reasoning and is in some sense supernatural. The Church is natural in the sense that it exists in the natural world, true, but it goes beyond mere nature. The Church also expresses theological and metaphysical realities.
We Catholics have a difficult time talking about this in a way that some non-Catholics will understand. We run into a problem of language. We fail at times to find common language between the Protestant demands for an explanation of pure reason based on natural realities, and the Catholic need to give an answer beyond the natural. Again to quote Scott Hahn: “You will feel powerless to penetrate a natural mindset which denies the supernatural reality of the Church by mere argument. It’s like trying to describe color to a blind man. It seems like we don’t share the same language.”
Now, perhaps, you see why these posts have been so delayed. On a blog, all I have is reason and argument – how do I fill in the faith part? What I have to ask of you is an open mind and an open heart. That’s the only way forward from here
I have come to realize that your point about mystery is really key to the reason that the secular world also doesn't understand Catholicism. Kind of funny, really, when you think how popular New Age mysticism is. Great post. I'm looking forward to the others.
Great Post!
I enjoyed a lot! please continue like that!
Happy Eastern!
Take care!
echnaton