This Month's Colloqium

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On 10 December 1520, Father Martin Luther - still officially an Augustinian priest and a Catholic professor of Scripture - publically responded to the papal bull Exsurge Domine, which demanded that he renounce his heretical teachings or face excommunication. Father Luther gathered a crowd of his students and colleagues just outside the city gates of Wittenberg, and to show his contempt for the arguments of his opponents, he heaped into a large fire the works symbolic of his enemies: the papal bull itself, books by several of his most vehement critics, a handbook for priests on how to hear confessions, and the Corpus Iuris Canonici - the Corpus of Canon Law which had served as the primary legal text of the western Church for five hundred years.¹ A year after that bonfire of the vanities, Luther wrote: "It is impossible for the Gospel and canon law to rule at one and the same time. The latter restricts and drives away the Spirit; the former brings the Spirit with it. The latter entangles consciences; the former frees them. The latter teaches us nothing but mere childish, foolish, and ridiculous works, with which it eradicates and extinguishes faith; the former, however, teaches us faith."²

In light of Dr. Luther's evaluation of canon law, you will naturally understand that it is only with great trepidation that I begin tonight by confessing that I am a canon lawyer. In this very room at another Aquinas/Luther Banquet some years ago, I was asked by a Lutheran pastor at my table, "Exactly what does a canon lawyer do?" I gave the stock answer: "We squeeze all the love out of the Gospel." I am relieved to report that after two hours of often intense conversation about the Catholic understanding of Lutheranism, this same pastor - embracing me after the meal as a brother in Christ - whispered into my ear: "I'm afraid that you're not a very good canon lawyer." I hope to demonstrate that again tonight.

I have provocatively entitled my talk "Is 'Word Alone' an Evangelical Possibility?". As you might already have guessed, I believe that the answer is 'No', and I hope to persuade you to share that conviction. Before I begin that labor, however, I have to show you my hand; there will be no Jesuitical trickery tonight.

I was born in Elkin, North Carolina to a family of Brethren and Southern Baptists, and I grew up in an Appalachian WASP culture that was, like Dr. Nestingen's Norwegian fjords, both very deep and charged with mystery but also rather narrow. I needed a bit more room than that culture provided and so declared at age 13 to my startled family that there is no God. At 18 I fled the South like a burning building and went to Princeton University to stake my claim as a man of science and reason, to live unfettered by superstition in a world of intellectual freedom and personal liberty. What I found, instead, was a world of banal moral poverty and stultifying intellectual conformity - a world of slavery to one's own passions and of rigid conformity to the dogmas of humanism enforced with greater ruthlessness than any Inquisitor of old ever imagined.

It was in this human desert that I heard, for the first time in my life, a Word of grace and truth, a Word of freedom and light, a Word of peace and love. I heard the Word of God announced with conviction and clarity, and I was moved by that Word to repent of my sins, believe in the Gospel, and follow the Word made flesh in the obedience of faith. From that day to this, my conscience (to borrow a happy phrase) has been captive to the Word of God, and I have lived in the sweet captivity of genuine liberty freely and rightly exercised. "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:31-32).

Several years after my conversion to Christ, I was sent to Rome to study for the priesthood. I went - as most do - filled with romantic visions of living in the City of Peter and Paul, the City of martyrs and confessors, the heart of the Christian world. I found, instead, a chaotic and all too human City filled with (I thought) an unholy mix of the Christian and pagan - a mix in which the pagan seemed all too often the stronger. I was deeply troubled by what I saw. Here we have no lasting city, I know. But the Eternal City! Surely this would be different. Here, I thought, Christian virtue would shine clearly and constantly in the darkness of the world. At least, I believed, the bishops and priests of the Roman Curia and ecclesiastical universities would be living exemplary evangelical lives. My Roman education, however, introduced me - among other things - to the all too human frailties of churchmen and the realities of life at the heart of the universal Church. At length, a friend of mine, a wise Italian priest, explained it to me this way: "Rome is not a Christian city; it's a pagan city occupied by a Christian army. Unfortunately, our officers are sometimes enticed to dabble in local customs. Thus has it ever been, and thus - in the Providence of God - it seems it shall ever be."

St. Benedict came to Rome in the 5^th century and was scandalized by what he found, but the experience led to his Rule and the transformation of Christian culture. Sts. Francis and Dominic came to Rome in the 13^th century and were emboldened by the need for reform to spread their movements to the known world. And Martin Luther came to Rome in the 16^th century and began to confirm what he feared most - that the Church had apparently abandoned the Gospel. But since the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, something had to be done. If the Church was living without the Gospel, perhaps the Gospel could live without the Church. Or, to put it another way, if the Church were corrupt, then perhaps the Word alone could be preserved and proclaimed in all its power and purity.

The first thing to be said here is that while the Church is hierarchical, the hierarchy are not the Church. All the baptized constitute the Body of Christ which is the Church, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given freely to all of Christ's members, the laity no less than the clergy. Yes, it is true that from among the baptized some are called by Christ and set apart by the Sacrament of Orders to teach, sanctify, and govern God's People. But baptism, not ordination, makes one a child of God, a member of Christ, and an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven. We pray for holy pastors, but even when they are few in number, the holiness of the Church lives on in the hidden lives of countless faithful Christians. So, even if the hierarchy - including the papacy - has from time to time been captive to something other than the Word of God, that does not mean the whole Church is corrupt or living without the Gospel.

Having said that, it must also be said that the apostolic office, instituted by the Lord Jesus himself, is absolutely essential to the Church's life and that the bishops who succeed the Apostles have an indispensable task in the faithful transmission of the Gospel. Catholics believe that although the Gospel is given to the entire Church, only the bishops - as successors of the Apostles - are given the authority and sacred power to transmit and authentically interpret the Gospel from generation to generation. Moreover, this authority comes not from the personal holiness, intelligence, or learning of the bishops; it comes, rather, from their episcopal ordination. In other words, it comes from a sacramental gift of grace given by Christ.

So, to summarize this point: the faithful transmission of the Gospel is intrinsically and essentially connect to a sacrament. The temptation to believe that the Word can be transmitted alone, apart from the Church's sacramental life, is grounded in - among other things - the very reasonable scandal one often takes from the human frailties of bishops. The shabby lives of Renaissance popes and absentee bishops should have inspired a passion for reform and perhaps even justified emergency measures to preserve the Gospel and prepare for the renewal of the Church's life. But the frailties of bishops can never justify rejecting a part of the Gospel itself: namely, the apostolic office given by Christ and ordained to endure until the Day of the Lord.

Catholics believe that the bishops succeed the Apostles by divine institution. But even Christians who reject that teaching do accept that the Lord Jesus personally chose and called the Twelve. And in the night on which Christ gave us the Holy Eucharist and the sacramental priesthood, what did these chosen Twelve do? When the hour for which the Word became flesh finally arrived, Judas betrayed Him, Peter, James, and John went to sleep, the lot of them ran away in terror, and Peter lied through his teeth to save his skin. In other words, infidelity, sloth, cowardice, and mendacity were part of the apostolic office from the very beginning. Should we be surprised, therefore, to find these qualities among bishops of every time and place?

The Lord Jesus chooses whom he will, and those who hold the apostolic office are - by the gift of Christ and not their own strength - made authentic teachers of the Gospel. This living teaching authority or magisterium is not above the Word of God; it is wholly subordinate to it. But the Gospel does not transmit or interpret or authenticate itself; only living teachers can hand on the living Word of God. The question, therefore, is not 'Will Christians heed a magisterium?' The question is 'Which magisterium will Christians heed?' The magisterium of the bishops in communion with the Successor of St. Peter? The magisterium of university professors? The magisterium of seminary faculties? The magisterium of the New York Times? To paraphrase Winston Churchill, the episcopal office is the worst means of faithfully transmitting the Gospel, except for all the others.

Had it been given to me to live in the 16^th century, I believe that my sympathies would have been entirely with Father Luther and his movement for reform. But if a Church without the Gospel is an abomination, a Gospel without the Church is a fantasy. The ordered - which is to say hierarchical - body of believers is the subject which both receives and transmits the Gospel, and apart from that communion of disciples, the Sacred Scriptures are simply another written record of ancient near eastern religion. That this communion of disciples has divinely instituted offices for teaching, sanctifying, and governing is the point at issue, and for evidence of this evangelical truth, we can do no better than heed St. Ignatius of Antioch - a bishop who learned the Gospel from St. John the Divine, apostle of the Word made flesh and evangelist of liberating truth. St. Ignatius, who was the second successor of St. Peter in the city where the disciples were called Christians for the first time, wrote to the Trallians around the year 110 AD and described the three-fold order of bishop, priest, and deacon in these words: "...let everyone respect the deacons as they would respect Jesus Christ, and just as they respect the bishop as a type of the Father, and the priests as the council of God and college of Apostles. Without these, it cannot be called a Church." Notice: without the offices of bishop, priest, and deacon a local Christian community cannot even be called a Church. Without (as we would now put it) the Sacrament of Holy Orders, something essential to ecclesial life is missing. I have made this point with tedious insistence because, as a concerned friend and brother in Christ, I fear than many godly Lutherans are being tempted to an un-evangelical attempt to rescue the Gospel (once again) from a church apparently abandoning the Word of God.

We know the problems. Can a Christian community which condones abortion and homosexual conduct truly be evangelical? Can a Christian community no longer bound by the Augsburg Confession truly be Lutheran? Can a Christian community willing, in principle, to acknowledge lay celebration the Eucharist truly be a church? The Catholic answer to these questions is 'No, no, and no'. And I suspect that most of the Lutherans here tonight would give the same answers. Movements like Word Alone and Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ are evidence that many Lutherans - pastors and lay alike - are convinced that something deeply wrong is unfolding in our day, and I agree. I wonder if a kairos is not at hand: a providential opportunity to think outside the box, to imagine possibilities once thought to be unthinkable.

Allow me to say here that in participating in seven of the nine Aquinas/Luther Conferences, I have been moved to ponder the ways in which confessional Lutherans - evangelical Catholics, if you like - are already in a greater degree of real communion with the Catholic Church than are some baptized, confirmed, and even ordained Catholics who reject part of the Gospel. Having explored this question carefully for eight years, I am convinced that it is possible to give an account, both theological and canonical, of how and why Dr. Michael McDaniel and I - to take one example - are in fuller true communion with each other than are - to take another example - Father Charles Curran and I.

But the goal of ecumenism is not comity; it's unity - full unity. While we rejoice to call each other brothers and sisters in Christ, that is not enough. Despite the gains of the past forty years, we remain separated brethren, unable to share in the fulness of Word and Sacrament which together constitute the Church's faith and life. Pope John Paul II has for twenty-three years made abundantly clear what the Catholic Church seeks: the complete restoration of full, visible communion among all who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Anything less than that is a contradiction of the Word of God.

But what would such fulness of communion look like? For my answer, I turn to a book Father Luther might find of interest: the Code of Canon Law promulgated by Pope John Paul II and sometimes called the final document of the II Vatican Council. In the Code we find canon 205 which declares: "Those baptized are fully in the communion of the Catholic Church on this earth who are joined with Christ in its visible structure by the bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical governance." Now, that' s a mouth full, but canon law properly understood is nothing other than juridic theology. This canon is an effort to translate into juridic language the Scriptural description of communion with Christ's Church in its fullest degree. Speaking of the people who were converted to Christ on the day of Pentecost by the preaching of Peter, St. Luke tells us: "So those who received His word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers"(Acts 2:41-42).

Notice, first Peter preaches. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter proclaims the plan of salvation, the Paschal Mystery, the Good News of the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Next, those who hear the word preached receive that word. Next, they are baptized. Next, they continue to receive the apostolic teaching with devotion. And finally, they share in the Eucharist and the whole life of prayer in the fellowship or communion of the whole Church - then contained only in Jerusalem but already universal in scope. Word leads to Sacrament and together, under the authority of the Apostles, Word and Sacrament bring about the fullness of communion which constitutes integral Christian living.

As you know, the Catholic Church teaches that five of the seven sacraments instituted by Christ were lost to the Christian communities of the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th century and that only two remain to them: baptism and marriage. And the reason for the loss of the other five is the end of the apostolic succession of true bishops, priests, and deacons in those communities. I must leave to wiser heads and other settings the unfolding of that tale. For tonight, however, whatever one may think of this teaching, I want to offer one word of hope and encouragement about an additional means of restoring what has undeniably been lost: full, visible communion of Word and Sacrament. And what is that word of hope? Preaching.

In its Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests, the II Vatican Council taught this: "The People of God is formed into one in the first place by the Word of the living God, which is quite rightly sought from the mouth of priests. For since nobody can be saved who has not first believed, it is the first task (the FIRST task - emphasis mine) of priests as co-workers of the bishops to preach the Gospel of God to all men. In this way they carry out the Lord's command 'Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature'.....By the saving Word of God, faith is aroused in the heart of unbelievers and is nourished in the heart of believers. By this faith, then, the congregation of the faithful begins and grows, according to the saying of the apostle: 'Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ' (Romans 10: 17)" (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 4). Those words might have been written by Martin Luther, but they were written by the bishops of the Catholic Church and promulgated by the Bishop of Pome.

I do believe - as the Catholic Church teaches - that five of the sacraments given by Christ were lost to the Christian communities of the Reformation. But if I'm right, then the natural questions arises: "How have the communions of the Reformation fostered real holiness of life among the People of God - a holiness which often far surpasses that of their Catholic neighbors with all their sacraments?" I believe that the answer to this question lies in understanding the real power of biblical preaching to awaken souls to the life of grace.

The proclamation of the Word of God, while not reckoned one of the seven sacraments, is nonetheless an action instituted by Christ. Moreover, the act of preaching is the operation of divine power moving through a human instrument. In these respects, preaching is like a sacrament - a sacramental. But it is also something more than what Catholics ordinarily mean by a sacramental, like the use of holy water to recall baptismal rebirth. Preaching the revealed Word of God is the mediation of an actual grace which moves the hearer by an interior motion of mind and heart towards the saving Word and thus towards union with the saving words and deeds of the Paschal Mystery and finally towards the sacraments which make the mysteries of Christ present to the believer.³ I believe that powerful, evangelical preaching both accounts for the ability of the Reformation traditions to awaken a genuine yearning for holiness in the hearts of believers and provides a path forward towards the restoration of full, visible communion for the children of the Reformation with the Catholic Church.

Is 'Word Alone' an evangelical possibility? Not since the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. The urge to preserve the Gospel from corruption is a noble and evangelical response to the falling away from Scriptural truth by too many Christians and Christian communities, but any effort to proclaim the Gospel is incomplete and unfaithful to a divine command without the sacraments celebrated worthily and in their integrity. We are at a crossroads, but the way ahead, I submit, is not a retreat into congregational polity and quietist piety. The way ahead is the restoration of full, visible communion of all who confess 'Jesus Christ is Lord' with that Church which is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic - a restoration which can begin only when pastors are fearless heralds of the Gospel but which can be complete only when pastors are also true ministers of the sacraments.

In the Roman Missal there is a Mass for the Spread of the Gospel, and the collect or opening prayer of that Mass succinctly draws together all of these strands. Let this prayer be our pattern of searching together for what Christ commands: genuine unity of faith and life which will lead the world to saving faith in him.

"God our Father, you will all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Send workers into your great harvest that the Gospel may be preached to every creature and your people, gathered together by the word of life and strengthened by the power of the sacraments, may advance in the way of salvation and love." This we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

1 - I am indebted for this account to Professor Michael Root of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. In an unpublished article, Root describes this scene from Luther's own account given in a letter of that day to George Spalatin (Weimarer Ausgabe, BR 2:235; Luther's Works, 48:186f.)

2 - Weimaver Ausgabe, 8:541; Luther 's Works, 36:202f.

3 - I am indebted to a lecture by Father Thomas Dominic Rover, O.P. published in the Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America; June, 1962.