Vol 9 Issue 52a ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
December 24, 2016 ~ Christmas Eve
1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (98)
2. Christmas
3. Saint Anastasia
4. Family and Marriage
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:With this issue we want to extend to all our readers a most blessed filled Christmas. One of the tragic effects of modern technology is the absence of truth. With a mantra for knowledge, children and teenagers are overwhelmed with knowledge, but it is empty and simply opinions or slanted to present a reality that is a lie—which, once accepted everything in that reality seems true even though it is not true objectively, i.e., in the reality that is original or as God originally intended, based on laws and order that brings about good. Take, for example, love. If love is defined as being happy, than not being happy is lack of love. But if love means being happy and doing something with someone makes one happy, it follows that the act is love—which brings our young people to engage in acts that are contrary to the Laws of God objectively, but which our young people consider in their reality to be truly acts of love and will tell you that they have love (until they are no longer happy). The presentation of this reality is one they find all over media such that if one tell them their reality is not a true reality, that person is condemned as not telling the truth—not because it is a lie, that is, objectively speaking, against the true reality—because it is against the imagined reality that happiness is love. This extends to the conceived child: If the mother is happy to have conceived, than it is a baby; if the mother is unhappy, than the baby is no longer a baby but a tumor that needs to be extracted. Those who would deny that it is a tumor and insist that it is still a child again are held as not telling the truth. To grasp this is why the children today, having been indoctrinated by the world, can believe their parents are not telling them the truth when the parents tell them they cannot engage in certain acts. It comes to these little children telling their parents that their parents do not love them when these children want to run off with someone and the parents tell them that they cannot do so because they are convinced that if their parents did love them the parents would let them live with someone in a relationship. But parents who do love their children know that it happiness is not love, rather happiness is deceitful for the bank robber can be happy after having committed burglary without being caught but no one will agree that this is acceptable behavior or an act of love. Love can only be based on an absolute that does not change, is not dependent on outcomes, but that the act itself of itself is love. God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. (John 3:16) This did not entail a life of happiness, but a continual chain of suffering that one meditates already upon the Word Incarnate being born in a cold stable that doesn’t end until the Crucifixion of the Son of God on Calvary, for having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. (Cf. John 13:1) Where does one find happiness? In returning love, which means giving one’s life for another: This example is seen in Mary who gives her life for her child as do all mothers who sacrifice their lives for their children. This is seen in Saint Joseph who supports and protects the child and the Mother with his life as all fathers who sacrifice their life for their children. It is seen in children who subject themselves to their parents, like the Christ Child, until they come of age and leave to fulfill the vocation God calls them to as adults. If there is no sacrifice, there is no love. May one see this in Christ who sacrifices heaven to dwell amongst us, taken the form of a servant, giving His life for the world. On Christmas one meditates upon this love and aspires to live it. Is Christmas, then, dependent on one’s own happiness or is it dependent upon the sacrifice one makes for others? One’s own happiness is a false reality; whereas that of living for others in the realm of Divine Love is the true reality.
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor
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Baptism
Means of Salvation
Sacrament of Baptism
Baptism by Desire and Baptism in Blood
Before proceeding, here is a summary of teachings prior that have been looked upon as the basis for understanding the necessity of the Church as means of Salvation:
Sacred Scripture
The necessity of being united to the Church is expressed by Christ in His discourse at the Last Supper as recorded by Saint John:
I am the true vine; and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me, that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean by reason of the word, which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. In this is my Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father’s commandments, and do abide in his love. (15:1-10)
The Church is a visible and hierarchical society that has the mission to teach, sanctify and govern as seen in Matthew:
He that receiveth you, receiveth me: and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. (Matt. 10:40)
And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. (Matt. 18:17-18)
Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. (Matt. 28:19-20)
This is confirmed by Mark and Luke:
And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16)
He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me. (Luke 10:16)
Beginning with Peter and the Apostles preaching to the Jews, the Acts of the Apostles expresses the necessity of Salvation through Christ as Head of the Church:
This is the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:11-12)
Whosoever revolteth, and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that continueth in the doctrine, the same hath both the Father and the Son. If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him, God speed you. (2 John 9-10.
The Fathers of the Church in the first four centuries have also held the necessity of salvation through the Church. Saint Irenaeus, in his Adversus Haereses, writes the following about the year 180:
Thus, then, have all these men been exposed, who bring in impious doctrines regarding our Maker and Framer, who also formed this world, and above whom there is no other God; and those have been overthrown by their own arguments who teach falsehoods regarding the substance of our Lord, and the dispensation which He fulfilled for the sake of His own creature man. But [it has, on the other hand, been shown], that the preaching of the Church is everywhere consistent, and continues in an even course, and receives testimony from the prophets, the apostles, and all the disciples— as I have proved— through [those in] the beginning, the middle, and the end, and through the entire dispensation of God, and that well-grounded system which tends to man’s salvation, namely, our faith; which, having been received from the Church, we do preserve, and which always, by the Spirit of God, renewing its youth, as if it were some precious deposit in an excellent vessel, causes the vessel itself containing it to renew its youth also. For this gift of God has been entrusted to the Church, as breath was to the first created man, for this purpose, that all the members receiving it may be vivified; and the [means of] communion with Christ has been distributed throughout it, that is, the Holy Spirit, the earnest of incorruption, the means of confirming our faith, and the ladder of ascent to God. For in the Church, it is said, God has set apostles, prophets, teachers, 1 Corinthians 12:28 and all the other means through which the Spirit works; of which all those are not partakers who do not join themselves to the Church, but defraud themselves of life through their perverse opinions and infamous behaviour. For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace; but the Spirit is truth. Those, therefore, who do not partake of Him, are neither nourished into life from the mother’s breasts, nor do they enjoy that most limpid fountain which issues from the body of Christ; but they dig for themselves broken cisterns Jeremiah 2:13 out of earthly trenches, and drink putrid water out of the mire, fleeing from the faith of the Church lest they be convicted; and rejecting the Spirit, that they may not be instructed.(Book 3, chap. 24, par. 1)
Origen (+232) gives this commentary on Josue, chapter 2:
But let us consider the transactions the wise prostitute had with the spies. Having no land, she gives them mystic and heavenly counsel. “Go through the mountains,” she says. (Jos. 2:16) Do not proceed through the valleys, shun low and dispirited things, proclaim those things that are lofty and sublime. She herself puts the scarlet-colored sign in her house, through which she is bound to be saved from the destruction of the city. (Jos. 2:18-21) No other sign would have been accepted, except the scarlet-colored one that carried the sign of blood. For she knew there was no salvation for anyone except in the blood of Christ.
Also this commandment is given to the person who was once a prostitute: “All,” it says, “who will be found in your house will be saved. But concerning those who go out from the house we ourselves are free of them by your oath.” (Jos. 2:17) Therefore, if anyone wants to be saved, let him come into the house of this one who was once a prostitute. Even if anyone from that people wants to be saved, let him come in order to be able to attain salvation. Let him come to this house in which the blood of Christ is the sign of redemption. For among those who said, “His blood be upon us and upon our children,” (Mt. 27:25) the blood of Christ is for condemnation. For Jesus had been appointed “for the ruin and the resurrection of many.” (Luke 2:34) therefore, for those refuting his sign, his blood effects punishment; for those who believe, salvation.
Let no one persuade himself, let no one deceive himself. Outside this house, that is, outside the Church, no one is saved. If anyone goes outside, he is responsible for his own death. This is the significance of the blood, for this is also the purification that is manifest through the blood.
In that the sign hangs in window I think this is indicated: A window is that which illumines the house and through which we receive light, not wholly but enough, enough to suffice for the eye and for our vision. Even the incarnation of the Saviour did not give us pure wine and the whole aspect of divinity, but through his incarnation, just as through the window, he makes us behold the splendor of the divinity. For that reason, so it seems to me, the sign of salvation was given through a window.
By that sign, all persons attain salvation, all those who are found in the house of the one who was once a prostitute, all those cleansed in the water and by the Holy Spirit and in the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, “to whom is the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen! (Homily on Josue Son of Nun, Book 3, chapter 5)
Saint Cyprian of Carthage (+257), though his teaching concerning baptism by heretics was rejected by Popes Stephen and Sixtus and the Council of Nicea, his submission to the Church and his teaching regarding the unity and necessity of the Church have been a source of inspiration the Church draws upon, wrote the following in a letter to the bishop Jubaianus:
Can the power of baptism be greater or of more avail than confession, than suffering, when one confesses Christ before men and is baptized in his own blood? And yet even this baptism does not benefit a heretic, although he has confessed Christ, and been put to death outside the Church, unless the patrons and advocates of heretics declare that the heretics who are slain in a false confession of Christ are martyrs, and assign to them the glory and the crown of martyrdom contrary to the testimony of the apostle, who says that it will profit them nothing although they were burnt and slain. 1 Corinthians 13:3 But if not even the baptism of a public confession and blood can profit a heretic to salvation, because there is no salvation out of the Church, how much less shall it be of advantage to him, if in a hiding-place and a cave of robbers, stained with the contagion of adulterous water, he has not only not put off his old sins, but rather heaped up still newer and greater ones. . . . (Letter 73 [72], 21)
Again, Cyprian writes: You cannot have God for your Father if you have not the Church for your mother. If there was escape for anyone who was outside the ark of Noe, there is escape too for one who is found to be outside the Church (De unitate ecclesiae 6)
The Christian apologist Lucius Lactantius wrote about the year 304 his work, Divine Institutions, where he continues the teaching of extra ecclesiam non salus:
Therefore it is the Catholic Church alone which retains true worship.
This is the fountain of truth, this is the abode of the faith, this is the temple of God; into which if any one shall not enter, or from which if any shall go out, he is estranged from the hope of life and eternal salvation. No one ought to flatter himself with persevering strife. For the contest is respecting life and salvation, which, unless it is carefully and diligently kept in view, will be lost and extinguished. But, however, because all the separate assemblies of heretics call themselves Christians in preference to others, and think that theirs is the Catholic Church, it must be known that the true Catholic Church is that in which there is confession and repentance, which treats in a wholesome manner the sins and wounds to which the weakness of the flesh is liable. I have related these things in the meanwhile for the sake of admonition, that no one who desires to avoid error may be entangled in a greater error, while he is ignorant of the secret of the truth. (Divine Institutions iv. 30)
Saint Augustine, then, is justified to state in his Unity of the Church, the following in about the year 404 the following:
. . . [T]he Lord said that certain men would be deceitful who by performing some signs would deceive the elect, if that were possible. He adds vehemently, take note, I have told you beforehand (Mt 24:25). The Apostle also warns about this now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons (1 Tim 4:1). Moreover, if anyone praying in memory of heretics is heard, not by merit of the location but by merit of his desire does he receive good or ill. Thus it is written the spirit of the Lord has filled the world (Wis 1:7) and a jealous ear hears all things (Wis 1:10). Many are heard by an angry God of whom the Apostle says God gave them up to the lust of their hearts (Rom 1:24) and to many a favorable God does not bestow what they wish that he might bestow what is useful. The Apostle said the same thing about the goad of his flesh, the angel of Satan, which he said was given to him to box him lest he become insolent from the greatness of his revelation three times I appealed to the Lord about this that it would leave me, and he said to me “My grace is sufficient for you for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:8-9). Do we not read that some are heard by the Lord God on the peaks of the mountains of Judea, which heights nevertheless were displeasing to God so that the kings who didn’t overturn them were found with fault and those who overturned them were praised? From this it is understood that the condition of the petitioner is stronger than the place of the petition. Concerning false visions let them read what was written that even Satan disguises himself as an angel of the light (2Cor 11:14) and that dreams have deceived many (Sir. 34:7). Let them also hear what the pagans say was miraculously done or seen from their temples and yet the gods of the peoples are demons but the Lord made the heavens (Ps 96:5). Therefore, many are heard and in many ways, not just catholic Christians but also pagans and Jews and heretics given over to various errors and superstitions. They are however heard either by deceiving spirits who nevertheless do nothing unless they are allowed, God judging ineffably from on high what should be bestowed to each person, whether by God himself either for the punishment of wickedness or for the consolation of misery or for a warning to seek eternal salvation. No one arrives at that salvation and eternal life unless he have Christ as his head. No one can have Christ as his head unless he be in his body, which is the Church, which we ought to acknowledge just as the head itself in the Holy canonical Scriptures, and not seek in the various murmurs, opinions, deeds, words, and visions of men. (De unitate ecclesiae 19, 49)
(To be continued)
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Christmas
Fr. Leonard Goffine
The Church’s Year (1918)
CHRISTMAS DAY
What is Christmas Day?
It is the day on which Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, was born of the Blessed Virgin in a stable at Bethlehem.
Why is this festival called “the Holy Night”?
Because this night has been especially blessed and sanctified by the holy, mysterious birth of the Redeemer of the world.
Why do priests say three Masses on this day?
In commemoration of the threefold birth of the Redeemer: of His birth from all eternity in the bosom of His Heavenly Father; of His birth in the fullness of time; and of His spiritual birth in the hearts of the faithful who, by lively faith in Him, receive the power to become children of God (Jn. 1:12).
