Doctrinally Uncertain?

A Brief Testimony...

I must confess, and give glory to God, because I was spoiled.

When I made the decision to become a Catholic, a venerable old priest at St Catherine's Parish in Ravenna, Michigan, gave me an inelegant but informative book, Instructions in the Catholic Faith, which I still have (and highly, highly recommend).  It was chock-full of Scriptural quotations, with abundant references to the recently-adjourned Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (the book was published in 1971), and fairly traditional (it still warned that Father would be "very angry" if I showed up after the Gospel at Mass!).

I spent every spare moment I could studying this catechism, flipping through my New International Version Bible, and memorising the prayers at the back of the book (what's this "vale of tears"?  What's "my last agony"?).

It wouldn't be several years yet that I was allowed to receive Baptism, Confirmation, and First Communion.  But when I could, another priest gave me Anthony Wilhelm's Christ Among Us.  But something in that book disturbed my spirit, and I knew in my gut of guts that it was somehow...inauthentic.  I stuck with my yellow, cheaply-produced Instructions in the Catholic Faith, and "upgraded" to the New American Bible (which I heavily underlined), and, having sunk my teeth in the Word of God, I kept my jaws locked.

That was around 1992.  When the Catechism of the Catholic Church came out, our parish priest (and my personal hero) Fr Fred Brucker took us through the entire book, giving us "the framework" of the Church's teachings, he said.  This was around the time my (late) mother was received into the Church.  The wonderful lady who led the Catechumenate for my mother (hello, Denise!) gave me a wonderful book, Catholic And Christian, and my doctrinal diet was upgraded to steak and baked potatoes.

Not too long afterwards, my then-spiritual director, Fr James Wyse, provided me with an abundance of guidance on Scripture and doctrine.  He once led a Bible study on 1 Corinthians and, one Lent, a "Soup and Scripture" on the book of Exodus.  He also led a group discussion on the late Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk's Twelve Tough Issues, gently and patiently explaining some of the more challenging teachings of the Magisterium otherwise tiptoed around or altogether ignored elsewhere.

Eventually, opportunities to learn the faith in the parish waned.  I will never forget sitting in the living room at home and listening to my mother express her sadness at being hungry for divine truth but not being fed--there was a parish mission and, hungry for more of the Word, we went, but came away even more famished.  As my mother was recalling this miserable parish mission, she had to turn away her face to hide her tears.

Being bookish and a something of a loner, my solution was easy--to keep reading.  Eventually we developed a group of solidly Catholic friends and met for fellowship and, before long, my theological gluttony served our joyous little group who wanted to know this or that about Holy Catholicity.  (At one point, I even ordered and avidly read William Jurgen's The Faith of the Early Fathers--I don't think I was yet 18.)

Fast-forward to about five years ago.  I was a rookie priest and was invited to speak at a gathering of believers who loved the Mother of Jesus.  Before I was about to speak, the Holy Spirit stirred up something in me, and I spoke to this effect:

Before I begin, I want to offer an apology.  Many of you, I am sure, have experienced belittlement from certain priests or deacons because of your love for the Blessed Virgin Mary.  You were slighted for praying the Rosary or treated harshly when you asked to hear a word about Jesus' Mother from the pulpit.  I want to say, simply:  I am very sorry that you had to endure this.

Halfway through, about three-quarters of the people were in tears.  One by one, they shared their own experience of being verbally mistreated by clerics simply because the loved the Lady through whom the Holy Spirit enfleshed the Eternal Word (Mt 18:19, 20; Lk 1:35). 

The supreme irony in all of this is that, in at least two places, the documents of the Second Vatican Council speaks of "preaching" and "teaching" as the priest's first obligation--even prior to celebrating the Sacraments.  (And, no, homiletics do not entirely fulfill that obligation.)  In other words, in the name of the Council, the express wishes of the Council was often set aside.  (That being said, I bought my first copy of The Documents of Vatican II when I was 19 or 20, at the Pauline Bookstore in Upper East Manhattan.  I was flabbergasted at the dissonance between what I read in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and my general experience of liturgical celebrations.

So, what's a spiritually famished Catholic Christian to do?

Befriending the Indwelling Holy Spirit

Once, when I was still living at home, I was about to pass the living room when my mother called me in.  She was sitting in her blue recliner and exuding joy on her face.

"Matthew!  I just thought of something!"

So I said, "What is it?"

Then my mother replied, "God is love!  It just came to me--God is love!"  She was beside herself, but in a good way.

Since I'm a typical, insensitive male, I said, "Well, yeah, he is.  It's in the Bible!"  I was thinking of 1 John 4:8 and 16.  When I told Mom this, she balked:  "I didn't know that!  It just came to me!"

And I didn't doubt it for a moment.  In the same epistle, the holy Apostle John also said that

...his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him (1 Jn 2:27).

Mom knew that "God is love" because the Holy Spirit indwelling her made that clear.

My research, as you know, is entirely taken up with the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  What I find astonishing is how little a role it plays in Catholic faith-formation.  Even Confirmation preps talk little--if at all--about it, and usually nothing beyond a mere list.  I have become not only convinced, but convicted that the Seven Gifts is paramount for developing a Biblically and doctrinally sound mind.

Of the Seven, there are four intellectual gifts:  Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, and Knowledge, which give us "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:16):

• Understanding means to grasp or to apprehend the truths of the Faith.  Have you ever had an "Aha!"-moment, when something became suddenly clear to you?  That was the gift of Understanding.
• Wisdom is a loving, contemplative gaze, when we bask in the Lord's presence after, say, being touched by a Scripture that speaks directly to us.
• Knowledge is when we relate creation to a divine truth.  When I trudged up several dozen flights of concrete steps with a sprained ankle, at night, in the rain, to see the Cristo Redentor statue atop Corcovado Mountain, I knew that it was an analogy of discipleship.  That's Knowledge.
• Counsel was all the rage when everybody had those webbed "WWJD" bracelets and asked, with the impulse of the Holy Spirit, whether an action was good or not on the basis of whether it was something Jesus would do.

So, what's a spiritually famished Catholic Christian to do?

When the Council spoke of the Sensus fidelium, she was by no means referring to a "democratic" method of discerning divine truth but, rather, was shining a light on those believers whose lives are fuelled and ruled by the indwelling Holy Spirit who display, by their lives, Biblical doctrine.

Why else do you think St Joan of Arc--a simple, illiterate girl from the backwaters of France--was able to confound her theologically expert Inquisitors when she gave that answer?

Since it is the Holy Spirit who is the "Spirit of Truth" and who "leads you into all the truth" (Jn 16:13). there are no two ways about it:  Developing a relationship to the Third Person of the Trinity who indwells your souls, and remaining in the state of sanctifying grace is a non-negotiable if we are to be spiritually stalwart.

I would be remiss to not add that befriending the indwelling Holy Spirit happened to me in a powerful way when I experienced a Life in the Spirit Seminar (hi, Joe!).

Devouring the Word of God

Not only does the Holy Spirit lead us into the fullness of divine truth, he also causes us to remember the words of Jesus:

But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your reembrace all that I have said to you" (Jn 14:26).

How the heck is the Holy Ghost 'supposa remind you of everything Jesus said, if we don't take the trouble to first read Him?  I cannot begin to count the times when a word of Jesus popped into my head when I was faced with some action or opinion which was anti-Christian, and that was not on account of my mental prowess (I'm actually terrible at remembering, to be honest).  This was entirely thanks to the Holy Spirit ministering to me by bringing my attention to something I read in the gospels.

Since the whole Bible is, really, the communication of the Eternal Word, by availing ourselves to the divine Scriptures, we increase the storehouse of of the word of God in our hearts for the Holy Spirit to recall for our benefit--

When I found your words, I devoured them; your words were my joy, the happiness of my heart, because I bear your name, LORD, God of hosts (Jer 15:16);

It was precisely because Our Lady "kept all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Lk 2:19; cf v. 51) that she was able to make Biblical sense out of the horrific experience of seeing her sweet Son crucified.  The Word of God so buttressed the soul of Mary that she was "standing by the Cross of Jesus" (Jn 19:25) when every other mother in their right minds would have collapsed from overwhelming grief.  Mary's intimacy with the Scriptures--in addition to being fully graced--was just that stalwart buttress that kept her standing.

Jesus said as much.  When a listener hollered out to Him the praises of His Mother simply because she was His Mother, He replied, "Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!" (Lk 11:28).  It is for this reason that the great St Augustine was able to pen these astonishing words--

So that is why Mary, too, is blessed, because she heard the word of God and kept it. She kept truth safe in her mind even better than she kept flesh safe in her womb. Christ is truth, Christ is flesh; Christ as truth was in Mary's mind, Christ as flesh in Mary's womb; that which is in the mind is greater than what is carried in the womb (Sermon 72).

 When I was in high school, my classmates teased me (in a friendly way, I hope!) with the nickname "Bible Boy."  But it did serve me well, because when I did not have anyone to teach me, I had recourse to the Word of God, and the Word of God has plenty to say to us, today.  It is life's instruction manual.

Pray, Pray, Pray!

St Thomas Aquinas innovated when he defined the theological virtue of charity as "friendship with God."  I also learned from a powerful encounter with Jesus late one night in Yonkers, New York, right at the corner of Shonnard and Broadway, that to know Jesus is to be in friendship with him.

Yet what friendship is there between those who don't communicate?  That is why I have my "prayer chair" in my monastic cell here at the conventual priory, and my "spot" by the Ottawa River where I pray the canonical hours, read the Scriptures, and chew the Lord's ears with my thoughts, concerns, and joys.

The indwelling Holy Spirit gives us "access" to the Father (Eph 2:18); it is only him within who enables us to call God "Father!" (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6); it is also this same Paraclete who equips us to worship aright (Jn 4:23).  In fact, we ought to learn to go beyond scripted, read prayers, and to speak to Lord in our own words, with intimate familiarity.  By prayer, we move from knowing about God to knowing God.

So get crackin'.

Conclusion

The indwelling Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16, 6:19), armed with the Bible (Eph 6:17; cf Mt 4:1-11), and with the power of prayer (1 Thess 5:17), gives us everything we need to steer the ship that is the Church through the storms of this world that has elected to ignore that What Really Matters.