THE SPIRIT OF CATHOLICISM
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Karl Adam
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Excerpt
Karl Adam Spirit of Catholicism pp 19_22
Chapter
II: Christ in the Church
Intimate
union of the Church with Christ. Manifested in her dogma which centres round Christ, in her moral teaching which aims at making men like to Christ, in her
worship which is performed through Christ. The sacraments, especially the
Sacrament of the Altar, a working of Christ among His people. The same union of
the Church with Christ shown in her pastoral and teaching office, in her
sacramental doctrine, in her disciplinary authority. The whole structure
permeated and bound together by Christ.
(Pages
19-22) There is no two-fold morality in the Church, since there is but one
Christ to be formed. But the ways and manners in which men strive towards this
goal are infinitely various, as various as the human personalities which have
to mature and grow up to the stature of Christ. Very many of the faithful will
be able to form the image of Christ in themselves only in very vague and
general outline. Yet, just as nature at times sees fit to give of her best and
to manifest her superabundant power in some perfect types, even so the fullness
of Christ which works in the Church breaks out ever and again in this or that
saintly figure into brilliant radiance, in marvels of self- surrender, love,
purity, humility and devotion. Professor Merkle's book[3] may provide even
outsiders with some insight into the deep earnestness and heroic strength with
which the Church in every century of her existence has striven after the
realization of the image of Christ, after the translation of His spirit into
terms of flesh and blood, after the incarnation of Jesus in the individual man.
And the
worship of the Church breathes the same spirit, and is as much interwoven with
Christ and full of Christ as is her morality. Just as every particular prayer
of the liturgy ends with the ancient Christian formula: "Per Christum
Dominum nostrum," so is every single act of worship, from the Mass down to
the least prayer, a memorial of Christ, an "anamnesis Christou". Nay,
more, the worship of the Church is not merely a filial remembrance of Christ,
but a continual participation by visible mysterious signs in Jesus and His
redemptive might, a refreshing touching of the hem of His garment, a liberating
handling of His sacred Wounds. That is the deepest purpose of the liturgy,
namely, to make the redeeming grace of Christ present, visible and fruitful as
a sacred and potent reality that fills the whole life of the Christian. In the
sacrament of Baptism—so the believer holds—the sacrificial blood of Christ
flows into the soul, purifies it from all the infirmity of original sin and
permeates it with its own sacred strength, in order that a new man may be born
thereof, the re-born man, the man who is an adopted son of God. In the
sacrament of Confirmation, Jesus sends His "Comforter," the Spirit of
constancy and divine faith, to the awakening religious consciousness, in order
to form the child of God into a soldier of God. In the sacrament of Penance
Jesus as the merciful Savior consoles the afflicted soul with the word of
peace: Go thy way, thy sins are forgiven thee. In the sacrament of the Last
Anointing the compassionate Samaritan approaches the sick-bed and pours new
courage and resignation into the sore heart. In the sacrament of Marriage He en-grafts the love of man and wife on His own profound love for His people, for
the community, for the Church, on His own faithfulness unto death. And in the
priestly consecration by the imposition of hands, He transmits His messianic
might, the power of His mission, to the disciples whom He calls, in order that
He may by their means pursue without interruption His work of raising the new
men, the children of God, out of the kingdom of death.
The
sacraments are nought else than a visible guarantee, authenticated by the word
of Jesus and the usage of the apostles, that Jesus is working in the midst of
us. At all the important stages of our little life, in its heights and in its
depths, at the marriage-altar and the cradle, at the sick-bed, in all the
crises and shocks that may befall us, Jesus stands by us under the veils of the
grace-giving sacrament as our Friend and Consoler, as the Physician of soul and
body, as our Saviour. St. Thomas Aquinas has described this intimate permeation
of the Christian's whole life by faith in the sacraments and in his Savior with
luminous power.[4] And Goethe, too, in the seventh book of the second part of
his "Dichtung und Wahrheit," speaks warmly of it, and he closes his
remarks with the significant words: "How is this truly spiritual whole
broken into pieces in Protestantism, a part of these symbols being declared apocryphal
and only a few admitted as canonical. How shall we be prepared to value some
highly when we are taught to be indifferent to the rest?"
But the
sacraments which we have enumerated are not the deepest and holiest fact of
all. For so completely does Jesus disclose Himself to His disciples, so
profound is the action of His grace, that He gives Himself to them and enters
into them as a personal source of grace. Jesus shares with His disciples His
most intimate possession, the most precious thing that He has, His own self,
His personality as the God-man. We eat His Flesh and drink His Blood. So
greatly does Jesus love His community, that He permeates it, not merely with
His blessing and His might, but with his real Self, God and Man; He enters into
a real union of flesh and blood with it, and binds it to His being even as the
branch is bound to the vine. We are not left orphans in this world. Under the
forms of bread and wine the Master lives amid His disciples, the Bridegroom
with His bride, the Lord in the midst of His community, until that day when He
shall return in visible majesty on the clouds of heaven. The Sacrament of the
Altar is the strongest, profoundest, most intimate memorial of the Lord, until
He come again. And therefore we can never forget Jesus, though centuries and
millennia pass, and though nations and civilizations are ever perishing and
rising anew. And therefore there is no heart in the world, not even the heart
of father or mother, that is so loved by millions and millions, so truly and
loyally, so practically and devotedly, as is the Heart of Jesus.
Thus we
see that in the sacraments, and especially in the Sacrament of the Altar, the
fundamental idea of the Church is most plainly represented, the idea, that is,
of the incorporation of the faithful in Christ. And therefore the Catholic can
only regard that criticism of the sacraments as superficial, which derives
them, not merely in this or that external detail, but in their proper content
and dominant meaning, from non-Christian conceptions and cults, as for instance
from the pagan mysteries. On the contrary the sacraments breathe the very
spirit of primitive Christianity. They, as instituted by Christ Himself, are
the truest expression and result of that original and central Christian belief
that the Christian should be inseparably united with Christ and should live in
Christ. In Catholic sacramental devotion Christ is faithfully affirmed and
experienced as the Lord of the community, as its invisible strength and
principle of activity. In the sacraments is expressed the fundamental nature of
the Church, the fact that Christ lives on in her.
Therefore
dogma, morality and worship are primary witnesses to the consciousness of the
Church that she is of supernatural stock, that she is the Body of Christ.
·
Karl Adam has brilliantly succeeded in achieving his purpose and "The Spirit of
Catholicism" now stands as one
of the finest introductions to the Catholic faith ...
You visited this page on 01/11/15.
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THE
SPIRIT OF CATHOLICISM
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Karl
Adam
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Professor
Merkle's book[3]
