Common ground

“Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Paul says Scripture makes the believer “complete.” Tradition is exactly what Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for, and history shows how traditions drift. Only the written Word is God-breathed, so only it can bind the conscience.

“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word or by letter.”

Catholics agree that all Scripture is inspired. CCC 105 They hold that the apostles handed on the Gospel both in writing and by word of mouth, so the Church doesn’t draw her certainty about all revealed truths from Scripture alone. CCC 76 CCC 82

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“for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.”

Grace is a gift, not a wage. If works contribute anything, salvation becomes a ladder we climb and no one can be sure of reaching the top. Paul is explicit: “not of works, that no one would boast.” This was the heart of the Reformation, and it is not a small point.

“You see then that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.”

The Church agrees that the first grace is pure gift: no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification. CCC 2010 Justification is merited for us by Christ’s Passion and comes through faith and Baptism. CCC 1992 CCC 1987 Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, the justified can then grow in grace. CCC 2010

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“It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!’ But he said, ‘On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.’”

When a woman blessed Mary, Jesus redirected the praise: blessed are those who hear the word of God. The New Testament says little about Mary after Pentecost. Rosaries, titles and shrines look like honor flowing to someone other than Christ.

“for he has looked at the humble state of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.”

The Church teaches that what Catholics believe about Mary rests on what they believe about Christ. CCC 487 Devotion to her differs essentially from the adoration given to God, and fosters that adoration. CCC 971

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“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”

Paul could not be clearer: one mediator, Christ Jesus. We have direct access to the Father through Him. Praying to the dead is never commanded in Scripture, and it risks putting creatures between the believer and God.

“Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.”

Catholics confess the one mediator; the saints intercede “through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus.” CCC 956 The saints in heaven share in the Church’s living tradition of prayer by their prayer today. CCC 2683

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“For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

Christ’s one offering perfected the saved forever. The thief on the cross went to paradise that day. Purgatory seems to say His work was not quite enough, and the word never appears in Scripture.

“If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.”

Those who die in God’s grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified are assured of their salvation and undergo purification after death. CCC 1030 The Church calls this final purification of the elect purgatory, entirely different from the punishment of the damned. CCC 1031 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead found in Scripture. CCC 1032

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“For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

The rock is Christ, or Peter’s confession, not a man. Peter called himself a “fellow elder.” The early bishops of Rome did not claim universal jurisdiction, and the medieval papacy grew far beyond anything in the New Testament.

“I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.’”

“Assembly” translates the Greek ekklesia, the New Testament’s word for “church.”

Catholics read Peter’s role in the Gospels as an office, and see the Church of Rome acting with authority long before Leo the Great. CCC 881 CCC 834 The Church also admits that how that authority was exercised developed over time. Unitatis Redintegratio 14

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“It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.”

Jesus also called Himself a door and a vine. In John 6 He says the flesh profits nothing; His words are spirit. “Do this in remembrance of me” points to a memorial, and Christ’s body is now in heaven at the Father’s right hand.

“Jesus therefore said to them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”

The Church teaches that in the Eucharist the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ are “truly, really, and substantially contained.” CCC 1374 It has always been her conviction that by the consecration the whole substance of the bread becomes his body. CCC 1376

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“‘Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’”

Only God forgives sins: even Jesus’ enemies knew that. Every believer may come boldly to the throne of grace. A human confessor seems to put a gatekeeper between a sinner and a Father who is already running to meet him.

“When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they have been retained.’”

The Church agrees that only God forgives sins. CCC 1441 By His divine authority Christ gave this power to men to exercise in His name, and bishops and priests continue this ministry. CCC 1441 CCC 1461

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“‘You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,”

The second commandment forbids carved images and bowing to them. Israel’s worst sins began with a golden calf. Kissing icons and kneeling before statues looks, to any honest outsider, like what the prophets condemned.

“You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.”

The Church teaches that the Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment, because honor paid to an image passes to the one it portrays. CCC 2132 By becoming man, God made a new economy of images possible. CCC 2131

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“Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

In the New Testament the order is always repent, believe, then be baptized. A baby cannot repent. Believer’s baptism keeps the sacrament tied to personal faith, which is the whole point.

“He took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household.”

The Church calls infant Baptism an immemorial tradition, with explicit testimony from the second century, and notes that whole households were baptized. CCC 1252 It shows the sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation. CCC 1250

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“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

John wrote so that believers may know they have eternal life. If salvation can be lost, believers live in fear. Assurance is the birthright of everyone who trusts Christ.

“So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

The Church teaches that we cannot have certainty of our salvation by our own feelings or works, yet we hope in the glory of heaven promised by God. CCC 2005 CCC 1821

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“Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God.”

The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God, and the Hebrew Bible does not include these books. Jesus never quotes them, and Jerome himself doubted them. They teach things, like prayer for the dead, found nowhere else.

“Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.”

The Church holds that apostolic Tradition discerned which writings belong in the list of sacred books: 46 for the Old Testament and 27 for the New. CCC 120

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“Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.”

Jesus could hardly be plainer: “call no man on the earth your father.” Calling clergy “Father” seems to build exactly the religious hierarchy He was warning against.

“For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.”

Paul, who knew that teaching, still wrote that he had become the Corinthians’ father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. 1 Corinthians 4:15 Catholics read Jesus as warning against pride in titles, not banning the word. Matthew 23:12

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“In praying, don’t use vain repetitions as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking.”

Jesus told His disciples not to heap up empty phrases like the pagans. Fifty Hail Marys in a row sounds like exactly that: quantity over the heart.

“He left them again, went away, and prayed a third time, saying the same words.”

The Church teaches that when a holy name is repeated by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases. CCC 2668 In Gethsemane Jesus Himself prayed three times, saying the same words. Matthew 26:44

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