The catholic Consensus

A consensus is generally a very satisfactory thing to find.  It is a common human aim.  Consensus describes wide-spread agreement.  ‘The consensus’ can form a foundation for an individual’s beliefs.  Popular recently is the slogan  ‘trust the science’, or follow the science.  And many a person, trying to establish what they believe, don’t train to be a scientist, or claim to be one, but do their research (usually on the internet) to find what seems to be the consensus among scientists.  What they learn determines what they believe and trust.

Far more powerful than any consensus in any particular field, would be a ‘catholic consensus’.  To establish that would require finding out, not just what is held at the moment, but what has been agreed over a long period of time, as well as among a vast majority or people concerning a particular subject.  Common Law, ethics, or morality are examples of a universal consensus.  For instance, one could establish that there is a universal consensus that says ‘murder is bad’, or ‘caring for children is good’.

A universal consensus is a good place for one’s conscience to find refuge, too.  ‘I may be wrong’ becomes a safe thing to say, if one can then add ‘however the universal consensus is…’.  This is because one is less likely to be blamed for a mistaken notion if that idea can be proven to be part of a universal consensus.

Because so many generations of humanity have practiced religion, a universal consensus may be found there, too, if people are willing to look for it.  In the field of religious belief one may even use the word ‘catholic’ to describe a universal consensus.  Used to mean ‘universal’, ‘catholic’ could even be used to describe a Jewish consensus.  One could find in Judaism a ‘catholic consensus’ that there is only one true God.  A raison d’etre is usually the location for a religion’s catholic consensus.

Hence a universal consensus may not be very difficult to find in religion.  People being interested in that universal consensus is quite a different matter.  Where individualism is prized, or innovation highly esteemed, universal consensus has less attraction, supplanted as it is by opinions or new ideas, or even special revelations.

In Christian terms, the universal consensus is the unified voice of that 'great cloud of witnesses' who live in Heaven and on Earth, as to what is true about God and how He created us, and Redeemed us by His Son. The beliefs and practices of most Christians who have ever lived, and who live now concerning how God worked in the past, works now, and is worthy to be trusted and worshipped eternally is where it is easy to find a consensus.

Having said that, finding a universal consensus on a particular doctrine or practice is not always a comfortable discovery.  Take the universal consensus among Christians that it is too late to add further books to the Bible, and honour them as Holy Scripture.  To defy that consensus, a Mormon has to decide that a prophet like Joseph Smith (d.1844), or a ‘burning in the bosom’ trumps the catholic consensus of what Christians have believed across time, and in all places, all ages, etc.

Beyond the discomfort the universal consensus brings to cults and whacko sects, even many stodgy established denominations – like my own – may find the catholic consensus disconcerting in places.   The following is a list of practices and beliefs (in no particular order) that are demonstrably part of the universal consensus among Christians that – nevertheless - some denominations may find unsettling.

1.     Your church should have ranks of clergy who wear quite elaborate vestments leading worship services.

2.     Your church’s worship services should be liturgical, usually consisting of an outline of actions that are the same week by week.

3.     Your church should believe that Jesus Christ has promised to offer His Body and Blood under the forms of bread and wine for Christians to eat and drink at every Sunday service.

4.     Your church should use wine for the Blessed Sacrament displayed and distributed from a chalice.

5.     Your church should worship on Sundays.

6.     Your church should keep the same seasons, feasts and festivals every year, commemorating Christ, and honouring ‘saints’, the Blessed Virgin Mary among them.

7.     Your church members should make the sign of the cross as part of their identification with the prayer and devotion of the Faith.

8.     Your church should sing the Psalms in the Bible, as well as other hymns and spiritual songs.

9.     Your church should be decorated with symbols, statues, icons, paintings, sculptures, windows, candles, crucifixes, and other things as teaching aids and aids to worship.

10.  Your church should baptise people of all nations, and all ages – including infants.

11.  Your church should read from the Bible, preach sermons from the Bible, systematically, and devoutly, treating Holy Scripture with great honour – even kissing its pages.

12.  Your church should regard the place where worship is taking place as sacred, with Christ Himself mysteriously present where ‘two or three are gathered’ in His Name.

Now concerning these dozen items listed above - easily established – as part of the universal consensus among Christians of all times, I can honestly say they do not represent my personal choices, my tastes, my preference, my style, my anything.  That is precisely the point.  One can react to them, in submission or contempt, but one cannot claim to have invented them.  Whether or not one adopts them reflects how much one values the inheritance that has been conveyed from countless others through the ages who have gone before.

Now some, looking at this article, may ask, ‘What about Justification by Grace through Faith’, and what about the definition of the Gospel, and the number of books in the Bible?  Aren’t those things more important that whether there is a historical consensus on vestments? 

The catholic consensus has been described above in accurate, but broad terms, concerning the historic and present global reaction to the core teachings of the Christian faith.  There is no question of the importance of key elements of the Faith such as ordo salutis and the canon of Scripture, but the twelve things listed above are there not because they are more important, but because they are clearly agreed upon on a universal scale.

That is what needs to be recognised by Christians, whatever they believe.

Pleasure - a Christian approach

'...but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth'  (1 Timothy 5.6)

Christians, historically, have had a reputation for looking with disdain at pleasure.  But, is it really true that the orthodox Christian teaching is that all pleasure is sin?   No.  What has been the consistent teaching of Christians on this subject is that pleasure, particularly physical pleasure (and, to a certain extent spiritual pleasure), is that there are dangers involved in the experience.

There is a difference between recognising the hazards of pleasure and condemning pleasure. If Christian teaching was that pleasure was sinful, then we would be taught to feel guilty about it.  But that is not taught.  What is taught is that Christians should beware of the spiritual dangers involved when we feel pleasure.  For every Christian's 'old nature' can and does exploit pleasure to strengthen itself at the expense of our 'new nature'.  Even spiritual pleasure can be risky, since the sinful nature will take times when such pleasure is absent to build a case against the new nature as a 'buzz kill' and a joyless waste of time that could have been spent in 'dissipation and drunkenness'.

But the dangers of physical pleasure to the soul are more common.  In the developed world today, more physical pleasure is available than ever before.  Thus today's Christian should treat pleasure with even more caution than ever before.  If we don't then the current deplorable situation we see today among Christians will be the story of our personal life.   According to a recent survey, 50% of Christian men (and 20% of Christian women) are addicted to pornography (!) No wonder Christian divorce rates are the same, or higher, than the divorce rate among unbelievers.  Christians are falling victim to alcoholism at an alarming rate.  Obesity, and its consequent health damage, is epidemic among Christians, far more so than among people of any other religion.  Internet and video-game addictions are robbing Christians of whole periods of their lives that they can never get back.   As St. James would put it, 'My brethren, these things ought not to be so'.

This is why Christians have historically treated pleasure as they have - because we have always had the same human tendencies to take God-given experiences of pleasure and ruin them by letting our sinful natures take over.  What St. Augustine in his writings called 'voluptuousness' is what Christians today might call 'addiction' to pleasures that make our old nature so strong and well-fed that our new natures are unnecessarily crippled as a result.

'...You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore'  (Psalm 16.11).

St. James did say, 'Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights...' (James 1.17)  Pleasure is one of those gifts.  Plenty of Scripture testifies to the fact that God has created - and Himself experiences - pleasure.  Jesus knew that people saw '...the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' (Luke 7:34).  A far larger body of devotional literature and hymns written by Christians also testifies to the positive side of pleasure.  A great Lutheran chorale has the title 'Jesus has Come and Brings Pleasure Eternal' (LSB 533 - tune: Jesus ist kommen, grund ewiger Freude).

The key to understanding the Christian view of pleasure is the distinction between Heaven and Earth. On this Earth we have pleasure - but mixed with danger.  In Heaven we shall have pleasure 'pure and free from sin's alloy' - to borrow a phrase from William Dix.  Then, in immediate and full communion with God, and His heavenly host, as Paul Gerhardt put it in his great Eastertide chorale 'Auf, Auf, Mein Herz mit Freuden!':  'He brings me to the portal that leads to bliss untold.  Whereon this rhyme immortal is found in script of gold: "who there my cross has shared, finds here a crown prepared.  Where there with Me has died shall here be glorified'.

Staying afloat as a Christian

A new world record has been set in New Zealand for the longest flight by a glider with a flight time lasting 15 hours and covering well in excess of 2000km. It is not easy for a vehicle with no power of it's own to keep afloat like that. The pilot must have been very expert at finding the 'thermals' (warm updrafts) needed to overcome the force of gravity that is such an inescapable constant in the world.

Lately I have been thinking that there is much similarity between Christian living and soaring, beginning with fact that a glider cannot launch itself but must rely upon power beyond itself (the towing aircraft) to get into the air in the first place. Just as the Christian is given salvation from the same God Who loved us first and Whose grace is required every time we need a new beginning when we fail spiritually.

The most enjoyable Christian walk is one in which one's feet hardly seem to touch the ground. Yet to remain inspired and uplifted all the time, however pleasurable it may be, is not easy. If it did not take a lot of skill and effort more Christians would be doing it for the sheer joy of feeling close to Heaven. But most of the time we allow the pull of the earth to get the best of us and we can even end up so earth-bound that we may feel as grumpy and miserable as a wretched unbeliever much of the time.

The forces that conspire to make us crash and burn when we would rather be flying are 'the world (other people), the flesh (our sinful nature) and the devil'.

Bearing that in mind, these things should not keep us grounded any more than gravity and weather have to keep a sailplane from soaring. To keep aloft, what do pilots of un-powered Sailplanes do? They look for thermals. They seek that which can keep them in the air.

'Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness' is what Jesus said. 'The joy of the LORD is your strength', The Bible says. 'Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things' was St. Paul's recipe for sustained gliding above the tribulations of earth (Philippians 4.8).

Even the most successful glide comes to an end. But the inescapable touch-down does not have to be the end of soaring. We sin, but there is forgiveness of sins and there is the grace of God who can and 'will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore' (Psalm 121).

The believer, whose citizenship is in heaven, will want to get back up there and resume gliding as soon as possible and for as long as possible. And, to keep us aloft - 'from where does help come? My help comes from the LORD' (Psalm 121). The thermals are out there and will lift us up. They are God's Word and Sacraments. These do not just provide forgiveness of sins. They also can sweep us off our feet if we let them.

If that has not happened for you, try more of God's Word and Sacraments. Yes - more and more. Get an audio Bible and listen to the Bible for hours on end and see what happens. Mix the Bible with uplifting and edifying thoughts and music. Go to Divine Services every Sunday and pray and worship every day. Hey! Don't tell me you've tried it and it 'didn't work'. Prayer 'without ceasing' has not failed. It has not been tried - and if it has - you WILL see a difference!

'Take time to be holy', the old song put it. Well take time to be holy and you will find that holiness is not where it ends. You will find in that time that you are, at the very least, serene, and may even become elated and euphoric. And yet it is NOT 'feelings and emotions' that sustain you, but the real power of God.

Many sailplane pilots feel pleasure and react emotionally to the experience. Yet at no time do their emotions get the credit for what is happening to them! Not even the best glider pilot can stay in the air just by feeling like it! He must search out and find those forces outside of himself that can defy the gravity that threatens to pull him down.

So in the Christian life, you have to seek and find those spiritual forces outside of yourself that can really keep you soaring! 'Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3.20-21).

Gleeful

As a lover of beauty, there are only so many displays of compassion, tenderness, understanding, sympathy, joy and love that I can take before I get a lump in my throat and tears welling up in my eyes. Add to such an experience, the sight and sound of astonishingly well-performed song and choreography and you will see why I am melting with delight after another episode of "Glee" online.

Where has such a television show been all my life?? (I'm 53). So far on TV, I have seen my values as a Christian ridiculed, satirized and insulted. I have seen life itself reduced to cynical darkness. Even cartoons now are desperately dark. I have seen "edgy" avant-garde TV that made me feel as hopeless as the anarchists who produced it. I have been assaulted visually by violence and sickened by lurid depictions of perversion (All without nudity, of course, since this is America) I have also been treated to banal attempts at "family values", lame humour made worse by canned laughter. I have also seen so-called religious programming in which "good wins out", but the quality of the writing was contrived that it fell far short of being much more than a stilted embarrassment. All TV watchers have been tortured in this way for years. I don't need to elaborate further, do I?

Yet now there is "Glee". Although I have yet to see a character come out as a Christian (and probably never will), Glee is easily the most inspirational and uplifting show on TV on so many levels.

I have seen conflicts worked through, physical and emotional handicaps (including Downe's Syndrome and quadriplegic suffering overcome, hard-hearts warmed and amazing, poignant and thrilling singing and that was just one episode. Every episode seems better and more edifying than the last.

Some may say Glee is just escapist fantasy, but I have seen that before and Glee is much more. Yes, it has escapist euphoric music and dancing. Yes it has world-class writing and plenty of comedy - but it also has some serious messages that come through as loud and clear as its show-stopping musical numbers.

When was the last time you could count upon a TV show to be life-affirming, inspirational, thought-provoking, entertaining, moving you to tears at the same time and to deliver that package with every episode? When was the last time you watched "Glee"?