Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:01 Today, we're going to spend a few minutes covering some very basic principles of the faith about which there seems to be a massive amount of confusion even among folks that are making serious efforts to be good Catholics. So these are three basic principles. Hopefully none of this should really be particularly amazing. All right, let's get started. The first basic principle, God knows everything. Now we know that God knows everything, but have we ever spent any time thinking about what the implications are? The fact that God knows everything means that he never changes his mind. It means God can never change his mind. He never has a new idea. He can't have a new idea and why can't he have a new idea? Because he can't learn anything and he hasn't forgot anything. He's God. He fits the job description. That means he knows everything. He didn't forget anything.
Speaker 0 01:03 He's not going to come up with a great new idea, change his mind or whatever. It also means that of course he doesn't need our advice on how to run his universe. He didn't forget anything. He isn't going to remember anything. He knows it all and he never changes his mind. So the first basic principles, God knows everything and isn't going to change his mind on anything. Period. Second, basic principle. God has made it possible for each one of us here on earth to know just exactly what he thinks and every issue necessary for our salvation. As we all know from both scripture and tradition, God actually established an organization that will last until the very end of time. That's the Catholic Church and within the church he appointed certain and fallible teachers just to make sure we know exactly what he thinks on every salvation issue that's necessary for us.
Speaker 0 02:01 He started with Saint Peter and the other apostles and then their successors, the pope and the bishops in union with him. Okay. On another day we'll go into details on that, but for right now we're just going to have the reader's digest condensed version. All right. Here's three ways that we can tell if something is infallibly taught by the Catholic Church, which is another way of saying, here are three ways we can tell if something has been positively revealed by God. I remember this is not a complete explanation. Number one, whenever some truth of our holy faith has been taught always and everywhere by all. That's the principle of Saint Vincent or Lorens always everywhere by all. We'll explain why that is later, but for right now we need to know what it means. It means that whenever we sit truth that's been taught always everywhere throughout the church by all the Orthodox teachers of the Catholic faith, for example, we know it's from God.
Speaker 0 02:56 For example, the truth that women cannot be ordained to the priesthood has been taught always and everywhere by all. So that's an infallible truth. It comes to us from God. We actually don't need a paper pronouncement. Tell us that even though there was one, we don't need one because we know that it's always everywhere by all. Okay. To whenever the decisions of an Ecumenical Council, a General Council of the church are presented as having been revealed by God himself and taught by our Lord and the apostles, for example, and the decree on the most holy Eucharist from the council of Trent, the console father state explicitly that they are, and I will quote, transmitting that sound and genuine doctrine, which the Catholic Church instructed by Lord Jesus Christ himself and by as apostles and taught by the Holy Spirit has always held and will preserve even to the end of time. Close quote.
Speaker 0 03:50 So this decree tells us that it contains infallible truths which come to us from God. Whenever a general counsel says that these things have been revealed by God and handed on taught by Lord and Apostles, that's how we know that the third way, whenever the pope speaks x Catholica, that's a statement of paper statement that has four distinct qualities. There's four qualities. So the pope first quality pope speaks by virtue of his app Vostok Authority. The second quality is with intention of making a definite decision. The third is on a matter of faith or morals, and the fourth is to be held definitely by the church throughout the world. So epistolic authority, definite decision, faith and morals, and then for the whole church throughout the world. Okay. For example, the definition of the Mack conception of our lady by bless it pies tonight contains each of these qualities which tells us that it's an x catheter, a statement, and also tells us that it's therefore an infallible truth that comes to us from God.
Speaker 0 04:54 Listen, and I'll point him out as we go. Quote by the Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, there isn't Volkis epistolic authority. We declare pronounced and define there he's point out he's making a definite decision that the doctrine which holds that the most busted version marry at the first instant of her conception by a singular grace and privilege of all mighty God and virtue of the merits of Christ Jesus. The savior of the human race was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin has been revealed by God. That's a matter of faith. And on this account must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful there. He's saying for the whole church shot the world close quote the vicar of Christ. So the second basic principle, we saw three examples in fallibility, but the second basic principle is that God did not establish an envy.
Speaker 0 05:43 Invisible Church of true believers. God did not establish an invisible church of true believers. God is actually established a visible church if two teachers, the Catholic Church that we know without any shadow of a doubt exactly what he thinks and every salvation issue. And then we've given three examples where we know and fell ugly when something's been taught, always, never way by all the, by the Catholic teachers throughout the world and time when, when things, but an ecumenical council points out that this is revealed by God. And Ben had been taught by Christ and the apostles and when a pope makes next catheter a statement. Now that's not all of them. But that's just something so we have the idea. Okay, third, basic principle. God gave the church the power to teach in his name, but he did not hand over to the church the power to change his teaching.
Speaker 0 06:35 This is important. It's actually easy to see why that has to be true. The church, the Catholic Church speaks as the voice of God in the world that speaks in the name of God as the official witness for his savings truths. This means that the church teachings can never change the dogmas proposed by the church. For our belief, the official teachers, a Catholic Church can never change. In fact, not even the pope can change or eliminate any of the teachings of the church. As we can see from the infallible teaching. The first Vatican council quote, the pulps, I defined that those matters must be held, which with God's help, they've recognized as an agreement with sacred scripture and apoptotic tradition for the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Saint Peter that by his revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by his help, they might really just leap, guard and faithfully explain the revelation or deposit of faith that was handed down through the apostles.
Speaker 0 07:40 Close quote, infallible teaching of Vatican one this tells us what the role of the Holy Father is. It's not trivial. No doctrine at all. No. He's guards and faith that explains the revelation or deposit faith that was handed down. That's what he does. He's a guardian and he's also the one that explains it. That's his role. It's not to come up with something new that's not the role of the pope. New stuff ended with the death of the last apostle St John. Nothing new since the death of Saint John. Okay. What does this mean? It means that no one, not even up to not even including the pope himself. No one can change or eliminate the teachings of the church, and that's not a no one, not even a pulp can change the traditional understanding of what these dogmas need. Quote any meaning of the sacred darkness that has once been declared by holy mother church must always be retained and there must be never.
Speaker 0 08:40 Must never be any deviation from that meaning on the specious grounds of a more profound understanding. Dot Dot. Dot. If anyone says that his science progresses, it is sometimes possible for dogmas that have been by the church to receive a different meaning from the one which the church understood and understands. Let him be anathema. Close quote, infallible teaching of Vatican one what are we saying? We're saying that not only is impossible for anyone and this is up to and including the Holy Father himself to change or eliminate any teachings of the church. It's also impossible for anyone up to and including the Holy Father himself to change the meanings of the particular dogmas. For example, a church has made it perfectly clear what she means by the real presence of our Lord in the most busted sack, but the alter. We all know that the church teaches that the real presence means that our lord is truly, really and substantially present body, blood, soul, and divinity, that the whole Christ is present in most bus at sac and the altar, and that's what, that's what the real presence means.
Speaker 0 09:55 It's cut and try and because we know what the real presence means, that means that absolutely no one can start weaseling around and try to save the real present. Real presence means something other than this, but is this a problem today? You bet it is. For example, just consider all these a calm, confused individuals that play these crazy word games and try to claim what real presence means is that our Lord is really present in most busted sacrament in the same sense as he's a really present in the holy scriptures or is really present in the gathering faithful. Okay? It's just one of the strange things that I've heard. All right. Here's the brief quote from Paul. Paul the sixth and is in six mysterion fee day, which he issued during the second Vatican council in which he warns. He's warning us about these very attempts to change or eliminate, teaches the church or to change the meanings of particular teachings I've edited for the sake of time.
Speaker 0 10:52 Quote, there are reasons for serious pastoral concern and anxiety. Indeed, there are some who spread about a abroad opinions which disturb the faithful and fill their minds with no little confusion about matters of faith. It is as if everyone were permitted to consign to oblivion doctrine already defined by the church or else to interpret it in such a way as to weaken the genuine meaning of the words or the recognized force of the concepts involved. Close quote the vicar of Christ. It is as if everyone were permitted to consign to oblivion doctrine already defined by the church. That's the first problem or else to interpret it in such a way as to weaken the genuine meaning of the words or the recognized force, the concepts involved. There's a second problem. Okay, so not even a pope can change or eliminate any of the teachings at church or even the traditional understanding of just what exactly those teaching me, but that's still not at all.
Speaker 0 11:59 No one can even change the traditional terminology used in the dogmas. In other words, if over the course of time the church has established and pre approved certain phrases or precise words, set forms of words to explain the truth of our faith, one simple example, a word like transubstantiation. Once the church is established that then no one, and that includes everyone right up to and including the Holy Father. No one can change them. Here's an explanation of this very point taken from the sane. It's cyclical, Paul the sixth. I've also shortened it for the sake of time. Quote, it is necessary to safeguard the proper mode of expression of the faith less by the careless use of words we've cause, God forbid the rise of false opinions regarding faith. The church has established a rule of language and confirmed it with the authority of the councils. This rule, which more than once has been the watch word and banner of Orthodox faith must be religiously preserved and let no one presume to change it at his own pleasure or under the pretext of new science.
Speaker 0 13:06 Close quote, the vicar of Christ. What's the point? The point is the pope is insisting that the precise theological terms, which had been established throughout the ages beause with no substitutions and then cyclical, he specifically mentions, for example, the word transubstantiation and ones that instead of this term, which must be used once, if bad terminology is being used, it's going to cause problems and is causing problems. Is this still a problem today, 40 years after the sequoia? You bet it is. I'll give two examples. I could've gone after some big names, but then I just decided we'll just use some down-home examples. First, a parish priest was saying all kinds of strange and confusing things about the real presence, which prompted someone to politely ask him a question about transubstantiation and the priest just dismissed this question with a way of his hands. Oh, we don't use that term anymore.
Speaker 0 14:01 We don't use the term transubstantiation anymore. What's this wee stuff? Huh? Who is we? Cause we sure doesn't include we Catholics. It's always, always been a matter of conviction. I'll quote you right here. It's always been a matter of conviction. The Church of God and now this hoisted it declares it again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine, a conversion takes place of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the body of Christ, our Lord and the whole substance of the wine and the substance of his blood. This conversion is appropriately and properly called trans substantiation by the Catholic Church. Close quote the Council of Trent. In other words, we Catholics still use that term and we Catholics, we'll use that till the end of the world. Period. Close the book. That's the first example. A second example. We've probably all encountered some of these poor, confused folks who are uh, you know, days by feminism and play all these crazy word games.
Speaker 0 15:05 For some reason at the local parish that I used to go to in college, some of these diluted individuals couldn't bear to use the word man. And used to substitute the word person. There's a lot that could be said about that, and believe me, I've probably said it, but for today, let's just point out for the record, these are not synonyms. All persons are, it's true that men are persons, but not all persons are men. In fact, there are actually three kinds of persons that are human persons like you and I, there aren't Jelic persons. Those are the angels and those who are the devils and they're the divine persons, the father, son, and the Holy Ghost. Okay, so what have we seen so far in this third section? We've seen that the teachings of the church and Dogmas can never change. We've also seen if the meanings of those Dawkins can never change, and we've also seen it in theological terms, established by the church, not be toyed with.
Speaker 0 16:01 They cannot be changed. But before we end this section, let's stand back from all this in inspired by Father Harrison. Let's use some common sense. Just imagine that we've all been in paneled. We're sitting on a jury and we're listening to a witness and this witness is swearing that he watched the defendant hit the victim with a baseball bat at noon in the city park. A couple of days later, we're still in trial and then the same witness gets up and he says something totally different. Suddenly he swears. He saw the defendant hit the victim with a chair in a bar about one in the morning, so on the one hand he's expecting us to believe the defendant club, the guy with a bat at noon and a park the other time and a butterfly after midnight. We top it off. He says, yeah, I know I changed part of my story, but I still swear the defendant did it.
Speaker 0 16:53 What are we going to think about this man? Unless we're totally nuts. I think you liar. You complete liar. This is serious. A man's on trial and you've sworn to lies. Unless we're complete fools, we're not going to believe anything that comes out of that guy's mouth. From that point on, are we? Unless we can actually verify it. Well, okay. What's the director's doing? The church is standing up as a witness in the world and saying, this is really how it is. This is the Gospel Truth. And a few of those truths are pretty hard to take, aren't they? God says, we must do this and we can't do that. Somewhere in those 10 commandments, everyone has a problem except in a course or lady somewhere in the 10 Commandments. Thanks Adam. Everybody has a problem. So the church stands up in the world and says day after day, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. God says that's how it really is. And if she ever even wavered on one thing on one thing, what would we think? We think the same thing. We thought about that guy changing his sworn testimony about the far fight and so would everybody else.
Speaker 0 18:14 So what? Everybody else, the teachings of the church can never change. Oh sure. Some privacy you can change. You know the the, the sanctuary lamp. That's bees wax. You used to have to be olive oil. But the church allows us now to use beeswax candles instead of olive oil. Lamp used to be forbid, and I mean we give Easter eggs cause it used to be forbid need eggs and dairy products train lat. But the church has changed that practice. So some practice can change if they involve a matter of discipline. God did give his church power to do that. But the teaching of church with respect to the deposit of faith truths, which God has revealed the truth that come to us from Christ, that can never change because it expresses the teaching of Christ himself and God never changes his mind. Let's close. Today we took a quick look at three basic principles.
Speaker 0 19:07 One, God knows everything and he isn't gonna change his mind on anything too. God actually established a visible Church of true teachers, the Catholic Church, a living, infallible teaching authority so that we could know without any shadow of a dod exactly everything we need to do on issues that concern our salvation. Three, the teachings of the church, the dogmas can never change the minis. Those Dawkins can ever change, and even the terms used by the church to explain those dogmas can ever change. Look, as the apostasy and the confusion in the church, the society increases. We should not be surprised or discouraged. We should even expect to see that or hear that this inconvenient church teaching or that inconvenient church teaching has been updated or change or that now we have to understand it and new or different or more nuanced manner, or the traditional terms weren't accurate enough, or that needs to be put in modern language, its Cetera, et Cetera, et cetera. We need to expect these kinds of things. We don't need to be surprised or discouraged at all. It shouldn't affect our faith in the slightest. No matter what kind of nonsense we're here. We can remain calm and confident. The teachings of the church are truths, which is Saint James puts it in today's epistles, which comes to us from above, coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no change or shadow of alteration.
Speaker 1 20:46 Amen.
