What is it that these people have bought into? “You will be fused into God”

In fact, to quote more precisely, “you will be God”.

Convinced Movie Trailer from Don Johnson on Vimeo.

Protestants are not prepared to deal with this sort of thing. But it’s coming, and we had better get ready for it. At the conclusion of his “Brief Catechism on Nature & Grace”, Henri De Lubac writes,

(citing Ratzinger) Let us conclude that “a Christianity which offers man something less than making him God is too modest …. In the struggle for man which we are engaged, such an answer is insufficient.” All along, Christianity has shown perhaps a somewhat less cheerful face; it reminds us with more realism of our condition as sinners, and it does not allow us to forget the prayer given to us by our Lord: “Forgive us our trespasses … deliver us from evil”; but at the same time it opens before us the gates of life in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity.

The promise is not “to become God without God” (as he compares the goal of some in our age). The promise rather, is from God, “you will share in divine life. You will become God”.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but De Lubac says “without the perspective that Christian faith opens of a ‘way out’, leading to divine transcendence and a personalizing union with God in Christ, humanity will not only always remain far from the goal it seeks, it will condemn itself to despair.”

“Personal union with God” means, to the Roman Catholic (with his grand synthesis of neo-Platonic and Aristotelian metaphysic), a literal “fusion of existences” with God, as noted by Herr Ratzinger in his work “Called to Communion”:

Hence, Communion [capital in original] means the fusion of existences. Just as in the taking of nourishment the body assimilates foreign matter to itself, and is thereby enabled to live, in the same way my “I” is “assimilated” to that of Jesus, it is made similar to him in an exchange that increasingly breaks through the lines of division. This same event takes place in the case of all who communicate; they are all assimilated to this “bread” and thus are made one among themselves--one body (36).

Rome’s “justification”, its “sacramental treadmill”, its emphasis on earning “inherent righteousness”, all leads to this.

Of course, the devil tempted Eve, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, ...” Do we want to take the word of the “infallible church” that not only being “like God”, but being “fused into God” is a good thing now, when it wasn’t a good thing then? “The Church” is “the universal sacrament of salvation”. It is this very concept which is its mission to “communicate”, to “bring the fullness of” to people, through the “grace” of its “sacraments”.

That is what these folks have bought into. This will have an appeal in our opra-fied culture, where people all think they're God anyway.

1 Peter 1:13: “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”.

John Bugay Goes to Mass

Sees “The Intention of Richard J--”, prayers that we “merit” eternal life, and “the New Evangelization”

“Is the Reformation Over?” I went to Mass last weekend (and took my son John), and I found that the Roman Catholic distinctives that Martin Luther protested: – Purgatory, the notion that we “merit” eternal life [however you define “merit”] and that “indulgences” can be paid for (not directly, but indirectly, through “the saying of Masses”) were all present.

As is the case with many large families (I have six kids), it can be said that we almost have two families. In my case, the older three (all sons) grew up Roman Catholics – we were regular attenders at Mass and we almost always sat up front. When I left the RCC, there was a period of time when we didn’t attend church (we had family devotionals on Sunday, until we were able to find the church we are attending now).

The younger three kids (a son and two daughters) have grown up going to church at our PCA – they are well engaged there, they have many friends, and very much like to go to church on Sundays.

Sadly, the older three boys are going their separate ways, and those ways don’t include church.

But my 4th son, John III, (I’m John Jr), had some curiosity about the Roman Catholic Church, and so when my daughters were staying with my sister for the 4th of July weekend, I took John III, now 17, to a Catholic Mass.

[The illustration nearby is from an 1876 surveyor’s map of the area – our home is the red block, and we are apparently right next to the “Cath. Ch.”, except that short distance is comprised of a very steep hill between us and them.]

John said he had some fear – he really had no idea what to expect, and he was fearful that he would sit or stand at the wrong time (I did not permit him to kneel), fearful that he would make the wrong hand motion.

I personally hadn’t been in a Roman Catholic Church for anything except a relative’s baptism or funeral in a very long time.

But I noticed three things:

First, the “intention” of the Mass was for Richard J-- – someone had paid money to have “a Mass said for him”. This presupposes that he is still in purgatory. Might be in purgatory. No one knows; it’s really just a roll of the dice. I never knew Richard J--, but he was the father of a former neighbor of ours. He died some 30 years ago, and he was not a good man in any sense of the word that I am aware of. I think of the bankruptcy of a system in which (a) the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ must (or may) still be paid for, and (b) the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ is thought of in such a pitiful state (this would not be the first or last “Mass” said for Richard J-- – again, the hope of such an “intention” is that it help to speed his way out of purgatory.)

Second, the “Eucharistic Prayers” had changed, and I understand why Roman Catholics don’t like it. There were four standard “Eucharistic Prayers” when I was still there – when you think “sacrifice of the Mass” and “transubstantiation”, those things happen within the context of the “Eucharistic Prayers”. It appears that the new Rite has revised those four and added some new ones (“for various needs and occasions”). In any event, at the Mass we attended, the priest used “the Second Eucharistic Prayer” (that is, the second of the original four, which was the shortest of them). To recount just one notable instance, the phrase “this is the cup of my blood” was changed to “this is the chalice of my blood”.

That prayer also included the following “intercession”:

Have mercy on us all, we pray, that with the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with the blessed Apostles, and all the Saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may merit to be co-heirs to eternal life, and may praise and glorify you through your Son, Jesus Christ.

The concept of “merit” is something that “we” accomplish.

This is the “Liturgical Reform”: “the culmination of which is nothing less than the union of God with man, with all that that implies” that is one of the legacies of “Pope Benedict”.

The third thing I noticed was that the priest was hawking “the New Evangelization” seemingly at every chance he could get.

“The New Evangelization”, is, in the words of Cardinal Wuerl his official explanation of the program, “a new moment in the life of the Church, a new Pentecost. It’s our turn to share the great give we have given, the gift of our Catholic faith, and renew the face of the earth.”

This particular Mass, at 8:00 am on a Sunday, was sparsely attended mostly by old people, “cultural Catholics” – victims of “the Catholic Faith” who rarely if ever in their lives heard the true Gospel – who were “hoping they were good enough” to “merit” some way out of purgatory (should they be fortunate enough to get there), with the “intercessory” “intentions” of future masses to be said on their behalf.

Still, they had the presence of mind to attend the shortest Mass, with the shortest Eucharistic prayer, in an attempt to “get it over with” and spend the rest of their Sunday watching sports.

Given the kind of damage that this “Catholic Faith” has inflicted upon the great mass of human beings for centuries, one can only hope that a “New Evangelization” that spreads this kind of system would be doomed to fail.