Part 15 (2/2)
Section 1. The Necessity Of Faith For Justification
1. THE LUTHERAN HERESY VS. THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH.-The Protestant Reformers, notably Luther and Calvin, did not deny that justification is wrought by faith, but they defined justifying faith in a manner altogether foreign to the mind of the Church.
a) They distinguished three kinds of faith: (1) belief in the existence of G.o.d and the historical fact that Christ has come on earth, suffered, and ascended (_fides historica_); (2) the sort of trust which is required for exercising the gift of miracles (_fides miraculorum_); and (3) faith in the divine promises with regard to the remission of sin (_fides promissionum_). The last-mentioned species of faith they subdivided into general and particular. _Fides generalis_ is that by which we believe that the righteousness of Christ ”covers” (but does not wipe out) our sins.
_Fides specialis_ or fiduciary faith (_fiducia_) is that by which a man applies to himself the righteousness of the Redeemer, firmly trusting that his sins are for Christ's sake not imputed to him. Thus the Reformers erroneously transferred the seat of justifying faith from the intellect to the will and completely subverted the Catholic notion of faith as an intellectual a.s.sent to revealed truth.
b) To this fundamental error the Fathers of Trent opposed the orthodox doctrine that (adults) ”are disposed unto justice when, excited and a.s.sisted by divine grace, receiving faith by hearing, they are freely moved towards G.o.d, believing those things to be true which G.o.d has revealed and promised, ...”(782) and they solemnly anathematized those who a.s.sert ”that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sin for Christ's sake, or that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified.”(783)
Hence it is _de fide_ that the faith whereby man is justified, is not a confident persuasion of being esteemed righteous in the sight of G.o.d, but a dogmatic or theoretical belief in the truths of Divine Revelation.
2. REFUTATION OF THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE OF FIDUCIARY FAITH.-Whenever Sacred Scripture and Tradition speak of justifying faith, they mean a dogmatic belief in the truths of Revelation,-that faith which the Protestants call _fides historica_.
a) Christ Himself solemnly commanded His Apostles and their successors to preach the Gospel to all nations, and before baptizing them to convert them to a firm belief in certain specified truths which no man may reject except at the peril of his eternal salvation.
a) Mark XVI, 15 sq.: ”Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel(784) to every creature: He that believeth [_i.e._ in the Gospel]
and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned.” Agreeable to this injunction St. John declares it to be the object of his Gospel ”that you may believe that(785) Jesus is the Christ, the Son of G.o.d, and that believing, you may have life in his name.”(786) The Gospel is written ”that we may believe.” What must we believe? That ”Jesus is the Christ, the Son of G.o.d.” This is a revealed truth by firmly believing which we shall be saved. When the treasurer of Queen Candace begged to be baptized, Philip the deacon said to him: ”If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest.” The eunuch replied: ”I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of G.o.d,” whereupon Philip baptized him.(787)
) St. Paul in his Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians eloquently insists on the necessity of faith, not a mere _fides fiducialis_, but a believing acceptance of Divine Revelation. Cfr. Rom. X, 9 sq.: ”For if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that G.o.d hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart we believe unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”(788) We must confess with the mouth and believe with the heart. External profession and internal faith go together and have for their common object a certain truth open to our knowledge, _viz._: the resurrection of Christ,-a dogma in which the whole teaching of the atonement lies imbedded.
The character of justifying faith is still more plainly evident from Heb.
XI, 6: ”Without faith it is impossible to please G.o.d. For he that cometh to G.o.d [he that is to be justified], must believe that He is [the existence of G.o.d], and is a rewarder to them that seek Him.”(789) The Apostle here clearly a.s.serts both the necessity of justifying faith and the minimum of doctrine to be explicitly ”believed,” _viz._: the existence of G.o.d and eternal retribution.(790)
?) The Lutherans appeal chiefly to Matth. IX, 2, Luke XVII, 19, Rom. IV, 5, and Heb. XI, 1. But not a single one of these texts represents fiduciary faith as the instrumental cause of justification. The word p?st?? occurs no less than eighty times in the Synoptic Gospels and in St.
Paul's Epistle to the Romans, but there are only six pa.s.sages in which it could possibly be construed as synonymous with _fiducia_, and in none of these is the interpretation entirely certain. Not once does the New Testament employ p?st?? in the sense of ”fiduciary faith,” _i.e._ a confident persuasion of one's own righteousness.(791)
b) Tradition is in such perfect agreement with Scripture on this point that the Reformers did not venture to deny that their doctrine ran counter to the time-honored teaching of the Church. The Fathers unanimously insist on the necessity of dogmatic faith as a requisite of justification.
a) St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, who is regarded as ”the best theologian of his time” (468-533),(792) in his golden booklet _De Fide seu de Regula Verae Fidei ad Petrum_, says: ”I rejoice that you take care to preserve the true faith without which conversion is useless, nay, impossible. Apostolic authority tells us that we cannot please G.o.d without faith. For faith is the foundation of all good [works]; it is the beginning of human salvation, and without it no one can obtain a place among the children of G.o.d, because without it no one can obtain the grace of justification in this world or possess eternal life in the next.”(793) St. Fulgentius was a faithful disciple of St. Augustine, and the whole trend of his treatise shows that by _vera fides_ he understands not the Lutheran _fiducia propriae iustificationis_, but Catholic belief in revealed truth.(794)
) This teaching is corroborated by the ancient practice of instructing the catechumens in the truths of revelation and requiring them to make a public profession of faith before Baptism. It was because they believed and professed the true faith that the early Christians, who knew nothing of the Lutheran _fides fiducialis_, were called ”faithful” (_fideles_, p?st??), to distinguish them from false believers or heretics (_haeretici_, a???t????, from a??e?s?a? to choose), who denied some portion or other of the orthodox creed.
c) In a.n.a.lyzing the notions of _fides_ and _necessitas_ theologians distinguish between _fides explicita_ and _fides implicita_, and between _necessitas medii_ and _necessitas praecepti_.
_Fides explicita_ is an express and fully developed belief in the truths of revelation; _fides implicita_, a virtual belief in whatever may be contained in a dogma explicitly professed. I make an act of implicit faith when I say, for instance: ”I believe whatever the Church teaches,” or: ”I heartily accept whatever G.o.d has revealed.”
The _necessitas medii_ is based on the objective relation of means to an end, and consequently binds all men, even the ignorant and those who are in error without their own fault. Such, for example, is the necessity of the eye for seeing, of wings for flying, of grace for performing salutary acts, of the _lumen gloriae_ for the beatific vision. The _necessitas praecepti_, on the other hand, is founded entirely on the will of G.o.d, who positively commands or forbids under pain of grievous sin, but is willing to condone non-compliance with his precepts when it is owing to guiltless ignorance. This applies to all positive divine precepts, _e.g._ the law of fasting and abstinence. It is to be noted that the _necessitas medii_ always involves the _necessitas praecepti_, because G.o.d must needs will and impose upon us by positive precept whatever is objectively necessary as a means of salvation.
a) The first question that arises with regard to this twofold faith and necessity is: Are sinners preparing for justification, and the faithful in general, obliged by necessity of precept to believe explicitly all revealed truths? The answer is, No; because this is practically impossible, and G.o.d does not demand the impossible.
Generally speaking, it is sufficient to have an explicit knowledge of, and give one's firm a.s.sent to, the more important dogmas and moral precepts-the twelve articles of the Apostles' Creed, the Commandments of G.o.d and the Church, the Sacraments (as needed), and the Our Father. All other revealed truths need be held only _fide implicita_.(795) More is of course demanded of educated persons and those who are in duty bound to instruct others, such as priests and teachers.(796)
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