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Why were so many Lutherans praying with so many Catholics at our
Cathedral Sunday night? Together they responded and sang. They listened to
their priests and pastors read from the Scriptures, and to the Lutheran
speaker’s splendid homily.
Many left with their hearts warmer and their heads held high, not
in triumph, but in this single step toward a unity which Christ prayed for,
which existed for 15 centuries, which has been split since the 15th century,
and which some day Christ will bring about.
It was only a single step. But in a long agony of bitter
separation, it was a flash of light, a reflection of what could be.
The occasion was the 450th anniversary of the
Reformation—an event that Catholics have seen as an ugly, hateful,
rebellion, while Protestants saw it as a great historic renewal of faith and
grace. Both were wrong, and in a sense, both were right.
‘Tragic necessity’
Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, the Lutheran historian, was probably closest
when he called it, “a tragic necessity.” It was tragic because it
shattered the unity of Christianity, and necessary because it cleansed the
church.
A Catholic has only to read history to realize that, although the
corruption was wiped out long ago, certain other teachings took nearly 400
years to return to Catholicism: The lay priesthood, the concept of the people
of God, the vernacular and hymns, communion under two species, and the emphasis
on the Bible. Lutherans, on the other hand, finding that Luther had a great
love and veneration for Mary, the Virgin Mother; the structure of authority and
the sacraments. Even in the central Lutheran teaching, justification by faith,
Catholics and Lutherans are finding dialogue effective.
The hero of German Lutherans, Bishop Otto Dibelius, said with
feeling as Vatican II came to a close:
“If the Roman Catholic Church had looked like it does now 450
years ago, then there would never had been a Reformation in Germany.”
The Two Luthers
To read the early accounts of Luther by Catholics and Lutherans,
one would think it were two persons. Pope Leo called him “a wild boar in
our vineyard’ (which was pale along side some of the things Luther later
called the pope). At the reformer’s funeral, the eulogist cried out:
“An angel flying through the midst of heaven, who had an eternal gospel to
preach.”
Will the real Luther stand up?
Was it the embattled defender at the Diet of Worms declaring:
“Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me.”
Or was it the man who in his youth was scrupulous and obsessed
with sin? It is hard for the biographer to explain much of his inconsistency.
Catholic figures in history, of course, have ambiguous characters
too. It is not edifying to read the lives of the Renaissance popes, Leo X
saying, “God has given us the papacy. Let us now enjoy it!” and
“The Church is corrupt in head and members” (Adrian VI).
We owe it to Luther and the Lutherans to read Hubert Jedin, Philip
Hughes, Joseph Lortz, John C. Murray and Yues Congar (Catholics) and Jaroslav
Pelikan, Gerhard Ritter, George Lindbeck and Arthur Piepkorn (Lutherans).
The whole point of history is to seek truth, not to score points.
That Fence
We need lots of dialogue-a university and living room levels. It
is spreading. The archdiocese has a good program. It is our hope to raise the
level of it by genuine meetings with Lutherans and other Protestants.
But Sunday night, it will simply an interchange of hearts, more
than intellects. We simply prayed and listened and had refreshments. For the
moment, that was good. (With nearly 8.900 present, the refreshments ran low,
and Catholics had to be told: “Family, hold back”).
Out of the dialogue can come better understanding, more respect
and deeper friendship. But there are more profound reasons. Dr. Piepkorn
recently wrote that “Lutherans and Roman Catholics have so much in
common!” He meant that we have 1,500 years of history, and our creeds, our
liturgical calendars and our hymns emphasize our common heritage. And yet we
have 450 years of separation, unhappy centuries, tinged by mutual acrimony and
darkened by mutual anathemas. We have lost the counsel and honest criticism of
each other. Both our heritage and our breach should help to ring us together.
What We Hoped For
The Lutheran pastors, our two bishops and the priests of our
archdiocese had these things in mind at our Catholic-Lutheran service.
We thought of Christ’s prayer for unity-“that they all
are one, as you Father in me, and I in you, that the world may know that you
have sent me.” How can the world believe this if it finds, not a spirit of
unity, but a jarring discord among the divided Christian Church?
Ecumenism is not a knocking off of rough but necessary edges, a
watering-down of belief. Love of God and fellowman-the heart of the Christian
life—becomes nothing more than sentimentality unless it is seeking for
truth. Surely this is the Catholic Galatians premise. And in his lecture on the
Galatians, Luther said: “We must proclaim concord in doctrine and faith as
much as they proclaim concord in life.”
Secondly, we are all conscious that the common ground of our
brotherhood is baptism. The Vatican Council cleared up a vague point in our
teaching; “All Christians by baptism, enter the Church as through a
door.”
The question arises immediately: If we are members of the same
family, why do we not talk to each other?
IF…IF
If the Catholic Church of the 15th and first half of the
16th century had reformed herself, and if Luther had remained
faithful to his early vows and commitments, today’s Church would have been
different.
If we had listened more carefully to Luther and the other
reformers, we would not have had to wait until 1962-65 to clarify the
priesthood of all believers, the popular participation in the vernacular
scripture-reading and the liturgy, and the relation of faith and good works.
The Council of Trent which ended in 1564 (nearly 50 years after
Luther’ revolt,) halted the corruption and set the Church on a new course
of vigor, purity and righteousness. To insure this new life, six popes fought
the old sins. Christianity’s recovery owes as much to Hadrian VI, Paul
III, Julius III, Paul IV, Pius IV and Pius V as it does to Luther and the other
Protestant leaders.
But no institution can exist without ongoing criticism, continued
reexamination and determined reform. In the four centuries after the
Reformation these necessary elements were stifled by the religious wars,
religious nationalism like England’s Prussia’s, Poland’s, and
the continued splitting off of new sects.
Not until the world Protestant conferences at Edinburgh in 1905
and 60 years later the Vatican Council, did the Christian churches became
conscious of the beauty and necessity of religious unity. Recently, Dr. Carl
Braaten of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, raised the question:
“Should Protestantism run independently of the Catholic
Church or should it not be incorporated to serve as a leaven for reform?”
We have prayed and sung together. Isn’t it time we studied
and talked and dialogued together?
Paul J. Hallinan
Archbishop Of Atlanta |
