Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 4
Thursday, October 28, 1999
My Dear Friends in Christ:
In his most recent Encyclical
Letter on Ecumenism, Ut unum
sint (“That They May Be One”),
Pope John Paul II used the words
of the Second Vatican Council's
Decree on Ecumenism to remind
us that the division of the Christian
Churches, “openly contradicts the
will of Christ, provides a stum
bling block to the world, and
inflicts damage on the most holy
cause of proclaiming the good
news to every creature” (Unitatis
Redintegratio, #1). Impelled by the
grace of the Holy Spirit and the
awareness of the harm done to the
cause of Christianity by these
long-standing wounds to the Body
of Christ, our Catholic Church,
along with many of the other
Christian Churches and ecclesial
communities throughout the world,
has been involved for many
decades in prayer, study, and dia
logue aimed at ending the scandal
By grace alone
of a divided
Christianity.
It is with great joy
that the Catholic
Church and the
Lutheran World
Federation are now
able to acknowledge
that we have reached,
after more than 450
years of acrimony and
mutual suspicion, a
common understand
ing of one of the most significant
issues that led to the division of
our churches centuries ago, the
doctrine of justification, which
concerns how believers “get right”
with God. We have listened to one
another during more than 30 years
of dialogue and we have reached a
consensus on this crucial article of
the Christian faith, and we can say
together with our Lutheran broth
ers and sisters, in the words of the
Joint Declaration, that it is “By
grace alone, in faith in
Christ's saving work
and not because of any
merit on our part, we
are accepted by God
and receive the Holy
Spirit, who renews our
hearts while equipping
and calling us to good
works.” This is the
first time that such a
declaration has been
ratified between the
Catholic Church and the World
Lutheran Federation. In the words
of Archbishop Alexander J.
Brunett of Seattle, the declaration
and the consensus it represents is
“a powerful gift from God.” What
we receive as a gift, Archbishop
Brunett adds, “we must recognize
also comes to us as a common task
and challenge.”
While this major step forward
does not mean that we are once
again wholly united as believers, it
does represent a significant mile
stone in the reconciliation of our
two traditions. It will make easier
the resolution of other differences
between us, which stem more or
less directly from our different
understandings of justification in
the past.
I ask you to join with me in con
tinuing to pray for the ongoing
Lutheran-Catholic dialogue and for
those involved in the other dia
logues that aim at restoring the
unity of Christians. Ecumenism, as
our Holy Father says, is constitu
tive of the Gospel—it is at the
heart of what we must do if we are
to become the Holy People of God
that we are called to be.
Sincerely yours in Christ
Bishop of Savannah
The Joint Declaration on Justification: a first step to reconciliation
O nce upon a time, Catholics thought that
Lutherans paid too little attention to the
moral life (“good works”), while Lutherans
thought that Catholics paid too much attention to
superficial actions and not enough to faith.
Catholics thought that the Lutheran understand
ing of faith was too narrow, as it seemed to
exclude the good works that the Lord command
ed us to do (“Faith without works is dead”).
Lutherans thought that Catholics were in danger
of idolatry for their emphasis on the means of
salvation. And Catholics thought that Lutherans
were in danger of blasphemy for not paying
enough attention to the means which God has
given to his Church for our salvation.
In the wake of the Second Vatican Council,
the Catholic Church began an array of bilateral
dialogues with the other Christian churches and
ecclesial communions. One of the most fruitful
has been the Roman Catholic-Lutheran dialogue
that has led to the Joint Declaration on
Justification, the very issue on which the two
communions divided after 1517. On October 31
of that year, Father Martin Luther, who was still
functioning as a Catholic priest, announced his
95 Theses, arguing against the conversion, in the
popular mind, of almsgiving into the sale of
indulgences on the grounds that it was an “idola
trous” attempt to substitute human works for
divine faith.
Now, 482 years later, the abuse of “selling in
dulgences” long abolished, after deeper study of
the Scriptural sources of belief and over 30 years
of dialogue, the Roman Catholic Church and the
Lutheran World Federation are about to sign the
first official joint declaration of the two commu
nions, on the very anniversary of Luther’s 95
Theses. This declaration, in its most significant
passage, defines justification as follows: “By
grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and
not because of any merit on our part, we are
accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit,
who renews our hearts while equipping and call
ing us to good works.”
This statement represents long and deep reflec
tion on the Biblical and theological data, made
possible by meticulous scholarship on the part of
both Catholics and Lutherans and by their fer
vent prayers. Now that the two communions are
in official agreement on this basic point, all
Catholics and Lutherans should give thanks to
God for his inspiration and for the hard work and
devoted scholarship that has made possible this
step forward in the ecumenical project.
By concentrating on God’s grace, which pre
cedes both faith and works, the statement
grounds our justification in God, who always
takes the initiative in the salvation of his people:
“By grace alone...” It avoids the implication of a
too-narrow understanding of faith that Catholics
saw in Luther’s phrase “by faith alone” while
safeguarding the essential point that salvation is
ultimately a divine work and not a human one.
“Grace” is understood not as a thing but as
God’s gift of himself, a gift that both heals us
and raises us up to God.
This grace is said to effect our acceptance by
God “in faith in Christ’s saving work and not
because of any merit on our part.” Here faith is
described briefly, but significantly, as having a
content (“in Christ’s saving work”), thus making
it clear that the faith in question is both the faith
that is trust in God and the faith that is belief in
the truth about that God. As far as any merit on
our part, the Council of Trent made it very clear
that we do not deserve the initial gift of God’s
grace and that nothing that we do on our own
can save us. Without grace we have no merit
before God. The question of merit subsequent to
justification, however, is one on which Catholics
and Lutherans seem still to disagree.
The mention of the Holy Spirit in the next line
is most welcome. The Trinitarian nature of salva
tion is brought to the fore by the mention of the
Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. When we
receive the Holy Spirit, he equips us and calls us
to good works. For there is no doubt that the
Gospel of Jesus Christ demands obedience to the
two-fold law of love: love of God and of neigh
bor. Anyone who claimed to be “justified” yet
had not love would not be credible, any more
than would anyone who claimed to be justified
yet had not faith: “If I have all faith, so as to
remove mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. If I give away all my possessions and if
I hand over my body to be burned, but do not
have love, I gain nothing.”
The statement shows the effects of deeper and
more scientific understanding of the biblical
terms employed. “Grace”, “faith” and “works”
are more used in their fullest senses, something
that was not always the case in the past. As a
result, our common understanding of “justifica
tion” has been enriched, and this Pauline term
has been given its full weight. To Saint Paul, the
effect of faith is “righteousness” (“justification”).
Above all, Paul says that God in Christ has
“justified us”— made us just and righteous.
Indeed, justification can be understood as
expressing the totality of salvation. And salva
tion (.Romans 5:10) involves “reconciliation”
(5:11); Paul will extend the image of reconcilia
tion of humanity with God to the reconciliation
of all people in general (11:15) and finally to the
whole created universe (Colossians 1:20).
May the Joint Declaration on Justification lead
to full reconciliation between Catholics and
Lutherans.
— DKC