YOUNG ADULT DINNER CLUB:
What's on the menu?
July 29, 2017 - Wine and Cheese Edition, featuring Deacon Bruce Fraser
Permanent Deacon, Bruce Fraser joined us for dinner. And in reflection of today's second reading, he introduced the subject of Predestination. Here are Deacon Bruce's notes and resources, also available as a downloadable pdf.
Permanent Deacon, Bruce Fraser joined us for dinner. And in reflection of today's second reading, he introduced the subject of Predestination. Here are Deacon Bruce's notes and resources, also available as a downloadable pdf.
Predestination
Terminology
Terminology
- What are we talking about?
- Predestination: God gives His grace to some and they will ultimately be saved
- Predestination to heaven
- Predestination to membership in the Church
- Reprobation: God withholds His grace from some and they will ultimately be lost
- If everything is predetermined, why should I bother trying?
- Can I work harder at being a good Christian and change God’s mind?
- If God just chooses to save some people and not save others without looking at merits, how can that be fair?
- If someone is trying really hard to be a good Christian but they’re not “predestined”, will God really send them to hell? How is that fair?
- Does God predestine to heaven with or without looking at merits?
- If He predestines to heaven without looking, then does He do the same for negative reprobation (letting someone go)?
- God “already” knows the past, the present and the future. All time is open before Him. That’s what His “omniscience” means.
- “Already” is in quotation marks because when applied to God it is a misuse. If God is outside of time, if He sees all time—past, present, and future—as one, then words like “already”, “not yet”, “before” or “after” don’t correctly apply to His point of view.
- We really do have free choices. We truly can choose, in a meaningful, true way, to accept or reject God’s grace.
- We do not save ourselves. God saves us through His grace. Even our movement toward accepting His grace is due to His grace. We are saved by “grace alone”.
- God predestines no one to hell. That is, God does not send a person to hell simply by His sovereign choice, without looking at how that person acts.
- Therefore, if we end up in hell it is really through our own free choices.
- The idea that God predestines to hell in the same way He predestines to heaven is called “double predestination”
- Original sin damns all of humanity to hell through our own (inherited) fault, independent of any personal sins we may commit
- God wanted to display mercy and justice
- To display mercy, God chose a small percent to rescue
- From the rest, God withheld His grace and they would go to hell
- God chooses whom to rescue blindly, without any consideration of their lives or their faith
- Augustine needed to say this, because if he didn’t, then that would mean that we earned heaven through our faith or our actions, rather than its being a free gift through God’s grace
- See Pelagianism: We do not earn our own salvation
- According to Fr. William Most, this is a denial of God’s love
- In particular, it denies 1 Timothy 2:3-4 (“God our Saviour… desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”)
- If God saves a few not out of love for them but only to make a point, then He doesn’t love us, but only uses us
- But we know that God really loves us, which means loving us for our own sake, not loving us for His benefit
- Therefore, Massa Damnata is a mistaken idea
- God has already chosen whom He will save from before the creation of the world (this is fine… we believe this, too)
- He makes this decision based upon nothing other than His sovereign will
- The goodness of the person, their faith or their acts have no bearing on this choice
- A person’s acts are evidence of election, not the cause of election
- Once elected by God, there is nothing a person can do to lose their election: once saved, always saved
- Nothing is left to chance: God’s predestinating decision is always successful and cannot be resisted
- Double predestination: God equally decides to destroy some just as He decides to save some
- Calvin, Luther, and Zwingli all believed in double predestination
- This is close to St. Augustine: Salvation comes through a free gift from God, but we have no choice to either accept or reject the gift: God’s will is always done
- We can choose to live without sin by our will alone, without the aid of divine grace, although God’s grace assists in every good work
- We can earn salvation by our own efforts (merits)
- Pelagius was condemned at the Council of Carthage (418) and the Council of Ephesus (431).
- Controversy arose between the Dominicans and the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in the late 1500’s
- God decrees predestination or reprobation before consideration of merits and demerits
- God permits faults that He decides beforehand He will not forgive without considering whether the person will commit those faults; this is called negative reprobation
- Two types of grace: Efficacious grace and sufficient grace
- Sufficient grace gives the ability to choose the good, or the ability to perform a good act, but we cannot apply that ability to actually do the good without efficacious grace
- For example, fire has the ability to cook food, but without the cook applying food to the fire, nothing will be cooked
- If the person does not resist sufficient grace, then God gives that person efficacious grace to actually choose the good, or perform the good act
- Efficacious grace works infallibly in the person
- Efficacious grace is also given to them who pray properly
- However, even not resisting sufficient grace is a good act, which requires efficacious grace
- Therefore, the person to whom God gives grace to have faith, do good, and persist in the faith, will infallibly reach heaven
- 1 Corinthians 4:7a: “For who sees anything different in you?”
- The distinction between the elect and the reprobate ultimately does not depend on the things that people do. (Fr. Most, p. 13)
- Man is completely incapable of “distinguishing himself”
- Recall, however, that we truly do have free will. If the Dominican theory denied free will then it would be condemned
- Even though God infallibly moves the human will, human beings remain free, because God’s will is transcendent.
- “It is obvious that this freedom is not an autonomous freedom.” (Fr. Most, p.12)
- We have the ability not to resist sufficient grace, but we cannot apply that ability without efficacious grace, which God may or may not give us
- Also, don’t forget 1 Timothy 2:3-4 (“God our Saviour… desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”)
- Jesuits distinguish predestination overall from predestination to glory
- Some Jesuits say that predestination to glory is decreed only after consideration of merits
- These same say that reprobation is decreed only after consideration of demerits
- Others say no, that it is decreed without consideration of merits
- And that reprobation is similarly decreed without consideration of demerits
- Some Jesuits say that predestination to glory is decreed only after consideration of merits
- Sufficient grace is enough to do a good act
- Therefore, if we fail to do a good act it is through human free will alone
- Fr. Luis Molina: “Sufficient grace” is rendered “efficacious grace” by our consent
- Therefore, if God gives sufficient grace to two people to have faith, do good, and persist in the faith, one may cooperate with that grace and reach heaven, while the other may not
- God knows beforehand the outcome of our exercising our own free will
- He does not know this because He predetermines it and therefore wills it
- But he knows it because He created us and the circumstances in which we live, so with His divine knowledge he knows what we will do
- Some Jesuits say that God chooses—for those people for whom He has special benevolence—to give them graces that He knows will be sufficient in their circumstances to have them choose the good; then, after seeing their merits, He predestines them to the glory of heaven. (Fr. Most, 18)
- Others say that God first chooses the order of things in which he will place each person. He will then send them various graces without considering their merits or demerits. After foreseeing the merits of those who will choose the good, He predestines them to heaven
- Recall, however, that God is always the first mover: we do not initiate our own salvation; that would be Pelagianism
- Pope Paul V decided not to decide
- Both sides were allowed to continue teaching their respective doctrines
- The Dominicans cannot call the Jesuits “Pelagians”
- The Jesuits cannot call the Dominicans “Calvinists”
- Fr. Most’s book: Grace, Predestination, and the Salvific Will of God
- Regarding Augustine’s Massa Damnata, Fr. Most says that Augustine misunderstood the context of the comments about predestinations in St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans
- Fr. Most says that all of the passages in Scripture regarding predestination are talking about predestination to membership in the Church, not predestination to heaven and much less to hell
- Fr. Most offers a modified version of the Thomistic (Dominican) solution
- God wills all to be saved
- God withholds His grace only from those whom He sees will reject that grace persistently and finally
- Therefore, He reprobates because of demerit
- God then predestines everyone else to heaven without looking at their merits
- God our Saviour… desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
- We do not save ourselves … God is the first mover… we are saved by grace alone.
- We really do have free will to choose good or choose evil
- Nobody really knows exactly how it works, so there are disagreements
2017-07-30_predestination.pdf | |
File Size: | 638 kb |
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June 17, 2017 - Night Market Edition
Approaching the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, here's a short excerpt of Fr. Justin's Huang's homily reflecting on both the reality of Jesus' presence in the Eucharist, as well as our call to belong within the Body of Christ:
Approaching the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, here's a short excerpt of Fr. Justin's Huang's homily reflecting on both the reality of Jesus' presence in the Eucharist, as well as our call to belong within the Body of Christ:
Loving the Eucharist Means Loving Jesus [May 5, 2016]
Do you remember a time when someone made fun of your family? Made fun perhaps of the job your father had, the way your mother dressed, the way your brother acted, the intelligence of your sister? How did you feel?
There’s a wonderful scene from the old TV show The Wonder Years, where Kevin, the young boy, goes for a day to his father’s work (Start at 18:10). He sees his father outside of home, in action, working with other adults, and realizes, “I never forgot how I felt at that moment: My father was great man.” When they go into the next room, he then sees his father get shouted at by the boss, lambasted for incompetency, and his father is helpless. Kevin watches this and is demoralized.
A truth of relationships is: When you pick on someone we love, you pick on us. When you love someone we love, you love us. We identify with those we love.
Today is the feast of Corpus Christi, which is Latin for The Body of Christ. We celebrate that Jesus loves us so much that he has given Himself to us under the appearance of bread and wine. The entrance antiphon was: “He fed them with the finest wheat and satisfied them with honey from the rock.” The Eucharist is the finest gift, and, because it’s Jesus Himself, it’s someone we love. And the truth of relationships applies here: when someone hurts or loves the Eucharist, they hurt or love us.
Two stories illustrate this point.
1) Last November, a Spanish artist stole hosts from Mass and used them to write the word, “Pederasty,” [sexual abuse of children] on the ground. He said he attended 242 Masses, and each time, pretended to put the Eucharist in his mouth, then walked off with it. He stole 242 hosts and desecrated them. For many of us, this sacrilege is deeply hurtful and painful, because the Eucharist means everything to us.
2) The second story is the exact opposite. Paul Comtois was selected as lieutenant governor (the personal representative of the Queen) of Quebec in 1959. He was a politician and a devout Catholic, so much so that, when he became lieutenant governor, he requested permission from the cardinal of Quebec to have the Eucharist reserved in a tabernacle at his home. This is extremely rare (not even Deacon Andrew, for example, has the Eucharist at his home; the norm is only in churches). “The cardinal was initially reluctant… but he eventually granted it, asking Comtois to personally assure the proper custody and care of the Eucharist. Comtois’s daily routine included family prayer, and he ended his days in the chapel before the Eucharist.
The Comtois family and their guests returned to Bois-de-Coulonge [their home] after an evening event Feb. 21, 1966. Retiring after midnight, they were soon awakened by a raging fire that had started in the basement of the century-old house. Soon the entire building was in flame.”
‘As soon as the fire was noticed, the lieutenant governor immediately took charge, guiding his wife and children out of the house into the cold winter night outside. His daughter Mireille, however, noticed her father would not yet leave the tinderbox house.’ “As I was racing through the building to escape from the fire, I came upon my father in the chapel,” Mireille recalls. “As I was going to run to him, he firmly ordered me to jump from a nearby window, and I did, wondering why he did not do likewise. The last I saw of him, he was standing under the sanctuary lamp in his pajamas and wearing around his neck the souvenir Rosary from his father which he said every night and wore to sleep.”
Having been assured that all his family and guests had escaped the inferno, the 70-year-old Paul Comtois returned to the private chapel in which he visited the Lord every evening before bed to save the Blessed Sacrament from the desecrating fire. He reached the chapel, already engulfed in flames, but managed to make it to the tabernacle and remove the pyx containing the Body of Christ. Leaving the chapel, he descended the staircase which collapsed about him, and… was burned alive… The fire… was so hot that the first firemen on the scene could not approach within 100 feet of the building.
“I was told,” Mireille continues, “that when they found him, his body was badly burned and his arms were no longer intact… Under the upper part of his body they found the pyx used to carry the Holy Eucharist. His body had saved it from the flames…. I can still picture him standing there in the light of the sanctuary lamp.’”
In today’s Collect (Opening Prayer), we prayed: “O God… grant us… so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood.” Jesus is asking us to treat the Eucharist with more reverence. He’s saying, “When you love the Eucharist, you love me.” All the saints had this love: they spent hours with the Eucharist, longed to receive it, and showed respect for it by kneeling and prostrating themselves on the ground. We need to increase our love for Jesus, and then recognize that this love should be equal for the Eucharist, because it’s the same Jesus.
Read the complete and original post on Fr. Justin's blog.
Do you remember a time when someone made fun of your family? Made fun perhaps of the job your father had, the way your mother dressed, the way your brother acted, the intelligence of your sister? How did you feel?
There’s a wonderful scene from the old TV show The Wonder Years, where Kevin, the young boy, goes for a day to his father’s work (Start at 18:10). He sees his father outside of home, in action, working with other adults, and realizes, “I never forgot how I felt at that moment: My father was great man.” When they go into the next room, he then sees his father get shouted at by the boss, lambasted for incompetency, and his father is helpless. Kevin watches this and is demoralized.
A truth of relationships is: When you pick on someone we love, you pick on us. When you love someone we love, you love us. We identify with those we love.
Today is the feast of Corpus Christi, which is Latin for The Body of Christ. We celebrate that Jesus loves us so much that he has given Himself to us under the appearance of bread and wine. The entrance antiphon was: “He fed them with the finest wheat and satisfied them with honey from the rock.” The Eucharist is the finest gift, and, because it’s Jesus Himself, it’s someone we love. And the truth of relationships applies here: when someone hurts or loves the Eucharist, they hurt or love us.
Two stories illustrate this point.
1) Last November, a Spanish artist stole hosts from Mass and used them to write the word, “Pederasty,” [sexual abuse of children] on the ground. He said he attended 242 Masses, and each time, pretended to put the Eucharist in his mouth, then walked off with it. He stole 242 hosts and desecrated them. For many of us, this sacrilege is deeply hurtful and painful, because the Eucharist means everything to us.
2) The second story is the exact opposite. Paul Comtois was selected as lieutenant governor (the personal representative of the Queen) of Quebec in 1959. He was a politician and a devout Catholic, so much so that, when he became lieutenant governor, he requested permission from the cardinal of Quebec to have the Eucharist reserved in a tabernacle at his home. This is extremely rare (not even Deacon Andrew, for example, has the Eucharist at his home; the norm is only in churches). “The cardinal was initially reluctant… but he eventually granted it, asking Comtois to personally assure the proper custody and care of the Eucharist. Comtois’s daily routine included family prayer, and he ended his days in the chapel before the Eucharist.
The Comtois family and their guests returned to Bois-de-Coulonge [their home] after an evening event Feb. 21, 1966. Retiring after midnight, they were soon awakened by a raging fire that had started in the basement of the century-old house. Soon the entire building was in flame.”
‘As soon as the fire was noticed, the lieutenant governor immediately took charge, guiding his wife and children out of the house into the cold winter night outside. His daughter Mireille, however, noticed her father would not yet leave the tinderbox house.’ “As I was racing through the building to escape from the fire, I came upon my father in the chapel,” Mireille recalls. “As I was going to run to him, he firmly ordered me to jump from a nearby window, and I did, wondering why he did not do likewise. The last I saw of him, he was standing under the sanctuary lamp in his pajamas and wearing around his neck the souvenir Rosary from his father which he said every night and wore to sleep.”
Having been assured that all his family and guests had escaped the inferno, the 70-year-old Paul Comtois returned to the private chapel in which he visited the Lord every evening before bed to save the Blessed Sacrament from the desecrating fire. He reached the chapel, already engulfed in flames, but managed to make it to the tabernacle and remove the pyx containing the Body of Christ. Leaving the chapel, he descended the staircase which collapsed about him, and… was burned alive… The fire… was so hot that the first firemen on the scene could not approach within 100 feet of the building.
“I was told,” Mireille continues, “that when they found him, his body was badly burned and his arms were no longer intact… Under the upper part of his body they found the pyx used to carry the Holy Eucharist. His body had saved it from the flames…. I can still picture him standing there in the light of the sanctuary lamp.’”
In today’s Collect (Opening Prayer), we prayed: “O God… grant us… so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood.” Jesus is asking us to treat the Eucharist with more reverence. He’s saying, “When you love the Eucharist, you love me.” All the saints had this love: they spent hours with the Eucharist, longed to receive it, and showed respect for it by kneeling and prostrating themselves on the ground. We need to increase our love for Jesus, and then recognize that this love should be equal for the Eucharist, because it’s the same Jesus.
Read the complete and original post on Fr. Justin's blog.
Other musings on the subject: