575. August 21, St Pius X (III)
Meditations no. 506 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
God has employed human words to make known to us divine truths.
Fortes in fide (1 Pet 5: 9). Thus I see you, my beloved daughters and sons: strong in the faith, giving testimony to your belief with divine fortitude in all the worldâs environments, moved by the impetuous power of the Holy Spirit in a renewed Pentecost.
Thus our Father began one of his letters, urging us to maintain the firmness of our Christian faith, both in difficult moments and in easy ones. And today on the feast of St Pius X, whom God called, in very difficult moments in the Churchâs life, to defend the Catholic faith and to make all things new in Christ, we raise our hearts in thanksgiving for the gift of faith that God has bestowed on us.
Thanks to his vivid perception of the mystery of the Incarnation, our Father entered deeply into the mystery of divine revelation to mankind. God, he explained, has wanted to speak to us with human words, in order to make known to us divine truths.
This revelation of himself and of his loving designs for us culminated in his willing that the divine Word take on our nature. ⌠We should thank God for this condescension of his, which enables our words to express his truth. âThe words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like menâ (Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum, 13) But it is truly a condescension of his, not an achievement of ours.
God has spoken to us. He has made known to us the deepest mysteries of his Life, recording this Truth in Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church, for the salvation of all mankind. By the infallible assistance of the Holy Spirit, the Church has transmitted faithfully from the beginning the deposit that God entrusted to her. Look what St Paul tells the Corinthians: For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you (1 Cor 11: 23); and he addresses the Thessalonians: Brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter (2 Thess2: 14). Our Father concludes: My daughters and sons, we must always approach Sacred Scripture with great veneration and respect! I cannot hide from you that I suffer when I see how some mistreat the inspired books, studying them without faith and without love.
Now is a good moment to examine our dispositions in reading Sacred Scripture. Do we approach the holy Gospel with love and thanksgiving? Do we desire to learn from Christâs deeds and words, in order to incorporate all his teachings into our lives? We can also examine how well we know the writings of the Fathers of the Church, which are an abundant source of faith and supernatural wisdom.
Union with the magisterium of the Church is the guarantee of fidelity to the deposit of Revelation.
Right from the start of the Church, Christians sensed the need to interpret the teachings of Sacred Scripture in an authoritative way. In his second Letter St Peter exhorts the first Christian faithful to remain unbending in their faith, and not be deceived by those who twist the writings of other Apostles: Beloved⌠count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.
By Christâs express will, the Church has a sacred hierarchy that has been entrusted with the task of explaining in an authentic way the truths contained in the deposit of revelation, with the perennial assistance of the Holy Spirit. Only in the Church and through the Church do we have the assurance of not erring in the faith, because only the Church has Godâs promise of special assistance from the Holy Spirit. So have Christians understood it from the beginning. ⌠How can a person who strays from the magisterium of Godâs Church and contradicts it claim that his teachings adhere to our supernatural faith? Anyone who deviates from these doctrines or contradicts them, either does not believe in revelation or else foolishly attributes to himself a charism that only the continual and one magisterium of all times has been granted.
It is Godâs will that the head of the magisterium be the Roman Pontiff, to whom the other pastors of the Church and the entire Christian people should be united. The supreme power of the Roman Pontiff and his infallibility, when he speaks ex cathedra, are not human inventions. They are based on the explicit foundational will of Christ. How foolish it is, then, to confront the government of the Pope with that of the bishops, or to reduce the validity of the pontifical Magisterium to the consent of the faithful! Nothing is more foreign to it than a balance of powers; human moulds of thought do not help us, no matter how attractive or functional they may be. No one in the Church enjoys absolute power by himself, as man. In the Church there is no leader other than Christ. And Christ constituted a vicar of his-the Roman Pontiff-for his wayfaring spouse on earth.
We help to make that apostolic continuity more evident in the eyes of all men by demonstrating with exquisite fidelity our union with the Pope, which is union with Peter. Love for the Roman Pontiff must be in us a beautiful passion, for in him we see Christ. If we deal with the Lord in prayer, we will go forward with a clear gaze that will permit us to perceive the action of the Holy Spirit, even in the face of events we do not understand or which produce sighs or sorrow.
The faith is a divine treasure that we have to safeguard and defend.
God has spoken to us, and he has given us the grace to accept his Word with the obedience of faith (Rom 16: 26), with the submission of our intellect and the homage of our will, and by corresponding to it in every corner of our life. It is a treasure that we have received from God, and we should safeguard it as such.
We manifest our thanksgiving to God first of all by loving and defending the gifts He has granted us. We have to preserve the faith in its integrity, in the face of every danger and circumstance. This is our first Christian duty, since without this virtue we cannot be pleasing to God. The Letter to the Hebrews teaches that without faith it is impossible to please him. And after listing the principal works of faith found in the Old Testament, it continues: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Fidelity to the faith is not the same as intolerance to change. We can always deepen in our understanding and explanation of the faith. The Church can give new definitions to revealed truths, which help us to better understand revelation. But these can never in any way increase or lessen the deposit of the faith. At the same time, we need to be on guard against new formulas foreign to the teaching of the magisterium. For at times, under the pretext of giving expression to our faith in accord with âthe contemporary mindsetâ-which is one of those magical phrases now in use that each person interprets in his own way-the content of the faith is altered. What would remain of the Catholic faith if we accepted only what the human mind can understand, even without each oneâs personal limitations, and which doesnât require the humble surrender of our intellect? Yes, we can express things better, but always the same things.
The touchstone to avoid mistaken paths is always unconditional and faithful adhesion to the magisterium of the Roman Pontiff Let us listen once again to our Father: Because âwe profess to maintain and preach the faith given from the beginning by our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ to his holy Apostles who preached throughout the whole world (Second Vatican Council, De trad. eccl. ), you and I now feel the impulse to prostrate ourselves at our Lordâs feet and tell him with the Apostle: My Lord and my God (Jn 20: 28). And we see our Lordâs response to that profession of faith as addressed to ourselves: Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe (Jn 20: 29).
We finish this time of prayer by making the petition of the Church our own: Lord our God, we honour the memory of St Pius X. May this Eucharist make us strong in the faith and united in your love.