Someone
visiting to inquire about our church recently asked me, “Are you
Catholic?” I replied, “Yes, but we are not Roman
Catholic.” The inquirer’s face turned quizzical – as faces
generally do during that exchange. Sincerely, I was not being
obtuse. We are Anglicans, but we are also Catholics, along with our
brothers and sisters in the Roman and Orthodox churches. We all
track our lineage in an unbroken succession of ordinations and
confirmations through the laying on of hands back to the Apostles
themselves. And, we understand our origins as a Church to be rooted
in the Biblical, Apostolic and Patristic Faith which has been
faithfully preserved and carried into the present.
There
was a time when I thought that if I was going to belong to the real
church – and by that I meant the church that is closest in belief
and practice to the New Testament church – I would have to become
Roman Catholic. As I wrestled with that question, I came to see that
Anglicanism had a unique and less complicated correspondence to the
Early Church than any other denomination I knew. I realized God
placed me right where I needed to be, and I no longer viewed Rome as
having sole possession of Catholic Christianity. I know for many
Christians that relationship to the Early Church is not very
important, but for me it has always been an important value.
Certainly the most important aspect of being a Christian is the
quality of our relationship with Jesus. Do we know Him as our
Savior, or not? Everything else pales in comparison.
Even
so, the way in which Christians relate to Jesus and worship Him is
also very important. I have always thought that those closest in
history to Christ and the Apostles, had the most intimate
understanding and experience of worship – and they practiced
liturgical and sacramental worship. Therefore, as an Anglican priest,
I study and practice my ministry, not so much from a denominational
perspective but more and more from a desire to be grounded in the
Faith and practices of the Scriptures, Apostles and Early Church.
Fortunately, that is a perspective shared by my bishop and many other
Anglicans. I just wish more people had the opportunity to experience
it, but it requires effort. Isn't that typical of the best things?
Therefore,
consider one of the best treasures of this catholicism: the collected
writings of the Church Fathers, many of which were re-discovered and
translated from Greek into English by British scholars in the
nineteenth century. Probably due more to the English style of the
translations in the nineteenth century, rather than the original
authors, these writings can be laborious reading. But here is an
excerpt from the writings of Hilary, the fourth century bishop of
Poitiers, which I have paraphrased to give a flavour of what they
have to offer Twenty-first century Christians:
The
words that we use to speak of the things of God must not be used in a
simple human and worldly sense, nor should a sloppy interpretation
which is corrupted by strange external sources be forced from the
soundness of heavenly words by any abusive and pigheaded preaching.
Let us read what is written, let us understand what we read, and then
fulfill the demands of a mature faith. For unless we have been taught
by Him as to what we say about the reality of Christ’s nature
within us, our words are foolish and disrespectful. For He Himself
says, my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever
feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
[John 6.55, 56 - ESV] As to the truth of the flesh and blood there
is no room left for doubt. For now both from the declaration of the
Lord Himself and our own faith, it is truly flesh and truly blood.
And when these are eaten and drunk, bring into reality that both we
are in Christ and Christ is in us. Is this not true? Yet they who
affirm that Christ Jesus is not truly God are welcome to find it
false. He Himself therefore is in us through the flesh and we in Him,
while together with Him our own selves are in God. [Bishop
Hilary of Poitiers: On
the Trinity, Book
VIII.14 – AD 367]
I did
not present this particular quote to be a “stick in the eye” to
those who do not believe in the Sacraments or the Real Presence, but
because it is such a reverent and lucid exposition of an early
bishop's understanding of Jesus' words in John 6, and to encourage
those not familiar with the Church Fathers to explore their many
treasures.
Hypernikomen+