Jordan Paul
Whosoever will be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity…
Friends,
Today, the Church celebrates St. Athanasius. If you’ve heard of him, it’s likely from the creed which bears his name.
Excerpted above, it’s a defense of the doctrine of the trinity which has largely fallen out of use. It’s not hard to see why—it’s long and doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. Moreover, and perhaps this is most relevant to its falling out of use in the mainline, it flinches neither from doctrinal certainty nor the effects of failing to conform to that doctrine.
In a different context, but much the same spirit, Fr. Ben Crosby touches on this when he writes of his experience officiating mass from the 1662 BCP.
While too long to quote in full, he writes about how a more dour confession—“the remembrance of them [i.e., our sins] is grievous unto us; the burden of them is intolerable”—is followed not only by absolution but also by the “Comfortable Words.”
These are passages from Scripture that underscore God’s mercy toward us, even in all our failings. In other words, the confession is indeed severe but the promise of absolution is equally reassuring.
Sometimes it feels as if in a quest to be more “welcoming”—or, more often, to distinguish ourselves from those other Christians [insert perceived too doctrinaire or doctrinally fussy denomination here]—we lose not only doctrine but also substantially dilute the extraordinary promises of the Church.
But the Athanasian Creed and the 1662 liturgy show us that we can have both. Indeed, our sins are grievous and manifold, but so, too, is God’s mercy infinite.
In Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh, referencing G.K. Chesterton, describes the relationship between us and God as “an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him [us] wander to the ends of the world and still to bring him [us] back with a twitch upon the thread.”
We can wander—physically, doctrinally, mentally—yet the slightest inclination to return to true faith shows just how close God has kept us the entire time. Thank God.
In Christ,
—Jordan