Friday, February 23, 2007

Jigsaw Puzzles Do Not Matter

"[T]he Church was living in its liturgy the words 'This is my Body; this is my Blood' long before later exegetical affirmations and denials of the Real Presence and long before later theological explanations of impanation, transsubstantiation, transsignification. She had been living the evangelical counsel of poverty of the passage regarding the rich young man (Mk 10:17-22; Mt 19:16-22; Lk 18:18-23) and seeing it as applicable to the religious life long before some scholars began to deny this application. He who divorces himself from the Church cuts himself off from the rich, moving and enlightening mine of patristic spirituality. The insights of these spiritual giants, their tender devotion to Christ, their complete immersion in the revealed word, their prayerful meditatio were all parts of an integrated whole. True enough, a person can choose to follow the supermarket approach to the patristic stores just as he can pick and choose among the doctrines of the contemporary Church. So also can one pick and choose among the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but he does so at the price of losing the whole picture. The difference is that jigsaw puzzles do not matter. Revelation does."

-Thomas Dubay in Faith and Certitude.

No comments: