St. Irenaeus of Lyons - A Witness for Truth in the Early Church

Today, June 28th, the Church celebrates St. Irenaeus of Lyons.  Irenaeus, who lived in the late second century, was a bishop, a defender of the faith, and an early martyr.  A large portion of St. Irenaeus' writings have come down to us, including a large tome, Against Heresies, in which St. Irenaeus defended the true Catholic faith against attacks from groups known as Gnostics. 

One thing St. Irenaeus emphasizes is authority in the Church.  When there are people in the Church teaching contradictory things, to whom do we turn?  How do we know the truth which Christ handed on to the Apostles?  Who teaches with Christ's authority today?

In answering these questions, St. Irenaeus points his readers in the early Church to consider the tradition handed on in the Churches through the bishops, who are successors of the Apostles:

"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" (Against Heresies 3:3:1).

St. Irenaeus doesn't stop there.  When it comes to knowing the truth, the Christian is instructed to turn to the Church of Rome, the Church that all the other Churches must agree with:

"But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the succession of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, that church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. With that church, because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world, and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition" (Against Heresies 3:3:2).

Here, around the year 190 AD, St. Irenaeus of Lyons essentially gives us a description of Roman Catholicism!

More about Grace: Sanctifying and Actual

God’s grace, the gratuitous favor he shows us and His very own life He shares with us, comes in a few different forms.  We can distinguish first of all sanctifying grace and actual grace.

“Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love” (CCC 2000).  Sanctifying grace is infused in our souls at baptism, and makes us pleasing to God.  Sanctifying grace elevates us to become sharers in God’s own life.  This state  of sanctifying grace can be lost through a mortal sin, but regained through repentance and the sacrament of confession.

Sanctifying grace, which is a permanent disposition, can be “distinguished from actual graces which refer to God’s interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification” (CCC 2000).  So the movement of God’s grace before our conversion and baptism, which cannot be attributed to sanctifying grace, is termed an actual grace.  Also, all the little (and larger) helps God gives us on a daily basis to live the twofold law of love of God and love of neighbor are actual graces.  When your natural inclination is to go off on someone with road rage, and you feel an intervening calm allowing you to practice patience, consider that an actual grace.

The point here, perhaps, is that God’s grace pervades our whole lives.  God’s very life dwells in us in a habitual, permanent way through the gift of sanctifying grace, and God offers us the aids to live a life worthy of His calling continually through actual graces.

What is so Amazing about Grace?

You've probably heard the hymn Amazing Grace many times.  Perhaps you can rattle off the lyrics without even thinking of them.  But have you stopped to consider how amazing grace really is?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that grace is  "favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life."  The Catechism also tells us that grace "is a participation in the life of God."  (CCC 1996-1997)

The theology of grace has many divisions and nuances, but two aspects of grace stand out:  grace is healing, and grace is elevating.

Because of the fall and original sin, our human natures are wounded.  Our intellect is darkened, our will is weakened, and we have a tendency or proclivity to sin known as concupiscence.  We stand in need of grace to heal our wounded nature.  Grace is medicinal in this sense, and restores what was damaged due to sin.

But grace doesn't end there.  Grace actually lifts us up beyond where our nature would be even without sin.  Grace is elevating.  Human nature, even freed from sin, cannot reach its goal of communion with God.  Grace elevates our nature, making us "partakers of the divine nature."  We become by grace and adoption what Christ is by nature: sons of God.  This supernatural gift goes far beyond restoring what was lost through sin; grace far exceeds any expectations humanity could have had by making us like God.  We call this deification - being made sharers of God's own trinitarian life.  That is amazing grace!