Great post from the Anchoress
On abortion/excommunication and B XVI. Long but so worth it:
Over at J’s Cafenette, Jeanette is reading about Benedict’s warning to pro-abortion legislators. Benedict said:
“Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ,” he said.
Jeanette writes: I’m not Catholic so if someone is please let us know if these people can get back into the good graces of the Roman Catholic Church and receive last sacraments etc, assuming they continue to support abortion up until their dying moments. I’m thinking of Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi who are both pro-abortion and both Catholics.
Then, of course, because she’s a good, fair-minded and curious friend, she sent me an email for my thoughts. Egad. As though I have any sort of brain, these days!
But off the top of my head, this was my response to Jeanette, which – please bear in mind – is simply my own understanding of things as a Catholic laywoman, and in near-baby-talk because I’m no expert. I’ll post specifically about abortion – and the language of abortion – later, but for now, let’s talk about how Catholics see the spiritual part.
The deal with excommunication is that it lasts for as long as you go without contritely repenting of your sin. A politician who has publicly advocating abortion or pro-abortion legislation could be “excommunicated” (presuming he or she accepts it and does not continue to receive the sacraments – there are sadly, still some scandalous priests out there who would glory in allowing that disobedience), but were the politician to participate in the sacrament of confession and receive absolution, and then stop publicly advocating abortion (the confessor might or might not advise a penance of public recanting) the excommunication would be over.
While an excommunication is a real thing, the fact is a disobedient Catholic who is not following the rules to begin with is probably not going to be respectful of it. But – as far as I understand it, and I’m sure someone out there will tell me if I’m wrong – the sacraments and one’s standing in the church, do not supercede the Mercy of God. While some Catholics would be appalled to discover, for example, that someone like Ted Kennedy received last rights, other Catholics will tell you that in the end no human can take the measure of another human’s soul…no one fully knows what goes on therein except God, and no one knows what passes between Christ and a soul in those close moments into which none of us are invited to observe.
We believe the sacraments were instituted by Christ to bring grace, and we know it is best to receive a sacrament with a humble and grateful heart, with a contrite temperament – but not everyone does so. While we might “tsk” at that, it’s really between a sinner and God.
For example, the ideal is for a Catholic to receive Holy Communion only when they know they are “right” with God (in a so-called “state of Grace”) that they bear no heavy and unrepented sins upon their souls…but we see people go to communion all the time without going to confession. It’s not the ideal, but then again, who knows, maybe Christ – physically Present in the Holy Eucharist – will work on them “from the inside out,” so to speak.
Divorced Catholics who remarry outside of canon law are supposed to refrain from receiving Holy Communion, but many do. Should they? On paper, no. In the realm of the Spirit…it’s not the ideal…but the Holy Spirit has a habit of working with what is available. If all you’re presenting to the Holy Spirit is a raggedly soul, a prideful, know-it-all mindset and your own messed up psychology, well, the Holy Spirit will work with that.
Grace and mercy are constantly offered by God right up until the end of our days, but – and this is the thing so many people often forget – so is justice.
The Will of Christ, the Workings of Christ in us and the Promptings of Christ within us, to repent – all of these things do not “stop” because one is excommunicated, anymore than they “stop” while we are in our sins. These publicly dissenting Catholics will have their day to repent – if they do not do it before they’re into those “dying moments” that Jeanette is wondering about – but God is just, so their deathbed repentance, while real and subject to God’s mercy, is still subject to God’s justice.
Here’s the situation of sin that none of us like to think about: Whether we are public or private, our sins do not simply stay within us – our sins touch others. Like a rock thrown into a pond, there is a ripple effect that can be very far-reaching. For instance, if you’ve created pornography and put it out there for public consumption (either on the internet, on a video, whatever) and what you’ve created has led another into sin – or worse led someone to exploit or harm another – well, of course that person you’ve influenced is responsible for his or her sin, but you’ve certainly had a hand in it, whether you overtly meant to, or not.
Sin ripples; it affects the whole world. Therefore, if a public person – by his or her pronouncements – trivializes a grave issue like abortion, and by their rhetoric either inspires someone to seek/perform/procure an abortion, or to further turn away from God and reject “all that God stuff”…or if a legislator works to insure the legal availability of something as savage as a partial birth abortion, well…with power comes responsibility, and with their public advocacy and influence, they’ve contributed to the failings of others.Catholics believe that when we meet Christ a whole review of our lives – an accounting – takes place. Then you get to see it all – everything you’ve done, the good, the bad and the ugly – “what you have done; what you have failed to do”, and not just as you see it all but as God sees it all, and then you really understand “the mystery” of who and what you are. You really understand both your goodness, and your sins.
What do you do with that sudden clarity? For Catholics, that’s where Purgatory comes in.
The doctrine of Purgatory is much misunderstood. It is not really a “place” so much as a “state of being,” but we humans relate to the idea of a “place,” and so let’s stick with that, for now. The repentant soul places himself there when he has realized that, while he is repentant, he is not in the pristine state appropriate to stand in the presence of God, and so this soul willingly submits to being purged of all sin (hence “purgatory”) in order to be “perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.” Using the example, of a pro-abortion legislator, for example, that person might discover a direct connection between a speech of he or she made and someone’s connection to abortion or their pulling away from all-things-religious. Now, fully comprehending his or her own role in that, this soul might say “I am not ready to go to the Creator, I must stand apart until I have been purged of all of this,” and thus, he/she’s in purgatory.
I know a lot of Protestants have trouble with this, but it actually has always made a lot of sense to me. If you’re sinning your whole life and then repenting at the last minute, yes, the Merciful God forgives…but are you really ready to stand there before Him in his Holiness and perfection – and with all the saints and holy people and angels in that place…without stepping aside for a bit, in humility, and “washing up,” so to speak, from those finally realized sins?
I heard a priest once describe it this way: Yes, Christ’s blood covers our sins,that’s mercy – but we still need to scrub up, that’s justice. If you’re filthy, it’s not enough to be covered by clean clothes – you still have to wash up.
There is some scripture behind this:2 Cor 5:10 …For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.
Rev 21:27 …but nothing unclean will enter it, nor any (one) who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
2 Macc 12:39-46
On the following day, since the task had now become urgent, Judas and his men went to gather up the bodies of the slain and bury them with their kinsmen in their ancestral tombs.
But under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had been slain.
They all therefore praised the ways of the Lord, the just judge who brings to light the things that are hidden.
Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble Judas warned the soldiers to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.
He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view;
for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death.
But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought.
Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.Matt 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1 Cor3:12-15 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
Psalm 99:8 O LORD, our God, you answered them. You showed them that you are a forgiving God and that you are a God who punishes their sinful deeds.
Mark 9:49 “Everyone will be salted with fire.
Heb 9:27 Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment,
Isaiah 6:5-7
Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”
Always good to see the Pope taking a stand on what should be a very simple issue.
