Balance. It’s something that we hope and strive for, at home, at work, in our lives, in our faith. Sometimes it can be hard to achieve, and if something is out of balance, suffering results. Balance is important in any area of life but, because of its eternal implications, in the spiritual life most of all.
Doctrines or teachings held in balance are part and parcel of the Christian faith. Think, for example, of the Trinity: one God, yet three Persons. Or that of Transubstantiation, where what appears to be bread and wine is really the Body and Blood of Christ. Or the relationship between belief (and faith) and actions (or works).
On one hand, we are told “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,” (Acts 16:31), while on the other, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 7:21).
Two Sides, One Coin
The technical terms orthodoxy (correct doctrine) and orthopraxy (correct practice) are often set in opposition, even encased as stereotypes: Protestants believe in salvation by “faith alone,” while Catholics (it is said) believe in a “doctrine of works.”
But this division isn’t only a Catholic-Protestant divide; the recent presidential election served (among other things) to highlight divisions between Catholics. At the risk of oversimplifying, on one side were “conservatives” who gave pride of place to official Church teaching (particularly on “life issues” such as opposition to abortion and defense of traditional marriage) and on the other hand “progressives” favoring issues of “social justice” (“choice,” “gay marriage,” and ordination of women to the priesthood).
But orthodoxy and orthopraxy are not doctrines in conflict— they are two sides of one coin; two hands that have to be in right relation. But how are we to know the correct balance? How are we to know what correct practice really is?
When Our Lord was asked which was the greatest commandment, He answered:
The first is, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk. 12:29-31)
Let’s unpack this.
First, to say that “God is one” is to argue against indifferentism and pluralism. It is to say, as the CDF document Dominus Iesus makes clear, that there is only one God and Savior. “It must therefore be firmly believed as a truth of Catholic faith that the universal salvific will of the One and Triune God is offered and accomplished once for all in the mystery of the Incarnation, death, and Resurrection of the Son of God. . . . No one, therefore, can enter into communion with God except through Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit” (12,14).
Next, we are told to love God.
As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote in Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives,
Man is a relational being. And if his first, fundamental relationship is disturbed—his relationship with God— then nothing else can truly be in order. This is where the priority lies in Jesus’ message and ministry: before all else, He wants to point man toward the essence of his malady, and to show Him—if you are not healed there, then however many good things you may find, you are not truly healed.
Knowing God
To love God means to love as God loves. It also means to love what God loves. And this implies the converse—to love what God loves also means to hate what God hates: sin in all its myriad forms, because “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Or, as Jesus said, “every one who commits a sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house forever . . . ” (John 8:35).
But how are we to do this?
Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:4, adding “mind” to Deuteronomy’s “heart, soul, and might.” The scribe to whom Jesus spoke replied, with “heart, understanding, and strength.”
And so in order to love God—to be in a right relationship with God—we have to know God. It’s not enough to have an emotional attraction to God, to have a spiritual feeling towards Him, or to be strong in whatever it is that we sense. We have to know God. And so Jesus’ addition of “mind” is important—so important that we are to have the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). This means knowing what God has revealed to us; allowing God’s wisdom, not ours, to illuminate us. To help us, God has provided us with Scripture, prophets, apostles, our Lord, the Church, the Magisterium.
If we have a false conception of God, then our actions flowing from that conception are likely to be false as well. For example, if we believe in a God of love, then our heart and soul will be oriented to emulate that love; but if we believe that God is an angry, vengeful deity, then we’ll be willing to sacrifice other humans to satiate that vengeance. In order to do God’s will in a manner acceptable to Him—in order to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”)—we have to know and love God properly.
We don’t always like to hear this. We prefer to believe that yes, God is love, and that therefore He loves what we love—even if what we love happens to be contrary to Scripture, to Tradition, to the teachings of the Magisterium, and to natural law. We want God to orient Himself to us, rather than orienting ourselves to Him. But to do so is to engage in self-deception.
Matthew 7:21-23 details the awful consequences of self-deception:
Not every one who says to me, “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.”
The Standard is Christ
We can’t perform the Second Commandment without obeying the First Commandment first. We must know and love God before we can properly love our neighbor.
Our new pope, Francis, alluded to this in his first extended message, when he said, “We can walk as much as we want, we can build many things, but if we do not confess Jesus Christ, nothing will avail.” He continued, “We will become a pitiful [nongovernment organization], but not the Church, the Bride of Christ. . . . When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil.”
What happens if we put the Second Commandment before the First? We might end up endorsing dissenting positions that are ultimately detrimental to the very people they’re intended to help.
It can be all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that loving people means to give them what they want. But it is a false or misguided love that gives people what they want—or what society says is all right—rather than the truth which can only come from God. While the Church views some issues as matters open for discussion (How do we handle illegal immigrants or gun control?) others (abortion, euthanasia, etc.) are not.
We do people no favors if, because of a misguided love, we lead them astray. And if we place a social ministry (even if the works are correct) ahead of the saving of souls (the Great Commission) we are failing both them, ourselves, and God.
And so the balance between orthodoxy and orthopraxy has to be measured against Our Lord’s teaching—the First Commandment and then the Second; right beliefs preceding right actions in order for those actions not to go astray or be misguided. Then we can truly love God and properly love our neighbor as ourselves.
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