Well this year is the
450th anniversary of the closing of the Council of Trent and it's worth
reflecting on and celebrating the Council of Trent a bit.
It is one of the most important councils in the history of the church, also the longest council by far; it commenced in December of
of 1545 and didn't end until
1563, and there were several hiatuses in between but it was a very protracted
Council. It took place in Trent, of course,
but other cities as well, as they moved around out of fear of disease and fear of Protestant armies, etc, etc. So a very dramatic
time. It was of course in response to the Protestant Reformation,
how to respond to the criticisms of Luther, Calvin, and the other reformers.
One of the tragedies is, frankly, that it took so long to come together. So Luther
it's in
1517 that he put the "95 Theses" up on the the church door in Wittenberg.
1520, the Reformation is well underway.
If the council of Trent had happened, let's say, in
1525, would that it made more of a difference? If Luther, let's say, had been at the Council of Trent,
would that have made a difference?
One of the ironies too is that Luther himself died during the first session of the Council of Trent in the spring of
1546.
Anyway, when I was coming of age in the years after Vatican II, Trent was sort of the bad boy council. So Vatican II is
the other cool council that's open to the modern world, and progressive, and all that, and
the bad Boy Council was not so much Vatican I, but Trent.
If you were old-fashioned and conservative, you were stuck in the time of Trent.
My famous joke from the
Council period is that
Cardinal Ottaviani was a leading sort of conservative figure at Vatican 2, that he came out of his apartment.
And he got a cab and said, "Quick, take me to the Council." and the cab driver drove him to Trent. You know
so that was the joke that Trent people were stuck in the old times. So I had those prejudices deep in my
system when I read Trent for the first time in connection with a course I was teaching out here at the seminary on
the Reformation. And I must say when I read Trent, I was so impressed by it.
Some of the smartest people at the time got together and composed these texts, and
they had listened very
carefully to the Protestant Reformers.
It is completely untrue to say that the Church here kind of lurched away from the Reformation. It
uncritically reacted to Luther. That is not the case at all. The people that wrote the Trent documents
read the Reformers very carefully.
And I would say it's probably surprising to us now that
they nodded rather vigorously toward them in many ways, even as they also pull back and clarify.
So I would say with anyone listening to this video.
But especially Catholics, I would say take the time to read the Council of Trent the documents. They really are extraordinary
I'll just focus on two simple things. There's a lot we could say about it.
But to their credit,
the Tridentine Fathers decided, "Look let's take the central issue of the Reformation first.
Let's address that first." Some people said "Hey, don't watch it
Let's do some practical things first, and we'll slowly get to the really you know hot-button issues."
And they said, "No no no no. Let's look at the serious issues." What were they? Above all, Original Sin, and
Justification, the two issues that
Luther's Critique, sort of, hinged on.
Original sin, the
Tridentine Fathers again, it's probably surprising to us today
how
vigorously they nod toward the Reformers' sense of total depravity. Now, I want to be careful.
They pull back from a total depravity view of human beings, but they pretty clearly indicate that Original Sin
has
severely wounded
the human being the human
community and the human project.
See we've inherited as
moderns, now postmoderns, a very strong sense of perfectability. Think of the myth of progress in the 19th century, through our
science, and through our political
achievements, and through our maturity as a race, we will solve all the great human problems, thinking especially the way the
sciences have affected us here. We have an extraordinary confidence in our ability to
perfect ourselves.
Well yeah as every postmodern points out, look at the 20th century sometime and
ask yourself the question, "Are these, you know, perfectible agents working here?"
Karl Barth and company who very early on the 20th century said no to this
Myth of Progress. Well see? Trend stands very clearly with the mainstream of the Christian tradition,
against all scheme as a perfectability. Now why?
Because it knows that Original Sin
has compromised us in this very serious way.
Trend says that Original sin has led to a loss of
holiness and a loss of justice. Very interesting holiness
wholeness, I mean,
In almost all the great European languages, healthy and holy are closely related
You know "sainte" and "saint" in French， "heilig" and "heillos" in German and so on to be holy is to be
whole, is to be integrated, that everything in me hangs together around the proper center, which is the love of God. Right?
What has sin done to us? The loss of a proper relationship to God has led to a
disintegration of the self.
I read all the psychologists and philosophers and all that.
I don't know any better description of what's wrong with us than that you lose the relation to God and the rest of you disintegrates
mind, will,
passions, emotions,
sexuality, body, public life, private life are now a jumble. They're now opposed to each other. We've
disintegrated. The technical term for that is we've lost
holiness.
We've fallen apart. Now again,
I think anyone who's lived more than, you know, 15 years on Planet Earth, can witness to what that feels like. That I'm
disintegrated,
Trent sees that quite properly as a fruit of
Original Sin.
Secondly, we've lost
justice. What's justice?
A right relationship. See first of all, a right relationship to God. Once that's compromised
Well, I fall apart on the inside. Quite right, I also fall apart on the outside.
Meaning all my relationships, my friendships, my business relationships, my political relationships all become
skewed and kinky and compromised. I've lost holiness.
I've lost justice. More to it Trent says this Original Sin is passed on
"propagatione, non imitatione"
by propagation and not by imitation.
It's very profound insight seems to me. Sin is passed on not simply by the process of imitation.
"Oh! Look at that. That looks interesting. I'll try that myself."
It's much more like the way a disease is passed on, where it invades our systems.
Think of our sins as this loss of holiness and justice, will work its way into
our even our biology, if you want, into the into the structures of our brains and also into our institutions,
also into all the structures of society.
This has led to
the human race being one big dysfunctional family. I
think the best comparison now is to a form of addiction. If someone's addicted to alcohol,
well, they're not going to will themselves out of it right. They can't lift themselves up out of alcoholism.
There's an acknowledgment of a profound
dysfunction that needs to be addressed by a higher power right. It's commonplace now in the "12-step Systems".
That's very close to what Trent saying about sin.
It's a disease that has affected the whole human family.
We're all in the same boat and we're all seasick. That is how tragedies came in.
I think Trent here, as I say, is very
vigorously nodding toward the Reformers. He's taking very seriously their stress upon. What sin has done to us
Now what follows from the view now the second-greatest, sure, I want to talk about namely
justification as
You know that was the neuralgic point of Reformation because Luther made it central to his teaching that we are justified, set right with God
by
grace through Faith. It's by faith alone. When I accept in faith the grace offered to me,
I am justified, apart from works of the Law, right.
So there's the central Lutheran claim and the Reformation, in many ways, flows from them
What does the Catholic church say about this? Well Trent's doctrine on justification now is worth careful study.
First insight.
Do we need a higher power to save us?
Yes, and here Trend is clearly nodding toward Luther approvingly.
It
disputes any program of perfectibility whether it's classical philosophy or Modern philosophy.
We can't save ourselves.
No, alcoholic can't make himself not to be an alcoholic
If sin is like an addiction or dysfunction, it's only by a higher power
addressing us that we can be saved. And that's why, you see, we need a saviour not just a teacher.
Jesus is not just someone that teaches us nice moral truths and now we can imitate.
He's a savioyr who has to go into our dysfunction and set it right.
Trent, here, is clearly
acknowledging the primacy and necessity of Grace.
I think it's saying, "Luther, you were right about that. You were reflecting the mainstream of the great Christian tradition."
So what did it pull back from
Luther?
Luther taught a version of total depravity. He also taught a version of
forensic or imputed righteousness. That means
we're not really made righteous by grace. We are
declared righteous. God imputes as it were righteousness to us
Trent balked at that. The Catholic church has always balked at that because we hold to a real
transformation that, yes, we are
compromised dramatically by sin, yes, we need a Saviour, can't save ourselves.
But that grace now having invaded our lives
can be
cooperated with.
So here's now
what remains integral of human freedom and human intelligence and human good will
can cooperate with grace.
So that the divine life can grow in us and become perfected in us. That's why Trent talks about
justification which happens through faith and grace alone. Quite Right. You can't do it on your own.
But then it speaks of an
increase in justification,
which can happen through our cooperation. And in this we get, if you want, the Catholic difference.
But see? What I think is interesting is for most people today, I think what would surprise them most about Trent is how
vigorously it acknowledges the reformers how seriously it takes Original Sin, the necessity of grace.
The difference though is the capacity to
cooperate with the energy of grace so as to grow in
justification.
Anyway, there's a lot more I can say about Trent. It's a beautifully drafted, beautifully written set of documents.
It was a key moment in the life of the church. I think it's very important especially for Catholics now to revisit this great
Council on its 450th anniversary.
The End