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Lesson 7 - The Saviour

Why God Became Man

The first prayer a Catholic learns to say is the Sign of the Cross. He puts the left hand flat on his breast and with the right hand he touches his forehead, his breast his left shoulder and his right shoulder. At the same time he says these words. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

We say this same prayer and make the same sign at the beginning and end of all our prayers. In the first place the words remind us that Christ is God. In the second place they remind us that He died for us on the cross. Since Christ was both God and man we can learn an enormous amount about God from Him much more intimately than if we had never known Him. That was one of the reasons why He became man.

But it was not the only reason. Nor even the principal reason. God became man first and foremost to save us from sin and hell and to teach us the way to heaven. He saved us by dying for us on the cross. We call Him our Saviour, our Redeemer. We touch here what is perhaps the most baffling, the most astonishing mystery of the Catholic Faith. But certainly the most consoling.

Adam and Eve — The Disaster

To understand what it is all about we have to go hack to the beginning of the human race. We read in the Bible that God made the first human pair Adam and Eve. He made them in a state of happiness with all they needed to know Him, love Him and serve Him. With one command only:

Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou
shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it thou shalt die the death. (Genesis 2)

Tempted by the devil¹ they disobeyed God, and from that moment everything went wrong.
They had turned their back on God and it was as though they had mutilated themselves. They had lost the grace of God. By the grace of God — the word means a free gift — is meant that higher life, a more than natural life which God had given them.

This supernatural life is explained more fully in the lessons which follow (8 and 9 especially). At this point simply note that God did not give our first parents a merely human, merely natural life. He raised them a step higher.

A tree has life: a bird has life: a man has life. But there is a vast difference in the kind of life each has. So there is a vast difference between merely natural human life and supernatural life. God gave Adam and Eve the supernatural life. This raised them high above their merely natural state as a bird is above a tree — as a tree is above a stone.

The supernatural life was, in some way, a sharing in the life of God. Because they had it, Adam and Eve were not just creatures of God — they were children of God. The degrees of life can be represented thus:

It was this supernatural life which would have made it possible for them to follow God's will on earth and to be happy with Him in Heaven. When they lost it they were quite incapable of replacing it. They could no more heal themselves than a man can replace an arm or leg when he loses it.

¹ See note at the end of this lesson – The Devil

The Conflict In Us

It is from that moment that we date the tendency to evil that we all know so well in our own character. The pagans know it as well as the Christians, "I see the better thing but I follow the worse," said the pagan poet. And St. Paul writes:

I am delighted with the law of God according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my members. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God by Jesus Christ Our Lord. (Romans 7: 22 - 25.)

God Promises A Saviour

The human race had failed and God might have wiped it out completely. But in His mercy He spared the human race and as our first parents left the state of happiness in which God had made them. He promised that one day there would come a Saviour. He spoke to the Devil (whom the Bible calls the serpent);

I will establish a feud between thee, and the woman between thy offspring and hers; she is to crush thy head while thou dost lie in wait at her heels. (Genesis 3)

For long centuries, nobody knows how long, the human race struggled on in darkness. Men could know something about God because they still had their intelligence. They could even do some good because human nature was not utterly ruined and God still gave His help But they were not as God had made them. They had not the abundant help of God that they needed. They could not know God, trust God or love God as they ought and that is why you will always find at the heart of paganism despair.

Original Sin

Notice that when we talk of Original Sin the word "Sin" is used in a special sense. Obviously a new born baby cannot have committed sin against God in the sense of a personal offence against Him. But every man born into the world is born into a race that has rebelled against God. He receives only the human nature — the mutilated human nature — handed on by our first parents. There is something lacking that ought to be there. What is lacking is the supernatural life and without that we can never get to heaven.

We know all this only because God has told us through the Bible and especially through the mouth of Christ. But our own everyday experience confirms the fact that there is something wrong with human nature, something that needs putting right. No mere man could put it right. God put it right by becoming man Himself.

"Christ Dies For Us" – What Does It Mean?

That is why God became man. Christ was both God and man. Because He was God everything He did was perfect. From the first moment of His life as man until the moment He died upon the cross He served God His Father perfectly even to the end.

Because He was man we can rightly say that one of us has served God perfectly and so the wrong done by our first father Adam has been righted by the new Adam Christ. How did He do it?

His nature is from the first divine and yet, He dispossessed Himself, and took the nature of a slave, fashioned in the likeness of men, and presenting Himself to us in human form; and then He lowered His own dignity, accepted an obedience which brought Him to death, death on a cross. (Phil.2)

If you pick up the Gospels you can read how He foresaw all the suffering that was to come on Him. You can read how He was in agony of fear and dismay the night before He died. Then how He was scourged, crowned with thorns, mocked by the soldiery and finally put to death in the most ignominious manner by being crucified.

And so reparation was made to God. Where the first Adam had rebelled against God the new Adam had been completely obedient to God and obeyed Him even when obedience meant that the enemies of God would put Him to death.

Notice that God need not have redeemed the world in this way. He did not need to suffer and die. But He chose to do it that way to show His love for us. He said Himself:

Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend.
(John 15)

Moreover, granted that human nature was to share in the work then human nature would want to give all it could. In Christ the human race gave all it had to give, for man has no more to give than his life.

We Are Re-United To God

So it is possible for us once more to be re-united to God. To be at one with God. (That is why Christ's work is also called the "atonement"). We achieve this by being born again.

When we are born of our mother we are born into a fallen race. When we are re-born (by being baptised) of our Mother the Church we are born into a race that has been saved by Christ.

When we are born of our mother we are in a state of original sin. When we are re-born in baptism of our Mother the Church, original sin is wiped out and it is once more possible for us to know God, trust God and love God as we should here and to enjoy union with Him forever when we die.

You see now why it is that Christians so often write and speak of the Blood of Christ. Why we call it the Precious Blood. Why we speak of the Blood of Christ washing away sin

We also see just how dreadful a thing sin is when Christ Who was God died to wipe it out.

Christ's Suffering – And Ours

All the consequences of this teaching do not come home to us in an instant. We need to think it over, to bring it vividly before our minds. We have to kneel with Christ in His agony in the Garden of Olives the night before His death and pray with Him. We have to stand by and see Him bleeding under the scourges of the Roman soldiers. We have to sorrow with Him as He is crowned with thorns. We have to stand by the foot of the cross with His Mother and St. John and hear Him call out as He dies; It is achieved. (John 19) Then we have to share in the sufferings and death of Christ ourselves. And this can give us an understanding of the whole mystery of suffering.

It all comes back to trust in God. If God Himself suffered and died then suffering and death must have an essential role in God's plan. When we suffer, when we die we must trust God to know what is best for us. We follow in His footsteps. He led the way.

The Problem Of Evil

We are now in a position to understand something about the problem of problems — the problem of Evil. How in a world made by a good God can there be the evil physical mental and moral that we know and experience?

Let it he said at once that evil is a mystery. We cannot expect to understand everything about it. We have to trust God to know what He is about in permitting evil. He does not cause evil. He could not. Because He is goodness itself. However deeply we feel the evil of the world it still remains true that the good far outweighs it. Life after all is worth living. And if anyone says "How can God be good when there is so much suffering and wickedness in the world?" One can say with far greater right "How can God be evil when there is so much happiness and goodness in the world?"

Even by the light of our unaided reason we can see a certain distance into this problem. The often quoted example is still a good one; if you come into a room and see nine beds made and one disordered you do not say there has been no bedmaker there. Clearly some one has put the beds in order but for some reason which you may not know, one bed has been left unmade or disturbed after being made. The order of the Universe testifies to God. The disorder shows that something has happened to upset that order in part.

Again it seems almost inevitable in created things that the very qualities that make them good can also make them a cause of harm. Fire is good because it is hot. We can warm ourselves, cook, use it as a source of energy. But the same heat can also burn us. If we are wise we accept things as they are and trust God who made them so. We do not complain if the fire which is hot when we cook with it is still hot if we foolishly put a finger into it. The good heat is God's work. The foolish (or wicked) misuse of it is ours.

Sometimes the innocent suffer through the fault of the guilty as in war. But if there are undeserved evils there are many more undeserved goods. What have you or I done to deserve the benefits of penicillin? We are able to enjoy them because another human being like ourselves discovered them. We live in contact with one another and contact may be beneficial or harmful. But it is better to be in contact and to take the risk of harm rather than to be left with no contact with others, to face the world alone.

The most precious thing in the world is love. But where there is love there can also be hate. The very contact and communication with others that makes love possible makes hatred possible too.

The only way to see this problem is to look at the facts. God is good. God made human beings free from evil and free even from pain and death. But He left us free. He gave us that perilous and sublime privilege. We misused it and disaster followed, God did not destroy us as failures. He permitted the consequences of our Fall because He saw that out of evil He could draw good. He allows suffering to refine and temper our characters. The bay leaf gives no fragrance till it is bruised.

Suffering, pain, evil can only really be understood at the foot of the Cross. God became man Himself. He faced evil and suffering and death. He asks us to do nothing which He has not done Himself. And so we say "If that is the way God wants me to come to Him then that is good enough for me". We put our trust in Him. God can write straight with crooked lines. He is weaving the tapestry of life. We see it from below and only notice the needle stabbing through and a seemingly aimless set of stitches in which we hardly discern an order. But God sees the other side, the design and picture that He will one day show us.

The Sacred Heart Of Jesus

All this is summed up in the Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. If you go into a Catholic Church you will nearly always see a statue of Christ with His heart displayed. Whenever we speak of love or suffering we speak of the heart. In love we say we give our heart to another. In sorrow we say we are heart-broken. In compassion and sympathy we say our heart goes out to someone.

We reverence the Sacred Heart of Jesus, because this brings home to us the fact that God loves us, that God suffered for us, that God's heart goes out to us.

How very much there is about it that we don't understand. How very much there is about suffering that we don't understand. But we put our trust in God.

"Sacred Heart of Jesus I put my trust in Thee"

The Devil

Before creating man God created the pure spirits whom we call the Angels. They too were tested as man was. Some of them refused to obey and so lost Heaven. Hell came into existence. They are the devils. Their leader is called in the Scriptures Satan, Beselzebub, Belial, the Devil.

Our Lord says of him: He is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8: 44)

He attempts now to draw us to rebel against God His power is very great but he can never touch directly our intellect or our will. He can suggest and persuade to evil — he cannot compel us.

God always gives us enough help to conquer the Devil.

God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able; but will make also with temptation issue that you may be able to bear it. (1 Cor. 10: 13.)

Temptation by the Devil is part of our test. God is with us — but He pays us the compliment of freedom. We are to choose. If we choose the Devil we do so freely. The Devil is real. He is our enemy. We ignore him at our peril.

How To Pray (ii)

Prayer In Words

In the previous leaflet we saw how we can form the habit of prayer without words — simply by raising our mind and heart to God. There are times however when we feel the need to put our thoughts and feelings into words. In that case we should talk to God as simply as we talk to anybody. If you read the lives of the Saints you will find an extraordinary simplicity in their conversations with Almighty God. Sometimes they just say the same thing over and over again. "My God I love You. My God I trust You, My God I believe in You." So a person in love says the same thing over and over again to the one he loves. We can talk as much or as little as we please, in any way we please so long as it is sincere. That is all that God wants.

What about using prayer books? Some people find them useful, others don't. In this matter we have the liberty of the sons of God. We can use them or not just as we wish. In general though, it is true to say that most people can learn a great deal from using a prayer book.

There are times when we can't find words to express what is in our heart. The prayers that have been used by friends of God for centuries then help us to say what we want to say. It is like appreciating poetry. The poet has a gift of saying with insight and penetration the kind of thing that we have vaguely felt but never been able to express.

In the same way we may find that a prayer book, such as the Key of Heaven or the Garden of the Soul helps to move our heart and mind in a way that we sometimes can't do ourselves. Take, for example, the Stations of the Cross, or the Jesus Psalter (as found in such prayer books as those mentioned) and see how they nourish the spirit of prayer in us when we use them. After a while the phrases and sentences of them become part of ourselves. What had begun as a borrowed prayer now is a very personal one of our own.

In all this remember that we are not tied to any particular prayer. We should use the ones that appeal to us and leave aside the ones that don't. However, when there is some prayer or devotion that is widely used in the Church it is a good thing to practice it and use it even if at first it doesn't appeal to us. We can take it for granted that if many good people do find it helpful and especially if the Church recommends it there is something in it for us. If it doesn't appeal to us at first it is more likely that there is something lacking in us than in the prayer or the devotion itself.

Even devotion to the Sacred Heart, for example, does not immediately appeal to everybody. But it does appeal to overwhelming numbers of people and it is warmly recommended by the Church. We would be wise therefore to practise it even if at first it doesn't appeal. There is a certain humility in doing this and humility is the basis of any approach to God. In the course of time we find that we begin to learn from the devotion and to draw inspiration and strength from it.

It is a mistake to regard praying from a book as artificial as though the words were not your own. Think of it rather as a piece of music in which you play or sing the notes written by another but make them your own.

Distractions and Dryness

Prayer is simple, prayer is talking to God. God always listens. Why then do we find it so hard to keep our mind on what we are doing? Why do we suffer from distractions?

We all do suffer from them. We start praying with the best will in the world. We turn our mind and heart to God. And then a few minutes later we realise with a shock that our attention has wandered far away. We have not been thinking about what we were saying at all. This is often worrying. People are inclined to think that their prayers are useless because they have suffered from distractions. This is not necessarily so. If the distractions are deliberate or careless then the prayer is of little use. It is no use pretending to pray if we are deliberately turning our attention to other things all the time. But not every distraction is deliberate. Often they can't be helped.

In the first place don't be surprised that distractions come. We are body as well as soul. And our attention is most readily caught by what we can see, touch and feel. Now when we pray we see only with the eye of faith. God is not visible to our eyes. He is not there before us face to face. There is nothing to be surprised at then in the body's attention being distracted by one thing and another. It is only to be expected that distractions will come. The important thing is what do we do with them when they come. This is how to deal with them,

How To Deal with Distractions

1. Be properly recollected at least at the beginning of your prayer. Say in your heart, "Here I am Lord and there are You". Put yourself for a moment in the presence of God. You will know then at any rate that you have begun well.
2. If you find that your attention has wandered, patiently come back to your prayer and continue.
3. Never go over again the prayers that you have already said distractedly. If you start doing that you will grow so weary of praying there will be a danger that you will give it up entirely.
4. If the mind wanders again, once more patiently come back to prayer and continue,
5. Accept the distractions as a cross and offer them up with the cross Our Lord carried.

All this does not mean that we should take distractions for granted. We should continually be trying to make our prayer more attentive; more recollected. We should not be worried, however, when distractions come through no fault of our own. We should make use of them to teach us humility and patience. St. Teresa of Avila, that remarkable woman who was one of the greatest teachers of spirituality the Church has ever known, said that the "prayer of distraction", as she called it, could be an even more perfect prayer than the prayer which goes, as it sometimes does, smoothly and comfortably, the heart and mind undistractedly fixed on God. What she was saying was that to persevere in prayer to God even when everything is against it is a real sign of love and shows even more devotion than prayer at the times when we experience full consolation.

In the next leaflet we shall say something about asking for things in prayer.

End of Lesson 7

Supplement A

Supplement B "The Sacred Heart of Jesus"

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