A
Alainval
Guest
Hey everyone, I am currently a Protestant but I do have a question as it related to assurance of salvation in the Catholic Church. Council of Trent seemed to deny assurance in Canon 16. If this is the case, then how does the Catholic Church comfort those who are going through spiritual distress as it relates to their salvation and final perseverance? I mean, doesn’t Romans 5:1 say that being justified by faith we have peace with God? I know some people say that we can find comfort in the sacraments especially that of the absolution given by the priest for the forgiveness of mortal sins, but even Trent seems to say that we can’t find sufficient comfort in that (the second quote above).
Moreover, people can also say that we ought not to doubt the mercy of God or the sufficiency of the merits, but again, Trent doesn’t allow for their to be enough comfort in that. I heard by some people that one of the reasons the Reformation spread quickly was because people were always in torment and bondage to fear on whether they would be saved or condemned. For them, faith alone wasn’t a license to sin, God forbid anyone should use it as such, but instead it was a refuge to run to when their consciences would ring and condemn them for the sins they’ve committed. I’m currently reading John Owen (an English Puritan), and he said this, “Justification by faith ‘is the refuge, the only refuge, of distressed consciences, wherein they may find rest and peace.” He also suggests that the reason why so many Catholics are so ardent in denying faith alone is because they haven’t been convicted of their sins sufficiently and that they can’t sympathize with the trembling soul who fears that he will be damned. He said this about those times: “The first reformers found their consciences so immersed in darkness, so pressed and harassed with fears and terrors, and so lacking in steady guidance as to how to obtain peace with God, that they inquired after the truth in this matter. All men in those days were either kept in bondage to fear by their convictions of sin, or they were sent for relief to indulgences, priestly pardons, penances, pilgrimages, personal works, and doing more than was expected of others. They were kept under the chains of darkness and purgatory until the last day.”
And again, Owen asserts that the reasons why those Catholics at the time were so immersed in the intercession of the Saints, penance, etc, was because they tried to find anything they could to prevent themselves from falling into despair. As Owen says, “Expiatory sacrifices for the dead and dying, confessionals with authoritative absolution, penances…the merit and intercession of departed saints or angels, purgatory, and the whole of monastic devotion still depend on them. They are all invented to pacify the consciences of men, or to divert them from responding to the law of God.”
So with all this stated, the question remains, how do Catholics truly comfort someone who is in spiritual distress and agony over their souls? I’m not talking about religious ocd or scruples, but an actual and genuine trembling and terror. Thanks for reading.
Moreover, people can also say that we ought not to doubt the mercy of God or the sufficiency of the merits, but again, Trent doesn’t allow for their to be enough comfort in that. I heard by some people that one of the reasons the Reformation spread quickly was because people were always in torment and bondage to fear on whether they would be saved or condemned. For them, faith alone wasn’t a license to sin, God forbid anyone should use it as such, but instead it was a refuge to run to when their consciences would ring and condemn them for the sins they’ve committed. I’m currently reading John Owen (an English Puritan), and he said this, “Justification by faith ‘is the refuge, the only refuge, of distressed consciences, wherein they may find rest and peace.” He also suggests that the reason why so many Catholics are so ardent in denying faith alone is because they haven’t been convicted of their sins sufficiently and that they can’t sympathize with the trembling soul who fears that he will be damned. He said this about those times: “The first reformers found their consciences so immersed in darkness, so pressed and harassed with fears and terrors, and so lacking in steady guidance as to how to obtain peace with God, that they inquired after the truth in this matter. All men in those days were either kept in bondage to fear by their convictions of sin, or they were sent for relief to indulgences, priestly pardons, penances, pilgrimages, personal works, and doing more than was expected of others. They were kept under the chains of darkness and purgatory until the last day.”
And again, Owen asserts that the reasons why those Catholics at the time were so immersed in the intercession of the Saints, penance, etc, was because they tried to find anything they could to prevent themselves from falling into despair. As Owen says, “Expiatory sacrifices for the dead and dying, confessionals with authoritative absolution, penances…the merit and intercession of departed saints or angels, purgatory, and the whole of monastic devotion still depend on them. They are all invented to pacify the consciences of men, or to divert them from responding to the law of God.”
So with all this stated, the question remains, how do Catholics truly comfort someone who is in spiritual distress and agony over their souls? I’m not talking about religious ocd or scruples, but an actual and genuine trembling and terror. Thanks for reading.
