Catholic belief on attonement

[PoorKnight]

Forgive me if I spelled it wrong…

I’m looking for what the Catholic view on attonement is.

I know some Christian groups believe in Substitutiary Attonement which - if I recall correctly - means Christ was punished in our place. I know that the difficulty with that is that it would mean God purposely punished an innocent person.

I am a bit fuzzy on the Catholic possition. I’ve heard Dr. Scott Hahn state that “Christ paid a debt he didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay”. Could someone expound on that please?

Forgive me if I have the terms all confuzzled too.

Thank you and God Bless

 

[JerryZ]

Forgive me if I spelled it wrong…

I’m looking for what the Catholic view on attonement is.

I know some Christian groups believe in Substitutiary Attonement which - if I recall correctly - means Christ was punished in our place. I know that the difficulty with that is that it would mean God purposely punished an innocent person.

I am a bit fuzzy on the Catholic possition. I’ve heard Dr. Scott Hahn state that “Christ paid a debt he didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay”. Could someone expound on that please?

Forgive me if I have the terms all confuzzled too.

Thank you and God Bless

It comes from the fall of Adam and Eve, God told them that if they ate from the Tree of knowledge they would die.

The atonement for sin is death.

But God is so mercifull He did not exact the payment He instead devised the plan to save us from having to pay.

He himself would pay our price our death was paid by Him.

God did not punish an innocent, He took our place instead.

Hope this helps you.

 

[PoorKnight]

It comes from the fall of Adam and Eve, God told them that if they ate from the Tree of knowledge they would die.

The atonement for sin is death.

But God is so mercifull He did not exact the payment He instead devised the plan to save us from having to pay.

He himself would pay our price our death was paid by Him.

God did not punish an innocent, He took our place instead.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks for the reply. So is the dicotomy that God / Christ willing paid for us vs. God / Christ was punished in our place?

 

[tonyrey]

At-one-ment is our liberation from evil - which separates us from God and from one another - by the power of Christ’s love for us which resulted in His torture and execution on the Cross.

 

[tonyrey]

Thanks for the reply. So is the dichotomy that God / Christ willing paid for us vs. God / Christ was punished in our place?

The idea of divine punishment is incompatible with the teaching of Jesus that God is an infinitely loving and merciful Father. Jesus accepted suffering to liberate us from our vices by inspiring us to be united to Him and to one another. We should fight against evil and have the right to defend ourselves but we also have to choose the lesser evil. We do more harm than good by resorting to force and violence if we are outnumbered and bound to be killed - as Jesus was.

Love is the only lasting source of unity, harmony and happiness because it is indestructible whereas hatred is not only destructive but self-destructive. Christianity has survived for two thousand years in spite of persecution from without and corruption from within because of a power that is spiritual not physical, the power that has created the entire universe and every other form of existence. That is the real meaning of at-one-ment: unity for all eternity!