"do Not Consider What We Truly Deserve,...

[Duc_In_Altum]

In one of the Eucharistic Prayers, the priest says "Do not consider what we truly deserve, but look to the faith of your Church." I'm having trouble understanding this: To implore God to not give us what we truly deserve, would seem to imply that we want God to contradict His[i] Justice[/i]. Since Justice is to give one their due, for God to deny our due would to seemingly be unjust- which is contradictory to God's nature. The second part, seems to imply that the faith of the Church is so great as to merit the Beatific Vision, which I'm not sure, with our fallen nature, if it actually does. Can someone clear this up for me?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

At first glance, this passage may seem to indicate a Lutheran view of salvation: i.e., that God sort of ignores our sins and allows them because we believe something to be true about such-and-such a doctrine.

However, the passage is completely in line with Catholic theology of salvation. Christ died for our sins to make an offering to God, in order to atone for our sins. That, as we know, is where Lutheran theology ends. They say that a baptized Christian is covered over with the appearance of righteousness (almost a sort of Jesus mask), which allows a person to enter heaven. We, however, believe that we are joined to Christ in Baptism and that, through living the faith, we are drawn closer to Him and conformed to Him.

In the Old Testament, God often overlooked the sins of His people because He anticipated the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Since it would ultimately be taken care of by His Son, God was willing to make the merits of that sacrifice extend to those who were repentant even before grace came back into the world.

In a perfect world, God would look upon us and see only His Son, because we would be conformed to Him. However, we are not, in this life, perfectly conformed to Christ. As such, the prayer asks God to overlook our imperfections and what we truly deserve, which would be (to correspond to imperfect conformity to Christ) something less than heaven. Keep in mind that for the Christian, God's justice and God's mercy are not at odds. God has been paid His due and has received atonement for sins by His Son, Jesus. Jesus, out of the [i]mercy[/i] of God, came to die for us, to offer Himself to the Father and us back to the Father in Himself, and by doing so, satisfied the [i]justice[/i] of God my paying the debt of sins on our behalf. Therefore, for those who have the merit of Christ applied to them, God's mercy is His justice, because it is just for God to be merciful, since Christ's sacrifice deserves the mercy of His Father on those who bear His grace. So we ask God not to consider our weaknesses, imperfections, or what we truly deserve apart from His Son, but to look on His Son and have mercy on us.

The first half of the prayer is dependent on the second, though. God has mercy on those who truly are in His Son and therefore fall under His justice, as I have indicated. The second half of the prayer introduces the condition that those praying it (or those being represented by the priests who pray it) be people of faith. Another key distinction between Catholic theology and Lutheran theology, which really goes right to the heart of this matter, is that while Lutheran theology says one must believe in an intellectual way (believe [i]that[/i] you are saved), Catholic theology says that one must believe in an incarnational way ("to believe" means to live according to faith). So the second half of the prayer makes sense because it acts as a necessary condition for the first half.

As for meriting the beatific vision, it is, of course, Christ's merits which allow us the beatific vision, but it is through our faith that we receive the gift. It should be kept in mind, however, that we merely cooperate with God's work in saving us. His grace guides us and beckons us onward throughout our salvation. This is what allows faith (and justification) to grow. So no, it itself the faith of the Church could do nothing. It is only in as much as our faith is bound up in Christ's merits that it has any power, because the more perfectly we believe, the more we are conformed to Christ and the more perfectly made worthy of heaven.

I hope this helps.

God bless,

Raphael

[Laudate_Dominum]

[mod]Not a good answer for the QA - L_D[/mod]

[i]Bravo Micah! I thought this was the debate board for some reason when I replied.[/i]