Dogma and Contemplation

Dogma and Contemplation | Charles Cardinal Journet | From What Is Dogma? | Ignatius Insight

Dogma and Mystery

The dogmas—the Trinitarian dogma, the dogma of the utterly free and gratuitous creation of the universe, the dogmas of the Incarnation, of the redemptive sacrifice, of transubstantiation, the sacramental dogmas, the Marian dogma—are the great declarations which the Church has made known against  rationalization of the wonderful revelations of Holy Scripture. Far from weakening the mystery, they mark its outlines in order that the spirit may enter further into its darkness and lose itself in its depths.

The Church is divinely assisted by the prophetic light of infallibility in order to present them to us. But it is not on its created authority that we believe—the presentation which the Church offers conditions our assent to their truth, it does not provide the basis for the assent; it is on the uncreated and direct authority of God, revealing himself to us and revealing to us his work, that we believe. Faith, theological faith, is the inward, personal light by which God comes to the understanding and will of each man, so as, if no obstacle is met with, to raise them to himself. "He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself, habet testimonium Dei in se" (1 Jn 5:10); "Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (5:5).

The Knowledge of Simple Faith

At the first moment when it is received in the soul, the light of Christianity bestows both the prophetic gifts of divine revelation and also the power to recognize them, that is, the sanctifying light of theological faith that causes us to assent to their mysterious depths and that is thus seen to be the root of the whole work of justification. [1] The believer is encompassed by ideas, revealed statements, in which is expressed his Creed, what he believes about God and God's work, creation, redemption, salvation, the last ends. His faith makes use of these statements in an intuitive, not a discursive, way. It is concerned to make the whole human person assent to the truth of what they contain.

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