St. Vincent of Lerin's description of a Catholic, and the condition of such as are for novelties in Faith.
by VP
Posted on Saturday October 29, 2022 at 12:36AM in Books
The Catechism of the Council of Trent
"The more learned the person is, who is the author of error, the greater are the people's temptations.
He only is a true, genuine Catholic, who loves the word of God and his Church, the mystical body of Christ, above all other considerations in the world; who values neither the authority, nor love, nor wit, nor eloquence, nor philosophy of any man breathing, in comparison of his divine Religion and the faith of the Catholic Church; upon all these things he looks down with contempt, and fixed and immovable in the faith, resolves to believe nothing upon the authority of one single man, but what he finds anciently and universally to have been believed by the Catholic Church; and whatever upstart, unheard of doctrine he finds to be secretly introduced, in opposition to all the faithful, let him look upon that as matter of temptation, rather than an article of faith: and this advice of mine will then especially, appear more reasonable, when he reflects upon that of St. Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, where he declares, That there must be also heresies: that they who are approved, may be made manifest among you 1 Cor. xi. 19. As if he should have said, this is the reason why God does not interpose miraculously, and destroy heresies in a moment, that the approved may be made manifest, that is, that every firm, faithful, and constant lover of the Catholic faith, under such a temptation, might be a more shining example to the world, of the true power of godliness.
And in truth, when any new born heresy first shews its head in the Church, the good grain is then soon discovered by its weight, and the chaff by its lightness: and then upon the sifting temptation, that chaff submits to the first wind, which had no solidity to secure it on the floor. For some fly off immediately, others are shocked only, and turn occasionalists, being afraid of perishing out of the Church, and yet, at the same tie, ashamed of returning perfectly into it, wounded, half dead, and half alive, and just in the condition of those men, who have taken such a dose of poison, as will neither destroy nor be digested, neither let them die or live.
Pitiable condition? For with what whirlwinds, what tides of restless passion are such wretches agitated! One while, they are transported with every wind of doctrine; another while, they return and fall foul upon themselves, and, like conflicting waves, are dashed to pieces by their own contrary motions; this moment, they are confident in uncertainties, and the moment after as irrationally fearful, where no fear exists; unknowing where to go, where to return, what to desire, what to deprecate; what to receive, and what to relinquish.
Nevertheless, this unhappy vibration and instability of mind, points to its own cure, if men would but wisely consider the merciful design of Providence, in this very affliction. For therefore, whilst without the haven of the Catholic faith, are they thus afflicted, thus tossed and shattered almost to pieces with inward storms of clashing thoughts, that by this restless posture of mind, being made sensible of the danger they are in, and their distance from salvation, they might take down those sails of pride and vanity, which they have unhappily spread before every gust of heresy, and make all the sale they can into the safe and peaceable harbour of their holy mother, the Catholic Church; and there, being sea sick, as it were, with errors, discharge these foul and bitter waters, to make room for the pure waters of life. There they may unlearn well, all they have learned ill, and get a right notion of all those doctrines of the church they are capable of understanding, and believe those that surpass all understanding."
