This is lecture 30, doing what lies in you, the sacramental system. We know by now that there were many eras that developed in the medieval church. We're going to see some of those eras today, eras in doctrine, eras in life. But there was two faith there also. And that true faith emerges from time to time, particularly in prayers. And the prayer that I'm going to use now to begin this lecture comes from the 11th century. And it's a prayer that we can pray in confidence that this is properly asking for God's blessing and God's help. Let's pray. Save me, Lord, King of eternal glory. You who have power to save us all. Grant that I may long for, do, and perfect those things which are pleasing to you and profitable for me. Lord, give me counsel at my anxiety, help in time of trial, solace when persecuted, and strength against every temptation. Grant me pardon, Lord, for my past wrongdoing and afflictions, correction of my present ones, and gain also to protect me against those in the future. Amen. The main question of the medieval world was the old question of the Philippian jailer. What must I do to be saved? There was no question that was more urgent, more pressing upon medieval people than that question. Their deepest concerns were expressed when they asked that question and tried to discover the answer to it. What I'd like to do in this lecture is to imagine a kind of dialogue between a sincere, lay person, a man or a woman in the medieval world in Europe and a priest or a spiritual advisor. This person is asking his or her priest for help to try to understand how to be saved. Tell me this person would say, tell me, how can I be saved for my sins? And the priest has a ready answer. The church, he says, the church has the answer. Don't worry. The church has the answer. Fockery, quod, in, say, est is the answer. Well, is that Latin? Yes, that's Latin. But I don't know Latin. What does that mean? Well, that means this. Do what lies in you, or you could see it this way. Do your very best. That's what the church is telling you. Do your very best, and God will not deny his grace to those who do their best. Does that mean then in plain language that God will help those who help themselves? Well, that's just about it. You could put it that way. God will help those who help themselves. What do I do then to help myself? Please be specific about this because I'm really concerned to get the right answer and to know how to be saved for my sins and to go to heaven. Well, as the priest, the answer is easy. There is a system in place. It's called a sacramental system. The church offers these to you, these sacraments to you, and as you make good use of them, you will indeed work your way to heaven eventually. Well, then what are the sacraments? What are we talking about here when you say that there are sacraments available for me? The sacraments, the priest says, the sacraments are religious activities that the church has approved of. These activities are things that you do, and as you do these, God's grace is conferred upon you. How many sacraments are there? Well, there used to be a lot of sacraments. So in Francis talked about 30 or 40 sacraments, but the great Peter Lombard was able to reduce that list to seven. And so the church now views the sacraments as seven. You know them. They are baptism, confirmation, eucharist, tenets, extreme action, and in marriage and ordination. Those are the seven means of grace that the church uses to confer God's grace upon you so that you can go to heaven. Of course, most people are going to experience only five or the most six of those sacraments because marriage, the church views as a sacrament, not everybody is going to be married. And ordination or orders, this is also a sacrament, but as you know, a priest is not married, so you cannot have all seven sacraments, but you can have at least six of them, certainly five, whether you're married or ordained or not, and as you use these five or six helps, then this is going to be the road to heaven for you. Well, what do I do first then? I certainly want to go to heaven and tell me how to get started on this road. Well, says the priest, the first sacrament is not something that you do is something that's done for you because first sacrament is baptism. And you were baptized as an infant. Baptism is very important because it's necessary to remove original sin. You were born in this world, in a state of sin. And baptism is the sacrament that removes sin and makes it possible for you eventually to go to heaven if you do some other things along the way. By the way, the church considers this sacrament so important that it allows anybody to baptize in an emergency. You know, of course, that in our world, many babies, most babies died birth. And it's so important for those babies to be baptized because without baptism, there is no hope of heaven. That the church says that it's not necessary for a priest to be there to baptize a dying baby. Anyone can do it. Even a midwife can do it. And the midwife should have clean water available so that if the baby appears to be dying, she can actually do the baptism. Normally, it's the father and the godparents who will bring the baby to the church when the baby is about six weeks old. The mother doesn't come because the mother does not attend public worship for a number of weeks until the time has passed. And then the mother comes for a service that is called Churching, a service of purification. But the baby is brought by the father and the godparents, at least by the time that baby is six weeks old, preferably even earlier. So the baby can be baptized as early as possible. And you see that baptism which you received as a baby put on you an indelible stamp. You're stamped with that baptism. It's never to be repeated. Does it mean that I'm going to heaven? Does it mean that I'm guaranteed heaven? Well, not exactly. But without it, you would never make it to heaven. With it, you've got a good chance. So thank God for your baptism. You've made a start on the way to heaven. Well, what comes next? The next sacrament is confirmation. What is that? Well, that is a sacrament in which the child confirms the vows that were made for the child at baptism. You were baptized as an infant. Some vows were taken. You did not know anything about those because you could not understand those. You were just an infant. But as you grew up, you began to understand something of what was involved in your baptism. And so there is a time of confirmation in which you are brought into the church, ask some questions and you take the vows yourself. Now it's your own embracing those vows that were made by your father and your God parents. When should I do this? Well, you do it when you're about three years old or maybe when you're six years old or maybe when you're nine years old, or maybe later, but probably never because you see there's a problem here. Because Catholic Church teaches that only the bishop can confirm and you know the bishop doesn't come to this little town very often. So most people are never confirmed. It is a sacrament of the church, but it's not very frequently practiced in our time. But don't worry. There are some other sacraments. There is the Eucharist. You know what that is. That's the Lord's Supper or communion. Well, how does that help me? The priest would say as food that you eat strengthens you and it enables you to grow physically. So the food that you eat in the Lord's Supper, in the Eucharist, the sacramental food of the bread and the wine strengthens you spiritually. How often should I do this? Well, the fourth letter in counsel that made in the year 1215 said you had to do it once a year. Every Catholic, every believer should partake of the Eucharist once a year. Well, that sounds rather strange because if it's food, why do I eat it only once a year? I would not do very well if I ate physical food just once a year. I need food more often than that. Well, let's not get into that. Not quite sure how to answer that in fact, but the church says once a year. So once a year, it is. And this sincere lay person said, but there's something else that bothers me about the Eucharist. And that is why the bread only when people receive the Lord's Supper, they never receive the wine. They just receive the bread and it's the priest alone who drinks the wine and the people get the bread only. Well, you've touched on something very important here because you realize, of course, that when the bread and the wine are consecrated, those elements actually become the body and blood of Christ still look like bread and wine, but they are not really bread and wine any longer. That is now body and that is blood of Christ. That's an awesome thing that's taking place. And you can see why the church doesn't want to pass the cup among lay people because some of you are rather clumsy, careless, it's possible to drop it or to spill some of it. And what you have done then is to spill the blood of Christ and that would be an awful thing if that would happen. So you're given the bread, sometimes just put on your tongue so you can't even lose a fleck of it because that is the body Christ. But don't worry about that either because the church has a doctrine called concombatants which means that if you receive either one of the consecrated elements, you receive them both. You receive the consecrated bread. In effect, you are receiving both bread and wine. Actually, you know, it's enough just to watch all this taking place. You don't really have to receive the bread. Or the wine, except the church says once a year, you should. But it's just enough to see it happen to observe the consecrated host, the Lord lifted up. You know, some lay people some years ago when the priest would say the words that would make the bread and the wine into the body and blood of Christ. Those lay people would shout out for him to hold it up high so they could see it. And that's become part of the mass now is the priest will elevate the host and hold it up high. And you can see it. You can see the real body of Christ there. That is really all that you need to do. Well, it does seem strange to think that one can receive any good from just seeing food and not eating it, but I'll take your word for it. Well, these two friends probably have to take a little break from this intensive theological conversation and have a glass of wine or something at local tavern. But they continue later to discuss these things and the lay person says, now tell me what else is there. We've talked about baptism and eucharist as well as confirmation, but there are other sacraments. Yes, there are other sacraments. Let's talk now about tenants. Why do I need tenants? You need tenants because of your sin. Well, I thought my baptism took care of my sin. Well, it did. It took care of your original sin and any sin that you had committed up to the point that you're baptized, but that's not the end of sinning. Actually, baptism wipes away all those sins before the sacrament and it does give you some strength to resist future sins, but it doesn't guarantee that you won't sin again. And you have sinned many times since your baptism. Think of the Christian life like this. Think of it as a very dangerous journey on the ship. And as soon as you get on that ship, it has a shipwreck and you're thrown into the water and you're in danger of drowning. Now, that's a picture of how you come into this world as a center. It's tossed into this icy stormy ocean. But there is a plank baptism that you can hold on to and you can be saved from drowning. But the storm is pretty fierce and the chances are you're going to fall off of that plank at some time and you need a second plank, as we call it. A way to get back on when you fall off. Well, how does it work? There are a number of parts to it. First, you have to feel sorry for your sin. That's called contrition. You can't just pretend to be sorry. You really have to feel sorry for your sin and experience contrition and then you must go and confess to a priest. You must tell him what you have done and he will pronounce absolution or forgiveness on you and you will be forgiven until the next time you sin and then you have to do it all over again. But that's not quite the whole story because even though the priest pronounces absolution on you which gives you God's forgiveness, because of your sin, you have earned certain temporal punishments and you have to make satisfaction for those. You have to do some things that the priest will tell you. And as he tells you what to do, then you can make satisfaction. You can make up for those sins and remove the threat of punishment or at least reduce it. Well, that I suppose I can understand, but it is a little hard to put together the idea that God forgives my sins and yet I've got to do something to make up for those sins. But I accept what the church says and so I'll do it. What are some of the things that I will be required to do to make satisfaction? Well, says the priest there are a number of things. First, you might be required to save some prayers like the Lord's Prayer many times or other prayers. Those are good things to do and this will help to balance your account or the priest may say that you should fast for a certain number of days or probably he will say it's necessary for you to give some arms to the church or to the poor, give some money. And he might possibly say that you should go on a pilgrimage. Well, that last one sounds sort of interesting. Always like to travel. So where should I go? What is a pilgrimage? Pilgrimages are available to many places. You have to go to a sacred place to a shrine to some sort of place where there is the name of a saint or the Virgin Mary or even Christ himself connected in some way. Now, of course, church believes that God answers prayer everywhere and the saints help us with our prayers and the saints can answer prayer to wherever you are, but the prayers of the saints are really more effective at their shrines. So if you want to get greater credit for what you're doing and a better chance of getting your prayers answered, it's necessary to go to the very place where the saints are remembered. The most important places to go are, of course, Jerusalem and Rome. Now, you might not want to go to Jerusalem right now because the crusades are going on and you know all about those. It's pretty risky, but you might want to go because if you go to Jerusalem, especially with the crusades going on, you have chance of getting a lot of blessing, a lot of credit, but at least go to Rome. Or if you can't go to Rome, there are hundreds and hundreds of shrines much closer where you can go. You see, by visiting one of these places, two ideas are brought together. One is the need for penance for sins and pilgrimages are penitential acts. They require sacrifice of time and money, and so these are acts of attendance. But the other good thing about going on a pilgrimage is that you really come in contact with the relics of the saints. People want to pray right at the place where the bones of that saint are placed in often a very beautiful and great container. Goal and precious jewels, sometimes not all the bones of a saint, but only one bone. After all, everybody wanted relics, and there weren't enough bones, skeletons to go around, and so these bones were reverently taken apart, and one bone would be given to one church and one bone would be given to another church. Some rather frivolous people have said that as a result there are 13 heads of John the Baptist in different churches in Europe, but don't pay any attention to them. It doesn't take the entire skeleton of the saint, just one bone will do to make that a holy place, or even something that is associated with that saint like a garment, or maybe a piece of a cross that that saint was crucified on, or part of the sword that was used to execute that saint. Well, it says the sincere seeker, this is all getting pretty complicated, and very difficult it seems to me. Is there not an easier way to get to heaven than to do all of this? The priest says God has not promised to make salvation easy, my friend, but the church is doing all it can to make it attainable, but you still must do your part. Have you heard of indulgences? Oh yes, I've heard of indulgences. Everybody is talking about indulgences, but still not quite sure what they're talking about. Tell me about the indulgences. Well, it says the priest for about 100 years now, the church has taught the doctrine of the treasury of merit. You've heard of that, yes, treasury of merit. You see, in this life, most people don't do enough good works for themselves. Their bad works are greater than their good works, and so their spiritual account is always in the arrears. But there are some people in this life who not only do enough good works for themselves, but they do some extra good works. Well, that's pretty impressive. Extra good works. Who are those people? Well, the saints, the saints, whose relics you observed in various places. They've done extra good works, and especially Mary, think of all the good works of the Virgin Mary are more than required for her own salvation. And the good works of Christ himself, this produces a huge treasury in heaven. And thanks be to God, this heavenly treasury is available to the Pope. He can draw on this heavenly bank account. He can take some of those excess good works, and don't worry there. It's so much in that heavenly bank account that it'll never be exhausted. But he can take some of those good works, and he can use them for people like you who don't have enough good works. Well, that's good news indeed, that the Pope is willing to do that for me. When is he going to do it? Well, he won't do it unless you buy an indulgence. You have to get an indulgence. You buy an indulgence. And when you buy this, then this will enable the Pope to pray that God will give you some of the extra good works of Christ in Mary and the saints. Don't think you're buying forgiveness because you're not. You're giving alms. You're really giving alms. Now most people I know think that this is buying forgiveness, and that's all right. If they want to think that, but technically you're giving alms, you're doing the good work of alms giving when you buy an indulgence. Well, it's very interesting. Where does all this money go? It goes mainly to Rome. It goes to the Pope. What does he do with it? Well, he goes big churches, and he gets a great artist to decorate those churches. Well, it's expensive to run a church, and we have to get money somehow, and this is a good way to bring in money. But don't worry about that. Where the money goes. What you need to worry about is where you are going. And we're trying to get you to heaven, so you leave it up to the church as to what it's going to do with all the money it gets, and you worry about your own soul salvation. Well, that's what I am worried about. That's why I'm talking to you. Try to get some help on this question. And you see, I'm still confused because how much credit do I really need? How can I know when I've done enough, when I've done enough good works, when I've confessed enough, when I've bought enough indulgences? How can I know that? Well, that's not easy to say. It's very complicated, and theologians have worked on this, but you probably would not understand. In fact, I don't really understand myself much what they have said, but let's just say this, the more the better. It's of course better to be safe than sorry. And by the way, we've touched on this, but you have a lot of help along the way. Don't ignore it. Think of all the saints. The saints want you to get to heaven. And so just marry. There are hundreds of saints. You know, of course, that we have 55 special saints, days in our calendar. And we have an all saints day on October 31st. And those are important days for you to pray to the saints. It's the same for almost every problem, as even St. Jude, who is the saint of last resort, if you don't know who else to pray to, and you're just at the end of your rope, pray to St. Jude, because St. Jude is used to hearing prayers from people at the end of their ropes. And he knows how to help. And don't forget Mary too, because Mary is kind, compassionate, and she will take your prayers directly to God. She is always ready to help you. Well, if we finish yet, we've talked a lot about these things. Is there anything else I need to do? No, not really. There's one more sacrament, but it's not something you can do. It's extreme function. Last rites. And that will be done for you, just like that, when you're dying. Hopefully a priest will be there, and he will ignore you with oil and pray for you. It's the one last thing that can be done for yourself. And then what? Well, I suppose purgatory, purgatory. I mean, after all this, I'm going to end up in purgatory. Yes, I'm afraid so. Heaven is only for those who have made full and faithful use of the church's sacramental graces. Have you done that? Well, no, I guess not. The wicked and the excommunicated go directly to hell, but most of the rest, most of the baptize go to purgatory, where they will eventually be cleansed of their remaining sins and then in their heaven. But you know, there is some fairly recent good news on this front because the popes have decided that the indulgences assist people not only in this life. In other words, you can buy an indulgence for yourself and that removes some of your sins, but the popes have said now quite recently that you can also buy an indulgence for someone who is dead and in purgatory. Isn't that good news? You know that rich people have for a long time endowed continual masses for their souls. And their masses going on all the time, private masses for the souls of people, money was left to a monastery. And that monastery takes that money and provides these masses because the mass is the most powerful form of prayer. And that helps those rich people who are in purgatory. But most people, people like you can't afford that. So this is really good news that after you are dead, a friend or a relative can buy an indulgence. Some are cheap, some are not so cheap, but even the cheap ones help some and they can buy this indulgence and that will reduce your time in purgatory. Well, let's imagine that our sincere inquirer has one more question and that question is this. But where is God's grace in all of this? I don't know much about the Bible because I don't have one and I don't hear it read much, but I have heard something of the Bible. And I don't know much about St. Augustine, but I've heard something about him and like the Apostle Paul, he talks about God's grace. Well, you're getting into some tough theological questions here, but let me try to help you. Maybe if I would draw a little diagram for you, you could understand this. Actually, there are two views on this matter of how God's grace fits in with our works and different theologians have presented this differently. You've heard of St. Thomas Aquinas. Well, let me show you how Thomas viewed this. Thomas thought that this whole matter, this process of salvation, begins with grace. We can't do what is within us until God energizes us by His grace. So God comes first in grace and gives us enough grace to enable us then to add to that grace the merit of good works. And consequently, God's grace plus our works will bring us to salvation. That's one way to see it. Now, you probably know that some of the theologians around now, like William of Occam and Dunscotus, Gabriel, Veal, are viewing things a little bit differently. They say that we really can't think of this all starting with God's grace so that we do what is within us in a state of grace, and we can add then merit or works to earn salvation, but we really do what is within us in our own natural ability. So we start with works and we do what we can, and then God adds His grace. But either way you see it is both grace and works, whether we start with grace as Thomas said and add works, or whether we start with works as the anomalous say and add grace, it pretty much comes out to the same thing. You're going to be saved, certainly by God's grace. None of this is possible without God's grace, but you're going to be saved by adding to God's grace those good works which the church has told you about and which you can do as you see to do what lies in you. Well, one last question. Does everybody see it this way? Are there any people that see it another way? Well, yes, there are some, but there are heretics. There are some old Indians around. They don't quite agree with the church on this matter, and then there is that heretic John Wickliffe up in England. His bones have been dug up and burned because of the church's horror at his teaching and his disciple, John Huss of Bohemia, was actually burned alive. The Council of Constance in 1415, just a few years ago. So you're going to be better off if you avoid all of that and stick with what is clear and what is sure. Though most people in the Middle Ages tried to earn God's forgiveness by good works, some I think. Not only these so-called heretics, but some others really saw that this was not the message of salvation as given in the Bible. In Carthusian mock wrote this, he said, salvation cannot be had by one's own natural powers, but is by the free gift of God. Of course, before too much longer, Luther would be saying that Calvin would be saying that and the Reformers would be saying it. But the word of our God will stand forever. Yes, the question is what about marriage and ordination? These were viewed as sacraments which meant that grace flowed through them, so the view was that marriage was an enablement toward heaven and so was ordination. So with the churches conception of the sacrament as anything through which God confers grace, the traditional number was set at seven by Peter Lombard, but in a way there's no reason to limit it to seven. St. Francis said 30 or 40 and many more than that actually when you really think about it. The Protestants, of course, are going to say the sacraments have to be defined differently. They have to be established in the Bible as sacraments and not just anything that we might think God would use to confer grace. The churches view was that marriage did help toward heaven. It didn't mean that person who wasn't married was losing out because grace could be had in other ways too, but marriage and ordination were sacraments that conferred grace. How much of modern Catholicism do we find in this medieval scene now? I'm really, when I did what I did today, I'm really trying to keep myself within the medieval world. Perhaps others of you could answer that. Does this sound like modern Catholicism? It does. I expect it does in many ways. In fact, I was just looking at some little cards that I have in my folder on indulgences. You would think that the indulgence would, at long since, disappeared. It's more control now and limited than it used to be, but somebody gave me a card in this last few years ago of a prayer for President John F. Kennedy. And you pray for the soul of President Kennedy. I read that prayer this morning. I don't think I prayed for his soul, but I read the prayer. And if you do that every day for a month, you get 500 days indulgence that says at the bottom of the card. So whether modern day Catholics actually do much of this or not, I don't know, but it's still there.