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Second Sunday
after Epiphany
Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk
20th January 2019
Are We Bound to Profess the Faith Openly?
by Rev. Fr. Michael Müller
Yes,
whenever the glory of God and the spiritual welfare of our
neighbour require it; for Christ says: "Every one that shall
confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My
Father who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before
men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in Heaven"
(Matt. 10).
It is not enough to believe in our heart the truth of the
Catholic Church. We are also bound, under pain of sin, to
make an open profession of our religion. To deny our faith
through human respect or false shame, to blush at the truths
of the Gospel and the practices of Catholic piety, to
disavow before men what we believe in our hearts, is to
commit a grievous sin, and to bring down on ourselves the
severest chastisements of Heaven, as we learn from Our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. In every age, the Church of Christ has
considered the external denial of faith a most grievous sin,
and has condemned as heretics all those who declared that,
under certain circumstances, the denial of faith was lawful,
and has even inflicted very severe penalties on those who,
during the ages of persecution, denied their faith to save
their lives; for, to deny the faith externally in a matter
of the greatest importance is in itself a grievous sin; it
is to reject openly as a falsehood what one believes in his
heart to be the truth revealed by God.
Moreover,
not only is a denial of our religion either by words or
signs a grievous sin, but all dissimulation, by which others
may think that we have denied that faith, is, too, a great
sin. No matter how firmly we may be convinced in our hearts
of the truth of our "religion and Church", if we deny it
outwardly, by word, sign, or action, we can never "expect
salvation while in that state". In addition to the text
quoted in the above answer, Christ says in St. Luke: "He
that shall deny Me before men, shall be denied before the
Angels of God" (Luke 12).
Furthermore Christ has said: "He that shall be ashamed of Me
and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when He shall
come in the glory of His Father, with the Holy Angels" (Mark
8.) In this text it is stated in the plainest terms that to
be ashamed, not only of Christ, but also of His words, that
is, of His doctrine, of His religion, and consequently of
His Church - the depository of that faith - is a mortal sin,
and will entail on the soul eternal damnation. But if "to be
ashamed" of Christ and his faith will damn the soul, how
much more "the denying" of Christ and his faith? Nothing,
therefore, should ever induce us to be guilty of so base a
crime as is the betrayal of our faith. We must always be
ready to lay down our lives sooner than to deny the faith of
the Catholic Church.
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