Luther & Zwingli Debate the Eucharist at Marburg (1529)
In October 1529, two former Catholic priests Martin Luther from Germany & Ulrich Zwingli from Switzerland met at Marburg Castle in Hesse, Germany, at the prompting of Prince Philip I, who desired the two men reconcile their divergent beliefs about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist (their debate began in 1527) so that the Protestant revolt taking place in different countries could unify as one institution against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was seen as allied with the Catholic Church.
Although Luther denied the Catholic & Biblical doctrine of transubstantiation (the appearances of bread & wine remain after consecration by a validly ordained priest but the transformed reality of the Eucharist is the whole glorified Christ: Body, Blood, Soul, & Divinity; cf. Jn. 6:51-59; 1 Co. 10:16-17), he still confessed that Christ’s words “This is body” were to be taken literally. He held a view that the Body & Blood were mysteriously “in, with, and under” the bread and wine which remained after consecration– a view sometimes called Consubstantiation or as Lutherans often call it, “Sacramental Union”.
Zwingli on the other hand bitterly rejected any form of change in the elements of bread & wine, insisting that the Lord’s Supper was simply a symbolic memorial of Jesus’ sacrifice, conceding that the Lord’s spiritual presence could be there, but not any corporeal presence hidden in mystery.
His errorneous objections to the miraculous nature of Christ’s bodily presence in Communion included:
Denial that Christ’s glorified body could be in two or more places at once. He believed Christ’s divinity was omnipresent but his risen body was restricted to Heaven.
He falsely charged Catholics and Lutherans with professing cannibalism, incorrectly believing that to chew the Eucharist would make Christ suffer & die once again.
He accused Catholics & Lutherans of borrowing from pagan idolatry, claiming they bowed down to a “bread God” & “wine God” who was not really present on the altar -- a claim more blasphememous than the others.
Although Zwingli lived a carnal lifestyle, breaking his priestly vows to bed secret mistresses, he seemed to hold a puritanical view of the gospel, insisting that Jesus’ words “the Spirit gives life while the flesh profits nothing” [Jn. 6:63] meant that nothing visible or tangible was necessary to confer Christ’s saving grace and abiding presence. Thus he implicitly attacked, wether he realized it or not, the incarnation of Jesus, his bodily death & resurrection, & the Church as Body & Spouse of Christ who extends Jesus’ visible actions and presence in the sacraments. Ironically, the misinterpreted verse about the Spirit giving life is cited from the Bread of Life sermon in John's gospel where Jesus insists multiple times that his flesh given as sacrifical food will effect the salvation of the world (Jesus' reference to "flesh profits nothing" doesn't mean Jesus' flesh does us no good. It's a common figure of speech in the Bible meaning fallen humanity cannot perceive the mysteries of faith, like the Eucharist, through reason alone. The virtue of faith enabled by the Father's Spirit is required- cf. Matt. 16:17).
After much fruitless debate, a frustrated Luther wrote the words “This is my body” (hoc est corpus meum) on the table with chalk, placing a tablecloth over it. Whenever Zwingli would deny the Real Presence, Luther would simply lift the table cloth & point to Christ’s words, insisting on the plain literalness of them. Needless to say, the two departed the castle without any mutual agreement about the Sacrament of unity, even condemning one another for a while as un-Christian-- thus disappointing their political sponsors. Today, many non-Catholic ecclesial communities (whose Christian members are not guilty of past formal heresy or schism in the eyes of the Catholic Church– CCC 818-819) unfortunately still experience divergent views on the Lord’s Supper (the meaning of its sacrificial character as new Passover and Christ’s intended mode of presence) because of the unfortunate quarrel which took place half a millennium ago. Some Protestant and Evangelical groups today have open communion, while others don't. Some teach that Christ is present in a corporeal manner, others - a significant spiritual manner, while still others emphasize just the symbolic aspects. Some celebrate communion every Sunday, while others every quarter, and even some, not at all.
For this reason, a common sharing of the Eucharist between Catholics and Christians descended from the splintering of 16th century Western Christianity hasn't occured yet, not until all Christians are catechized fully in the Catholic mysteries and unified once again on what, or rather Who, a valid Eucharist is: The God of Mercy waiting to be adored as Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and received intimatley as Savior in Holy Communion by all those already justified by His Love in faith and Baptism. Catholics should witness to the truth and beauty of the Eucharistic gift through charity, patience, and compassion, not by ever belitting anyone's shared faith in Christ and love for God. The Eucharist should move us to care for our neighbors, which includes sharing the total inheritance and joy of the gospel in a kind way.
Addendum: The Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Assyrians are exempt from the canonical rule of closed Communion since they profess supernatural faith in the Real Presence and possess valid apostolic succession and Orders within their particular churches; however, non-Catholic Eastern Christians tend to refrain from receiving in Catholic churches in normal circumstances and do not normally allow Catholics to partake at their altars. It's more an issue of the Eucharist as a sign of visible, full unity between the Catholic and Orthodox churches which isn't fully realized yet.
Pope St. John Paul II affirmed that while the lack of Holy Orders and a valid Eucharist prevents non-Catholic / non-Orthodox communities today from enjoying the totality of the Eucharistic mystery, nevertheless their celebration of the Lord's Supper is a form of spiritual communion for them through which they confess the power of Christ's saving sacrifice and give thanks for the gift of redemption. On this level, they are not completely at odds with the scriptural and traditonal meaning attributed to the Lord's perpetual Passover meal:
“The ecclesial communities separated from us lack that fullness of unity with us which should flow from Baptism, and we believe that especially because of the lack of the sacrament of Orders they have not preserved the genuine and total reality of the Eucharistic mystery. Nevertheless, when they commemorate the Lord's death and resurrection in the Holy Supper, they profess that it signifies life in communion with Christ and they await his coming in glory.” - Pope St. John Paul II, ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA 30
What is Allhallowtide? The Real Origin of Halloween
Halloween as a Catholic term and annual event is actually part of what some today have colloquially dubbed the autumn "triduum", three back-to-back holy days comprising Allhallowtide (All holies season) in the Western Latin Church. The word "Halloween" dates back to 18th century Scottish, which is a shortening of the older phrase "All Hallows Even" or "the evening of the holies, i.e. - saints''. As Christmas Eve is the prayerful vigil preparing for Christmas (Christ's Mass), Halloween is the vigil looking ahead to the dawn of Hallowmas (Saint's Mass) on November 1st, which honors all the saints in glory, the healthiest organs in the one Body of Christ who offer intercessory prayer for the salvation of souls here on earth.
"The Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance
of the holy ones in light." - Col. 1:12
This high feast day of All Saints (equivalent to the sabbatical and celebratory character of a Sunday) is then followed by the somber All Souls Day on November 2nd, a memorial to commemorate and pray for the souls of all the departed, especially those who have died within the past year. With the Roman rite liturgical year winding down to a close and the coming of a new church year at Advent, the entire month of November is devoted to intercession for the souls in Purgatory, those whose final healing and sanctification in Christ are brought to completion in preparation for their full union in glory with God and his saints. In Latino culture, All Souls is celebrated as the "Day of the Dead '', when altars (ofrendas) are prepared with food, sugared skulls, flowers, and pictures to mourn and celebrate the beloved deceased and offer prayer for their souls.
An Oferanda for the Deceased
These three days of Allhallowtide honoring the saints, martyrs, and all the faithful departed trace back to the early Church when they were celebrated at various other times of the year with different frequency (as some Eastern Catholic churches still do), and since at least the early medieval period, the October-November Hallowtide has served as an occasion to remind all of us about the importance of preparing for a holy death and Eternal Life, the end goal of Christ's saving work celebrated earlier at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. In a sense, this tiny "season" is a picture of three levels in the communion of saints, all those who are connected to the Father in and through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Halloween is the Church Militant's festive "Mardi-gras-like" jest at death and hell which have been conquered by Christ. Hallowmas (All Saints) celebrates the permanent victory of the Church Triumphant (those in heaven), and All Souls remembers the Church Suffering, all who are destined for glory but are undergoing temporary remediation to conform fully to Christ's holiness.
Death Does Not Amputate the Body of Christ
Allhallowtide has not been without its share of unfair criticism and mischaracterization throughout the centuries though, and this has led to a kind of cultural amnesia in modern times regarding the season's (specifically Halloween) origin.
Hallowtide Vanished From Protestant Calendars
Believe it or not, the idea that Halloween (liturgically All Hallows' Eve), even some of its modern spooky pop customs, originated in sadistic rituals of ancient Celtic paganism (Druidism) is an anti-Catholic, anti-Irish conspiratorial narrative dating back only to recent times, especially since the Protestant revolt of the 16th century and radical fudamentalist uprisings of the 19th century. When the disgruntled German priest Martin Luther mailed (not nailed as the propaganda would have us believe) his 95 Theses on October 31st, 1517, his specific target was the customs of Hallowtide (prayers and indulgences for souls in Purgatory; the authority of the Church to grant relief from temporal punishment; devotion to the relics of saints, etc.). There were indeed mischaracterizations and abuses of these fully Christian, Magisterially sanctioned, practices and beliefs at the local parish and community levels, but Luther's solution for reform was to throw the baby out with the bath water, arguing that purgatory, indulgences, etc. were unbiblical and therefore not binding on Christians, even if the legitimate successors of the apostles, Catholic bishops, affirmed they were indeed traditional and valid.
Once Luther got hold of the printing press, he and his followers launched an onslaught of polemical and calumnious literature accusing Catholics of idolatry and superstition, conflating pagan devotion with Christian customs in the Church's commemoration of the faithful departed. The more polemical Protestants eventually came to misconstrue petitioning saints for intercessory prayer as necromancy, and mistakenly viewed the honor of holy relics of saints as adoration of the ancestral dead. Hallowtide was eventually dropped, or rather vanished like ghost, from most Protestant calendars who felt it was pagan infiltration and replaced it with "Reformation Day '', a celebration of Luther's protest and unfortunate break with the Catholic Church.
Halloween's Folk Customs Over Time
Even before the 16th century, many early European Hallowtide folk customs, apart from the liturgical celebrations of the Church, focused on the themes of death, judgment, Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. The Latin phrase Memento Mori or "remember you have to die" served as a sober reminder in Christian antiquity that earthly life is temporary, and that one should always live in harmony with grace to prepare for eternity with God. This focus doesn't negate the goodness and joys of earthly life which God created, for God's ultimate purpose is to restore back to humanity the divine image and likeness without the blemishes of sin and death, not only in spirit but in body through our sharing in the resurrection of Christ. However, a balanced focus on death does remind us not only to appreciate our lives now but understand that death doesn't have the final word, and that the fight against evil is a lifelong struggle. Still, our hope is in Christ who has already conquered sin and death and united all in his mystical Body, the Church. Death still temporarily severs the immediate physical connection between members, but all those who remain in Christ are never truly amputated from one another; each organ in the body still benefits the other in the circle of prayer.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” - 1 Corinthians 12:21
By the late Middle Ages the Memento Mori spirituality developed in some countries, especially after distressing times of pandemic, into the "Danse Macabre" or "dance of death". Villagers and nobles would take part in festive pageants and court masquerades, dressing up as corpses and skeletons from various classes (kings, nobles, peasants, clergy, etc) to remind everyone that all were equal in the eyes of death; all share the same destiny of the grave. This is probably the true origin of "guising" at Halloween, dressing up to remind one of death and even poke fun at it knowing that Christ has promised us that death is a temporary door to beatitude. Soul-caking, a custom of traveling from house to house asking for small spiced cakes in exchange for prayers for the deceased souls of the household, became a tradition at Hallowtide as well, and is probably the source of the American trick-or-treating tradition.
Three Universals: Life, Death, and Time
These lay festivities served as a "Mardi-gras-esque" prep for the solemn feast of All Saints. Just as Mardi-gras was brought to America by Europeans as a final feast before the beginning of Lenten fasting on Ash Wednesday, Halloween was the party before the holy day of prayer on Hallowmas. In fact, Halloween in its present festive form is really a modern American adaptation of the European Catholic focus on death and the afterlife, arising only since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A quick snapshot at the increased usage frequency of the word "Halloween" in the past century shows this evolution of the holiday into secular culture. Halloween soon became associated with Gothic literature (Shelley, Poe, Irving), Universal monster movies, and autumn harvest festivals. Early in 20th century America, the annual custom of trick-or-treating was abused in some places as an occasion for vandalism and costly pranks gone too far, which led some communities to legally crack down on the custom. But these were usually exceptional cases, not the norm.
Curiously though, just as Halloween was becoming a thing in America thanks to the Irish (who were not custodians of pagan rituals) and the American accomodation of the traditional crafts and games, fundamentalists, who often rejected Christmas and Easter feasts as well, turned their negative attention towards these curious Hallowtide customs.
The "Devil's Holiday" Is Born...According to Propaganda
Even as tensions thankfully cooled over the centuries between mainstream, charitable Protestant Christians and Catholics seeking peaceful dialogue and friendship, anti-Catholic fundamentalists continued to cook up new conspiracy theories to link Catholic practice with pagan customs. This culminated in Alexander Hislop's 1858 book The Two Babylons which continued to make complex, false allegations that Catholic piety and worship traced its roots back not to Christ and the apostles but to various dark practices of the ancient pagan world. In Hislop's shoddy hypothesis, Catholics were syncretists: people who merged and polluted pure Christian creed and practice with other non-Christian religious systems in such a way as to distort or alter the gospel's original content, negating Catholicism as an authentic form of Christianity.
In the late 20th century, on the heels of the satanic panic of the 1970s and 80s, anti-Catholic Jack Chick cherry picked Hislop's more absurd allegations and recycled them in comic-book style tracts which made their way into trick-or-treaters' bags on Halloween night. Many of these tracts targeted Halloween as a "devil's holiday" with sinister origins in alleged human sacrifices of Druidic occultism and their festival of Samhain, a supposed time when ancients feared that spirits and evil entities could cross over the veil to haunt the living. The leftovers of this Celtic pagan occultism (Jack o' Lanterns, masquerading, soul-caking or trick or treating) were apparently kept alive by Irish Catholic immigrants in America, who were never fully purged of their darker Druid history. They were stigmatized as custodians of a tainted gospel which good Puritans in America had to keep guard against lest they be exposed to the horrors of invading papists and their pagan infiltration...or so the anti-Catholic propaganda machine and yellow journalism of the early modern era would have had us believe.
It's the same kind of silly, ahistorical fiction that has been spread for centuries by puritanical sects about the origin of other Catholic holy days such as Christmas (falsely connecting it to the Roman Saturnalia and Mirthras cults) and Easter (a supposed reinvention of ancient near Eastern devotion to Ishtar). In the minds of anti-Catholic (or rather anti-orthodox) fundamentalists, putting up a Christmas tree or decorating an Easter egg is just as sinfully pagan as carving a Jack 'o Lantern (none of which are pagan, but that doesn't stop experts on social media today from launching such attacks). Such earthy customs are pagan because Catholics, in their minds, aren't really Christians.
New Agers Crash the Party
Ironically, New Agers and Neo-Pagans came to claim that Halloween, as they understand it, is indeed a pagan festival older than the Christian Hallowtide, but this is also revisionist history, not facts. New forms of pagan devotion and esoteric systems only trace back to the 19th century, and do not truly resemble ancient systems and practices of pagan religions. New pagans simply co-opted the anti-Catholic myth spread by fundamentalists to bolster their claims of possessing a continuity to older and apparently superior forms of ancient cults which have had an impact on the world through infiltration into Chrisitianity. Another thing to keep in mind is that many myths exist about ancient pagan practices as well. Although many ancient non-Christian religions in the world indeed practiced ceremonies considered demonic even back then (the slaughter of innocent martyrs as sacrifices to false gods did occur at points in history in Roman, near-Eastern, Aztec cultures, etc.), the Celtic festival of Samhein was not the gruesome holiday revisionists claimed it to be; rather it was really a harvest festival on the cusp of winter and nothing more.
Specifically, the Druidic religion on the Emerald Isle fizzled out around the time of Jesus with varieties of other pagans remaining. The Christianization of these vestigial pagan tribes by St. Patrick and other missionaries from the 5th century onward was indeed thoroughly successful (thus the "snakes" were driven out), so much so that Ireland became a beacon of missionary work for the continent of Europe, with monks traveling large distances to establish monasteries, which served as ancient schools, libraries, scriptoriums, and hospitals. It was these monks who also privatized the sacrament of Confession, allowing penitents to come anonymously to reconciliation and carry out their penances in secret rather than in public as had been done before in antiquity.
Irish Missionaries Were Fully Christianized
The Church never absorbed and syncretized any evil pagan ceremonies with Catholic liturgy anywhere, but this does not mean the absorption and rededication of innocuous non-Christian customs is always bad. Christ came to baptize the world, not annihilate it, and that is what the Church does through healthy inculturation -- testing all things and retaining what is good. It is a genetic fallacy to assume that anything with a pagan origin carries over the error once associated with it. For example, the names of the days of the week and months are still pagan -- the Nordic and Roman names for various false gods and goddesses (e.g.- Thor's Day = Thursday; Sol's Day = Sunday). Even certain personal names have such origins. St. Martin of Tours and heretic Martin Luther both have first names which mean "dedicated to Mars" -- the god of war. None of this means that such days or people are under the dominion of pagan rule, for intention, knowledge, and action are what influence the state of societies and souls, not syllables in words. Yet, there are still groups who would contend otherwise, such as fundamentalists who accuse Catholics of moving the Sabbath to Sunday to worship the Sun, not the Son. The same goes with Halloween. Even if some innocuous customs were proven to trace back to ancient times where true religion had not taken root yet, how does such origin pollute its different usage in a human culture today? Many pagans invented and wore wedding rings. Does that fact pollute the usage of rings in Christian matrimony? Is the portrayal of Christ as a Phoenix arising to new life from its ashes a confusing conflation of the true God with pagan beasts? Of course not.
Christ as Phoenix
Bottom Line
Halloween in secular culture today certainly has little to do on the surface with Heaven, Hell, and Puragtory - although the universal human experience of death is very much tied to its observance, in a light hearted way. It's a common human desire to generate fictional tales of suspense, mystery, and horror, focusing on themes of life, death, alienation, loss, and danger (whether natural or supernatural) regardless of the time of year. The fact that autumn, even before Allhallowtide became more universal in the Church, reminded people in various cultlures of reality of death (winter is on the way) inspiring them to tell tales or create images of ghosts and mythic monsters is no surprise. This isn't to say that Halloween today is without abuses. Parents who are concerned with the safety of children in public, the effect of scary images and movies on impressionable youth, or dangerous occult elements lurking in the background thanks to neo-pagan imitation should exercise discretion and make choices to protect their families as needed. But rest assured, celebrating Halloween in a reasonable spooky manner with some make believe and games thrown in actually does more justice to the Catholic roots of the holiday which has been slandered over time by those who would prefer all things Hallowtide to default to Reformation Day, the unforunate Halloween in 1517 when reactionaries truncated the Deposit of Faith and forced Christians to undergo unfortunate splits and divisions affecting the family of God even today (Note: non-Catholic Christians are our separated brothers and sisters and not culpable for the formal schisms hundreds of years ago. Even Trent anathmatized any Catholics who denied the validty of Baptism administered properly to those already outside the immediate bonds of the visible Church. See CCC 817-819).
Watching Scooby Doo or It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, decorating a pumpkin, dressing up kids as superheroes or princesses, reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", listening to old timey ghost stories from radio or watching a classic well-crafted horror film, and bobbing for apples (whatever else) is no more pagan or evil than the licit religious practices of asking the saints in glory to pray for us or to pray for the final healing of those in Purgatory, regardless of what anti-Catholic, ahistorical conspiracies and propaganda have spread over the decades to wreak moral panic and suspicion. We just need to remember that Halloween exists because of Hallowmas. In the end, we should care when Catholic holy days (that many other Christians share with us) are slandered, above all because it is sacriligous to do so, and we want others to know and enjoy the truth, not remain in error. But attacks on feast days of the Church such as Hallowmas, Christmas, and Easter are also attacks on the doctrines of the Faith, for the celebration of these mysteries in festivity preserves, teaches, and even makes present the realities we confess in our creed. As Pope Pius XI stated:
"For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year - in fact, forever. The church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man's nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God's teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life." #21 QUAS PRIMAS
So stay safe and have a holy and happy Allhallowtide! (and reasonably spooky and fun Halloween).
"I believe in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen." - the Nicene Creed (325 A.D.)
Note: We can no longer recommend all of Taylor Marshall's writings (who is cited in the video) because he has falsely accused the Vatican of pagan infiltration in his recent publications on current events.
Did Enoch & Elijah Die, and What Does This Mean for Mary's Assumption?
Elijah (2 Kings 2:11; Maccabees 2:58) and Enoch (Genesis 5:24; Sirach 44:16, 49:14; Hebrews 11:5) are recorded as having been taken by God, seemingly without tasting death. There has been debate as to where and how Elijah and Enoch were taken at the end of their lives though and what awaits them at the end of time. Some say the Scriptures may be using hyperbole to signify the holiness of both, although several Old and New Testament passages seem to indicate an actual miraculous "rapture" took place for both. Others argue that they were taken without dying to an abode outside of time and space to be close to God but were not transformed into resurrected form to enter the beatific vision. Indeed, only Jesus and Mary have resurrected bodies in heaven which cannot die again since the catechism citing church documents uses the wording "singular privelege" for Mary's assumption, a participation in her Son's glory (CCC 966). But others perhaps experienced a different kind of "heaven" where they were kept by a special grace from dying (Sheol, second heaven, etc.), yet they still have a natural body and experience an exalted state of happiness. St. Thomas Aquinas states: "Elijah was taken up into the atmospheric heaven, but not in to the empyrean heaven, which is the abode of the saints: and likewise Enoch was translated into the earthly paradise, where he is believed to live with Elias until the coming of Antichrist.” - Summa Theologia, "Question 49. The Effects of Christ's Passion". Does this mean they will eventually die at a later time before the Second Coming before receiving a final resurrected body? We can only speculate, and no one is certain. Does their fates though point to the idea that Mary did not die prior to her assumption?
Pius XII in the same document MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS which declares Mary's assumption a dogma states in paragraph 20, "this feast shows, not only that the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained incorrupt, but that she gained a triumph out of death, her heavenly glorification after the example of her only begotten Son, Jesus Christ-truths that the liturgical books had frequently touched upon concisely and briefly." Here he is confirming that the ancient liturgies of East and West clearly referred to her death and entrance into heaven in resurrected form. In fact the Eastern Catholic churches, from where the belief in Mary's assumption first came and spread, refer to her entrance into heaven as the "dormition" (sleep, like dormitory) or "translation" (change from earthly state to a blessed one) indicating that her death is a certain fact of her life. The earliest reference to Mary's assumption, the Transitus Mariae, goes back to the second and third centuries and speaks of her death and that Christ and his angels translated her body into heaven where it was then joined to her spirit.
But the actual paragraph where Pius XII uses the words "declare" and "define" which indicate that the specific papal statement carries an irreformable, permanent judgement and the full weight of infallibilty is paragraph 44: "by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." The simple fact that Mary has 1) a resurrected body and that 2) she is in heaven, is what a Catholic cannot deny. The document as a whole makes references to different levels of authority: the opinions of theologians, the common shared views of Fathers and Saints which may differ on detail but all point to the same core belief, and the binding statements of the Magisterium. Thus we have to read the documents with attention to language and other factors (Canon law 749 n. 3 : “No doctrine is understood as defined infallibly unless this is manifestly evident.”). Paragraph 44 is very clearly the part which invokes the extraordinary magisterium.
JPII affirmed that Pius XII did not intend to exclude her death from Catholic teaching in this paragraph since Pius quotes liturgical prayers and several Western and Eastern saints who speak of her death; Pius just didn't think it necessary to settle the question at the time and left it open for theologians who wished to explore other possibilities. John Paul II though steered the Church back to the common tradition which goes back not 400 years (the theory that Mary didn't die) but 2,000 years (the belief she did die), a tradition which contains the story that Mary did die and then Christ took her body back to be reunited with her spirit to enjoy a glorious state of resurrection.
One can argue that Enoch and Elijah will never die and thus this shows that God could make an exception for anyone especially for his Mother. So a Catholic thus far is free to hold this opinion. However, the speculation is actually the youngest and a minority view in the Church vs the ancient and majority view that she did die. It's a detail Catholics shouldn't quibble about but the dormition of Mary is the favored story contrary to popular belief.
But finally, the fact that Elijah and Enoch were "taken up" somehow and somewhere instead of going to the grave right away does provide a good apologetic support for Mary's assumption. Those non-Catholics who resist the idea of Mary's assumption usually 1) misunderstand what the dogma asserts or 2) reject it because it is not explicit in Scripture which for most Protestant Christians is the only source of revelation. Thus, when speaking with another Christian who is strictly "Bible only", the Catholic must show that not every detail regarding faith and morals is explicit in Scripture; it may be implicit in the Bible or supported in principle, and explicit in Tradition. But if the person is willing to concede that not all facts about Christ and the Church are confined to writing, then a Catholic must be sure to explain what the assumption of Mary actually is and what it is not. As long as we emphasize that the gift Mary received early is what all faithful Christians will someday receive (resurrection and the crown of glory), then there should be no objection on the part of the non-Catholic Christian. He may not accept that it is a binding part of revelation, but he cannot deny that the assumption refers to anything different than the resurrection of the dead which all Christians must and do believe.
The formula, salvation by "faith alone" is not the ordinary way the gospel has been preached in history but it is not without precedent. Some of the early Fathers used the phrase at least once in their writings including Origen, St. Hilary, St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. Bernard. Even St. Thomas Aquinas used this wording a couple times: "Therefore the hope of justification is not found in them (the moral and ceremonial requirements of the law), but in faith alone." - Commentary on 1 Timothy, Ch. 1, Lect. 3.
So why the controversy during the Protestant Revolution & Catholic Reformation? It had to do with how groups defined and used terms. The majority of time in Scripture and Tradition, "faith" meant "intellectual belief" in God and all He has revealed. "Hope" means assurance and "trust" in God's promises and "Charity" is unselfish love of God above all things and loving neighbor as self. These are supernatural gifts we cannot merit at the BEGINNING of our walk with God (our inability to reach heaven requires Christ as Savior) and any active use of them AFTER initial justification (first gifted in water Baptism, or obtaining God's righteousness through desire) is a response and cooperation with the work of God who reaches out to us first and helps us remain holy at every stage of our life (to aid us in obeying the Commandments). But intellectual belief is not sufficient or effective enough for CONTINUED growth in Christ's righteousness and deepening of our relationship with God, what Scripture and Tradition call continual justification or "sanctification". "Even the demons believe and shudder" but remain outside of the Light because of their narrow "faith" and twisted wills (James 2:14-26).
Faith in the broad sense for a Christian means "faithfulness", a response to God with the whole mind, heart, strength, and being, which is the way Catholics and most Protestants can properly understand together what "faith" means after Baptismal regeneration (a combo of belief, trust, and love). Christ is always faithful and helps us to be like Him, and we must freely and continually accept his gifts of grace. Faith in the narrow sense (belief) is not enough to save but is the seed of this relationship with God.
But Luther drew suspicion because he added "alone" to "faith" in his translation of Romans (Paul's letter in which the apostle also speaks of the obedience of faith or belief coupled with hope and the works of love) and deleted James from the New Testament. Luther at first spoke vaguely about the definition of faith, the nature of free-will, and the distinction between Original Sin and Concupiscence (although he acknowledged in his later writings the necessity of freely chosen works which flow from grace in a process of justification. He stated that just as heat and light are distinct but not separate from flame so too faith and works cannot be completely separated). The Catholic Church guarded against a narrow definition of saving faith but could accept a broader definition of faith. Unfortunately, politics and polemics, primarliy instigated by greedy princes supporting Luther, often clouded dialogue in 16th century Europe.
Later Protestants and Evangelicals debated within their own circles the meaning of "faith", but few used "faith" simply as a synonym for "belief", but rather as a general word for the whole of Christian discipleship. "Faith alone" may be risky to use without explanation, but it is not heretical if understood as inclusive of other supernatural virtues that connect us to God. But "faith alone" is to be rejected if it is used to deny obeying the Commandments or deny partaking of the sacraments in order to stress a completely passive role for the believer. In the original manuscripts, St. Paul stated we are justified by the gift of "faith" without the qualifier "alone" because authentic faith entails more than belief; it leads to love.
But likewise, Catholics must be careful with slogans like saved by "faith and works" without explanation as this can cause one to understand that good works place us in an INITIAL state of grace, an understanding condemned by the first canon of the Council of Trent and earlier by the Council of Ephesus against Pelagius. Works do contribute, secondarily, AFTER the beginning of justification, NOT BEFORE, and only in the sense that they are aided and preserved by the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us become more like Christ and grow closer to God in the process of ongoing justification. Each good human work made holy by Christ doesn't earn one a place in heaven but further unites one with the Triune God and Communion of Saints. It is faith formed by love, a relationship akin to a marriage which has an event (wedding), ongoing process (lifetime relationship), that leads to eventual fruit (union in heaven). This is how all humanity is set apart as God's people, not by a wall of ceremonial precepts, but by faith which includes hope and love, graces given and nurtured by the miraculous actions of Christ called sacraments (See Acts 15:9-11). Therefore, a Christian's good works can be pure and not partially sinful (mixed with less noble intentions) but pleasing in God's eyes because they are done with, in, and through Christ who is the first and primary cause of our salvation and all its aspects (forgiveness, redemption, justification, sanctification, deification).
Ultimately, the Christian understanding of salvation rests upon the reality of participation in divine Sonship. Because God became man and reversed our downward spiral into doom because of his love and obedience, he makes possible again mankind's ascent back to God to share, by grace, in the glory of what Christ is by nature: the offspring of God. We are remade in Christ's image to reflect the glory of God who is Love eternal.
The Vatican's Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (signed by the Lutheran Federation, Methodists, & Reformed communities) affirmed substantial agreement on these points with the Catholic Church:
"If we translate from one language to another, then Protestant talk about justification through faith corresponds to Catholic talk about justification through grace; and on the other hand, Protestant doctrine understands substantially under the one word 'faith' what Catholic doctrine (following 1 Cor. 13:13) sums up in the triad of 'faith, hope, and love'" (LV:E 52).
Christmas, the second most important solemnity after Easter, may seem to end for some by the morning of December 26, with evergreens left on curbsides and broken tinsel dangling out of recycle bins. Others may think of the "holidays" [which means holy days] as Christmas day (Dec. 25) and New Year's Day (Jan. 1), with "after Christmas" sales packaged in between. But Christmas in the Catholic Church and many other Christian communities involves much more. The ancient celebration of Christ's nativity (and His other manifestations) begins as a special season on December 25th in the Gregorian calendar and lasts more than just a day or a week, actually climaxing at Epiphany on January 6th.
If you had already guessed the real number at twelve days (the song might be stuck in your head now), you're pretty much on the right track; after all, Christmas break is at least two weeks, right? That custom came from Catholic practice. But although twelve days still encompasses the core ancient feasts of the season for most Christians, Christmas actually ends, depending on the year, anywhere between Jan. 8 and Jan. 13, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, at least in the current ordinary form of the Roman rite (so there could be as many as 20 days, see chart at the bottom).
The Vatican's Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar explains the time span of the entire season common to the West:
Christmas Time runs from First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the Nativity of the Lord [Dec. 24th] up to and including the Sunday after Epiphany or after 6 January." GNLY 33
Okay, so Christmas doesn't end Dec. 25 or Jan. 6. So what? Why celebrate it more than a day anyway, regardless of when it begins? Well, for one thing most modern cultures understand that birthdays are a celebration of life and of the gift of a unique human person for a family. And even though birthdays were not commemorated quite the same way everywhere in ancient times, or even remembered in some near eastern cultures even today, the nativities of important figures such as leaders and prophets (Gen. 21:1-7; Luke 1:14) and kings were joyfully noted for the record. The most important birthday of course belongs to the supreme priest, prophet, and king -- Jesus Christ, whose entrance into the world split time into two periods, everything prior to his coming and every year afterward (B.C. & A.D). We sometimes joke about celebrating a birthday week (or month), but the Church in her wisdom was already on to this centuries ago when by late antiquity, she set apart two to three weeks for celebrating Christ's birth (evidence traces to the second century for a single day celebration), and measured all time by this event.
It's that important because it's about our salvation: Christ, who Himself being incarnate of a virgin yet with no earthly biological father, is the new creation who began in this world in a unique way, as simultaneously the Son of Man and eternal Son of God - created as a human and yet uncreated in his divinity. He is the branch shot forth from the shoot (Mary) to become for us the Tree of Life again, rooting us in God's family. As the new Adam, He reshapes and renews human persons to grow to be what He meant each to be, resembling God in Christ's holy image and likeness. The detailed origin and evolution of Christmas as a liturgical season is a long story though, not meant to be covered here. But we can at least look at a snapshot of Christmastide to get an idea of the basic purpose and design of the season as the Church practices it today.
Why a Season?
In short, the structure and character of Christmastide gradually emerged to honor Emmanuel (as the angels, Holy Family, shepherds, and Magi first did) and serve as a happy proclamation about the historical truth of the Incarnation, that 1) God assumed human flesh from the Virgin Mary and became fully man, manifesting himself as Messiah and Lord, without ceasing to be fully God, and that 2) He came to unite Himself to us in order to redeem us in His holy image and grant each person, by grace, a share His divine Sonship, becoming glorified children of the Father. So many heresies in early church history denied some aspect of the Incarnation, some asserting that Jesus was more human than divine or more divine than human, or that he was two persons instead of one divine person, and so on. And even when anti-Catholic errors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (hardline Calvinism) tried to suppress Christmas as a feast, such efforts could not succeed for long.
It is through the splendor and joy of liturgy, prayer, art, and festivity, that Christmas became a clear proclamation of the Gospel truth about who Jesus really is and that He alone is the bridge between man and God. Over time, the various Biblical mysteries about Christ's entrance into the world -- His birth, the maternity of Mary, the Holy Family's exile and humble existence, the persecution of the Innocents, the adoration of the shepherds and Magi, the circumcision and baptism of Jesus -- expanded over the course of days to form a full Christmas season with each feast highlighting a different aspect of God's coming in the flesh.
On December 11th, 1925, Pope Pius XI explained the importance of such annual feasts:
For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year - in fact, forever. The church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man's nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God's teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life. QUAS PRIMAS #21
Even the word Christmas [an Old English portemanteau meaning the "Mass of Christ"] highlights what the Christmas season is all about, since it is through the liturgical feasts that we relive, in a supernatural way, the rhythm of Christ's earthly life, and in worship and Holy Communion that we encounter Christ in a profound, tangible way; Christ, made little as our food (he was placed in a manger after all), unites us to the mysteries of his life and our inheritance. Thus, the joy-filled proclamation of the angels and saints on Christmas day spills over throughout the centuries and becomes our own song.
The First Part of Christmas: The Octave
Musicians know that octaves are scales containing eight notes, beginning and ending with the same note, just at different pitches (e.g. - C1 to C2). In a like manner, Jewish octaves of the Old Testament, a time of celebration and rest over eight days, served as sacred time "scales" for specific feasts (Lev. 23:36; Num. 29: 35; 2 Chron. 7:8-9; 2 Macc. 10:6). Jews today still keep the custom (e.g. - Hanukah is eight days), and early Christians incorporated the practice into their worship as well. The number eight in Judeo-Christian theology has always signified a new beginning (1 Pet. 3:20-21), the eternal spilling into the created order; hence, this is the reason why early Christians called Sunday the eighth day and church vessels, such as Baptismal fonts, are often octagonal shaped. Octaves in the Church calendar still serve as bookends for one complete sabbath, a time to delight and rest in the glory of a God who accompanies his people:
The celebration of Easter and Christmas, the two greatest solemnities, continues for eight days, with each octave governed by its own rules. GNLY 12
Each day of first eight days of the Christmas season, Dec. 25 - Jan. 1, is considered part of one "scale", one supreme celebration, a prolongation of Nativity joy in the week’s liturgy (called an Afterfeast in the East). The Daily Office (liturgical prayer) of December 25 is repeated for each day of the octave, emphasizing the ongoing celebration of Christmas with full glory, music, prayer, and song.
The following outline below explains the specific days in the octave and will follow with details about the longer Christmas season as celebrated in the Roman rite. Some Eastern Catholic commemorations, which differ slightly and trace back to older customs, are noted too.
December 25th
The Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, the birthday of Jesus Christ, the Word Made Flesh, who is the visible image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). The second divine Person of the Holy Trinity assumed human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became fully man without ceasing to be God. His humble birth serves as the turning point of history, where God comes to meet man face-to-face and inaugurate the new creation. Christ's birthday signifies eternal gifts for us.
"For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich..."- 2 Corinthians 8:9
The remaining days of the octave include saints, mostly martyrs ("witnesses"), who are called "Companions of Christ" [companion meaning literally to share "bread with"]. The martyrs shared in Christ's passion and reflect the light of Jesus into the dark world through their uncompromising love for Christ and his Church.
December 26th
Roman: The second day within the octave is the feast of St. Stephen, a deacon and the first martyr after Pentecost. In Jerusalem, he proclaimed how all the events of salvation history and all the prophets confirmed Jesus as the true Messiah, but he was stoned to death at the behest of the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:59). Stephen, whose name means "crown", immediately received the ultimate gift, the crown of glory and the beatific vision (Acts 7:54-56). St. Bernard of Clairvaux identified him as a martyr in both "will and deed", and in the United Kingdom his feast is also known as Boxing Day, a time when items for the poor are "boxed" up and donated (deacons took care of the poor in the Bible).
Eastern Catholic: Dec. 26 is commemorated as the Synaxis or Praises to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Byzantine and Syriac churches, similar to the Roman feast of Mary, Mother of God on Jan. 1st.
December 27th
Roman: Third day within the octave. Feast of St. John the Evangelist. St. Bernard identifies St. John as a martyr in "will but not in deed", since his suffering and exile to Patmos was a "white martyrdom", without the shedding of blood. John's gospel, written and published in the latter half of the first century, is a profound insight into the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation, the Word made flesh, and our participation in Trinitarian communion. John also identifies Christ as the Light who came to scatter the darkness (John 1:1-5; 1 John 2:8), the Bread of Life (John 6), and the Life made visible in human form (1 John 1:1-2). With John's natural death around 100 A.D., public revelation (new doctrines revealed by Christ) comes to a close.
Eastern Catholic: Dec. 27 is the feast of St. Stephen, proto-martyr.
December 28th
Roman: Fourth day within the octave. It commemorates the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, the first in the gospels to share in Christ’s persecution at the hands of a fallen, despotic world. St. Bernard identifies these little children as martyrs in "deed but not will". In this part of the Christmas narrative, the child Jesus is portrayed as a new Moses, identified with the oppressed yet saved by His family and hidden in Egypt, so that one day, He could return to deliver His people from evil (see CCC 530).
Eastern Catholic: In the Maronite tradition, Dec. 28 is commemorated as the Adoration of Magi. In Byzantine Catholic tradition, the day commemorates the 20,000 martyrs of Nicomedia, Christians who were burned inside their church on Christmas day.
December 29th
Roman: Fifth day within the octave. Feast of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury, the English bishop and martyr whose share in the sacrifice of Christ through martyrdom on this date connects him as another close companion of the Savior.
Eastern Catholic: Dec. 29 is the Flight to Egypt and Holy Innocents.
December 30th
Roman: Sixth day within the octave. The Feast of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) is normally celebrated Sunday within the octave, or December 30 if there is no Sunday. As first-born of a new creation, the Son of God humbled himself to share in our human family and experience, gifting himself with the love and care of a particular human mother and particular human foster-father. In doing so Jesus perfects and sets apart marriage and family as the channel through which the divine and human find mutual company, a domestic church on pilgrimage towards beatitude.
Eastern Catholic: Maronites commemorate Dec. 30 as the Return from Egypt to Nazareth, essentially a celebration of the Holy Family. Byzantine Catholics commemorate Sts. David, Joseph the Betrothed, and James the Kinsman the Sunday after the Nativity and on Dec. 30, they commemorate St. Anysia.
December 31st
Roman: Seventh day within the octave and memorial of Pope St. Sylvester I. Sylvester was the pope who ratified the Creed of Nicaea in 325 A.D. which condemned the Arian heresy that claimed the Son of God was a spiritual creature and not equal to God the Father (i.e. - not God and not Savior). Thus, in the Creed we confess the fundamental Christmas truth about who Jesus is every Sunday:
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
Eastern Catholic: For Maronites, Dec. 31 is listed in honor of the Word Made Flesh.
January 1st
Roman: Octave of Christmas and Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. A holy day of obligation in most of the Catholic world, it serves as another crescendo for worship, honoring the Motherhood of Mary and the induction of Christ into the Hebrew Covenant with his circumcision and conferral of his saving name. This Latin feast of Mary is perhaps the oldest Roman Marian feast and her ancient Greek title Theotokos (God-bearer) teaches us the truth about her son, Jesus Christ: the human being she gave birth to was truly a divine person, therefore Mary can be called "Mother of God" (see Luke 1:43).
Eastern Catholic: The circumcision of Christ on the eighth day after his birth and St. Basil the Great are commemorated Jan. 1. Maronites also commemorate the Finding of the Lord in the Temple the Sunday after New Year's Day.
The Rest of Christmastide
January 2nd
Roman: The ninth day of Christmas and the memorial of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen. These Cappadocian fathers of the East defended the Trinity and the divinity and humanity of Jesus during the Arian heresy of the fourth century.
Eastern Catholic: Maronites highlight the Presentation of Jesus forty days after his birth.
January 3rd
Roman: Tenth day of Christmas. Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus.
January 4th
Roman (U.S.): Eleventh day of Christmas. Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.
January 5th
Roman (U.S.): Twelfth day of Christmas and twelfth night (vigil of the Epiphany). Memorial of St. John Neumann. Eastern: St. Paul the Hermit.
January 6th
Roman: Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, another major feast of the Christmas season. In fact, Jan. 6 was the original date on which the Nativity of the Lord and all of the mysteries of his childhood plus his Baptism were celebrated in the East. Epiphany in Western tradition now commemorates the manifestation of the Christ child to the Magi (the Gentiles) and is sometimes called Three Kings Day in different cultures. In most of the U.S., Epiphany is transferred to the nearest Sunday between Jan. 2 and Jan. 8.
Eastern Catholic: Called Theophany in the East, Epiphany retains the original emphasis on the Lord's baptism as a manifestation of Jesus as Son of God and Messiah. At Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by St. John the Forerunner, the Trinity is manifested, the Sacrament of Baptism is foreshadowed, Christ is proclaimed Son of the Father, and Jesus begins his public mission of salvation. Thus, the blessing of holy water and administration of Baptism is still common in many Eastern Catholic and Orthodox circles in January. Armenians still celebrate Jan. 6th as the day of the Nativity.
January 7th
Roman:Thirteenth day of Christmas. Memorial of St. Raymond of Penafort.
Eastern Catholic: Synaxis or Praises to St. John the Forerunner. Many Eastern Orthodox countries which follow the old Julian calendar celebrate the Nativity today.
January 8th - January 13th
Roman: Days within the Christmas week after Epiphany. For the Roman rite, the Baptism of the Lord is not celebrated Jan. 6 but is commemorated the Sunday after Epiphany or after January 6 if no Sunday (thus Christmas can end at 15 days or extend as much as 20 days). With the Baptism of Jesus, Christmas comes to an official end in the Roman rite (prior to the 1955 revision of the general Roman calendar, Epiphany had its own octave starting Jan. 6, the Magi, and always came to an end on the fixed date of Jan. 13th, the Baptism of the Lord). Although the season after Christmas is today called "Ordinary time" (counted time) in the Roman rite, it was once called the season after Epiphany and additional Sundays in January still commemorate other Epiphany moments such as Christ's first public miracle at the wedding feast of Cana.
Eastern Catholic: After January 6, the East enters into the season of Epiphany which lasts until the few preparation Sundays before Great Lent.
February 2nd
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Jesus. Forty days after His birth, Jesus was presented in the Temple by his mother -- a picture of the new Ark of the Covenant (Mary) carrying the presence of God (Jesus) back to the Holy of Holies. The elder Simeon declares Christ a light to the Gentiles (Lk. 2:32); hence, the custom of blessing candles for the church year gives this day its Old English name: Candlemas. Since February 2 marks the halfway point of winter, the feast reminds the faithful once again that the Christ Child is the light who scatters the darkness. The day is not part of the Christmas season proper (it was unofficially the final Christmas holiday prior to 1955), but it is another highlight of Epiphany related feasts. For the East, the Presentation is, with Christmas Day and Theophany, one of the twelve great feasts of the ancient calendar. Some Catholics leave manger scenes, trees, or lights up until this date. The Vatican has been known to do so in some years.
Christmas is Eternal
The fact that Christmas, as a liturgical season of worship and rest, is more than a day or even a week serves to remind the faithful that the reality of the Word made Flesh, who, out of supreme love for the world, humbled himself as a poor child to draw and elevate man into the splendor of divine life and love, is not a mystery which can be simply grasped in one, a thousand, or even ten thousand days; for Christmas (and its sister feast of the Annunciation nine months earlier on March 25) is how Eternity transformed time, the cosmos, and mankind forever. So perhaps, instead of ditching the lights and tree a couple days after Dec. 25th, or taking apart our manger scenes, we can leave them up the full season to remind us of the great self-gift of Christ, the light who enlightens all men and whose tender mercy makes stony hearts cheerful and childlike before God again.
The Catechism sums up the main message of Christmas:
To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become "children of God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God". Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this "marvelous exchange": O marvelous exchange! Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity. - CCC 530
