Pope Francis embraces the Rev. Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, during an ecumenical prayer service at the Lutheran cathedral in Lund, Sweden, Oct. 31. Photo: CNS As we commemorate the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, it is good to ask: where is the Catholic Church today with regard to Martin Luther and the issues he raised? A gesture that speaks volumes in answer to that question is the visit on October 31st last year by Pope Francis to Lund, Sweden, to begin the 500th commemoration with the World Lutheran Federation. By any standard that was a majorly significant event when we consider how for centuries Catholics viewed Martin Luther.
In his homily during the ceremony in Lund, the Pope commented on positive aspects of the Reformation that we need to name and be thankful for: “With gratitude we acknowledge that the Reformation helped give greater centrality to sacred Scripture in the Church’s life.” He also referred to the value of Martin Luther’s spiritual experience “that challenges us to remember that apart from God we can do nothing”. With Luther’s concept of “by grace alone”, he reminds us “that God always takes the initiative, prior to any human response, even as he seeks to awaken that response”.
Pope Francis’ positive gesture and remarks echo gestures and sentiments expressed by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Of course, it’s not that Catholics and Lutherans deny the painful history we have experienced over five hundred years of division. During the Lund prayer service, one of the texts put it bluntly, “In the 16th Century, Catholics and Lutherans frequently not only misunderstood but also exaggerated and caricatured their opponents in order to make them look ridiculous…. They accepted that the Gospel was mixed with the political and economic interests of those in power. Their failures resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.”
Summary
Over the past 50 years there have been many very encouraging developments in relations between Catholics and Lutherans enabling each side to understand each other better. An excellent summary – available on line – of where things stand now is to be found in the 2013 document published by the international Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity, From Conflict to Communion: The Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017. [1]
The document combines insightful evaluation of the past, explains the doctrinal issues and then offers what it calls ecumenical imperatives on how to go forward. The main theological topics that Luther raised include: justification, the Eucharist, Ministry and the relationship between Scripture and Tradition. There has been much progress in recognising dimensions of Luther’s thought that hadn’t always been heard before, dimensions that we today recognise as resonating with Catholic teaching more than we realised in the past. There has been much agreement on our understanding of Eucharist and the relationship between Scripture and Tradition.
However, the main topic for Luther was justification and on this there has been a very significant development. Martin Luther and other Reformers saw this as the “first and main article” of faith. To understand the issue, we need to go back to Luther’s own personal experience as an Augustinian friar and Scripture scholar. He was grappling with a hell-like terror before a perceived judgemental God that was typical of his era that had suffered a terrible plague decimating Europe.
Luther’s question was fundamental: how can I find a gracious, merciful God? He knew the 10 Commandments and the high bar of moral conduct demanded by the Church. He looked around and people accumulating indulgences and doing penances of all sorts.
Luther’s big personal discovery was that God is not just transcendent, almighty and all-powerful (and very demanding) but also the God who “emptied” himself and took on our human nature to the point of identifying with our sufferings and pain. In Jesus Crucified, God looks on us in our incapacities, makes himself “cursed”, and offers us a new, flourishing life. He doesn’t condemn; he saves. And this is pure gift. All we have to do with hand over in faith, trust in Jesus Christ. He alone “justifies” us. Luther was particularly struck by Romans 1:17: “the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith’”.
Luther was so taken with the gift dimension of God’s grace that he promoted a notion of what’s called justification by grace alone, by faith alone, by the Cross alone. It’s not our works, our merits, our efforts that matter. It’s God’s doing. Once a person has a very personal faith experience of God in Christ Crucified, then, yes, it was clear for Luther, the fruit of this cannot but be good works and outreach to one’s neighbour.
Righteousness
Writing on April 8, 1516 to one of his fellow Augustinians, George Spenlein, he commented that just as Christ “has received you and… has made your sins his own and has made his righteousness yours”, then, “you ought… to receive your… brothers, patiently help them, make their sins yours, and, if you have any goodness, let it be theirs.”
For Catholics, the problem was that the way Luther expressed his beliefs seemed to deny personal responsibility and our cooperation with God’s grace. There was also the problem that Luther seemed to say we remain sinners even when we are justified (ie, God only declares us just but doesn’t actually transform us in baptism). The Council of Trent (1545-1563), called by the Pope, emphasised that we must contribute through free will and through agreeing to prepare to receive the grace of justification and to increase grace through our good works.
Polemical debates continued around all of this for centuries. However, after decades of dialogue, in 1999, the Catholic Church and the World Lutheran Federation signed a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, offering what it called “a differentiated consensus”. In other words, both sides could sign up to a common statement about justification while recognising that each side has different emphases.
The heart of that statement is as follows: “Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.” (n. 15).
Now that a certain consensus has been established on what the Luther and the Reformers considered the “first and main article” of faith, it is possible to proceed in dialogue on other points such as the significance of the Church, the Eucharist and ministry. It is noteworthy that since 1999 other churches have also signed up to the Joint Declaration.
Dr Brendan Leahy is Bishop of Limerick and chairman of the Irish bishops’ Council for Ecumenism and Dialogue.
[1] Published on June 17, 2013 it is available on the Vatican website under the Council for Promoting Christian Unity’s documents relating to the Lutheran World Federation.