Rediscovering our Catholic heritage (part 2)

Ave Maria!

So today we explored another little piece of the Catholic heritage of South East England. My mother remembered being taken as a child to a very particular anglican Church that dated back to before the Norman conquest.

Chaldon is a little village located in Surrey, not far from Caterham and a stones throw from the Farthing downs. When you enter the village the sign reads “A.D. 1085” but there was a Saxon settlement and a Saxon church on the same site before that. So what makes this little village and its parish church so special? Well the church, a bit like the one we visited last weekend, contains a set of paintings from medieval times. Whilst only one wall has survived to the present day (at St. Botolph’s all the walls are still covered with 12th century frescos) it is in better condition and makes a much bigger impression on anyone who walks in.

This mural, which is even more striking when seen in the flesh, depicts the last judgement, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. There are truly ghoulish demons tormenting sinners by cooking them in cauldrons, piercing them with rods and devouring them entirely. Higher up St. Michael the Archangel defeats the dragon and up on high there is the Lamb who welcomes souls into Paradise. This image was hidden for centuries and only narrowly escaped being destroyed in Victorian times. On another wall of the tiny church one can see the faded remnants of another mural which sadly didn’t survive.

These days we rarely here talk - or speak ourselves - of judgement, of purgatory or of hell. Whilst we know these things exist we ought to examine ourselves on whether or not we really take them seriously, whether, in fact, we actually believe in them. It is more comfortable for us to ignore these truths of our faith, to pretend that they aren’t real or that they aren’t going to happen and we justify this by saying that judgement and punishment are at odds with God’s infinite mercy. But that couldn’t be more wrong. God’s mercy is highlighted most in his justice, just as his justice is manifested most by his mercy.

But what does that mean? How can God by all-merciful and all-just?

First of all we have to remember that justice is not the same thing as vengeance. This misconception is probably made all the more popular nowadays thanks to Hollywood caricaturing justice into mere revenge. But that is not what the word means, nor has it got anything to do with God.

Justice is actually a virtue, taught to us by Jesus in the Gospel when, presented with a denarius, he says “render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” (Mk 12:17) Justice towards God is the virtue of religion (i.e. acts of religion; the Mass etc.) and justice towards our fellow man is commonly called fair play, or rather treating fairly our fellow man. (Expressed, for example, in paying someone a fair wage.) Perhaps with that most people would be in agreement. But what does it mean when God exercised his justice towards us?

Everything we think, say and do in our lifetime bears a consequence. This is true be it on a material level (that is, the outcome of that thought/word/action) as on a spiritual level (that is the merit earned for a good action, or damage to the soul by the sin committed for a bad action). God, at the end of our lives, will show us everything we have done in the course of our life as well as how many merits we have earned and sins committed. At the end he will pass judgement, i.e. he will repay each of us according to what we have done. If we have died in the state of grace having done many good works we will go to Heaven. If we have died in the state of grace but still have to expiate for some confessed sins we will go first to Purgatory and then to Heaven. If we have died in the state of mortal sin we will go to Hell.

Some here would boldly interject, crying that condemning someone to Hell is not the action of an all-merciful God. But it is. Why? Because it is we who condemn ourselves first. God has given us all the gift of free will, the ability to choose between good and evil. If we spend our entire lives choosing that which is evil, that which goes against God’s law, then we are already condemning ourselves here on earth. God’s judgement will simple be a confirmation of that. So where do we see God’s mercy? We see it in the fact that, whilst we have life in our bodies, God lovingly calls each one of us, offers the chance to repent and to change to each one of us, no-one excluded. When we die we will be shown this as well. We will clearly see just how much God has done for the good of our souls and how we have responded to this. None of us can claim that God didn’t give him a chance.

Looking at that mural today, think about how it must be all the more frightening when seen by candle light with those demons flickering in the semi-darkness, I thought at how much past generations realised better than us all of these truths...but also how they recognised their own need to be reminded of it on a regular basis. Human nature tends to what is comfortable and needs the odd sharp shock to wake it up and put it back onto the road towards sanctity. Looking at that mural, thinking about it now as I write, it doesn’t make me tremble with terror at God as my judge, instead it makes me realise how good God is to me and how little I thank him, how poorly I correspond to his graces, how the fate of my soul lies in my own hands. It also inspires me to correct this and now whilst I have the time and the grace. It makes me hope, because if God is giving me another chance to finally convert it is because of his merciful love.