Dogma
by Rev. Roderick MacEachen

Index

The intellect of man was made for truth.  Man naturally craves for truth.  He yearns for certainty of knowledge.  Doubt and uncertainty are among he bitterest trials of man on earth.  The intellectual beatitude of man consists in the possession of perfect truth.  This he will find in God alone.

The truth that most concerns man is that which pertains to his eternal destiny.  This truth he must learn from his God and Creator.  God alone, Who made us, knows the reason why He made us.  He alone can tell us the destiny that awaits us.  God has revealed this truth to us.  He has founded His Church to teach it to us.  When this truth comes to us through Divine Revelation and the ministry of the Church it is called dogma.

Dogma, then, is the defined truth that comes to us through the authority of God.  It is the positive teaching of reveled religion.  It is the sum total of all the truths which God teaches to man.  Dogma is not opinion; it is not the teaching of human authority; it is not theory. It is positive truth.

There are but two kinds of religious beliefs possible.  The one is based upon dogmas, the other is based upon human opinions.

He who knows the true meaning of dogma can never object to it.  Dogma does not bind the mind; it frees it.  It promotes the activity of the mind.  It does not curtail the sphere of human reason.  It simply describes the boundaries that separate truth from error.  A church without dogmas has no reason for its existence.

Christ said to the first ministers of His Church: "He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me."  The authority of the Church does not enslave the human mind.  It opens to it the realms of divine truth.  It does not hinder progress in science.  Even human knowledge is defined.  It has its dogmas, as it were.  Mathematics bids me believe that two and two are four.  I am not free to believe that two and two are five.  What would happen to the science of mathematics if everyone were free to apply his own whims to the solution of its problems?  It would certainly become an absurdity.  Much more truly can this be said of religion.

It is easy for thinking minds to see that they are not free to substitute falsehood for truth.  As a creature of freewill, I may reject the truth.  Yet I am not free so long as I do not possess the truth.  Truth is something positive; truth is light.  Error is negative; error is darkness.  Truth is itself the liberty of the mind.

If I am lost n a forest, I am like a prisoner.  I am held in a vast dungeon from which I am not ale to free myself.  This is the state of the mind that does not possess the truth in this life.  It has lost its way in a maize of errors.  I can but wander about in despair of finding the way that leads to its destiny. Truth, to such a mind, is a real liberator.  It is like a great light that points out a clear road to the desired end.  "The truth shall make you free."

Enlightenment does not always free the mind.  In the modern sense, enlightenment is often taken to mean information and experience.  The man who is versed in literature and science and has gone about amongst men if said to be enlightened.  Yet his mind is enslaved if he be a stranger to the truth revealed by God.

Human knowledge sometimes makes the mind proud.  The mind must e humble and obedient to possess God's truth.  For this reason Christ said we must become like little children.  The child accepts all on the authority of its teacher.  It must even learn to talk on the authority of others.

Thus the young mind is developed.  If left free from all rules and teaching, it would be little different from a young barbarian. If left "free from the dogmas" of human learning, it would be enslaved in ignorance.  Thus God wishes to teach us His truth.  It must be taught as it is.  It must be defined by its own nature.

Truth is not originated in the minds of men; it is eternal.  It comes from God.  Truth is the agreement of all things with the idea of them that exists in the mind of God.  If our idea of things differs from God's idea of them, we are in error.  If our expression differs from the idea we have in our mind, we are guilty of falsehood.

Truth is in the very nature of things.  I may think that a horse is a cow.  Yet a horse is not a cow.  I may say that the earth does not turn on its axis.  Yet the truth is it does turn on its axis.  I may deny that there is a God.  The truth is, however, that there is a God.

The mind of man is fallible.  Man is not a reliable source of truth.  He may err and he may be guilty of falsehood.  God is the true and infallible source of truth.  When truth is transmitted to our minds by Divine Authority it is called dogma.  To reject dogma, then, is the same as to reject divine authority.

Men sometimes say that they profess faith in God but do not believe in dogmatic teaching.  This is the same as to say to God: "I believe in Thee, O Lord, but I will not accept any defined truth from Thee."  Such men call themselves freethinkers.  They want religion based, not upon the reality of things, but upon their own individual judgment of things.  They profess to accept divine truth but they want to make it a product of their own imagination.  They are indeed free to think that the moon is handpainted.  They are free to think that things are not what they really are.  Yet their thoughts do not change realities.

Dogma is no invention either of men or angels. dogma is truth that is eternally true.  It has been said that the Catholic Church makes dogmas. Nothing could be more absurd.  The Church can no more make a dogma than she can create a world.  The Church teaches the truths of God.  She can not fail in this duty for her Master is with her.  She can not teach any admixture of error.  Error is impossible to the Church.  She teaches with divine authority.

Man can possess no true religious faith except it be based upon dogma.  "Faith cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ."  Dogma is the truth which God transmits to us through the teaching of His church. 

All dogma comes from God.  Te Church is the official teacher and interpreter of dogma.  The truth of God comes to us through Divine Revelation.  It is given to us in Holy Scripture and tradition. Holy Scripture is the written account of Divine Revelation.  God the Holy Ghost is the author of the bible.  Its every statement is divine truth.  Its every truth is dogma.  The sacred writers were but instruments in God's hands.

Divine Revelation contains a three-fold order of truth. It contains truths which the unaided human reason can discover.  Many of these are dictated by the law of nature and by reason.  The existence of God is a truth of this kind.

Divine Revelation contains other truths which mere human reason could not discover with certainty.  Such a truth is the infallibility of the pope.  Yet man can understand these truths when once they are made known by Divine Revelation.

Then there are truths which man could never have known.  Neither can he comprehend them fully after they have been revealed to him. These truths are called mysteries.  Chief amongst them are the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity and the Mystery of the Incarnation. 

Divine Revelation is the record of God's dealing with man.  Since man remains a natural creature in all his relations with God, Revelation must contain some natural truths.  These natural truths are indeed dogmas that must be accepted by all.  Those who already know them by the light of reason are bound to accept them as though they knew them by Faith alone.

The truth may be contained in Divine Revelation either explicitly or implicitly.  It is explicit when it is expressed clearly in so many words.  It is implicit when it is implied in some other truth.  thus, the truth that the Blessed virgin Mary is the Mother of God is implied in the truth that she is the Mother of Jesus.  Here the implication is not only necessary but obvious.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin is implied in the truth of her supernatural dignity as the Mother of Christ.  Here the implication is necessary but not obvious.  The implicit truth, as contained in Divine Revelation, can not always be discovered by human reason.  Though the Church makes use of human intelligence, she is guided by the Holy Ghost in defining the doctrines of Faith.

There are n Holy Writ very few dogmas that are clear and explicit. There is hardly an important text that has not been interpreted in many different ways.  Hence, we see the need of a living authority to define the teachings of the bile.  God has established the Catholic Church as the true guardian and interpreter of His Revelation.  "The Church of the Living God (is) the pillar and ground of truth."

When the Church defines a doctrine of faith, she does not make a new dogma.  She merely decides hat the particular truth is contained in Divine Revelation.  There can be no new dogma without new Revelation from God.  A truth that is clearly expressed in Holy Writ needs no formal definition of the Church to make it a dogma.  Yet a definition may become necessary, should the truth be denied.  This does not, however, constitute a new teaching.  It means that a definition has been given so that the truth may be readily distinguished from the opposing error.  Though clearly contained in Holy Scripture, the doctrine of Christ's Divinity was not defined until it had been denied by Arius.  Yet it had always been taught and believed.

Some writers speak of progress in dogma.  If this progress means new definitions of doctrines taught from the beginning, it may be admitted.  If it means the discovery of new truths, it is false.  This manner of advance can be fund in human knowledge, but not in the divine truth of revealed religion.  Christ and His Apostles delivered the whole body of Revelation to the Church.  since that time there has been no new revelation.  Besides, the Church knew and understood the deposit of Divine Revelation in the days of the Apostles as well as she knows and understands it today.