The Victory of Truth over Heresy, by Peter Paul Rubens, Museo del Prado, Madrid
The whole world groaned, and was astonished to find itself Arian. Saint Jerome, Dialogue Against the Luciferians, ca. 359 AD.
Arianism was embraced and advocated by the followers of Arius, who asserted that Christ was not God like the Father, but a creature made in time. This heresy would formally and finally be rejected by the Council of Constantinople, but in the middle of the fourth century, the Church was wracked with conflict over the nature of Jesus Christ, and His divinity. For a time, the wrong understanding, Arianism, had a hold on many of her members and even bishops. This is the sad situation that Jerome laments.
False understanding of Jesus’ identity and nature has always been attractive, especially to believe that He is special, blessed, talented, and amazing – but not God. Even in our own time it is not rare to encounter people – some of them even considering themselves Christian – who would assert that Jesus was “a great teacher” or some such, but not God, even though Arius’ formulation was completely rejected. But I recently came across an explanation of how the Church brought a great good out of this Arian evil.
Reading Cardinal Francis George’s last book, A Godly Humanism (CUA Press, 2015), I found this footnote: Indeed, for Augustine, the Church, in her serene guardianship of the truth, can take even heresy in her stride: “Only because of the heretics in her midst could the Church find a more exact way to express herself in words, and the orthodox were preserved in their right-thinking because of the false thinkers among them…. For example, was any complete account of the Trinity available before the Arians began to bay at it…. Nor had the unity of Christ’s body [the Church] been discussed in such a developed way until [the Donatist] division began to trouble the weaker brethren.”; Saint Augustine of Hippo, Expositions of the Psalms: 51-72 at Psalm 54:22, trans. Maria Boulding, OSB.
Wow. What a way to look at false teaching: Only because of the heretics in her midst could the Church find a more exact way to express herself in words. Often when I am leading people in the Faith, I point out that the nature of the Holy Trinity, hinted at but not explained in Scripture, was not articulated until late in the fourth century, and then by the official acts of the Church. But never had it clearly formed in my mind that the Church did so because a false teaching not only was proposed, but also was widely embraced within the Church herself.
The one and only Church, in her holiness and her catholicity (that is, universality), is able to encounter and engage any and all interpretations and explanations of God and man, identify what in them is true and consonant with the Faith, and not simply reject but also fruitfully respond to what is false or erroneous in them. This is true whether the error arise from outside the body of the Church or even within it.
The history of the Faith is filled with examples of this essential faculty of the Church, and its exercise in the authentic development of how Christ Jesus is taught and revealed. There is no reason to doubt that this faculty abides and is at work even now in the Church, any more than we could expect false teachings to cease to spring from the minds of individuals, from intentions good or ill, and for those errors to appeal to and divert “the weaker brethren.” In fact, it might provide great solace to remind ourselves that this ability to bring good and clarity out of evil and error is still intrinsic to the Church.
So rather than groan, or perhaps after indulging one hearty groan, we who are in the world should remind ourselves that Only because of the heretics in her midst could the Church find a more exact way to express herself in words – and get on with it.
Monsignor Smith
