18 26, July, 2020 C omment catholicweekly.com.au O ne thing the Church must never lose sight of is keeping Christ at the centre of all She does. And this ap- plies to every member of the Church – all the baptised, no matter their vocational call- ing and regardless of wheth- er they are successors to the Apostles, members of the ministerial priesthood, conse- crated religious, or lay. All the baptised – by vir- tue of our incorporation into the life of Christ through our anointing by the Holy Spir- it at baptism – are called to live a life of faithful witness to Christ. In the first letter of St John, the faithful are told: “you have been anointed by the Holy One, and have all received knowledge … the anointing that you received fromhim remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you … his anointing teaches you about all things’ (1 Jn 2:20, 27). Because of the anoint- ing we have received, all “the faithful have an instinct for the truth of the Gospel, which en- ables them to recognise and endorse authentic Christian doctrine and practice, and to reject what is false. That su- pernatural instinct, intrinsi- cally linked to the gift of faith received in the communion of the Church, is called the sen- sus fidei , and it enables Chris- tians to fulfil their prophetic calling.” (ITC, 2014) This terminology – sensus fidei – has been used frequent- ly inmore recent times, and in certain circumstances has been cited to justify a particu- lar perspective akin to a con- sensus of the masses or popu- lar opinion. The sensus fidei (sense of the faithful) is an instinct and active capacity to discern the truth of faith, to recognise au- thentic doctrine and prac- tice, and to reject what is false. Theologically, the sensus fi- dei refers to two distinct but connected realities – both the Church as a whole, and to the individual believer who be- Itwouldbewrongtoassumethatconsensus isthesamethingasthesenseof thefaithful Sensus fidei: it’s much more than a feeling Bishops must examine, discern and authoritatively judge the genuineness of anything proposed re- garding the Church.While the sense of the faithful is a real gift, it is the bishops who must safeguard the Church against purely human opinions and errors. PHOTO: CNS/VATICAN MEDIA longs to the Church through the Sacraments of Initiation. On the one hand, it relies on the personal capacity of the believer to discern the truth of faith, and on the other hand to a communal instinct of faith of the Church Herself. The International Theologi- cal Commission (ITC), in their 2014 document on this topic, states: “the sensus fidei is pre- sented as Christ’s gift to the faithful, and … is described as an active capacity by which the faithful are able to under- stand, live and proclaim the truths of divine revelation.” While addressing mem- bers of the ITC a year earlier in December 2013, Pope Fran- cis said: “By the gift of the Holy Spir- it, the members of the Church possess a ‘sense of faith’. This is a kind of ‘spiritual instinct’ that makes us sentire cum Ec- clesia [think with the mind of the Church] and to discern that which is in conformity with the apostolic faith and is in the spirit of the Gospel. Of course, the sensus fidelium cannot be confused with the sociological reality of a majori- ty opinion.” The Pope then went on to encourage those theologians “to develop criteria that allow the authentic expressions of the sensus fidelium to be dis- cerned.” This criteria now appear in the ITC document as disposi- tions needed for an authen- tic participation in the sensus fidei. They include: a) active participation in the life of the Church; b) attentive and re- ceptive listening to the word of God; c) openness to reason; d) adherence to the Magiste- rium; e) holiness – humility, freedom, joy; and f) seeking and contributing to the edifi- cation of the Church. Without these dispositions, present both in the individu- al Christian and the Church as a whole, we cannot partic- ipate authentically in the sen- sus fidei . John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio , makes this point: “The ‘supernatural sense of faith’ however does not con- sist solely or necessarily in the consensus of the faithful. Following Christ, the Church seeks the truth, which is not always the same as the majori- ty opinion.” As such, we bishops, as suc- cessors to the Apostles, also hold a particular role in the sensus fidei : “Because it is the task of the apostolic minis- try to ensure that the Church remains in the truth of Christ and to lead her ever more deeply into that truth, the Pas- tors must promote the sense of the faith in all the faithful, examine and authoritative- ly judge the genuineness of its expressions, and educate the faithful in an ever more ma- ture evangelical discernment.” (FC, 5) Together, in this way, every member of the Body of Christ holds a particular responsibil- ity to ensure they are proper- ly disposed to authentically participate in the sensus fidei , such that they can safeguard the correct intuition of the sen- sus fidei frombeing mixed up with “various purely human opinions, or even with errors linked to the narrow confines of a particular cultural con- text.” It is sobering to think that “although theological faith as such cannot err, the believ- er can still have erroneous opinions since all his thoughts do not spring from faith. Not all the ideas which circulate among the People of God are compatible with the faith.” (CDF, DonumVeritatis , 35) This gift of the sensus fidei bestowed by the Holy Spirit is one that must be cultivat- ed, nurtured and fostered with a great sense of authenticity, rooted in prayer, grounded in the Scriptures, centred on the continuity of apostolic Tradi- tion and open to the work of God’s grace in and through the sacramental life of the Church. Our faithful witness to Christ at the centre of all we seek to do, think and say, is es- sential to the individual role we each play in building the Body of Christ. Bishop Richard Umbers is an Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s Bishop Delegate for Life. The sensus fidei (sense of the faithful) is an instinct and active capacity to discern the truth of faith, to recognise authentic doctrine and practice, and to reject what is false.” In brief Saint lived life of illness S t Lydwine (1380- 1433) was a Dutch saint who was very sick. Themayor and other authorities of Schiedam in the Nether- lands issued a formal dec- laration in 1421 detailing many of her ailments, and biographies were written by people who close to her, one of themedited by Thomas à Kempis. In her 15th year, while ice skating, she suffered a broken ribwhich de- veloped into a painful abscess. In her 16th year the abscess burst and fluids came up through her mouthwith vomit- ing. From then on she had constant infirmities. From the age of 20 Lyd- wine was confined to bed, where she remained until her death at the age of 53. She ate almost nothing and eventually survived on a little water from the Meuse River and the Eu- charist. Lydwine had three large openwounds on her body andmaggots began to eat into her rotting flesh.The maggots came out of the one in her stomach. At around the age of 32 she vomited small pieces of organs, including bits of her lungs, liver and intes- tines. She accepted all her ail- ments with love for God and offered themup for the conversion of sinners and for souls in purgatory. Around the age of 25 she began to experience ecstasies which contin- ued until her death. She was taken in spirit to pur- gatory where she saw the suffering of souls, includ- ing some of her friends, and she was also given visions of hell and heav- en. At around 40 she was happy to be able to receive Communion several times a week. In April, 1433, God fi- nally ended her suffer- ing and took her to heav- en. She was canonised by Pope Leo XIII in 1890 and her body lies in the Basili- ca of St Lydwine in Schie- dam.
[email protected] Bishop Richard Umbers A sick friend has been praying to St Lydwine of Schiedam. Who was she? Father Flader Columnist