Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Jan 11 Brandan

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you

We get a mini-bioblurb on Brandan but his mission leads us to the Pelagian heresy. It’s as important to know the wrong propositions as it is to know the tenets of our faith.


January 11

Brandan 5th century

Brandan was an Irish monk who went to England and confronted the Pelagian heretics. People come up with wrong beliefs not because they are stupid or lazy or passive. Often the best and brightest come to false beliefs with a true heart and extraordinary zeal. That’s why it is important to send the A-team into the fray. To disabuse false followers and to lead them back to the One True Church.

Pelagius was probably a fifth century Irishman. I can’t figure out how he wound up in Carthage but you can see the heretical droppings of Pelagianism from southern England to Gaul to Rome to North Africa. Maybe Brandan was a Pelagian stalker?

Brandan was not welcomed in the Pelagian communities of England. Go figure! Who wants a prophet in their midst who by stint of his life and his preaching is saying that your newfound belief is wrong and the life that such beliefs lead you to will take you to hell? Brandan fled to Gaul because of the cruel treatment he received in England. Imagine that! An Irishman was treated cruelly in England for carrying the Truth! Go figure!

Brandan must have had some qualities of holiness and leadership for those who were receptive to The Word. In Gaul, this monk eventually became an abbot.

The six heretical premises of Pelagianism [quoted from Catholic Encyclopedia online]
1. Even if Adam had not sinned, he would have died.
2. Adam's sin harmed only himself, not the human race.
3. Children just born are in the same state as Adam before his fall.
4. The whole human race neither dies through Adam's sin or death, nor rises again through the resurrection of Christ.
5. The (Mosaic Law) is as good a guide to heaven as the Gospel.
6. Even before the advent of Christ there were men who were without sin.

You can deduce the impact on ‘how to live your life’ these beliefs had versus Catholicism.

No less a theologian and Church Father than Augustine knocked the stuffing out of this heresy. At the Council of Carthage (418), the Church reaffirmed the following beliefs [also quoted from Catholic Encyclopedia online]

1. Death did not come to Adam from a physical necessity, but through sin.
2. New-born children must be baptized on account of original sin.
3. Justifying grace not only avails for the forgiveness of past sins, but also gives assistance for the avoidance of future sins.
4. The grace of Christ not only discloses the knowledge of God's commandments, but also imparts strength to will and execute them.
5. Without God's grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works.
6. Not out of humility, but in truth must we confess ourselves to be sinners.
7. The saints refer the petition of the Our Father, "Forgive us our trespasses", not only to others, but also to themselves.
8. The saints pronounce the same supplication not from mere humility, but from truthfulness.

Amen

I love you
Dad
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