Why the Church is like my wife...a beautiful mystery wrapped in confusion

I remember when I was first dating my future wife, Mandy, I found her quite attractive (still do), but also very confusing (less so now).  When we first met, she was a mystery to me with many thoughts, and feelings that I was totally unaware of.  Unfortunately, like most men, I was unable to pick up on many of her social cues, so I was very intrigued by her yet still perplexed. In fact, the only way I could figure out what she wanted was when she told me directly what her thoughts and feeling were. Furthermore, because I was so intrigued by her, I wanted to get to know her more; and so, I would ask her many questions.  She in return would reveal he innermost thoughts and feelings to me, and this only made want to know her more.

Like Mandy, the Church is a beautiful mystery at times wrapped in confusion, but unlike Mandy, the Church has a perfect spouse, Jesus Christ  (sorry to break it to you Mandy, but I'm not perfect). Nonetheless the Church wants to reveal her deepest secrets to her children if we are willing to listen to her.  The problem is that, like most children, we think we have outgrown her and no longer need her anymore, like a teenager who sees mom more like a nag, rather than a mother who persistently loves us. It is our spiritual immaturity that brings about this confusion in the Church.   The good news is that our mother Church will still love us during our "spiritually" rebellious  teen years. Hopefully, we will spiritually grow up, and realize that we should have listened to our mother Church the whole time. 

The reason why I found my wife so confusing was due to my failure to listen.  Originally, I thought I knew her better than she knew herself (this did not go well). Many Catholics as well think they know the Church better than she knows herself (this does not go well either).  However, when I listened to her in such a way that I obeyed her, the confusion began to disappear and I began to understand.  For example one thing that was a mystery about her was her favorite flower.  There was no way I could have known her favorite flower unless she revealed it to me, it was a mystery to me.   The same is true with Christ and the Church, there are many thing we cannot know about Christ and his Church unless He reveals them to us. Once Mandy revealed that she liked gerber daisies, I obeyed, and bought her gerber daisies this brought us closer together (unlike other times where I went out on a limb and bought her something else, this didn't go so well).  More dramatically, when we obey Christ and his Church it brings us closer to them, and this is called faith. Consequently, faith increases when we obey mother Church.

  

Having to listen and obey Mandy required an act of faith, in the sense that I simply had to trust her when she revealed herself to me, even though I did not understand why.   The same is true when our mother Church reveals her most inner secrets to us through the sacraments, and we are called to listen and obey. This is what St.Paul refers to as an "obedience of faith." (Rom 1:5)

By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of faith"...To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. the Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment (CCC 143,144)

But the question arises: how can we obey mother Church when there is such a broken human dimension involved?  Why should we listen to our mother Church when it guided  by sinners? When over the course of history she has been racked by so many scandals?  Why should we have faith in her at all? The response is rather simple:  where are you looking?  If you are looking at blogs, Facebook, Instagram, etc. you will not find the Church's beauty wrapped in truth, but only in more confusion. Rather look to the deposit of faith to listen to her in obedience.

The Church is divine because of her spousal marriage to Christ who is divine.  However, the Church is also human and imperfect because all of her children are sinners.  So how can we listen to her with the obedience of faith when there seems to be so much confusion.  When she appears to be a beautiful mystery wrapped in confusion.  Again the answer is rather simple, it is called the deposit of faith.   

This "deposit of faith” is like the treasure of a householder; it is entrusted to the Church, the family of God, and she continuously draws from it things new and old. All God's children, animated by his Spirit, are nourished by this treasure of the Word. They know that the Word is Jesus Christ, the Word made man and that his voice continues to resound in the Church and in the world through the Holy Spirit. The Word of God, by wondrous divine "condescension" is directed toward us and reaches us by means of human "deeds and words", "just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men". And so without ceasing to be the word of God, it is expressed in human words. Although close to us, it still remains veiled, in a "kenotic" state. Thus the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, has to interpret the word continually. She contemplates the word with a profound spirit of faith, "listens to [it] devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully". (GDC 94)

The deposit of faith are all the teachings that the Trinity has revealed to us, the Father in the Old Testament, Jesus in the Gospels, and the Holy Spirit in the early Church (CCC 66).  So, how do we listen to mother Church? Go to the deposit of faith and listen to her speak to us through the Scriptures; the Church Councils; the Catechism of the Catholic Church;  the early church fathers;  the saints who lived out the deposit of faith to its fullest; and finally the Magisterium whose duty it is to listen, guard, and expound the deposit of faith (CCC 85-86). In these writings, particularly the Scriptures, we can see the divine side of the Church, and therefore we can put our trust and faith in her without the confusion.

The deposit of faith is like a treasure box, but instead of being filled with gold, it is filled with the truth. "She is the treasure chamber in which the Apostles have laid up the truth, which is Christ" (Henri DeLubac, Splendor of the Church,  40) When these truths are lived out to the fullest they will bring us everlasting life.  More specifically these truths point to one truth, Jesus Christ who is "the way the truth and the life" (Jn 14:6).  Therefore to encounter the deposit of faith is to encounter Christ, himself. St. Paul entrusted these sacred truths to Timothy:

“O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called "knowledge ‘” (1 Tim 6:20) 

“and therefore I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.” (2 Tim 1:12)

“Guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us” (2 Tim 1:14).

“and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” ( 2 Tim 2:2).

The word “entrust” comes the Gk word paraqeke pronounced par-ath-ay'-kay which in English means “deposit”: “A deposit, a trust or thing consigned to one's faithful keeping used of the correct knowledge and pure doctrine of the gospel, to be held firmly and faithfully, and to be conscientiously delivered unto others… ” (www.biblestudytools.com 5/23/13)

St. Paul is handing the deposit of faith to Timothy, a bishop in Ephesus, here we see the the handing on of the faith from one generation to the next in the scriptures. So what does all this mean? It means that the deposit of faith has held steadfast throughout the centuries in the Church.  Despite all of the upheavals and the confusion brought about by heresies that the Catholic Church endured, the deposit of faith has remained steadfast.  Whether these heresies took place outside the Catholic Church or inside the Catholic Church, the deposit of faith still remains intact and is transmitted through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.  The reason why the Church is wrapped in confusion is due to the fact that there were times in Church history when bishops failed to protect the deposit of faith, which is why St. Paul preemptively emphasized to Timothy the importance of guarding this sacred deposit of faith.

When Mandy revealed to me her most inner secrets over time, I couldn't help but love her more and more. Consequently, when we go to the deposit of faith, we find the Church's most inner secrets, and those secrets are none other than her beloved spouse Jesus Christ, to whom we will fall in love with more and more everyday if we only listen to her.