Day One Reflection on Medieval Theology

All you need is love; all you need is love, love; love is all you need.  These famous words, penned by the brilliant Lennon and McCartney, are more right theologically than we often assume.

Augustine and others in his day were deeply concerned about lapsarian priests and bishops, particularly as their lapse impacted the efficacy of sacraments.  "if the priest is not truly in the Church due to sin then is my baptism legitimate?", people often asked.  To wit, an overwhelming majority in the church in North Africa said, NO!  This response was deeply troubling for everyone to hear.  Christians asked, "what happens if I am baptized by a priest with an undisclosed pattern of sin in his life and years later I learn of the priest’s lapse from the Church?"  More common was the problem of a priest that recanted his faith under the duress of persecution, raising the question of his ability to  administer the sacraments.

Augustine called a time out from the ensuing panic and controversy, and spoke a calming word to the Church.  In his writing called Homilies on the First Epistle of John, he suggested that the Donatists (those who believed the efficacy of the sacrament depended upon the moral uprightness of the priest) were looking in the wrong place to find evidence that the sacrament worked, particularly as it related to the washing of sin in baptism. 

Baptism’s efficacy, he argued, was not contingent upon the priest or bishop, but the efficacy was found in the measure of love demonstrated in the life of the baptized Christian.  Rest easy fundamentalists, doctrine still mattered to Augustine, but, above all else, the quality of love in the life of a follower was the identifying hallmark. 

I don’t know about you, but I find that assertion very convicting.  The assurance of our life being in union in Christ is not evidence by the measure of orthodoxy (certainly it matters but it is insufficient by itself), but it is how we love one another in  an orthodox manner.  Love of the church, love of the scripture, love of Christ, love of our enemies.  Love, love, love what we need is love to know if our baptism in Christ and communion with Christ is efficacious.