Society of Saint Polycarp: Open Wide ... (Part 3)

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Open Wide ... (Part 3)

Our Lord's Hands Heal Blindness of All Kinds

In this latest post, a clinical case study first discussed in Dr. Meehl's CPH publication [1] is revisited. A few comments by this writer are herewith appended; these are in close sympathy with Dr. Mowrer's own earlier estimations [2].

"A young woman confessed that she had broken the Seventh Commandment by pilfering ribbons and socks from a dime store. She was obviously contrite about the transgression, and the pastor assured her of God's understanding and gracious forgiveness. In a few weeks she was back in the study to confess that she had stolen again, this time a few cents from her mother's purse. Again absolution was pronounced. When, not too many days after this, the girl again came to tears, the pastor began looking more deeply.  Professional help was called in to assist the girl. Serious deficiencies in her home life were uncovered.   It became apparent that she had unexpressed misgivings whether God had actually forgiven her after her previous confessions.   While she had repented of the sin that she knew, she recognized her inability to straighten herself out; this created internal doubts about her confession. As these feelings were brought out and she began to understand them, the urge to steal waned -- and the absolution was accepted and believed." [1]

Observations:

1. The commentary "Professional help was called in to assist the girl" is particularly telling, as to the existing disheveled state of clerical authority (and confidence) these days ... although that blip about a "dime store," admittedly points to a long-standing chronicity. Mowrer dryly remarks that if the hypothesis that "moral issues are nuclear to every neurosis" is valid (and he thinks it is), then the real professionals in such matters are, most assuredly, the ordained clergy; and that the general flow of mental health referrals should be more in the direction of secular clinician to the pastor, than in the reverse [2].

2. A major discovery in the therapy, it seems to me, is the girl's strong conviction of a personal helplessness in arriving at a solution to her personal failings. That belief is presented, in the case study, as less something formally catechized into her (although that likely happened, but was at best superficially grasped), than a subliminally stabbing "awareness" of a damning concupiscence.   Of note here: Dr. Mowrer, although having a short flirtation with Presbyterianism at one point in his life, was never able to accept the reality of original sin, which he reasoned to be a threat to a full assumption of personal responsibility for misdeeds.   One could speculate that its rejection may have contributed to the ultimate and tragic unhappiness of Dr. Mowrer, himself, in significant part.

3.   This case is exceptional in that, generally speaking, most secular psychotherapy will readily accept that benefits are derivative from following the Davidic plea "Cleanse Thou me from secret faults" (Ps 19:12) ... but with certain reservations.  It will be treated as a poetical truism, since the unconscious is not hotly disputed, given recent findings in experimental neuroscience. Secrets indeed there are, most will agree. However, the capitalization of the "T" will be pooh-poohed; and the existence of "faults" will be summarily dismissed. Thence, to be substituted for with the "ego defenses," things not necessarily evil in themselves, but rather stuff to be burnished and scrubbed up a bit so as to help the "client" move along.

If this all sounds suspiciously like "car wash psychology" to you, dear reader, then you aren't far from the human-centered kingdom of Carl Rogers. Which is not that distant from King Friday's tuneful trolley, derived from the cardigan-bedecked Mr. Fred Rogers' brain.    "Oh, it's a wonderful day in the neighborhood, a wonderful day in the neighborhood ... won't you be my analysand?"

Maybe I don't have that quite right.

Sure sounds catchy, though. Frankly, I (and my wallet) wish I had thought of this, years ago. But I digress.

4.  Although penance is certainly not overly-emphasized in Lutheran theology and practice (because of a strong reaction to certain medieval abuses and exaggerated cheapenings, some of which continue to this day by the church of Rome), perhaps one might justifiably wonder whether the outcome of the case study could have been hastened through means of appropriate restitution. "Make dish-washing plans to restore Mom's coppers," or "Sweep the floors of the dime-store dutifully, for a month" ... these things could have provided a measure of healing to the mind and soul. And they are not foreign to the Christian conscience, in the least: witness the cheery and Lord-blessed recompensatory act of Zaccheus (Lk 19).

Not so curious, perhaps, is the fact that the name of the great little man means "pure, i.e., he was made just in the presence of God," according to Cruden's Complete Concordance, copyright 1968, p. 803.  And so are we all, very literally, in participating in the rite of Absolution.

Citations:

1. PE Meehl et al. (1958)   What Then Is Man?, Concordia Publishing House (St. Louis MO), p. 284
2. OH Mowrer (1961) The Crisis in Psychiatry and Religion, D. Van Nostrand Co. (Princeton NJ), p. 197

Next (D.V.):   Dr. Anton Boisen shares an illuminating case from his files.

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About our Society

The Society of St. Polycarp is made up of Lutheran clergymen and laity committed to the confessional, liturgical, sacramental, and spiritual renewal of the Church of the Augsburg Confession. Since our Church's problems are not political, but rather spiritual, we pray God to grant us repentance, and seek no political aim. Members of the Society commit themselves to the following Rule.

The Rule
1. Members of the Society confess Holy Scripture to be "the pure, clear fountain of Israel" and also "the one true guiding principle," i.e., the sole norm or "judge, rule, and guiding principle" of the same (FC Ep. Comprehensive Summary, 7; FC SD Comprehensive Summary, 3). We rejoice in the tradition of the Holy Doctors and Fathers of the Church, in whom Christ kept His promise that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail against (My Church)" (Mt 16:18), so that the Lutheran confessors could say that "the churches among us do not dissent from the catholic church in any article of faith" (AC Preface to XXII, 1, Latin). We reject all methods of interpretation that seek to understand the meaning of Scripture apart from the guidance of the Church, through which God gave us the Scriptures.

2. Members of the Society will promote the importance of daily prayer and meditation on Holy Scripture. Members will commit themselves to praying at least one of the daily offices, keeping fellow members as well as the Church Catholic herself in their prayers. The ideal use of the offices is in the corporate setting; however, the praying of the offices in private is to be carried out if there is no alternative.

3. Valuing Holy Absolution as "a voice from heaven" (Ap. XII, 40), members of the Society will avail themselves of the benefit of this sacrament, as well as promoting its use. Members will seek out father confessors of their own for regular and frequent private Confession and Absolution.

4. Members of the Society will promote the Sacrament of the Altar as the chief parochial service in the Church of the Augsburg Confession (AC XXIV, 34). Members will receive the Sacrament of the Altar often, as well as encourage others to receive it frequently, thereby restoring the traditional Lutheran understanding of the central place of the Sacrament in Lutheran worship. As the Lutheran Symbols assume the weekly celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar (AC XXIV, 34-38; Ap. XXIV, 1), members of the Society will promote this evangelical and catholic practice in their own parishes and in the work of the Society.

5. As the Sacrament of the Altar is the true Body and Blood of Our Lord that is truly present, distributed, and received (AC X, German), members of the Society are committed to the evangelical and catholic doctrine of closed communion, i.e., not admitting to the altar to receive the Holy Communion those who have not previously been examined and absolved (AC XXV, 1-2), let alone those of a confession of the Faith contrary to that of the Church of the Augsburg Confession.

6. Members of the Society will promote the historic liturgies of the Church Catholic, since such liturgies shape pastoral practice and teaching that is consistent with the evangelical and catholic Faith as it has been handed down in Holy Scripture, the Ecumenical Creeds, and the Symbolical Books of the Church of the Augsburg Confession.

7. As the Lutheran Symbols confess the Blessed Virgin Mary to be "the pure, holy, and ever-virgin Mother of God" (Theotokos, Gottes Mutter), as well as "that the blessed Mary prays for the Church" (Ap. XXI, 27; SA I, IV, Latin; FC SD VIII, 24), it is altogether fitting, proper, and consistent with the Faith of the Church Catholic to honor the Blessed Virgin in liturgical celebration. Members of the Society will seek to restore the traditional Marian feasts of the Church of the Augsburg Confession (i.e., the Feasts of the Purification, Annunciation, and Visitation) as a testimony of the grace of God through her, that we might imitate the Blessed Virgin in word and example, and in thanksgiving for the Incarnation of the Son of God through her humble submission to the will of God. Members of the Society will also promote the observance and celebration of saints' days and commemorations. This is wholly in keeping with the evangelical and catholic tradition of the Church of the Augsburg Confession, whose Symbolical Books acknowledge the saints as fitting exemplars of the catholic Faith worthy of imitation, as well as our heavenly intercessors (AC XXI, 1; Ap. XXI, 4-9).

8. As the Church of the Augsburg Confession understands herself as a part of the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, particularly as she exists in the West, members of the Society will take seriously the commitment to the proper ecumenicity this demands. Members will pursue dialogue with:
• Fellow Lutheran Christians to foster and promote Lutheran unity.
• Our separated brethren in the Roman Church, with which the Lutherans at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 clearly sought reconciliation.
• The Eastern Orthodox Church, following the example of the exchange between the Lutheran theologians of the University of Tübingen and Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople (1573-1581).
This reflects not simply the Lutheran commitment to the unity of all Christians, but ultimately the will of Our Lord Himself (Jn 17).

9. Members of the Society will make every effort to make a retreat once a year for the purpose of disciplined prayer and study, silence and reflection, as well as the celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar.

Conclusion
Following the example of our patron, members of the Society ultimately strive to be faithful to Our Lord, recalling His words to St. John the Theologian: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Rev 2:10). Members also pray God's grace that we may be able to hand over to our posterity the tradition we have received as Lutheran Christians, and that we may be able to confess with our forebears at Augsburg that "nothing has been accepted among us, in teaching and ceremonies, that is contrary to Scripture or the catholic church. For it is manifest that we have most diligently been on guard so that no new or ungodly doctrines creep into our churches" (AC Conclusion, 5, Latin).