But you judged the church as having no light.
It is often the case that people who stand in their own light, as it were, cannot see the light outside.
You don't have to cut down a religion in order to show yours has light.
Indeed so, and there is a constant desire to do so, it's in the nature of man.
What is so often, and so tellingly misunderstood, is the idea of 'progressive revelation'.
Revelation is a self-disclosure of the Absolute in and to the relative, and 'It' reveals 'Itself' in a form appropriate to its people, place and time.
Every Revelation is complete and entire to itself, with its own doctrines and dogmas, its rites and rituals, disclosing everything that's required to attain what it promises, be it salvation, redemption, deliverance, etc.
For a Revelation to abrogate what has gone before is, effectively, for God to change His mind, that what was Good and Right and Just and True yesterday, is not so today.
In the wake of Revelation, invisible essence of the formless Absolute is accessible through the provisional forms that speak to one or more of the sensible realm. All these forms are shaped, contained and explained by the related Scripture, which is itself an efficacious form, an extension of Revelation through space and time. Thus Christ says "And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one" (John 17:22-23).
This Eucharistic Mystery lies at the heart of the Church. The theology of
theosis, or deification, is most evident in John and Paul, and was picked up by the first of the Fathers: "the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself." (Irenaeus,
Against Heresies, V, preface).
The point here is that Sacramental Union has not been revoked. God speaks from beyond time, place and contingency. His word is eternal, timeless. The 'metaphysical error' in the concept of 'progressive revelation' is the assumption that, in effect, God has changed His mind. That what was true yesterday is not true today.
The idea that a subsequent Revelation discloses something new about God is illusory. The Uncreate makes Itself known, but always within that the traditions speak of the Absoluteness, the Unknowability, etc., of the Divine.
The idea that any revelation reveals 'more' or 'better', or more accurately or efficaciously, is an error of anthropomorphism, it applies to the Uncreate something of the nature of the created.
The outwards forms can become opaque, the message distorted, but this again is the activity of man. For those with a (relatively) pure heart, the Way is open.
The idea of a kind of meta-religion which encompasses and surpasses all other religions is, again, the error of assumption.
The idea that revelations are part of a jigsaw which we need to put together, or that even to this day there are still pieces missing, is mistaken.
The Traditionalist message is clear: Find a Tradition that speaks to you, and stick to it. To look for a Tradition that speaks for all Traditions, is misguided.
