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Noah’s Ark, Judas baptising, and dealing with doubts about clergy and Catholic Church alike.

by Elna van Coller

There is nothing new under the sun indeed, and for those who complain about secularisation and modernism in the Church, can look back towards the 4th – 6th centuries and the Donatists who has declared that the validity of a sacrament depends on the worthiness/ holiness of the bishop (priest) performing it. 
St Augustine has responded that the validity of sacraments cannot be made dependant on the worthiness of the one administering them. If that was to be the case then all Christians would be in constant doubt regarding the validity of their own baptism or of the communion of which they had partaken.   
St Augustine in Tractate 5 on the Gospel of John further says that when comparing the disciple Judas and John the Baptist we see the following on comparing St John the Baptist with Judas the Iscariot. 
If a baptism was given by Judas then it was the baptism of Christ (as he was part of the original 12 disciples that were commissioned). However if a baptism was given by St John the Baptist then it was the baptism of St John. It is important to note that while the Church doesn’t prefer Judas to John, we do prefer the baptism of Christ which even Judas was allowed to give, over the baptism of St John given by St John and his disciples. 
St John did not give the baptism of Christ but his own, for that is the manner in which he received it. But the people baptised by St John with this inferior baptism had to be rebaptised whereas the people who had been baptised by Judas didn’t need to be re- baptised, because it was the baptism from Christ administered by Judas.  This means that if any sacrament depends on the holiness of any minister then everyone who got baptised by Judas is in trouble. But the power of the baptism or any sacrament for that matter, isn’t the power in the minister or in you, the recipient. But it is the power of the holiness of Christ that matters for the validity of the baptism or a sacrament. That is why Jesus could promise that thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 
Ex opere operato is a Latin phrase meaning that, in reference to sacraments, these sacraments  derive their efficacy neither from the minister (priest or bishop) nor from the recipient, but from the sacrament itself, considered independently, of the merits of the minister or the recipient. According to the ex opere operato interpretation of the sacraments, any positive effect comes not from any human worthiness or faith, but from the sacrament as an instrument of God.  This is why we have ex opere operantis and ex opere operato. Catholic tradition holds that the sacraments do not have their effect by virtue of the one who performs the action but by virtue of the action simply being done and received in faith. This doesn’t imply that the sacraments are magic and it merely means that the sacraments are gifts from God and that He faithfully gives to the church whenever we ask for what we need. 
Likewise, we can look at the comparison of the Church with Noah’s Ark. On Noah’s Ark (and if one was not on it, then one perished) we find that there were both clean and unclean animals. Likewise, the Church, like the Ark is necessary for salvation from the flood waters (the world) and it contains both the clean and the unclean. In Matthew 13:47-53 we see the net (the Church) containing both good and bad fish in Jesus’ own words. 
The next question is then how to contain the purity of the church, and if we look at Gen 8:6-12 we see both a raven and a dove sent out of the ark, and while the raven disappears the dove returns. The impure will simply leave the Church and the clean and pure will return to the Church to support others in turn.