I am quite angry. I am not particularly angry at the shenanigans that went on during the synod. As a matter of fact I have not even read the final document. I am not sitting here nursing my wounds over my feelings of betrayal, at least not by the synod. That was quite predictable.
No, I am angry over what I see as a prevailing attitude in certain quarters of the Church today. It is an attitude which can be summed up in one question. "Why don't they just leave?" Those who are trying to change Church doctrine or discipline, those who are profoundly dissatisfied with some aspects of the Church, those who hold heretical positions but who stay in the Church anyway. Why don't they just leave because it would make us more comfortable, more secure, happier? What's more the Church would be leaner, more focused, albeit much smaller. Isn't that Cardinal Ratzinger's wish, as expressed in an interview before he became pope? No, it may have been a prediction but I cannot believe that saintly man would stoop to making it his wish. It has not prevented many others from wishing exactly that.
At the heart of this question is an unspoken one, one that we hesitate to voice even to ourselves. "Why don't they just go to hell?" Wishing that someone, anyone, would just leave the Church and go away is tantamount to wishing they would be damned to hell. There is no more hateful thing that you could wish for someone. I cannot attend mass every Sunday and look around at the various people who annoy me, or irritate me or disagree with me and wish they would be damned. I refuse to join the hate fest.
7 comments:
Excellent post Freyr. I too, refuse to join the hate-fest.
In Mystici Corporis, the Holy Father, Pius XII, reminded us what is necessary to consider yourself a Catholic. You must, obviously, be baptized. You must have Catholic faith and finally, due submission, to ecclesiastical authority. There are, all too many, who have neither, of the last two requirements. Such people, materially at least, have already left the Church. The question about leaving the Church is simply, a recognition of this reality. Pope Pius X, in Pascendi, reproaches those who remain, "officially", in the Church, yet spread all sorts of dissident poison. When, in frustration, people exclaim: "Why don't they just leave the Church", what they are really saying is: "Say what you mean and mean what you say. If you are no longer a Catholic, just admit it. Stop pretending." They are not wishing for someone's damnation.
The "hate" word is being employed rather rashly. Please leave such usage, to the likes of Michael Coren.
I hate what the modernists have done and will still try to do. I hate what the sodomites have done in infiltrate the Church. I hate that the Pope himself has not provided clarity. I hate modernism and heterodoxy.
I am a hater.
Do I wish they would leave? Well, I think that they should leave if they can't stand the teaching, just as they did in John 6.
Call me a hater.
Well said Vox. The following description, I think, sums up nicely, what should and should not be an object of hatred. We must keep this in mind when we venture to use this word "hate".
"...It is justifiable to hate or loathe the evil deeds or habits of another, as can be done without hating the person. It is never permitted to hate with hostile sentiment or action, wishing him ill, rejoicing over his sufferings, injuring him in any way no matter how abominable his deeds or qualities may be..." (New Catholic Dictionary)
I to, hate heterodoxis, heteropraxis and the entire faith destroying Modernist operating system.
And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Jesus wept...why can't you?
We always hate the sin and love the sinner. As to who should leave, I think we need to distinguish. Are we dealing with your average confused pew sitter; a victim of terrible catechesis? or, are we dealing with Sr. X Fr. Y or Bishop Z who is aware of what he is doing; or, is made aware of his error by the appropriate authority?
When souls are at stake, then yes there is an imperative to remove the perverter of souls. If such perverters are not removed from corrupting, then, yes it would be far, far better that - like Luther - they remove themselves.
Sadly, when we start wishing other people out of the Church we find ourselves in that predicament. I did door to door evangelization for too many years not to realize that the ones who get the most upset (And Vox I am not thinking of you at all.) end up outside the Church themselves. Case in point, my old parish in San Diego, run by Augustinians. They took a cheap '50s altar out and made a beautiful monastic church with red tile, white walls and dark brown molding. It was very prayerful atmosphere. There was a door set up to close off the tabernacle during Mass. But once Mass was over, it was opened up again. The tabernacle remained at the heart and center of the Church. So half the parish left, believing the old altar was "sacred marble." (It was cheap plaster.) Some left the Church, I worked with those. But with great humor, Larry and I met some who simply joined the little chapel that the Augustinians also ran a couple miles away! It hadn't been renovated. We introduced ourselves a being from that parish -- St. Patrick's, and they would look at us with hate and disgust. The renovations had been done before we joined the parish. We were probably more conservative than they were. But such is life! We took the hate gladly hopefully to soften their hearts. God bless you. Susan Fox
P.S. So the moral of the story is to live like Abraham praying over Sodom and Gomorrah. "If there are just five more good people will you spare the city, Lord?" The saints are intercessors. Satan is a little general who marches back and forth before the throne of God accusing us of our sins. And he's right! We all have them! But God doesn't see them. He sees the good in all of us, choke, even liberals..
www.christsfaithfulwitness.com
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