Feb
27
2012
I am taking the time to say that I am still taking the time. That is, the time off. This will likely last until after Easter 2012, for certain throughout Lent.
Projects are ongoing. Time is precious. Momentous things are afoot in the world. For the most part I can do much better than simply to spend my time writing about them.
That is it for now.
Aug
8
2011
Here are a couple of verses of Scripture to put this into perspective;
For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.
-2 Corinthians 11:4“`I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot!
So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.
-Revelation 3:15-16
Aug
3
2011
It is now August 3 and I realize that I haven’t posted since May. Time has indeed been scarce. Routine work and several ongoing projects have consumed it all.
In the meanwhile there have been several events of note. The greatest of these from a Catholic perspective, while perhaps not from the rest of the world, is the interesting case of Father John Corapi. In the heat of the moment back in June there were all sorts of recriminations on every side. There were battle lines drawn and a raging internet battle.
I haven’t the time or the inclination to go into the minute particulars of the case. Needless to say, in some aspects it is still up in the air. I could provide links to everything that has been done and said to this point but I wish rather to reflect on larger picture.
Regardless of whether Father Corapi, now known as the Black Sheepdog, is guilty or innocent of the accusations brought against him, there are larger lessons to be learned.
The first of those lessons is the obvious one, that we are all sinners and susceptible to temptation, even priests. That is why nobody is ever canonized a saint before they are dead.
The second lesson is that no matter the personality, the talent, the natural ability or the calling of any one individual in the Church, the only one who is indispensable is Christ. The rest of us are his servants and though it grieves him, he can get along without our services. The body of Christ, the Church, can get along without us as well. That perhaps is a hard lesson for some of us. But we serve him because we love him, and because he has asked us to serve him. He loves to use his people as the means of his grace, but if one falls or falters, or splits from the program, it does not stop his mission to save as many of us as are willing to be saved.
None of us can judge the inner workings of the heart of Father Corapi. We can only go by evidence. Is he following Christ in this seeming abandonment of his priesthood? Only he and God can determine that for certain.
A third lesson that follows from the second is that our salvation is based upon the redeeming work of Christ and the sacramental life he has provided for us in the Church. It does not depend, however much the ministry of one individual has drawn us to Christ, upon any one preacher, teacher, priest, or bishop. In the final analysis we are responsible to Christ and our decision whether or not to follow him.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, had the greatest mission of all of the human race, to bear the savior in her womb, and she still works to aid her son in the mission of salvation, interceding as nobody else can for us. Yet, she cannot save me if I do not wish to be saved. All she can do, great as it is, is to point me to her son, and like at the wedding of Cana she repeats, “do as he tells you.”
So the cult of personality of great preachers, while perhaps no surprise in an arid wasteland of what Fr. Casey called “Catholicism Lite” a phrase he borrowed from George Weigel, cannot be allowed to substitute for the truth that it is Christ that we preach in the Catholic Church and him crucified, to quote St. Paul.
The fourth lesson that we might learn from this situation is that Church leaders must follow the Church’s own law regarding accusations that can bring on scandal. This is the case for clergy but it is also the case for high profile public persons among the laity as well. It seems there are still many bishops who lack the courage or will to deal with the laity with as much alacrity as they have in the case of clergy lately, in the wake of the child abuse scandals.
On that last point it seems that the reluctance to take the difficult stance that is shown among the episcopacy is not confined to them only. As a requirement of membership Knights must be a practicing Catholic, and by that it is clearly meant that they believe all that the Church has proposed for our belief.
While recognizing that any of us can sin, even mortally so, it is clear that a person who is living and practicing in a state of mortal sin for all the world to see, must be deemed to be not a practicing Catholic and as such the Knights have their own mechanism of suspension, or even expulsion if necessary in an extreme case.
However, in the recent “gay marriage” debate in New York State, two of the deciding votes in the Senate were those of Knights of Columbus, assenting to an abomination roundly critiqued and adamantly opposed by their own Catholic faith. But have they been just as publicly censured by the Knights of Columbus hierarchy? The silence has been anything but golden. Some might call it yellow.
In the minds of many, these recent events have demonstrated that the Knights have lost their way at the very top of the organization, unwilling to insist on orthodoxy and practical Catholicism among its own high profile members. While the members in the various councils worldwide continue to do the works of charity, the timidity (at best) at the top is very disturbing, and is causing some members to re-think their membership.
(For some remarks try here and here)
All in all, it seems that this summer has been one more reminder for us to renew our faith in Christ, get on our knees in prayer and fasting and beg our Lord to send his Holy Spirit to light a fire of love of the gospel in the hearts of our fellow Catholics, clergy and laity alike.
May
18
2011
Here is a passage of Scripture that I came upon today which I had never considered before. From a Catholic apologetics point of view it is quite interesting.
Father Thomas Dubay points this out in his second last chapter of the book “Fire Within”, in the context of discussing the necessity of spiritual direction. Here is the Scriptural backdrop from Acts 9;
[1]But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
[2] and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
[3] Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him.
[4] And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
[5] And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting;
[6] but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
-RSV
I have highlighted the pertinent passage. Read the rest of this entry »
May
18
2011
I have been absorbed with a writing project and other changes have made it virtually impossible to make any posts here. Today I have a moment.
Apr
3
2011
I have heard Father’s analogy of the party before, and the one that doesn’t want to join the party. Near the end he gives us the philosophical, logical conclusion that if we accept the two statements;
God is love.
Human beings are free.
We must also then accept Hell. In other words, it is simply a logical necessity. Now, that seems to me odd that this would be the conclusion when earlier he mentions that Jesus spends some time talking about Hell and warning against it. Jesus wasn’t making a philosophical argument. He is God and he was issuing a warning.
Apr
3
2011
My apologies. I have been busy with taxes and another writing project. The limited time I have available had to be directed away from blogging for awhile.
Mar
3
2011
Father Mitch here gives one of the best explanations of what we as Catholics are doing in the celebration of the mass, or at least what we should be doing spiritually in the process of our own ongoing conversion and progress in holiness.
At the end he gives a quick explanation of something that I have heard many times mis-applied but rarely ever explicated. That is, our three fold character as baptized persons; prophet, priest and king. What does that mean in any practical sense. He doesn’t unpack it here because it is not the central theme, other than to connect our priestly function as individual Christians, with the main theme of sacrifice.
Feb
4
2011
An interesting article in Christianity Today from Jason B. Hood;
Heresy Is Heresy, Not the Litmus Test of Gospel Preaching
Antinomianism is not hostility to gnomes, and it’s not fear of people from Nome, Alaska. Antinomianism is lawlessness, believing and teaching an obligation-free version of Christianity. In certain quarters of the evangelical world, being accused of antinomianism is increasingly considered to be a symptom of a healthy ministry. This belief has a long pedigree; no less an authority than Martyn Lloyd-Jones believed there was “no better test” of gospel fidelity than the accusation of antinomianism.
(my emphasis)
Read the rest of the article here;
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/januaryweb-only/heresyisheresy.html
For a convert to the Catholic Church such as I am, and having come from the Evangelical side of Protestantism, this is an interesting subject. The relationship of grace and works in salvation is a key point of discussion in that argument between Catholics and the descendants of the Reformers. (In the general category of “works” I include any effort to live a life of holiness) Personally, I believe that the antinomianism that is found particularly in America is at least partially a result of the American freedom culture.
Note, I did not say the result of “freedom” but the result, in part, of the “freedom culture.” In fact, a lot of the wacky and perhaps heretical ideas that have blossomed in the non-Catholic world of Christianity and even occasionally within the Catholic Church can be sourced in America or in American thinking.
“Antinomianism is lawlessness.”
If this is true, and I think it is, there is a verse of two from Scripture that might be quite relevant.
This is from Matthew chapter 7 of the New King James Version;
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!‘
Be careful who you listen to.
Jan
27
2011
This is from a recent Q&A with Billy Graham in Christianity Today;
But the most important issue we face today is the same the church has faced in every century: Will we reach our world for Christ? In other words, will we give priority to Christ’s command to go into all the world and preach the gospel? Or will we turn increasingly inward, caught up in our own internal affairs or controversies, or simply becoming more and more comfortable with the status quo? Will we become inner-directed or outer-directed? The central issues of our time aren’t economic or political or social, important as these are. The central issues of our time are moral and spiritual in nature, and our calling is to declare Christ’s forgiveness and hope and transforming power to a world that does not know him or follow him. May we never forget this.
We, as Catholics, might well ask the same questions of ourselves and come to the same conclusions. John Paul II spoke of the New Evangelization and I am certain would agree with everything Billy Graham had to say in this quote. If there ever was common ground between Evangelicals and Catholics I think it is on this point, that the world needs Christ as much as ever and it is our responsibility to bring Christ to the world.
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