For some time now, there has been a feeling among many Catholics that there are sinister forces at work within the Church, seeking to undermine its mission at the base by dividing and conquering. Holy Mother Church has always had to be on guard against heresies (see previous post about Calling A Spade A Spade), but as Michael Voris from RealCatholicTV commented in the YouTube spot, Armies Gathering, the incredible amount of financial resources and communications media at the disposal of forces aligned against the Church, combined with decades of poor catechesis within, has led us to the situation we find ourselves in today, where the cancer of progressivism has laid deep roots and is hard at work.
In their second lecture, Obama's Counterfeit Catholics, Voris and the team at RealCatholicTV's "CIA" (Catholic Investigative Agency) have done a wonderful job of researching and laying out a logical presentation of how this plague of political progressivism, sold to us over the past several decades as "social justice" and work for the "common good", has gotten as far and done as much damage in detracting from the Church's mission as it has. The next time you can spare 90 minutes, you will not want to miss it. In addition to the presentation itself, their 600 man-hours of research is laid out with all supporting documentation.
In his recent address on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, The Holy Father warned that the greatest threat to the Church is not from external persecution, but from the "negative attitudes" of the world that can "infect the Christian community" from the within. His comments were quite an indictment of the sinfulness (including, in my opinion, heresy) that has taken hold within the Church: "In fact, it suffers the greatest damage from what pollutes the Christian faith and life of its members and communities, eroding the integrity of the Mystical Body, weakening its ability to prophesy and witness, tarnishing the beauty of its face." (Pope says greatest danger to Church is internal pollution- CNA/EWTN).
In the difficult struggle that lies ahead, to correct these false teachings, we would do well to remember the words of St. Paul as he exhorted St. Timothy to continue the work of the Christ and the Apostles:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth...In a large house there are utensils not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for special use, some for ordinary. All who cleanse themselves of the things I have mentioned will become special utensils, dedicated and useful to the owner of the house, ready for every good work. (2 Timothy 2:15, 20-21)
And Christ's warning himself to avoid Pharisaic precepts and remain in the "Tradition of the Elders":
And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' (Matthew 15:3, 6-9)
Click below to play the 1:37 presentation.
This program is from RealCatholicTV.com
I share this with you and would ask that you read Matt:7:1-5 and then the reflection:
ReplyDeleteOur reflection this evening comes from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 13:47-50).
The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
The gospel of the Lord.
A recent quote found its way into one of the meditations printed in the July issue of The Magnificat: a challenge and response between Martin Luther and Dessiderius Erasmus.
Criticized by Luther for remaining in the Church and its corruption, Erasmus replied: I put up with this Church, in the hope that one day it will become better, just as it is constrained to put up with me in the hope that one day I will become better.
This clever response of Erasmus is also filled with deep meanings for us today. We are not talking about overlooking all the sinfulness within the Church, pretending it doesn’t matter. Of course it does.
Erasmus’ insight was shared, centuries earlier, by St Augustine in The City of God. The Church, Augustine thought, was mirrored in our parable from Matthew of the net thrown into the sea: when pulled in, it gathers all sorts of things, good and bad. The bad will be sorted out and thrown into the fiery furnace, or hell.
Meanwhile, we live in a spiritual society that is mixed. The Church is made of good popes and bad; good bishops and bad; good priests and bad; good religious and bad; good lay-folk and bad. In all cases, God is putting up with us “in the hope that one day we will become better.”
We need to look at the second part of Erasmus’ comment, in the hope that one day we will become better.
Did our behaviors, our choices, our prayers, our responses to God’s grace, yesterday lead us to be better today, more Christ like?
Will our behaviors, choices, prayers, responses to God’s grace today lead us to be better tomorrow?
Over the period of the last three months, what has been the trajectory of our spiritual life? Going up, down, in a flat line?
Do we spend time in self-reflection to be able to know this?
Such investigations into the interior of our heart and soul are very important. Reflecting on this requires us to focus on our Blessed Savior and our response to His call.
If we all focused on journeying closer to our Lord, individually and together, the whole Church would “one day become better.”
What a GREAT quote!!! Thanks for sharing that, Bob. This was a sobering video upon which to watch and reflect.
ReplyDelete@Bob, thank you for pointing us to that reflection and Erasmus' clever response. I might have to make use of it. You are right on the money that we have to remain just as vigilant in "policing" our own souls in order to allow the Spirit to protect them from becoming corrupted and self-interested in our journey toward the Lord. Guarding against spiritual laziness and apathy is just as difficult--if not more so--as the exterior struggles against the same forces at work inside and outside the Church at large. Oh happy fault, o necessary sin of Adam which gained for us so great a redeemer!
ReplyDelete