CDXV – The Blind Leading The Blind

Have you ever had something really small stuck in your teeth? A strawberry seed is probably the worst offender—you can feel it but you just can’t get it out; it is extremely distracting and uncomfortable and if you’re lucky removing the mote brings tangible relief.

This seed for me has been the idea of “discernment”. I saw it pop up in the comments section somewhere and the author got sucked into the predictable debate, trying to use reason and scripture and tradition, and the interlocutor wasn’t having any of it.

A judgmental screed would be easy but would not bring me the satisfaction I desire, which can only be brought about by reconciliation. I won’t hold my breath for that except to pray for it, but if I am going to write about it at least let me find a way to be productive.

Here’s the best way to be productive, as I see it. I am going to attempt to identify the ailment (tooth discomfort). I am going to attempt to diagnose it (seed in tooth). I am going to attempt to suggest a remedy (a nice toothpick). I am going to attempt to suggest preventative measures (maybe try blueberries).

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Ailment. The ailment (and not the cause) just is this discernment idea. Discernment refers to the belief that truth can be discerned individually, either by direct revelation or by rational powers.

Truth comes in two flavors: reasoned truth and revealed truth. Reasoned truth is things we can empirically observe—sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. Revealed truth is revealed to us by God. That the world is round is empirically measurable. That God is triune can only be known if God tells us.

The Church’s role is to steward revealed truth. We do occasionally get new truths revealed—Mary herself came and announced that she was the Immaculate Conception; that is a revealed truth. We do occasionally discover new empirical truths—that the earth goes around the sun, for example. But as with all truths, new data does not and cannot contradict previous data. New discoveries are new explanations for previous observations, not new and contradictory observations. If an observation seems contradictory then something is wrong.

Likewise for revealed truth. If a new peasant girl came out and said Mary appeared to her and announced she is NOT the Immaculate Conception, we would know the claim is bogus. God doesn’t make mistakes and if He wants us to know something He will not be misunderstood.

The Discernment heresy errs in thinking that they individually may receive revealed truths from God. From what I have seen, they believe this abrogates any obligations they have to Holy Mother Church wherever they see fit and gives primacy to the interior movements which they perceive as coming from the Holy Spirit.

If they perceive an interior movement that leads them away from the Church and not deeper into her loving arms, that interior movement is not coming from God.

Diagnosis. It is really tempting at this point to play armchair psychologist but that is precisely what we must not do. These people have found their way to this belief and would not hold it if they felt it was damaging or not good. They are sincere—which means there is something they have observed that a generic sincere person may also draw the same conclusions from.

So it is important to note that I am not drawing inferences about their character other than to say I believe they are severely misguided. So what things might they have observed that cause them to fall into this error of Discernment?

Many of them will say outright that it comes directly from how the Church handled COVID. Others may say it is abuses by clergy; others may say it is the problematic teaching of Pope Francis. Others will say it is pick your grievance here. The common theme is that their trust in the Church has been deeply shaken, such that they feel the Church can no longer serve as a reliable steward of revealed truth.

If the Church can not serve as a reliable steward of revealed truth, where can you turn? Clergy are an organ of the Church, and the Church is compromised. Friends have agendas; public figures have a livelihood at stake; strangers don’t understand. If one were to imagine a scenario where the Church could no longer serve the faithful, Discernment is a rational response to that: the only person whose thought and motives I can trust is myself.

The Church is protected from teaching error as truth, but the Church is not protected from making mistakes in judgement about responding to current events.

Consider this analogy: in a suburb, a housewife is watching tv and a breaking news bulletin comes on that suggests a crazed gunman is running loose in her neighborhood. She runs to the door and locks it, and turns off all the lights in the house and hides in her bedroom. A friend who was previously scheduled to visit at that time knocks on the door. The housewife keeps silent, fearing the gunman has come to her house. The friend knocks insistently, tries calling, tries shouting—but no response. The friend gives up and goes home.

What is the proper response of this friend? To distrust and hate the housewife forever? No—the housewife made a judgement call with very little information. You will note that in the analogy, I don’t say whether it was a mistaken report, some kids were running around with squirt-guns. Nor do I confirm that the crazed gunman was a few houses down. The housewife only needed a little more information—to look outside—to see that her friend was at the door. But she made a decision based on a real threat and not an imagined one.

Should we be harder on the Church than we would be to this housewife? The Church had imperfect knowledge, the Church made an extreme reaction, the Church’s reaction hurt people’s feelings. The Church did the institutional equivalent of buying up all the toilet paper in response to the onset of a respiratory disease. It was a mistake in judgement, it was not the surrender of the keys from Peter to the laity.

Remedy. The cure for mistrust is patience and effort. There needs to be a reconciliation, and I am not explicitly referring to the sacrament.

When a husband lies to his wife, his wife will question everything he tells her, until she can establish that he has learned his lesson. The Husband must also take some conciliatory action, express to his wife what he has learned and how; make some resolutions and keep them in good faith. The wife doesn’t divorce him right away, and the husband doesn’t do nothing and demand forgiveness. They love each other and their love for each other pushes them to keep trying.

We must love the Church as if it were our own mother—more than that, even. So if the Church has erred, we ought to forgive and allow the Church to reestablish trust. The Church ought to seriously work to address the mistrust and reconnect with the faithful who are hurt—reasonably or unreasonably—by its decisions. But the duty is always on us, the faithful, to give the Church the benefit of the doubt, as the Church is older, wiser, and closer to Christ than we are without it. That is not to say the Church has no obligations, only that our first response should be to love the Church more. The remedy, then, is devotion and not divorce.

Prevention. How does a husband prevent himself from lying to his wife? How does a wife prevent herself from being jaded by her husbands lie? Love is the pithy, short, cliche answer. A husband ought to love his wife and view harming her to be the worst thing he could possibly do. A wife ought to love her husband and not condemn him as a liar for all time, and instruct him on her expectations of him and what expectations he ought to have for himself.

Likewise, the Church ought to view harm it—intentionally or not—causes the faithful to be the worst thing imaginable, and resolve never to do so and if it is done, never to repeat it. The faithful ought not condemn the Church and ought to do what they can to instruct the Church on the expectations it ought to have of itself. Writing a respectful letter to your bishop or priest is a valid option; so is speaking to your parish council.

It is never a valid option to withdraw from the Church completely. The Church may not make you healthier, wealthier, or wiser—but only with the Church can you find Heaven. The Church will never let you down, where it counts.

AMDG