Unflaggingly, let us love the Lord our God and let us love his Church. Let us love Him as the Lord and the Church as his handmaid.
No one can offend the one and still be pleasing to the other. What does it avail you if you do not directly offend the Father but do offend the mother?
St. Augustine, Commentary on Psalm 89, Paragraph 41
I encountered the epigraph in a book of daily quotes by St. Augustine, and it hit me in a different way. Here I offer some reflections that came to mind upon reading this.
1- Shun Error as Error, with Holy and Righteous Fear and Wrath
Avoid Error like you avoid unsafe streets at night. Walk the long way home in order to avoid it. Bring your friends with you, so you can all make sure each other is safe. You may be able to face down whatever evil lies in the darkened spiritual pathways, but you may not. The risk to your soul is too great. Error is all that which leads away from God, those falsehoods which diminish or detract from God and His Holy Church. If you feel compelled to explore darkened spiritual alleyways, have a spiritual director–a trained professional who knows the streets and who is better equipped than you. Be afraid for your soul, because it is the most precious thing you have.
2- Avoid teaching people about Error, even to refute it.
The way to begin catechesis for a person interested in Catholicism is not to tell them about all the heresies, nor to teach them about every negative headline you may have seen or heard about. Teach them about the good news. Connect them with a spiritual director. If appropriate, talk to the spiritual director about any difficult topics and how you should approach them. For Mass evangelism (like, say, blogging), don’t open the door to Error, don’t give “both sides of the debate” equal air time. Truth is true–preach Truth, let interlocutors bring error and then minister to your interlocutors. If a pure, unblemished mind were to encounter your apologetics, would their mind depart edified or darkened by your arguments? Protect the souls of those in your care, even from yourself.
3- Trust that final justice rests with God
God knows the truth with absolute clarity. He knows what injustice has been done in this life, and any debt unpaid will be exacted at the end of all things. Pray that God make you an instrument of his Justice and Mercy, especially in evangelical or apologetical efforts. This will help ensure that you are speaking with the authority of the Father in defense of the Mother, or vice versa. A good way to ensure this also is to keep close to the sacraments, especially Eucharist.
4- We owe a duty of obedience to the Church as mother.
It is called both Holy Mother Church and the Bride of Christ. The Church is our alma mater–listen to your mother, treat her with respect and reverence. You wouldn’t curse at your mother, insult her. You wouldn’t disobey her lawful commands.
I can’t remember if I invented this memory or if I heard this from someone else. I am going to tell it as if it happened to me, but I don’t remember very well. My Mom wanted me to do something, and I was mad and insolent and disobedient. I used some words I shouldn’t have. My Dad heard and said “Don’t you speak to my wife that way.” Whether this happened to me or not, the event left an impression on me–there was a relationship between my parents which superseded my relationship with them. To her, she was my mother, to him, she was his wife. It created a divide–I shaped up, repented. Have any of your fathers had to pull out language like that? Have any of you out there had a similar experience?
That is how God will treat disobedience and disrespect to His bride. Augustine, in his commentary, goes on to say, “Suppose you have some patron, whom you court every day, whose threshold you wear with your visits, whom you daily not only salute, but even worship, to whom you pay the most loyal courtesy; if you utter one calumny against his wife, could you re-enter his house?” You could not, without great shame–or great forgiveness on the patrons part.
5- Francis is Pope
AMDG
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 