Tag: Church Triumphant

(v) – Two Conversions

Notes from a conversation with Hambone

I had two conversions.

1- I realized the Catholic Church is the true Church.

2- I realized that I am not important or essential.

  • Conversion 1 had to happen before conversion 2, otherwise I would despair. I am not important because I am united to God. Without that corollary, the world is a scary place.
  • Even when/if God calls us to be Saints, he will not fill us with a sense of importance. Joan of Arc didn’t wake up one day and say “I am important”. In her mind, God asked her for a favor and she had faith and obedience enough to follow. God provided for everything else.
  • Both conversions are important. The Catholic Church is the true Church and no one can be truly fulfilled until they order their lives to God through His Church. The realization that we are not important is itself important because it allows us to properly order our relationship to God once we are joined to Him through His Church.
  • Most evangelism focuses on #1- bringing people into the Church. This is important work. Less effort is spent on #2- which helps them understand their relationship with the world and with God.
  • Wanting for #2 is what drives people to cling desperately to political ideologies, sports teams, their own opinions and feelings. We have a natural human desire to be a part of something and to win. The proper fulfillment of these desires is to join the true Church, in the case of the former desire; and to trust in Christ’s ultimate victory, in the case of the latter desire.
  • This latter desire–to win–is difficult. My sports team can win all the time–winning teams are always the most popular teams. But how often does Christ win? It seems like he loses an awful lot, it seems like the Church is losing an awful lot. But we know that Christ wins in the end, Christ wins at the only moment it matters.
  • The former desire–to be a part of something–is easy. Supporting a sports team costs us nothing. Supporting a political position or cause costs nothing. We make no personal sacrifices by going to the street and saying “I think our tax rate should be different”. Being a part of the Church is hard. Not only because we are going to lose every time until the last time, but because Christ demands everything from us. Literally, everything. He tells a man who wanted to bury his father “Let the dead bury their dead”. In Acts, a man who withheld some of his money from a contribution to the Church and lied about it is smote, and his wife along with him. Christ demands nothing less than everything we have and everything we are.
  • What are we holding back?

No conversion is one and done. Both conversions must always and eternally be refreshed. I will wax and wane in my zeal for the Church, I will want very badly to feel important. It is the work of a lifetime to rein in these beliefs and yoke them to Christ.

AMDG

CCCVII – Harsh Doctrines

A harsh doctrine practiced with kindness: this is not a formula for hypocrisy, but the secret of all ancient, rich, and mature civilizations.
-Nicolás Gómez Dávila (Don Colacho)

48 I am the bread of life. (…) 52 If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world.

53 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

54 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. 55 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. 56 For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.(…) 59 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.

60 These things he said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum. 61 Many therefore of his disciples, hearing it, said: This saying is hard, and who can hear it?

62 But Jesus, knowing in himself, that his disciples murmured at this, said to them: Doth this scandalize you? (…) 64 It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life. 65 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning, who they were that did not believe, and who he was, that would betray him. 66 And he said: Therefore did I say to you, that no man can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father.

67 After this many of his disciples went back; and walked no more with him.
– John 6:48-67

18:20 And the Lord said: The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous. 22 (…) but Abraham as yet stood before the Lord. 23 And drawing nigh he said: Wilt thou destroy the just with the wicked? 24 If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? and wilt thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein?

(…) 26 And the Lord said to him: If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

(…) 31 Seeing, saith he, I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord. What if twenty be found there? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.

32 I beseech thee, saith he, be not angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more: What if ten should be found there? And he said: I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.

19:24 And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth. 27 And Abraham got up early in the morning and in the place where he had stood before with the Lord, 28 He looked towards Sodom and Gomorrha, and the whole land of that country: and he saw the ashes rise up from the earth as the smoke of a furnace.

29 Now when God destroyed the cities of that country, remembering Abraham, he delivered Lot out of the destruction of the cities wherein he had dwelt.
–Genesis 18:20 to 19:29

7 But increase you and multiply, and go upon the earth, and fill it.

8 Thus also said God to Noe, and to his sons with him, 9 Behold I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you: 10 And with every living soul that is with you, as well in all birds as in cattle and beasts of the earth, that are come forth out of the ark, and in all the beasts of the earth. 11 I will establish my covenant with you, and all flesh shall be no more destroyed with the waters of a flood, neither shall there be from henceforth a flood to waste the earth. 12 And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I give between me and you, and to every living soul that is with you, for perpetual generations. 13 I will set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be the sign of a covenant between me, and between the earth. 14 And when I shall cover the sky with clouds, my bow shall appear in the clouds: 15 And I will remember my covenant with you, and with every living soul that beareth flesh: and there shall no more be waters of a flood to destroy all flesh.
–Genesis 9:7-15

14. Certainly many remarkable authors, adherents of the true philosophy, have taken pains to attack and crush this strange view. But the matter is so self-evident that it is superfluous to give additional arguments. It is impossible for the most true God, who is Truth Itself, the best, the wisest Provider, and the Rewarder of good men, to approve all sects who profess false teachings which are often inconsistent with one another and contradictory, and to confer eternal rewards on their members. For we have a surer word of the prophet, and in writing to you We speak wisdom among the perfect; not the wisdom of this world but the wisdom of God in a mystery. By it we are taught, and by divine faith we hold one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and that no other name under heaven is given to men except the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth in which we must be saved. This is why we profess that there is no salvation outside the Church.
–Ubi Primum, Pope Leo XII, 1824

AMDG

(Previously)

CCLXXIII – Love Your Big Fat Stupid Neighbor

In order to properly love ones neighbor sometimes we have to call them names; names even we don’t relish calling them. The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name, and we certainly don’t help our friend lose weight by telling him he looks like the picture of health. Neither do we help our friend lose weight by calling him a fat sack of lard. The specific phrasing will vary but something to the effect of “You know Tobias, I’m worried about your health,” would be a great way to start the conversation given it was appropriate to do so.

I’ve written before with the intent of tackling how we approach this difficult topic, and I always stop short and focus on governing our own lives well. But I was finally able to understand how this works.

If we accept the proposition that the Church is True…
And we accept that a doctrine of the Church (which is True) is that there is no salvation outside the Church…
And if we accept that salvation (via the Church, which is true) is the best possible good for ourselves and our neighbors…
…Then we are obligated to help our neighbors into the Church.

We are obligated to live our faith as good examples of the Church for our neighbors.
We are obligated to renounce evil wherever it is found, even if it is in our neighbors.
We are obligated to help our neighbors see evil even if it can be found inside them.
We are obligated to spur our neighbors to amend their lives with varying degrees of force.

It is not pride to declare ourselves Catholic, despite being also fallible and fallen creatures. Even the poorest Catholic publican will go to heaven before the foremost heretical theologian (supposing the latter was meritorious through other means).

We have an obligation to see God in our neighbors, to see our neighbors for their souls, and to worry about their souls. All this is secondary to worrying about our own souls. We cannot give what we do not have.

I like to go back to the movie “A Man for All Seasons”. The future Saint, Thomas More, addresses his future son-in-law, who at the time is a Lutheran. He asks for More’s daughter’s hand in marriage:

“Not so long as you’re a heretic.”
“Now that is a word I do not like!”
“It’s not a likeable word, it’s not a likeable thing.”

St. Thomas More loved his future son-in-law enough to tell him the Truth and not to put any polish on it. He didn’t make it insulting nor did he soften the blow: To be protestant is to be a heretic. Just because it is a long standing and popular heresy doesn’t make it not a heresy. You can approach it this way: “You know Tobias, I am worried about your soul.”

So, love your neighbor, and if they are heretics don’t lie to them.

AMDG

CCIX – Christ as King, Christ as Friend

People like to talk about their “relationship with God“. It’s always been a hard concept for me to grasp. Some view Christ as their friend, and speak in very warm and loving terms about Him. They are not wrong to have this view, I laud it even, I am glad that these people find comfort in Christ. They describe their prayer life in visual terms, feeling the embrace of their Savior as they take their troubles to Him in prayer. I’ve always felt a little bit of envy–not to diminish their prayerful experiences, but rather who wouldn’t want that? My prayer life, in contrast, is dark, quiet. After weeks of silence and in an unusual period of consolation, I was able to visualize a monstrance for a moment, with great effort. The temptation is to think that somehow my prayer is inferior. This isn’t the case, of course, my prayer life is just different.

We know that God meets people where they are, and further still we know He speaks to us in the way best suited for us. It’s conceivable that the people I encounter who describe Christ as their friend need that from Him. I tend to relate to Christ as King, because I need that from Him. The two concepts are unified in the idea of a Father: filial love united with command authority. It’s not that I don’t believe God loves me, it’s that I need to obey him better. If I wasn’t striving for self mastery, if I had already attained self mastery, maybe it would be easier for me to contemplate a “friendly” God.

My style of prayer isn’t better or worse than others. Neither is my relationship with God better or worse for it–so long as I am availing myself of the sacraments with regularity. This is a point that is worth expanding on.

Practice and Belief are two sides of the same coin. These are the only two questions I need to ask myself. Do I practice my faith to the best of my ability, with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind? Do I believe and profess all that the Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God?

My relationship with God should help the answer to both questions be “I do”. My prayer life should help keep it that way.

CCIII – Peace vs Surrender

When I was younger and political, there was an inspiring speech I discovered by Ronald Reagan called “A Time for Choosing“. In it he said something which struck me: “There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace, and you can have it in the next second: Surrender.”

Let’s explore this idea for a moment. What are the ways we can have peace? Surrender is laying down your arms and ceasing to fight a determined enemy. Further still, Surrender embraces the enemy as brothers. In war, a combatant who surrenders becomes a prisoner first, and when the war is over is either integrated into society or killed. In the Civil War, the Union had many Confederate prisoners of war, who were pardoned on the condition they surrender their arms. A non-combatant who surrenders simply accepts the new regime as their own. A non-combatant who does not surrender has the choice of either taking up arms for themselves and becoming a combatant, or going underground and becoming a conspirator.

What other ways can we have peace? Another perhaps obvious answer is “victory”. Your side wins, peace fills the land because there are no enemies. War has taken a heterogeneous view and made it homogeneous by way of combat and eliminating opposition.

Peace in both of these contexts involves eliminating opposition, either through voluntary submission or military conquest. We talk about Peace in other ways though: We talk about “making peace” with a new reality, or cultivating “inner peace”. In the former, regardless of a persons interior viewpoint, they have decided to cease opposition. This is distinct from surrender because they may or may not embrace the new regime as their own. In the latter case, a person has ended internal turmoil–has created internal homogeneity of disposition–regardless of their exterior circumstances. This is again distinct from surrender because a key element of surrender is embracing the new regime.

From this we can glean that there is a form of peace that does not embrace the enemy but which does end conflict with them. The enemy doesn’t mind either way, because from their perspective they have achieved victory. This is still in keeping with Reagan’s speech: “making peace” or “inner peace” are hard work and cannot be achieved in the next second.

My point here is not political, though. There is a spiritual combat which is going on around us. We often describe Christ as achieving victory over evil, on our behalf. “We know the end of the story” is the refrain–but between now and The End is a whole lot of time under enemy occupation. This is what I refer to when I named this blog the Times Dispatch of Vichy Earth. Earth is enemy territory, occupied by and in collusion with the Enemy. We know there will be a D-Day style landing at the end of time to liberate us. In the meantime, do we surrender to the enemy, and embrace them as our brothers? Do we “make peace” and accept reality while ceasing to fight? Do we cultivate “inner peace” and bring an end to internal turmoil? Or do we accept the alternatives of becoming combatants or conspirators against the enemy?

As lay-people, we are unable to be combatants in this fight. That is a task reserved for Priests and Religious–they are our front-line soldiers. We can become conspirators–working in concert with our Priests and Religious to help achieve their ends. But again–that is a particular expertise, sometimes it would be better to leave that to those skilled in this kind of conspiracy than to attempt it yourself.

So if we decide we do not wish to Surrender, the only options available to us, the hard work of which we can begin immediately, is “making peace” or “inner peace”.

Making Peace involves an acceptance of powerlessness. It is a resolution to wait for Christ, to focus on the things immediately around us. If there is war in some far off country, I can do nothing to help it nor hinder it; if there is a disagreement between my friends, I can do something to help bring it to an end. Making Peace involves accepting, externally, the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Inner Peace involves an internalization of that exterior peace. If there is war in some far off country, it can still bring me inner turmoil even if I have accepted that I cannot do anything about it. Inner peace is ending that inner turmoil. There are multiple ways to achieve this, prayer perhaps being the foremost. But it will take work, and it will take constant work.

The effort is worthwhile because peace is important to happiness. If I have not made interior peace, I will be internally troubled. If I have not made external peace, I will be agitated and irritable. If I Surrender, I will be living contrary to my nature, and so will be both internally troubled and externally agitated.

To borrow a line from the Order of the Mass: May the peace of the Lord be with you always.

AMDG

XCII – Vichy Earth

France was conquered in six weeks, ending on 10 May 1940. They endured the war until D-Day under jointly German Occupation and a puppet government established in the town of Vichy. A resistance existed, and performed various symbolic acts of resistance designed to draw Nazi resources away from the fronts of battle. In this, they were effective, but in actually liberating their nation, there was nothing they could do. This was a resistance, not a restoration.

Vive la Résistance

The French Resistance was able to do a lot more once the Allies landed at Normandy. They provided aid, navigation, reconnaissance, supplies to allied troops. The Allies landed in sympathetic territory, and merely needed to drive out the oppressors, rather than occupy the people.

Imagine, for a moment, being in the French Resistance between 10 May 1940 and 6 June 1944. Surely, you wanted all freedom loving Frenchmen to join your cause. Perhaps some were apathetic and needed to be convinced, but overall if you could get through to them you could convince them to join the Resistance. Resistance meant doing certain things at certain times: For example, General deGaulle asked everyone to stay indoors as a form of passive resistance on a certain day. Other times, your activities were individual: Perhaps you could give bad directions to a Nazi courier. Perhaps you could slow a supply train as it passed through your town.

The authorities had a responsibility of communicating with the allies if they could, in order to ensure their efforts were unified. Imagine for example if the French Resistance tore up train tracks which the allies needed for their effort later on–that would be disruptive. So keeping consistent with the Allies was key. Every other citizen simply needed to use their radios to keep informed or receive instructions. In General, as a member of the Resistance, you had to keep fit, alert, and be ready to help at a moments notice.

The Church is like the French Resistance. We are beset on all sides, we have no power to restore order, only to organize ourselves and be prepared for when God returns with his great and terrible host at the end of all things. There is little we can do to help, but there is much we can do to prepare.

The Church is Burning

Like Notre Dame, the Church is burning in a great and terrible transformation. According to this (annoying but interesting) economist, the Boomer generation will begin their decline and the Millenials will ascend within the next 10 years. With them will go the money that is propping up the Church, Inc we know today. The population pyramid of the Church is a sharp “V” shape, and we’re likely to go from a billion Catholics to a sparse few. What does all this mean?

The Church doesn’t need to be prestigious, wealthy, or prominent. For you and me, give us a priest, an altar, and a valid consecration. Whether it’s in a Cathedral or a basement, it is a valid Mass, and it transcends time and space to join the Church Militant with the Church Triumphant, all the Angels and Saints, in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord. We don’t need to be popular or famous or wealthy or anything: We just need Mass. Maybe soon, that’s all we’ll have.

AMDG