The Tenth Crusade
Saturday, June 28, 2014
A Jesus without interest in morals.
Was I dreaming or did he not announce he was going to ferme la bouche for a while?
Here we were thinking we would have a respite from kooky theology now coming at us from the Romans.
It's a cruel world!
The newspapers are splashing the headlines: Pope Francis said Jesus was a pastor without interest in morals. A jolly bloat who was just happy to be with his peeps. And they were happy to be with him.
Get it?
Christ was chased out of every town He visited, cruelly executed by the mad mob with only three people standing under His Crucified Corpus because... the people really, really loved the things He said.
Take the time to read the entire article.
Jesus Christ, who called people among other things... snakes,a brood of vipers, dogs, swine, son of the devil, simply 'brought wonder to their hearts, the wonder of finding something good, great'.
Hmmmm...
Why then did they kill the Man?
If the crowds so 'astonished' with the Via Dolorosa of happy, joyful, warm people who reach the heart, why would they execute eleven of His Apostles?
I'm wondering all right.
We are all wondering: Who and what is Pope Francis talking 'bout?
Who is this Christ disinterested in moral theology who goes along to get along?
I like that plan better than the one where we teach moral theology and they persecute and kill us all for it.
Still, I cannot reconcile the Person of Christ the Pope is speaking about and the fiat he describes to the one witnessed in Scripture.
It is disconcerting.
I am sincerely trying to get the underlying message in the Pope's latest homily and I have narrowed it down to two things:
1. He is asking us to believe the millions of martyrs who went before us were executed for being nice.
2. He's here to tell us the 2000 years of martyrs teaching moral theology have been going about it all wrong.
This sissification of Christ seems, at least to me, to be contradicted by Christ Himself, the New Testament and 2000 years of Roman Catholic theology.
For instance, how does he reconcile his theology about Christ with what Christ Himself said about St. John the Baptist?
For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife...
This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee. For I say to you: Amongst those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.
Pope Francis refers to St. John the Baptist as a moralistic, quibbling pharisee. Christ says he is his angel sent before thy face and the greatest prophet who ever lived.
This contradiction and caricature of Christ and the evangelization of our religion is deeply disturbing.
While Canon 15 is the religious law that carries out the precept of Christ that what is holy should not be given to the dogs, Pope Francis instructs priests to disobey Canon law.
The pastoral common sense that you do not feed the Eucharist into a soul who has lost the ability to intellectually combat the spiritual warfare within because it drives them to self destruction has gone out the window with this papacy.
We need a pastor like that about as much as we need an oncologist who gives out tickets to the theater to cure cancer.
Relieve us of our vices sir, through the the teaching of moral theology, which is absolutely necessary for right judgment that ultimately drives the soul to the Sacrament of Confession.
We have friends and relatives to make us feel cozy and warm.
We come to the ordained to receive Sacramental Graces in the Sacraments.
Withholding moral theology from our people, as the world is drawing them into confusion, may save your hide from martyrdom but it is the antithesis of the role of the baptized and ordained.
Stand up and fight for the souls of your people, of Christ's people.
Perhaps we will see another clarification from the Romans about Pope Francis' redaction of the pursuit of morality and purity from 2000 years of theology?
I hope so.
It is half past time for vacation.
Please. Go on vacation.
This video message from Fr. Nicholson is most timely and efficacious. He articulates everything I wanted to say and couldn't.
These days, people do not get angry at injustice...be good little boys..do not get into fights. When little boys act like little boys, we tranquilize them and try to get them to act like little girls. This incapacity to get angry is not a virtue, but evidence of a great internal problem. The inability to get angry is a distinctive result of an inordinate desire and attachment to pleasure...
Purity needs a public relations campaign to give it a better profile. Purity is interpreted as living a frustrated and unhappy life but nothing could be further than the truth. Purity of heart is the occasion by which we can see God. This finding and feeling of God is the tremendous source of happiness and cheerfulness.
Amen Father, amen.
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9 comments:
He's talking about "moralism" (that's what his back-referent is in "quibbling about morals"). Which is not the same as morals.
Christian theologians and spiritual guides have from the earliest times been aware of the temptation to turn discipleship from theosis into mere moralism. (Btw, reducing the Gospel to the Social Gospel is as much a form of mere moralism as reducing it to purity and docility.) Mere moralism is the temptation to form a checklist of safe and unsafe behavior and thoughts; it's a form of self-assurance through anxiety. It's *not* theosis, but it can look, feel and smell mighty church-y.
I think that's the Pope's point. If I am close to right, he's repeating a perennial caution of good spiritual directors, confessors, teachers and religious superiors.
Like it or lump it, there is a checklist of safe and unsafe behavior.
There is nothing neurotic or scrupulous about wanting to hear those precepts taught and spoken about as each priest and saint can give you perspective and strength when the going gets tough.
If the Pope doesn't want to sound churchy, he has chosen the wrong vocation.
We come to Church to hear churchy stuff.
So far, what we've heard from him is a big fat zippo on moral theology - with the exception of dropping hints he suffers from moral relativism and he would like us to suffer along with him.
I'm a pretty educated woman. Lightyears ahead of the luminaries in the Chancery - by no grace of mine. If I can't crack his code, he's got to recalibrate because the entire world is suffering from diabolical disorientation. All we are seeing form this fruit is affirmation and resurgence of crackpot theology.
Well intended though he may be.
By the way, the idea that the Pope is under the delusion there is a problem with scrupulous repetition of discussing right and wrong moral behavior...is so ludicrous I am not able to swallow it.
I wish he would tell us where this is happening so we could all go there. LOL.
pps - I did a google search on 'moralism Catholic theology' - bupkis. A complete zippo.
If you can find something from a Catholic saint or bonafide doctor of the Church telling us we don't need discipline in safe and unsafe behavior, we are all ears!
I've got the pen in my hand ready to change up my bucket list.
:)
Google won't help you. You'll need a much more robust set of search terms of functional equivalents. The concept goes back to Jesus and the Pharisees, was quite engaged at the time of the Pelagian heresy (Pelagianism is but one variation on mere moralism).
But, for a tease closer to our own time:
http://payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/08/18/ratzinger%E2%80%99s-faith-beyond-moralism-god-is-love/
thanks friend, will read!
I tend to steer clear of concepts not elaborated upon in our 2000 year history of saints and doctors of the Church.
It's a bit like saying a marriage cannot be reduced to ideology and practice of morals. True enough marriage encompasses more than a moral code of conduct.
But if your husband or wife starts suggesting your relationship shouldn't be focused on the discipline of a moral code of conduct as there are many more facets to your relationship, I'd start checking his/her iphone and hire a private detective because - something is up.
This thing stinks to the high heavens.
Good grief...von Balthasar was a full-fledged kook.
Of course God is love and love is above all things, but just like every human relationship, betrayal and cheating on your lover - irrespective of how much the other person loves you - kills the relationship.
The same is true with our intimate relationship with God.
Christ loves even the most hardened sinner but when the fat lady sings on the day of reckoning, that love does not supersede the judgments of what you knew and when you knew it and what actions you took based upon that knowledge.
We get his modus operandi and we know the diabolical disorientation is something we have to reach into and see who we can harvest with it.
But you can't come onto the isle of Crete and imply and suggest to the village idiots their relationship with God is healthy outside of moral law.
It's waaaaaaaaaaaaaay out there. He seems to have an attraction to crazy stuff and theologians and an aversion to solid theologians and theology.
There's a communication problem manifesting itself from the head to the mouth or hands. I know it isn't as bad as it seems but enough time has passed now for him to recognize he isn't the bishop of Argentina anymore, he is a Pope and a Pope has a much more serious duty to think things through than a woman with a blog.
And let me tell you, there have been times I've wanted to say things I know I shouldn't or can't. I've done my best to recognize that even a tiny little blog comes with responsibility.
He is not exercising that responsibility very efficaciously and the problem is going on ad infinitum. We have all had just about enough of it. God bless and protect him.
I have been reading Anne Catherine Emmerich's books about the life of Christ--from what she saw in her visions (considered the greatest mystic of all times) Our Lord was not liked from the time He was born. When He spoke out in the Temple at age 12--they became hostile and angry. He keep speaking out about sin and accused people of their sins, repeatedly warned them of Hell--- a shorter version of what Christ was doing is found in the New Testament-so I really do not understand what the Pope is trying to say.
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