I am saddened by the number of her readers who described themselves as Ex-Catholics, even atheists. For all of its two millennia of folly, the fact is that the Catholic Church is still the most direct route back to the preacher who lived and died in the land between the seas, and taught us what love meant.
The Church has always been much bigger and more diverse an institution than the Vatican likes to admit. Umberto Eco's masterpiece, “The Name of the Rose,” was much more than a medieval mystery story. It was a snapshot of the ferment, and intellectual diversity, of the Church in the Middle Ages. That ferment and diversity persists.
It was also a paean of praise for St. Francis who single-handily staved off the reformation for two centuries. I remain a Catholic because the essential issue of the Reformation was salvation by faith alone. Luther was reacting to the scandal of the Church pedaling indulgences. He ignores St. Paul. I believe that love engenders faith and I am one with St. Paul: I can have faith so as to move mountains, but without love, I am nothing. Only I believe that literally: without love there is only oblivion.
I attended a Catholic High School and we had to spend a buck to get a black bound copy of the New Testament. More than fifty years later, I still have it, and refer to it. I once remarked to one of my sons and a friend of his that the trouble was nobody feared the judgment of God anymore and they laughed. But that was before I could explain what I meant by the judgment of God. It's all there in my little black book.
There is but one commandment, one truth and one existence. It is love. When we love, we play with eternal fire. If we don't love, we lapse into the hell of oblivion. I believe that. I also believe that it is the essence of a Catholic life.
The problem with Donahue, Opus Dei, the new Newman Society et al, is that there is no love in them. Only an intellectual self-indulgence pointing the way to oblivion.
2 comments:
this article is awesome. thankyou! You may enjoy: http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/winter_2009/c21_notes/born-again.html
Dear John
I was raised Catholic, but no longer identify as Catholic or Protestant. I hear and appreciate your POV. I am glad many stay within the church to continue to point to love, to God, and to the Way of Christ - but that isn't my path.
I have some education and lifetime interest in issues about Christianity, but (to my embarrassment) I have not heard your ‘argument’ 'against' Protestantism:
I remain a Catholic because the essential issue of the Reformation was salvation by faith alone. Luther... ignores St. Paul. I believe that love engenders faith and I am one with St. Paul: I can have faith so as to move mountains, but without love, I am nothing. Only I believe that literally: without love there is only oblivion.
Blow me over with a feather ; )
I am in agreement with this, and will appreciate utilizing this perspective.
A caricatured form of Luther’s augment has devolved in some modern Christianity as alleged faith, clearly devoid of love, at least 'love' defined in any way that would be accepted by (my understanding of) Jesus the Carpenter from 2 centuries ago... This is love-less Christianity is a travesty, IMO.
:::
This has been my perspective, I can see now it has been from probably a Protestant POV:
R Catholicism = 'faith and tradition'
Protestantism = 'faith alone'
I have found generally that 'faith' has been often used as code for 'the bible', particularly 'a particular perspective of the bible'.
I believe the bible is a very useful tool, very useful. I enjoy it and God uses it in my life - I have been wrestling with it since I was a teen. But IMO the bible is not God, nor is it to take the place of the real, living, spiritual 'word of God' in our direct internal experience (if you have ears, hear. If you have eyes, see)
So, I have come, for a very long time now, from a place of 'God alone' - not 'tradition', not 'faith', not even ‘love’ (love was my focus for a long time, but even that is not God. Now, I see love as a necessary fruit of my path in God)… only God do I follow, directly, as I believe Jesus adamantly told us to do.
This remains the same. But I need to integrate what you have said, I think it would behoove Christians, in general, to do so.
Thanks for sharing your perspective,
and for serving 'God and Love' in the world,
blessings,
wendy
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