I'm not going to quote anything, or link to anything in this post, it's straight out of my head, so feel free to criticize all you want. I want to write about the "Catholic Mistake". It's of the same nature as "The Protestant Mistake"*, but differently expressed.
The Church's one foundation, in the words of that great old hymn "Is Jesus Christ her Lord". Christ founded the church. As Catholics, we believe that the Church is part and parcel of how we are saved. She protects the Deposit of the Faith, administers and celebrates the Sacraments, is indefectible--The church is, in a very real way, the Ark of the Covenant.
But the Church isn't what grants us salvation. We are not justified by the Church. We are saved and Justified by Jesus Christ.
The Church is rooted in Christ. The Church is so rooted in Christ that we are The Mystical Body of Christ--his hands and feet in this world so to speak. Jesus Christ is the Head.
Our hope of Salvation springs not from the Church, but from what I call "The Messianic Mysteries", the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom in the person of Christ, who came in a way not expected, with no Army, no Treasury, just himself.
Our mistake, and it's more common than any of us would like to admit, is being in a relationship with the Church, giving our love and devotion to the Church. Really, we are to love God, we are to be in a relationship with Jesus, the unique person, True God and True Man, who used the biggest feature of our humanity--our weakness and mortality--to excercise a Kingship of unprecedented power, the only King ever to defeat death. Our love, our devotion, our efforts and our hopes are to be centered on the Lord, Jesus Christ.
But so often, we get involved with the Church, until the Church becomes the object of our devotion. This is just backwards. All of our love for, obedience to, and service of the Church should grow out of a love for, or at least awe and obedience to, Jesus. This is what we are to do. We should love Jesus the Lord first, and all else will proceed from that! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind: and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I think we all make the Catholic Mistake from time to time, in a transient manner. But when this mistake becomes habitual, the ground of our minds, then we get great evils. When we place our relationship with the Church as an institution above our relationship with the Lord we get great evils. When we ground our Faith, Hope and Charity in the Church, especially when we see it as an institution and not as the concrete expression of the Mystical Body of Christ we get horrible distortions. This is the Mistake that leads to Liturgical Abuse--when we become overly involved in the Church as Us in stead of with the Lord, and that Church as an expression, guarantee and instrument of Christina identity rooted in itself instead of Christ, we have liturgies that connect us with...us. Not the Lord. This mistake leads to Heresy--when we are grounded in a concept of the Church as institution, instead of Jesus Christ Our Lord, we begin to fixate on "what needs to be changed", to think that irreformable truths are indeed mailable and changeable. This mistake leads to Schism--when we are relating to the Church, and not to the Lord, we can lose sight of the fact that to be part of the Mystical Body of Christ is more than who has what title, who has what vestment, whether or not any one group of us has special privileges, or is given certain functions, and so strive to bring "the institution" into line with the kind of institution we want to be in that we separate ourselves from our brethren, and from the Lord--because we have never really been firmly attached to the Lord, only to an institution.
Being devoted to the institution, more than to the Lord brings us scandal--in both the popular usage and the theological usage. Protecting the institution from "scandal" in the press leads to cover ups and secrecy. Cover ups and secrecy lead to the possibility of cabals and mafias. Being more devoted to an institution leads to power struggles and bitterness. Being more devoted to an institution leads people into sin, for they are not thinking of what the Lord commands.
I love the Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ. I love the Church in it's institutional aspects as well. I may well be frustrated, and sometimes even hurt or injured by Her, but I can't really leave Her--there's nowhere else to go. I respect the Church. But I am not a worshiper of the Church--I worship the Triune God, giving thanks to the Father through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. It is Christ who brings me to the Church, and from Christ that I derive my love of the Church. But without Christ, with out a Christocentric concept of the Church, it's just a lot of amazing (and a few horrible) buildings filled with people.
If we devote ourselves to the Lord, then our devotion to the Church will follow. I f we serve the Lord, then our service to the Church will follow. If we are grounded in the Lord, then our feet will be firmly in the Church forever.
*The Protestant Mistake is quite simply Biblical Idolatry--substituting the Bible for Christ in practical application, and mistaking Biblical Knowledge for the Practice of Christianity.
The Church's one foundation, in the words of that great old hymn "Is Jesus Christ her Lord". Christ founded the church. As Catholics, we believe that the Church is part and parcel of how we are saved. She protects the Deposit of the Faith, administers and celebrates the Sacraments, is indefectible--The church is, in a very real way, the Ark of the Covenant.
But the Church isn't what grants us salvation. We are not justified by the Church. We are saved and Justified by Jesus Christ.
The Church is rooted in Christ. The Church is so rooted in Christ that we are The Mystical Body of Christ--his hands and feet in this world so to speak. Jesus Christ is the Head.
Our hope of Salvation springs not from the Church, but from what I call "The Messianic Mysteries", the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom in the person of Christ, who came in a way not expected, with no Army, no Treasury, just himself.
Our mistake, and it's more common than any of us would like to admit, is being in a relationship with the Church, giving our love and devotion to the Church. Really, we are to love God, we are to be in a relationship with Jesus, the unique person, True God and True Man, who used the biggest feature of our humanity--our weakness and mortality--to excercise a Kingship of unprecedented power, the only King ever to defeat death. Our love, our devotion, our efforts and our hopes are to be centered on the Lord, Jesus Christ.
But so often, we get involved with the Church, until the Church becomes the object of our devotion. This is just backwards. All of our love for, obedience to, and service of the Church should grow out of a love for, or at least awe and obedience to, Jesus. This is what we are to do. We should love Jesus the Lord first, and all else will proceed from that! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind: and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I think we all make the Catholic Mistake from time to time, in a transient manner. But when this mistake becomes habitual, the ground of our minds, then we get great evils. When we place our relationship with the Church as an institution above our relationship with the Lord we get great evils. When we ground our Faith, Hope and Charity in the Church, especially when we see it as an institution and not as the concrete expression of the Mystical Body of Christ we get horrible distortions. This is the Mistake that leads to Liturgical Abuse--when we become overly involved in the Church as Us in stead of with the Lord, and that Church as an expression, guarantee and instrument of Christina identity rooted in itself instead of Christ, we have liturgies that connect us with...us. Not the Lord. This mistake leads to Heresy--when we are grounded in a concept of the Church as institution, instead of Jesus Christ Our Lord, we begin to fixate on "what needs to be changed", to think that irreformable truths are indeed mailable and changeable. This mistake leads to Schism--when we are relating to the Church, and not to the Lord, we can lose sight of the fact that to be part of the Mystical Body of Christ is more than who has what title, who has what vestment, whether or not any one group of us has special privileges, or is given certain functions, and so strive to bring "the institution" into line with the kind of institution we want to be in that we separate ourselves from our brethren, and from the Lord--because we have never really been firmly attached to the Lord, only to an institution.
Being devoted to the institution, more than to the Lord brings us scandal--in both the popular usage and the theological usage. Protecting the institution from "scandal" in the press leads to cover ups and secrecy. Cover ups and secrecy lead to the possibility of cabals and mafias. Being more devoted to an institution leads to power struggles and bitterness. Being more devoted to an institution leads people into sin, for they are not thinking of what the Lord commands.
I love the Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ. I love the Church in it's institutional aspects as well. I may well be frustrated, and sometimes even hurt or injured by Her, but I can't really leave Her--there's nowhere else to go. I respect the Church. But I am not a worshiper of the Church--I worship the Triune God, giving thanks to the Father through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. It is Christ who brings me to the Church, and from Christ that I derive my love of the Church. But without Christ, with out a Christocentric concept of the Church, it's just a lot of amazing (and a few horrible) buildings filled with people.
If we devote ourselves to the Lord, then our devotion to the Church will follow. I f we serve the Lord, then our service to the Church will follow. If we are grounded in the Lord, then our feet will be firmly in the Church forever.
*The Protestant Mistake is quite simply Biblical Idolatry--substituting the Bible for Christ in practical application, and mistaking Biblical Knowledge for the Practice of Christianity.
3 comments:
Well said, and thank you!
Very well said.
Bravo!
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