THE FEAST OF THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS; ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, PRAY FOR US

9/14/12




This morning I went to Mass, as I try to do a few times during the week, unaware that it was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The deacon, a different deacon from the one who preached the Assumption homily I found so egregious (See my 8/15/12 post THE FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION: MARY, THE MOTHER OF OUR LORD, PRAY FOR US) was going along pretty well, commenting on, among other things, the miracle that followed the discovery of the Cross of Christ and the popularity of the cross in today’s culture when he let out his whopper:



“The presence of the Crucifix, the cross with the corpus, or body of Christ, is a sign that the church in which it is located is a Christian church.” (Emphasis mine)



Huh?

If the deacon had used the term “Catholic” instead of “Christian,” I would have gone along with it. But most Protestant congregations do not use or display the Crucifix; they stick with simple, unadorned crosses, sans the body of our Lord. So one supposes that, in the estimation of this homilist, those churches that display only the cross are not Christians; it is only we Catholics, who display the Crucifix, who are Christians.



One might think that I am making too much of this, that this was a poor but unintentional of words. Given the attitude displayed in the Assumption homily on which I commented (Same parish, different deacon.), in which Mary, the very mother of our Lord, was used as a cudgel to beat up on non-Catholic Christian denominations, this was not an oversight at all. As one who attends Mass a lot, it is becoming clear that this attitude is permeating not only this particular parish or the Diocese in which it is located, but most of today’s Catholic Church.



Throughout the entire post Vatican II portion of my life, the Church has spoken of its devotion to ecumenism, or Christian unity. For many of those years, it was apparent that what the Church had in mind was the Protestants’ finally admitting they were wrong all along, accepting all aspects of Catholic doctrine, submitting to the rules (of course), and then maybe, just maybe, being granted re-admittance to the one true Church. But then, for a few years there, it looked as if the Church were becoming more open to genuine reconciliation of Christian congregations, with each of us considering others’ beliefs in the context of what gets us closer to Christ and the way He wants us to live rather than what complies with the traditions and doctrines of men.



Sadly, though, a “new” attitude seems to be ascending in the Church toward ecumenism that is really the old attitude. It might best be described by using the very secular expression “My way or the highway.”





For more of my thoughts on politics and the ironies that permeate life, along with a healthy dose of what some call cynicism but I call realism, see my other posts on The Insightful Pontificator.



For more of my thoughts on political issues, see Mighty Insights at Rant Political..



For some of my thoughts on financial issues, see Mighty Insights at Rant Finance.

THE FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION: MARY, THE MOTHER OF OUR LORD, PRAY FOR US

8/15/12




Today is the Feast of the Assumption in the Catholic Church so, naturally, I went to Mass this morning. The homily I heard from one of our deacons (I don’t know his name; for reasons that might become clear as you read this, we don’t go to what is still considered our parish much any more, opting to go to either my childhood church or to one of the other parishes in Naperville.) was deeply troubling to this Catholic, Christian, and devotee of Mary the mother of Jesus.

The deacon started off by saying that the Assumption was defined, and the Feast declared, in 1950 by Pius XII, who was speaking ex Cathedra (i.e., with Papal infallibility) in making the declaration. He also pointed out that this was the first ex Cathedra declaration by a pope since 1854, when Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception. He was right on both counts. But what he said next was shocking, and, while I don’t have a photographic memory and wasn’t writing anything down, I can quote with only the risk that perhaps an article or two may have been changed:



“Here we have the nucleus of our faith.”



Huh? The nucleus of our faith, at least as I understand it, is that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that Jesus is the second Person of the Holy Trinity, that He died for our sins, and rose from the dead, and that, by faith in Him and in His resurrection, we have been granted eternal salvation with Him in heaven. (Some Catholics might argue with the section of that sentence after the comma.) That is the nucleus of our faith; from that nucleus spreads plenty more. But the nucleus of our faith is neither the Immaculate Conception nor the Assumption; they are among the other things that spread from the nucleus of our faith. Indeed, the Church was around, and souls were being saved through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, for over 1,800 years before the first of those doctrines was declared.



The deacon went on to say that, again, closely quoting:



“Many of our brother Christians accuse us, wrongly, of worshipping Mary, but this is untrue. Worship is reserved for God.”



Right on both counts: We don’t worship Mary (though I suspect a lot of Catholics don’t know that.); we venerate Mary. A nuance, maybe, but an important one. And, correct, many Protestants do accuse us of worshipping Mary, but one can see how they might think that we do.



Then came the real whopper, enough to make me say “C’mon!” in a sufficiently hushed tone to be polite but to be audible by those around me. The deacon said, again closely quoting:



“Many of our brother Christians say ‘There is nothing special about Mary.’”



Huh?



Which Protestants say “There is nothing special about Mary”? Maybe, and only maybe, one might be able to find some backwoods, spin-off, rogue fundamentalist sect in the backwoods somewhere that might say things like “There is nothing special about Mary,” but “many of our brother Christians”? C’mon! One of the foundations of the Reformation, and hence of virtually all Protestant faiths, is sola scriptura, roughly translated “The Scripture Alone” or “Only the Scripture,” and it holds that the Scripture alone is the foundation of our faith. According to sola scriptura, Church tradition plays no role in the faith, contrary to what we Catholics believe.



Hence the Protestant faiths adhere to the Bible with varying degrees of strictness. Anyone who adheres to the Bible has read the first few chapters of Luke and Matthew and John 19: 26-27 and thus thinks that there is plenty that is special about Mary.



The Protestants clearly differ with us in our approach to Mary, and there is plenty to debate about her role in our faith and in our lives. Setting up straw men does nothing to advance that debate.



I have had a lifelong devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus, but that does not mean that those who don’t are somehow deficient in their dedication to her Son. And I strongly suspect that Mary is not happy about her being used as a cudgel with which to beat our fellow Christians over the head.







For more of my thoughts on politics and the ironies that permeate life, along with a healthy dose of what some call cynicism but I call realism, see my other posts on The Insightful Pontificator.


For more of my thoughts on political issues, see Mighty Insights at Rant Politics.


For some of my thoughts on financial issues, see Mighty Insights at Rant Finance.