Satan Workin' It.

A couple things jumped out at me from recent statements from different people. Here's the first:

"When I stopped communicating about my problems," he wrote, "the darkness increased and finally dominated me." - ex-pastor Rev. Ted Haggard

Ladies and Germs, get to Reconciliation. Find time if you're busy, and make time if you're really busy. Be wary of the excuses that keep you from making a good confession. Don't fall for the placation that "Well, Jesus has already forgiven my sins, so there's no need." I think Ted will now agree that that sophistry just doesn't hold when you're in battle.

Another tidbit, this time from Madison, Wisconsin, from people upset that the bishop is very intent on informing his flock:

Later, Scott said he thought the church leaders over-reacted and showed that they don't trust their parishioners to form their own opinions on civil matters.

If you are in a Catholic Church, there is an implied obligation to listen to your bishop. And the bishop has the obligation to inform the souls under his care with the Gospel and pertinent spiritual guidance. That's the way the Church has run for thousands of years. People are free to leave the Church and do their own thing, another long-standing tradition: schism.
There should be no differences between your civil and spiritual politics if Christ is truly Lord of All. If there are areas where you won't let Christ reign, then you really don't accept His reign at all. The Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin is trying to remind his flock of that.

Convalidation

Last weekend, my wife and I got our marriage blessed by the Church. After a year without the Sacraments, it's good to be in communion once again with Christ's Church.

Seven years ago, my wife and I got married outside the Church. There was reluctance to get married in the Church, as my wife's a lapsed Baptist, and her family has issues with the Church. To salve my own conscience, I sought out a 'catholic' priest to do the ceremony. At that point in time, I was not particularly concerned with issues of licity and validity in regards to Holy Orders and the Sacraments.

Soon, Son #1 was on his way, so I started going to Mass again, taking my wife along. Our child had come, and we eventually had him baptised in the Church. I started getting more and more involved in the Church. Then our girls came, 10 weeks early, and had them baptised right away.

All the while, I had this nagging doubt about the validity of our marriage, and eventually decided to take the matter to my confessor. A year later, here we are. What a merry hunt, trying to find your original parish where you were baptised, getting a note from a different parish, confirming that you've been confirmed, and trying to get marriage prep started betwixt two holiday seasons in a small parish. Maybe more on all that later..

Tolerance &ne Mercy

"Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore and do penance."

In a recent e-mail, an old friend of mine stated that tolerance IS mercy. I think otherwise, and wrote the following to him:

As for mercy and tolerance, I would posit this: There are times when mercy requires intolerance. Look at the world today, and look at the conditions that we tolerate. We tolerate Arab militias to rape, murder, and pillage in the Sudan. We tolerate Maoist repression of Christians in China. We tolerate the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. We tolerate the in utero eradication of our future. Sure, we throw fund-raisers, put ads on the tele, wag our fingers at our politicians and the U.N., but nothing changes. The status quo is tolerated.

2000 years ago, when fallen Man was in direst need, God changed the status quo. Sin, and it's dominance over Man, could no longer be tolerated, which is why He sent His Son. Jesus did not tolerate sin, and exhorted us to be perfect. Not just be good, but be perfect, as God is perfect. Jesus told all He came into contact with to sin no more. Some listened, like the adultress, Zaccheus, and Nicodemus. Others could not bear His admonishments, like the wealthy man who could not give it away, and the Pharisees.

It is not merciful to tolerate slavery. Would you agree? Merton did not think that tolerating segregation was merciful. Jesus did not think that letting someone persist in sin was merciful either.

Discrimination (as in perception of difference) is vital to our ability to see need in others and to give of ourselves to fill those needs. If I see someone panhandling on the street, this discrimination comes into play. I know I am well fed, and I can tell that he is not, and that his need requires something from my bounty. If I am oblivious to all differences, I cannot know his need, and I will walk past, like all the others in their self-centered oblivion, because they can tolerate his situation.


ego quos amo arguo et castigo aemulare ergo et paenitentiam age