If you find your traditionalist
self a little appalled and worried about some of the things Pope Francis has
said (or was reported to have said), then of course you are not alone. I know I have had moments of trepidation and
foreboding, and I must say I am sick to death of reading the re-interpretations
of the media interpretations of the Pope’s words; it sounds a little too much
like excuse-making and glossing-over for my taste.
That said, there is a way to
put your mind and heart at ease over this current situation.
Listen to these two recent
sermons from the Audio Sancto website:
“Christ
is the Point” and “Spiritual
Contraception” (no, the second one is NOT about NFP!). I am working on a
transcript of each, but that takes time; I encourage you to listen to these in
the meantime!
I’ll provide a little synopsis
of each; but there’s much more to be discovered when you listen to them in
their entirety.
In the first
sermon, the priest reminds us that there have been some pretty bad popes in
the past, and some pretty egregious things have happened in the name of papal
authority. What we have now pales by comparison (at least at the moment!). And
the bottom line is that Christ is the
point. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, and we must
not let our human fears hinder our faith, regardless of what our shepherds are
doing and saying.
The priest gives this analogy
and explanation: Imagine you’re on a boat, and there’s a big storm. You’re
holding on for dear life when you realize that the captain and crew are having a
drunken brawl in the wheelhouse. What do you do? Jump overboard?! Of course
not! You are safer in the ship, of course; it’s a storm, so you hang on. Well,
we’re in the Catholic Church, the ark of salvation; we’re already on a ship
that can’t sink, that won’t sink. Even if there are drunks in the wheelhouse,
we need to keep our perspective, remain calm, and hang on.
In the second
sermon, the priest reminds us that the Holy Spirit is in charge of the
Church. Even if we believe that “a few puny men” have conspiratorially taken over
key positions in the Church and are wreaking havoc that they have been planning
for decades, we must realize that they have not done so out of their own will and strength. “Either God’s
in charge of the Church, or He isn’t; it’s that simple”, says the priest. Rather,
God has not only allowed the current
crisis to occur, He has willed it as
a chastisement and a correction for the widespread failure to uphold the
teachings of the Church – amongst the laity and clergy alike.
Quoting St. Gregory
the Great, the priest says, “Divine justice provides shepherds according to the
just deserts of the faithful”. This is a
scary thought; some people said during the papal conclave that we should pray that
God give us what we need, not what we deserve. Well…
Go, listen to the sermons! I
will do my best to put them in written form ASAP.
