At the Synod on the Family, Pope Francis called for renewed focus on the art of pastoral practice. Are the concerns of traditional Catholics justified or misplaced?
“God is not afraid of new things.” Thus was proclaimed, in a homily for the October 19, 2014 Beatification of Blessed Paul VI, another sound bite media summary of the thought and public witness of Pope Francis. These words came a day after the extraordinary Synod on the Family concluded in Rome, according to the same media account, “by rejecting landmark wording that would soften the Church’s stance toward homosexuality and divorce.”
In other words, if you believe the media accounts, the Church failed to take a sharp left turn despite the prompting of the pope. Catholic commentators on both the left and the right of the issues at hand have openly wondered what Pope Francis is doing and why he is doing it.
It is ironic that the controversial “God is not afraid of new things” statement of Pope Francis came during the beatification of Paul VI who was tasked with the implementation of the Second Vatican Council. In 1966, Pope Paul VI did exactly what Francis has done. He invited and listened to every possible voice and point of view on sexual morality, marriage and family before publishing Humanae vitae in 1968. The difference was that Paul VI did not have to contend with the internet, so unlike Francis his words and his listening were not subjected to minute by minute misinterpretations in the global media.
The Synod’s concluding documents affirmed Church teaching on the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman, for life. If you believe the secular media coverage of Pope Francis is accurate, then the Synod’s conclusion is to be taken as a sign that the agenda of our socially progressive pope is being hampered and restrained by a cautious and traditionally minded hierarchy. I believe that conclusion to be incorrect.
For some, the concern often borders on alarm. Even as I began this article, I received a letter from a devout Catholic who wants to be well-disposed toward Pope Francis, but is challenged by current events:
“You are aware of my thoughts and feelings about the current Holy Father. Much of what he says and does disturbs me. He has caused and continues to cause much confusion, division, dismay, and damage to the Body of Christ.”
NEITHER LEFT NOR RIGHT
I have heard this same concern expressed by many Catholics who consider themselves to be theologically and doctrinally conservative. I share these concerns, and yet at the same time I feel we have a duty to listen to Francis with an ear well-disposed toward him.
In a recent guest post on, These Stone Walls, Carlos Caso-Rosendi provided a timely reflection entitled “Love Through the Tempest,” reminding us that Catholics do not have a fair weather condition clause (my own term) in our deference toward the Chair of Peter. In “From the Pope’s End of the World, A Voice Not Lost in Translation,” a previous article of my own at These Stone Walls, I described the unique context that Carlos Caso-Rosendi has provided as we “translate” Pope Francis.
I have also been aided much in my understanding of Francis by the observations of Robert Moynihan, Editor-in-Chief of Inside the Vatican magazine. A long time Vatican Observer, Robert Moynihan presents a consistently balanced and accurate view of this Pope’s agenda without shying away from all the angst and controversy. Dr. Moynihan seems well aware of the anxiety and concerns surrounding Pope Francis, especially for conservative and traditionalist Catholics, concerns with which he no doubt most identifies.
In “All Eyes on Francis,” the lead story in the October 2014 issue of Inside the Vatican, Dr. Moynihan portrayed Francis “as neither ‘left’ nor ‘right,’ but centered on the experience of God’s mercy and the forgiveness of human sins.” The result is that Pope Francis “is attempting to make a slight adjustment in the Church’s pastoral focus,” and not in moral theology or doctrinal belief.
That focus, according to Dr. Moynihan, stems from an early life experience of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in which “he felt his heart touched and sensed the descent of the mercy of God.” Perhaps only someone who has had such a profound experience of Divine Mercy can readily understand Francis and feel less threatened by his pastoral concern for the lost and alienated in our midst.
I have defended Pope Francis along these same lines in the past, most notably in a post entitled, “When the Vicar of Christ Imitates Christ, Why is it so Alarming?” A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a reader alluding to that post. “I know you have written in defense of the Holy Father, but I sometimes can’t help feeling uncomfortable with what he is doing and saying.”
A VIEW TOWARD THE PERIPHERIES
Well, that makes two of us. Jorge Mario Bergoglio has made me uncomfortable since the day he first stepped into view as Pope Francis. In one of the early interviews of his papacy, Francis went right to the heart, perhaps even the jugular, of what has been wrong in the hierarchical and clerical state in the last half century since the Second Vatican Council. This particular little “cleansing of the temple” from a 2013 interview with Pope Francis was noted with alarm by many priests and bishops:
“Leaders of the Church have too often been narcissists, gratified and sickeningly excited by their courtiers. [The Curia] is Vatican-centered… I don’t share this view, and I’ll do all I can to change it” (La Repubblica, October 1, 2013).
Who among us, in our heart of hearts, can disagree with such an assessment? As a priest of thirty-two years, I surely cannot. So much of the scandal in the priesthood that has been a millstone of injustice around my own neck for twenty years has been a direct result of a trend toward clerical narcissism that has made priests easy targets for the media and those who would seek to harm the Church.
In “Pope Urges Open, Honest Dialogue at Meetings,” and analysis of the Synod on the Family (Our Sunday Visitor, October 19, 2014), British Catholic journalist Austen Ivereigh observed that past synods have been “curia-controlled… suffocating discussion.” Francis is well aware of this, and bypassed such control by asking the participants to speak openly “with apostolic courage.” “Speak clearly,” he instructed. “Let no one say, ‘this you cannot say.'”
Without doubt, such an approach makes a lot of people in the Church uncomfortable. As conservative Catholic writer, Phil Lawler wrote at CatholicCulture.org last year, “If the pope’s main responsibility is to keep us all comfortable, then Pope Francis is failing miserably.” Phil Lawler added an astute statement about how what we hear and think about this pope is often filtered through the media:
“The Lord’s words and gestures were often misinterpreted, and His critics found it easy to put things in an unfavorable light… Would it be better, really, if the Pope limited himself to statements what could not possibly be distorted?” (CatholicCulture.org, September 20, 2013).
I think not. What I am about to add is perhaps filtered through the experience of twenty years of wrongful imprisonment for crimes that never took place. My days as a priest are spent with those whose entire lives have been lived on the peripheries. I have not met a single person in prison who has not felt alienated from all that represents God in this life.
What Pope Francis is doing and saying about pastoral focus is bold and, unique for a pope in modern times, stems from his own life experience. In a recent op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal (“Beyond the Hype About a Vatican Upheaval,” October 17, 2014), Acton Institute president, Father Robert A. Sirico, explained that the Synod was…
“…an earnest effort by pastors of the Church to determine how best to encourage people to live the Catholic faith. This is no easy task. A move too far in the direction of merely repeating old formularies will not work… A move away from what constitutes the very definition of what it means to be Catholic… will also insult and alienate many Catholics who strive to live by the Church’s teaching.”
Father Sirico has landed at the crux of what, though I think erroneously, has rankled so many Catholics faithful to tradition and the Magisterium. He points out well, however, that the tension is one of tone and not substance. It’s a tension that has always existed between the Church’s presentation of the ideal and the pastoral practice experienced with so many in this modern world whose lives fall far short of the ideal.
Whether I can attain the ideal or not, as a sinner I count on the Church to mirror the ideal without compromise, and without accommodations to the world we live in. Also as a sinner, I count on the Church to be a mirror of justice and mercy. Toward both ends, Pope Francis is wielding a compass instead of a hammer as his tool of choice.
This, Father Sirico says, “is what we pastors call the art of pastoral practice.” At the heart of it, for this pope, is a mandate to reach toward those in the margins, a mandate that I wrote of in a previous article, “Pope Francis Has a Challenge for the Prodigal Son’s Older Brother.” Of that parable (Luke 15,11-32) Pope Francis has said, “This is the entire Gospel! It’s right here!”
Those who have been reading my five years of posts on These Stone Walls will know that I write from inside a prison cell. I have spent the last twenty years of my priesthood living with men who are the Gospel’s lepers, tax collectors, and sinners. One of them, Pornchai Maximilian Moontri, wrote a guest post for These Stone Walls entitled, “I Come to the Catholic Church for Healing and Hope,” about his conversion to Catholicism on Divine Mercy Sunday.
It is Pornchai of whom Pope Francis speaks when he focuses the Church’s gaze to the peripheries. On his cell wall, Pornchai has an image of Pope Francis with a young sheep over his shoulders. “It’s my favorite picture of him,” Pornchai says, “because I see in it the Pope of the Lost, my Pope!”
The Church and all that we love and cherish in our Catholic ideals and traditions so dear to our hearts and souls will survive this pope, and perhaps even for the better. Though I struggle with his words and gestures, I must affirm in my heart the Holy Spirit’s choice of Francis for the Chair of Peter. Perhaps it is simply time that the lost had an ear, and voice, in Rome.
To the readers of These Stone Walls from Ryan A. MacDonald: Readers have been especially generous and kind in responding to our appeal for assistance with legal costs at the Federal level. It has come to my attention that State officials have filed objections to Father MacRae’s appeal in the Federal courts, and these objections required lengthy and highly detailed responses from the attorney’s representing Father MacRae. One such exchange cost $15,000 that seriously depleted available funds as the appeal continues. So, to compensate, we have raised the bar in our fundraising effort. I know that Father MacRae is most appreciative to all who have aided this effort, and that he would much prefer that many people do a little instead of just a few doing a lot. Let us hope that this could be an undertaking of the whole church. For information on how to assist, please see my post “News Alert: New Federal Appeal Filed in Father Gordon MacRae Case.”
Mary Jean Diemer says
Hi Father Gordon!
Looking at the state that the Church is in it should come as no surprise that the Holy Spirit in His wisdom has chosen a Pope such as Francis. Jesus’ credentials were doubted so why not His successor on earth? I’m glad he is making us uncomfortable because in our comfort is our destruction. He is not a mistake or an apostasy!
Have faith that we are protected by the very God we profess to believe in.
God bless you all! Jeannie
Juan says
Here is the complete reference to the citation of St.Therese of Lisieux that I quoted in my comment of the 16th of November: the article is “THE TEACHING OF ST.THERESE OFLISIEUX ON PURGATORY” – God’s Mercy is Greater”, by Father Dr. Hubert van Dijk, ORC from the link already mentioned earlier http://www.franciscan-ofs.net/ap/litfwrpu.htm
It is a most useful spiritual message from a Saint and Doctor of the Church.
Juan.
Juan says
It has come to my attention that the article “THE TEACHING OF ST.THERESE OFLISIEUX ON PURGATORY” – God’s Mercy is Greater”, by Father Dr. Hubert van Dijk, ORC from http://www.franciscan-ofs.net/ap/litfwrpu.htm is no longer at that site, which is being remodeled. The article can be read, among other sites, at http://healwithgrace.blogspot.com.es/2011/11/teaching-of-st-therese-of-lisieux-on.html This link can also be accessed from http://www.carmeliteconversations.com/Program-resources.html#.VpOCttSFPIU .
The original article appeared in German in 2001: http://www.der-fels.de/2001/12-2001.pdf and the following year in a shorter version at http://www.der-fels.de/2002/01-2002.pdf also in German, both on the web of the German Catholic magazine “Der Fels” (The Rock).
Juan.
Juan says
Dear Father Gordon,
I can easily see how the apparent “new winds” at the Vatican may look like a break from the Church that worked against you 20 years ago, a Church that collectively threw out the window repentance, forgiveness, conversion. But let us not forget that unmerciful – and merciful – people there have always been.
You speak of this Pope’s invitation to listen, to reach to the peripheries, to stop being narcissistic. Is it all of it said in sincerity? Or is it true in this case, as a person presently on death row told me in a letter, that “preachers don’t practice what they preach” ? I will go back to this but I will address first “the newness” of this Papacy.
In the 19th century someone said: “You should not fear Purgatory because of the suffering there, but should instead ask that you not deserve to go there in order to please God, Who so reluctantly imposes this punishment. As soon as you try to please Him in everything and have an unshakable trust He purifies you every moment in His love and He lets no sin remain. And then you can be sure that you will not have to go to Purgatory” . Annales de Sainte Therese, Lisieux. Nr. 610, Febr. 1982 ( taken from http://www.franciscan-ofs.net/ap/litfwrpu.htm , whoever reads it will be glad to have done it !). More than a hundred years later these words still sound like new, don’t they?
Now let us turn to the word “Mercy” and its equivalents, so often used by Pope Francis. How can we reconcile this kind of talking with the fact that four months after his election a good and flourishing religious order founded by Fr. Stefano Maria Manelli in Italy in mid-twentieth century, Franciscani dell’Immacolata (Franciscans of the Immaculate), begun to be persecuted to the point of the practical imprisonment of Fr. Stefano and the dismantling and dispersing of both the masculine and feminine branches? All of it based on no justifiable grounds. And what to say of three letters addressed to this Pope on the subject of falsely accused priests and religious requesting his help and which have received no answer yet? Did they reach the addressee? Even if they did not, the subject matter of the letters is known at the Vatican. It does not seem excessive to expect a few good deeds from there, not just charming words and nice listening. One more piece of information: in a Diocese near Rome, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, one of the Cardinals who assist Pope Francis in governing the Church, has threatened to excommunicate those who attend Mass celebrated according to the Traditional Rite by a priest member of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X (no longer excommunicated since 2009). This Mass was last revised by Saint John XXIII, never prohibited by Vatican II and its use revitalized by Pope Benedict XVI. Is this Church all that different from the one you had to contend with?
Father Gordon, I see your views, and Pornchai’s, on Pope Francis and I don’t mean to disillusion you. However reality is reality. Since St. Paul reminds us that “if one part suffers anything, all the parts suffer with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26), referring to the Mystical Body of Christ, both of you, all the other guys there and the rest of us, Pope Francis included, are together in this, in one form or another. May all of us do sincere listening and come to be helpful and merciful to one another.
Thank you for writing and for being there.
God bless you all,
Juan.
Juan says
The link referenced here has changed. Please find the new one in the “Reply” to my own comment next to this one.
Juan.
Father Gordon MacRae says
I thank readers for these comments, for I know that without exception they are from sincere hearts committed to Christ. I am writing a sequel to this post for November 19 on TSW (on November 12 we have a guest-post). Until then, I wanted to share with readers something that I posted on WSJ.com (The Wall Street Journal) in response to the article by Father Robert Sirico that I included in this post. I want to post my entire comment to demonstrate that there are elements within the Church’s pastoral practice who, at the present time, are silenced and not listened to – not ever. Let’s hope that this Pope’s insistence on listening is a witness to those who need to listen more. Here is that WSJ comment:
Mary Fran says
Fr. Gordon, thanks for continuing the dialogue about Pope Francis. I find it most interesting. Am going back to reread other posts you have written about him and am beginning to see some tiny cracks in my concrete opinions.
About your WSJ response to an article written by Fr. Sirico—-wish I could read that article itself, not just your response to it. However, not being a paying subscriber to WSJ, I have no access to it. Would you please make a copy of it and send it to me if it’s not too much trouble? Thanks.
Mary Fran says
Fr. G, I just got the WSJ article by Robert Sirico in the mail today. Thanks for having it sent to me. I appreciate being able to read the entire article not just the snippet you included in this post.
Tom says
Thank you for this…I am sometimes bewildered by what this pope says and does and although I am a “John Paul II” guy who also has great affection for Benedict XVI, I also like the fact that this pope is making the church more open to welcoming those who have felt alienated in the past…who knows, there may even be hope for folks like me who are kept at the furthest possible periphery by the Dallas Charter!!!
Tom
Cathy Pequeño says
Dear Fr. Gordon,
I wanted to stand up and applaud your post. But I was too “comfortable” and since no one was going to see me, I didn’t actually get up and applaud physically, but did so in my heart.
Pope Francis, on the other hand, makes me “uncomfortable.” It is during times that I have been “uncomfortable” that I have had the greatest growth, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. Life has taught me that when I am comfortable it’s time for change, time to venture into the unknown.
Pope Francis, though, is not the only Pope that has drawn us out of our comfort zone. Blessed Pope Paul VI did a fine job making his contemporaries uncomfortable (I was a child at the time so all I knew was that he looked like my aunt) with Humanae Vitae. And Saint John Paul II went to visit his would be assassin to forgive him and he told us women can never be priests and . But, as you pointed out, Fr. Gordon, Pope Francis is the only one so misquoted by the media. Pope Francis call us to change. NOT to change doctrine but to change our attitudes. He puts emphasis on God’s mercy. Yes, forgiveness makes us uncomfortable. I understand Pope Francis’ message to be “although sin is not OK, we need to show mercy to the sinner. We need to welcome the sinner, draw the sinner into God’s flock.” That’s a very uncomfortable message.
So Pope Francis will continue to make us “uncomfortable” throughout his papacy. May we “squirm” in peace as he continues to challenge us.
Carlos Caso-Rosendi says
I for one thrust the words of Jesus “I have not lost one of those you gave me.” (John 18:9) Scandals are inevitable, Jesus said that much and added: “woe to those by whom the scandal comes.” That should send chills down the spine of any believer on either side of the present controversy.
On one extreme I see those (madmen) who want to introduce in the Church the “gender ideology” promoted by the political left. On the other extreme I see some that apparently demand absolute purity of those who approach the Church seeking salvation. The first extreme is heresy of the criminal kind. The second extreme is a form of Donatism the kind that places heavy burdens on other people’s backs.
Christ calls all to conversion. Period. He may have found very valuable qualities in the adulterous woman but still He said to her: “Sin no more.” That’s the model. Now the people ready to stone that poor sinner were condemned later by the Lord’s words: “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” That story has bothered many, including St. Augustine who himself thought that must have been inserted in the Gospels by some anonymous hand. Yet the Church left that fragment untouched.
Christ’s actions bother even some saints, it seems. Among those sodomites and adulterers there are some left that are going to be saved. The doors of the Church are going to be closed by God, not by us. (See Genesis 7:16)
Think also of the words of St. Paul: “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who lay with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Yet that is what some of you were.…” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
A repenting homosexual who was received in the Church in the last days of his life, Oscar Wilde, wrote about this: “Of course the sinner must repent. Why? Simply because otherwise he would be unable to realize what he had done. The moment of repentance is the moment of initiation. More than that: it is the means by which one alters one’s past. The Greeks thought that impossible. They often say in their Gnomic aphorisms, ‘Even the Gods cannot alter the past.’ Christ showed that the commonest sinner could do it, that it was the one thing he could do.” ( De Profundis)
Look at Wilde’s understanding! That jewel of a thought was placed by God in his mind and heart — in spite of an awful life of sinful transgressions — “Omne verum, a quocumque dicatur, a Spiritu Sancto est.” That is a witness of the Holy Spirit working in the soul of a repentant sodomite.
All I wanted to say is: I too find some of the Pope’s actions confusing. I also agree with Scripture and Holy Tradition in this: there will come a time of great apostasy when most of the Church is going to be confused, even seduced into disobedience may be that necessitates a not-so-clear Pope. Yet some, the “little flock” are going to remain loyal and obedient to the faith and the Pope will teach no error. If I am not mistaken all of those in the little flock are former sinners being kept alive by the Sacraments of that very Church that will be presiding over the general confusion. Perhaps some of those in the little flock are going to be people who used to practice the awful sins described by St. Paul. Who am I to judge who goes through the door in what condition?
If the adulterous woman comes to me I will not ask her to deal with sin on her own and then come in when she is free of sin. That was not demanded from me when I came into the Church. Believe me I have been to Confession often since that day thirteen years ago and I still go and hear the same words: “Go in peace and sin no more.”
I agree with Fr. Gordon: “Perhaps it is simply time that the lost had an ear, and voice, in Rome.”
If only one of the lost repents there will be joy in Heaven. Let us not be promoters of the gender ideology some bishops presented in the Synod for their own shame. Also let us remember that no one named us guardians of our brother’s orthodoxy. We have enough dealing with the beam in our own eye. Our witness should be our conduct — not a “holier than-thou” attitude that slams the door in the face of a repented sinner who wants to come in. Let us shout to those out there: “Come and be cleansed of your sins!” that’s what the Sacraments are for.
Let us hope that the Lord will be as merciful with our load of sins as we have been merciful with other people’s sins. Please forgive the long comment.
John Ko says
I think we need to take some more concrete examples to better understand what the pope may be trying to get the church to do to reach out to others. Some examples:
1. Does his inviting of couples who were either unmarried or civilly married and performing a ceremony blessing their union mean he offered absolution and proper regularization of their marriage? Can the church find a way to accept and bless those who had married outside the church, but I some sense had fulfilled all their requirements for a valid marriage?
2. Can the church be more welcoming to people who are have one of the LGBTQ inclinations and yet are struggling? They have not sinned if they don’t act sinfully based on their inclinations. Or they may have but are struggling to overcome or find forgiveness, repenting in their lives.
3. What of the priests who have found their call to celibacy too difficult and left the active ministry of priesthood to get married?
4. What of priests, or other religious who are falsely accused or those who have served time for crimes. How do we support and welcome them during imprisonment and after release? How do we help those who did commit crimes from overcoming their passions and find forgiveness and justice?
Lynda says
Objective grave evil was published as part of an official document of a formal meeting of bishops under a pope. It is beyond scandalous. It is an abomination. According to the holy Bishop Athanasius Schneider this is the first time this has happened in the history of the Church. http://www.pch24.pl/Mobile/Informacje/informacja/id/31907
Carlos Caso-Rosendi says
“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” Matthew 14:15
This is a sign, Lynda. We have to get ready. It will get worse before it gets better.
Lupe says
I love this Pope. I cannot fathom what he is up to, but I think he is so unafraid of truth that he is speaking from the heart and let’s the media lie if they want to lie. His truth will reach further than any lie. I am a little excited to wonder what kind of solutions and innovations may be born of humble people trying to solve these painful problems. God bless Pope Francis – and Father G!
Kathleen Riney says
Our Papa Francis disturbed people as much, maybe even more, than Jesus did!! I’m an old Cradle Catholic, who, with a sister in Christ, went through all the past 40 yes, clutching our Rosaries. Our comments weren’t “Deep”…Mostly it was “HUH???” Then we read more Church History, Early Fathers, Orthodox Literature..ie”The Pilgrim”…& kept on. We had a 3-4 yr respite after finding Real Spiritual Directors!!..Thank God for them! Because we were then thrown into the Deep, so to speak. Examples, having to leave a Mass because the Consecration wasn’t Valid…Yeah, it WAS that obvious! Going to Mass on Easter Sunday, to find the Priest dressed as a Rabbit, handing out Chocolate Eggs to the kids as they went into Mass….We even read the Vat II Documents! Am expecting some “Time off” in Purgatory for that! Poor Pope Paul VI,,,,”Humanae Vitae”, hadn’t even been translated to English yet, but already the Bishops & way too many Priests were burning it! Writing it off as showing how “Out of touch Rome is with ‘The People’ “. Every RC woman knew a Priest somewhere who would give her permission to use the Pill. Won’t even start on the Catechesis, especially for Confirmation! That was a conversation that still irks me. “Now Mom, just go home & make your great kids some Cookies! Relax! ” ! This after I pointed out to him that “Christ Among Us”, if not Actually heretical, it was Ambiguous enough to Say Nothing! Pope Francis is LISTENING TO EVERYONE!!! That’s what Jesus did!! The Woman at the Well is my favorite, (for personal reasons). He LISTENED to her! He Accepted her, right where she was…And, He Told her where she was, then gave her a Job! He included her, & gave her Purpose. He also FORGAVE her! She had Confessed to Him already, & He honored that Honesty.NOBODY HAS LISTENED for so long, we have forgotten what it’s like! Fr. Gordon MaCrae is a PRIME Example!! IMHO—The Day the American Bishops DEMAND Fr. Gordon’s Case be reviewed to set him Free, physically, that’s when the Healing will begin. Pax Christi Fr. G….I thank God for you at all times, everyday….Am not on the net much, just too tiring. But Por. Rosary will be waiting for him…We finally have a Saint who brings us the Eucharist once a week!! I really believe a RC can Starve to death, Spiritually, without it. But then, I was spoiled. We took the Holy Mass for granted. Even though the Irish Nuns told us “a time is approaching when you will Need the Graces you get from your Communion today”…..
Carlos Caso-Rosendi says
Father Gordon,
Excellent article. I will read it many times. If this is what happens when your typewriter breaks, may it break every time between articles! 🙂
As I was reading your words for the first time I thought that Christ did not “make people comfortable” at all. He certainly gave comfort to some people whose heart was ready to hear something more than sterile rules and condemnation.
How different was our Lord from the Pharisees and yet He reached out to them, and some like Nicodemus and Paul learned Christ’s way but they could not avoid arriving at the well of mercy after the tax collectors and a host of prostitutes and publicans had their fill.
Notice how stern Jesus was with Paul, how he made subtle fun of his “intellectual prowess” and “righteousness.” Paul the enforcer marching against the Church with letters of condemnation and chains of imprisonment ended up in chains writing letters to edify the Church he used to persecute, filled with ire and misguided zeal. “Not many of you should become teachers. You know that we who teach will be judged more severely.” (James 3:1) Better then to err on the side of mercy then, while we strive to remain faithful to Him who had mercy on us “while we were still in our sins.” (Romans 5:7-8)
Keith says
FATHER G.
While reading your article today, I could sense the “fence” you and so many others sit on. I subscribe that much of this uncertainty is that there is a PHILOSOPHICAL tension built into the ideal which we are called to, and the “how” to follow the call. St. Paul, the Pharisee-educated author within the Bible, was well aware of this tension and advocated, “Be imitators of me…” at least four times in his epistles (1 Cor. 4:6; Phil 3:17; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2 Thes. 3:9). It is also found in Heb. 6:12, which is attributed to him, but accepted as written by someone within in his school of thought. As a young man, I oiled and ear-marked the pages of IMITATION OF CHRIST, attributed to Thomas a Kempis and written sometime between the years 1418-1427. The concept of “living out” one’s role on a daily basis as a Christian is as old as the Church itself!
As Wikipedia states: “The ideal of the imitation of Christ has been an important element of Christian theology, ethics and spirituality.[7][8] References to this concept and its practice are found in the earliest Christian documents, such as the Pauline Epistles.
Saint Augustine viewed the imitation of Christ as the fundamental purpose of Christian life, and as a remedy for the imitation of the sins of Adam. Saint Francis of Assisi believed in the physical as well as the spiritual imitation of Christ, and advocated a path of poverty and preaching like Jesus who was poor at birth in the manger and died naked on the cross. The theme of imitation of Christ existed in all phases of Byzantine theology, and in the 14th century book Life in Christ Nicholas Cabasilas viewed “living one’s own personal life” in Christ as the fundamental Christian virtue.”
In the eighth grade, on the way to a Preparatory Seminary High School, I failed a Religion exam, based on the Baltimore Catechism! My childish reaction was to beat on the outside wall of the school, saying to myself: “There’s gotta be more.”
Pope Francis, as Provincial of the Jesuits, was seen as “too conservative” – so his orthodoxy is not in question. As Archbishop, he was seen as ultra social-minded, yet maintaining strong ties to the Church’s teaching. In my opinion, he was living out the tension – he was “beating” the wall of the call versus the ideal. As Pope, he seems to be inviting followers of Christ to be imitators of Christ.
Mary Fran says
Keith, I don’t think Fr. Gordon is sitting on a fence. He’s recognizing that there are problems in this papacy even while he acknowledges the validity of this present Pope.