Thank you Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb and Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You for hosting Catholic bloggers at Worth Revisiting. We appreciate sharing our work with you and your readers each week. Stop by for a visit now.
Here is my contribution:
Monday Musings - Silence Slays Souls - The Souls of Individuals and the Souls of Nations
(Originally published May 28, 2018
Sunday’s Gospel command (Matthew 8:16-20) to make disciples of all nations baptizing them in name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit prompts this question: Have we Catholics abandoned our Christ-given mission?
Here is my contribution:
Monday Musings - Silence Slays Souls - The Souls of Individuals and the Souls of Nations
(Originally published May 28, 2018
Sunday’s Gospel command (Matthew 8:16-20) to make disciples of all nations baptizing them in name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit prompts this question: Have we Catholics abandoned our Christ-given mission?
For years, our Church has
downplayed the importance of conversion and the salvation of all souls, choosing in their stead the
promotion of social justice and worldly objectives. We act as if the solution
to the world’s problems remain in the secular realm when in fact it can be fought
and defeated only on the spiritual plain.
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Our silence in light of
such misguided efforts slays souls and emboldens Satan.
We have limited our ineffective
evangelization efforts (for the most part) to just those calling themselves Catholic,
thereby reinforcing the secular belief that one religion is just as good as another.
Most Catholics do not know their faith and few live it – because they have
often not been taught it. Even though God’s Truth will set a soul free, we far
too often insist on substituting His full and complete (and no doubt
challenging) Truth for a watered down, pastorally comforting non-truth, that
can never nourish and foster authentic spiritual growth.
Our silence in light of
such misguided efforts slays souls and emboldens Satan.
God’s law and
commandments are applicable to all human beings, whether they be Catholic or
not or whether they believe in a supreme being or not. God’s Truth is implanted
in the hearts, minds and souls of all whom He has created. We humans know intuitively
what is right and what is wrong. Why have
we not shouted this Truth from the rooftops and reflected it in the way we live
our lives?
Our silence in light of
such inaction slays souls and emboldens Satan.
No one (relatively
speaking) comes to Church on Sunday. We, our bishops and priests, for the most
part, remain silent about the eternal consequences for those souls who do not participate
in Sunday Mass.
Our silence in such situations
slays souls and emboldens Satan.
We are told that of the
few Catholics who come to Sunday Mass, upwards to seventy-five percent no
longer believe that Jesus Christ is really truly and substantially present,
Body Blood Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist hidden behind locked tabernacle
doors and in the Sacred Host placed on their tongues.
Our silence in light of
such non-belief slays souls and emboldens Satan.
We wonder why so many
Churches have been closed and abandoned. Surely, if we believed that Jesus is
present in our Churches we would act with the reverence such belief requires and
spend time with Him. Obviously, our catechesis and example have failed to teach
that essential and fundamental Truth.
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Rarely are our Churches the
silent, reverent, sacred spaces they were intended to be and which our Lord
deserves – unique places where one can in quiet, adore, worship and speak to the
God who longs to be loved. Yet we do
little or nothing to correct this tragic state of affairs.
Our silence in light of
such irreverence slays souls and emboldens Satan.
When was the last time the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops spoke with one uniform, persistent,
fearless and endless voice, not just condemning such evils as abortion,
contraception, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, fornication and active
homosexual lifestyle, but with love and in fraternal correction, explaining to everyone
(not just to Catholics) why such
conduct is evil and leads to eternal punishment?
Our silence in light of
such failures slays souls and emboldens Satan.
How many more lives will
be brutally ripped out of the wombs of their mothers before we, our Bishops and
our priests will call this evil what it is – murder not health care, not the
right to choose, but murder? If the harvesting of human body parts from aborted
human beings and the use of taxpayer funds to support such evil will not receive
the universal persistent and unending condemnation of all God-fearing people, priests
and bishops of our Church, what will?
Our silence in light of
such evil slays souls and emboldens Satan.
How do we save souls if we,
our priests and our bishops create or acquiesce to ambiguity in Church doctrine
where none had heretofore existed? Let me offer a few examples.
The Church has taught
that there are eternal consequences to those who have rejected God’s grace and
die in the state of mortal sin unwilling to repent and seek forgiveness. How
can any Catholic now accept the suggestion that “No one can be condemned
forever because that is not the logic of the Gospel?” Such a concept appears
contrary to all that the Church has taught (see Catechism of the Catholic
Church (CCC) 1033 and 1035).
Our silence in light of
such error slays souls and emboldens Satan.
It has always been
undisputed Church teaching that it is a mortal sin to receive Holy Communion if
you are a divorced and remarried Catholic who never sought or obtained
annulment of one’s marriage (CCC 1650). How can we support assertions to the contrary
today?
Our silence in light of
such error slays souls and emboldens Satan.
The Church’s constant
teaching has been that a soul in mortal sin receives no spiritual benefit from
receiving Holy Communion, but rather eternal condemnation if such conduct is
left unconfessed. (CCC 1384-1385) Why would we, our bishops or priests encourage
others to commit such sinful acts?
Our silence in light of
such conduct slays souls and emboldens Satan.
It has been the teaching
of the Church that we MUST strive
with God’s grace to overcome our sinful behaviors and that with His grace all
things are possible, including abandoning long-standing sinful acts. Even if we
are never fully successful in overcoming our sinful behaviors, we are never
exempt from trying to do so. How can we now teach that such a standard is too
high and those who have been unsuccessful in striving to free themselves from
entrenched sin, are no longer obligated to do so?
Our silence in light of
such erroneous teaching slays souls and emboldens Satan.
How can we have a reasonable
hope that all souls will be saved or that atheists (who die not knowing Jesus) are
in heaven, or that God makes a person gay, or that gay sexuality “in some way
be Eucharistic,” that “it can be expressive of Christ’s self-gift” or that “it can be expressive of mutual fidelity, a
covenantal relationship in which two people bind themselves to each other for
ever” or that it is licit for a non-Catholic spouse to receive Holy Communion?
Our silence in light of
such false assertions slays souls and emboldens Satan.
Who would ever had
thought that the administrators of a Catholic College would fail to
unequivocally support a well-respected tenured faculty member and a student who
were attacked for simply proclaiming and defending the teachings of their
Church against those who promoted error and sinful conduct?
Our silence in light of
such failures slays souls and emboldens Satan.
Were you shocked that a
once vibrant and faithful Catholic nation has approved the killing of children
in their mother’s womb and celebrated this tragedy joyfully and unashamedly?
You shouldn’t be. That is what happens when we remain silent and don’t engage
in spiritual combat. When the Church and its members fail to teach and defend
the Truth, Satan offers a counterfeit substitute truth – one that leads only to
hell.
Our silence slays souls
and emboldens Satan.
Is it not time for we
silent souls to defend God’s Truth, to fulfill our baptismal obligation to be
the Gospel to those we meet as Matthew told us yesterday, and to more fully engage
in the spiritual battle for the salvation of all souls?
Or do we want to remain
silent and slay souls and embolden Satan?
[If
I have written anything that is untrue or inconsistent with Church
teaching, please let me know. I do not want to be the cause of any
further confusion.]
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These are wise words. I have come back home into the Catholic faith. I left as a teenager and am 55 now. I do go to church every week...unless I am sick. It is sad to see the churches so empty. But I see families also and that brings me hope. I don't know what the people I am wishing peace to truly believe about Jesus. That is something only they can carry.
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