I think it is so important for vigilant Catholics to constantly remind everyone with a pulse of the dangers of just welcoming sinners, don’t you? Why, if sinners are merely made to feel loved by Christ without reminding them constantly of how repulsive they are, they might not be filled with a sense of terror, rejection and anxiety! And then how would a doctrine of force, fear, blood, iron, power, and control ever be able to pound them into shape? How can we hope to dominate sinners and remold them according to our wills if we do not tell them 24/7/365 that they place their souls in grave danger if they do not repent
sins
that
cry
to
Heaven
for
vengeance?
I speak, of course, of the sin of cheating workers of a just wage.
Many Christians actually admire Donald Trump for his famous practices of stiffing workers, praise him for it as a “savvy businessman” and wish that they could emulate him. Many do in fact emulate him, including countless MAGA Catholics who then endanger their souls by approaching the Eucharist. How many Catholics, for instance, oppose a raise in the minimum wage despite the fact that it is literally impossible, anywhere in the entire United States, to afford a place to live on such a wage, all while simultaneously demanding that poor fellow Catholics be “open to life” no matter how many children they wind up having? The biblical term for this is “tying up heavy burdens for people’s backs while not lifting a finger to help them”.
And yet these same Catholics will then complain at poor families working two and even three jobs when they feel forced to abort their fifth child (after they have done their best to be open to life and gotten no help from “prolife Christians” beyond a couple of weeks of diapers from the local crisis pregnancy center)? When O when will we hear a sermon on this? Where are the vigilant Catholics in the pews, carefully scrutinizing their neighbors for the telltale signs of corrupt business practices or chintzy voting habits (you can just tell from the way these people dress and talk during the coffee hour). When will Real Catholics[TM] grow a spine and bravely slap the Host out of the hands of these sinners in righteous zeal for Eucharistic coherence that is the sure sign of their superior holiness to all the rest of us?
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6 Responses
I think too many Catholics have bought into the prevailing consumer culture and the idea that they have worked for the goods of the world, deserve them for themselves and their children, and don’t wish to share them – a church-going friend who came from a background of financial distress herself and did well in her career told me she did not want to “subsidize other peoples’ poor choices,” and I think that is a common idea among those who have “made it” materially, unfortunately. I think making sacrifices for others, even those you think don’t somehow “deserve” them, needs to be addressed in school and church. Many Catholics are eager to tell how their families started out poor and climbed the ladder of success in this world and that others just have to do the same, without referencing the physical and intellectual gifts that allowed them to do this through no virtue of their own.
There’s always a danger in American culture of the Puritan taint — the notion that God has indicated His approval of those who have stuff, by gifting them with the stuff. The fact is, that well-off people make really poor life choices too. They just have the means and more options to recover when they do.
That same Puritan streak condemns charity to the poor as “works righteousness”, which is old time talk for subsidizing poor choices, I suppose.
I’ve heard the expression “poor life choices” from people I’d have expected to know better. It’s said with the same flippancy as “play stupid games, …”. You know the rest.
Peter Maurin talked about a society where it is “easier for people to be good”. He’s right — it shouldn’t take extraordinary virtue to live an ordinary life. We find ourselves, however, in a condition worse than first century Rome; yet, should anyone suggest the approaches taken in first century Rome by Catholics to “build a new society in the shell of the old” the howls come from every side. Why? Americans are the most and best propagandized population in the world — our blind spots were very carefully crafted.
It took the Church 1,000 years to convert Europe from her various Paganisms to the Catholic Religion, and even then it was very lightly held; so lightly one depressed monk set us back to the Tower of Babel. It will be a miracle if any part of the world re-acquires the world of St. Francis of Assisi within 2,000 years.
Where will the first twelve bishops come from?
“And yet these same Catholics will then complain at poor families working two and even three jobs …”
… and coming to Sunday 4pm Mass late with their noisy kids. I knew a visiting Spanish-speaking priest who preached on this more than abortion. Another Matthew 23:4 moment
Oy.
The only time I’ve ever heard the phrase “the sin cries out to heaven for vengeance” is Win good Christians are busy damning Homosexuals for existing. It’s nice to know that someone else will apply to other people as well.
In the meantime, the archdiocese of San Francisco is considering declaring bankruptcy because they’ve had 500 lawsuits against the church for the depredations of its priests. That ought to be a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance, but all it ever gets is a resoundingAwww, ya shouldn’t oughta do that.”