The
Great Danger of Triumphalism
On
April 16, 2018, the administrators of the Facebook group ‘One
Million Connected Catholics’ did not publish my post: “How many
Catholics today could answer simple questions such as the following?
… “Who Decides The Truth?”
(http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2014/06/who-decides-truth.html).
(See below for the complete post.)
In
the Description for the group ‘One Million Connected Catholics’,
we find: “Dan Burke established One Million Connected Catholics. …
You can ALWAYS post things from the National Catholic Register and
any EWTN News outlet…”
“EWTN’s
Raymond Arroyo: ‘Good Catholics’ can’t ignore controversy over
Pope Francis”
Satan
is pushing many people off the Barque of Peter,
the Church, on the “port side” (left side), who do not follow the
laws of God infallibly interpreted by the Magisterium of the Catholic
Church. But also on the “starboard side” (the right side) of the
Barque of Church, there are many who believe they have the “fullness
of the truth and means of sanctification” and thus do not feel they
need to dialogue with anyone or any group who do not totally agree
with themselves, as did the Pharisees and Scribes, and as have done
so many people and groups in the Church and outside of the Church
throughout the 2000-year history of the Church, especially today in a
world and in a Church full of crisis and confusion. It is true that
the one true Church, the Catholic Church, has the “fullness
of the truth and means of sanctification”
(Lumen Gentium, no. 8), but an individual person or an individual
group in the Church is not the Magisterium of the Church, and thus
does not have the guarantee, the charism of infallibility, to
INTERPRET the doctrines of the Church infallibly. This is why the
humility to take the risk to dialogue is always necessary, as Pope
John Paul II often encouraged us to do. It is so easy to slide back
into what the Second Vatican Council sought to eradicate - to bring
the Church back to true humility and to eliminate in the Church this
TRIUMPHALISM of being the true Church, with the fullness of Truth and
the means of sanctification (LG 8) (“Evangelization
VS the Trilogy of Devils in the Church: Triumphalism, Clericalism and
Juridicalism”; http://trueevangelization.blogspot.com).
In the mentality of triumphalism it is very important to maintain the
hierarchical structure so as to maintain and to not loose ones
importance before men (Jn 5:44; Lk 16:15; Gal 1:10)!
There
is a Facebook group, of which I am a part of, called, ‘CATHOLIC AND
PROUD’; perhaps a better title would be ‘Catholic
and Humble and Grateful’!
The
liberals do not realize, or perhaps do not care, that to
change the truths, expressed in the
doctrines of the Church, will have very great devastating effects
both here on earth and after death. In the first centuries of the
Church many wars were fought over these precious truths; now few even
care about these safeguards of life, liberty and happiness. Very
few have their eyes open, on both the
left or the right extremes, regarding the disguised beautiful lies
presented as if they were the truth, and the half truths which are
worse than lies. Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us that virtue lies in
the middle between the two extremes which is usually the more
difficult path requiring constant maintenance, much patience,
discernment and humility.
It
is interesting how the two extremes meet:
the liberals decide the truth for themselves, in the “Modern
Church”, putting aside 2000 years of the illumination of the Holy
Spirit written down in the doctrines of the Church, while many
“orthodox” people believe they have all the truth and so become
complacent and they feel they no longer need to dialogue with those
of good will who are not in their group, and thus no longer seek to
discover if their INTERPRETATION is the true interpretation of the
truth outside of themselves or outside of their group, and thus slide
into self sufficiency, spiritual blindness and self closure. Often in
this period of crisis these groups end up separating themselves from
the Church and become schismatic traditionalists
(http://schis-trad.blogspot.it/2008/03/rebuttal-to-schismatic-traditionalists.html).
In this “dour combat” (CCC 409) of life, there
is no guarantee for anyone, in whatever
vocation or group, to make it to heaven until we are in heaven or in
purgatory; we must persevere in struggling for true humility until
the moment of our death. St. Augustine said, 'If you should ask me
what are the ways of God, I would tell you that the first
is humility, the second is humility, and the third is humility.
Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does
not precede all that we do, our efforts our meaningless.'
Just
about all the independent protestant groups believe they interpret
Sacred Scripture infallibly, even though there are many fundamental
contradictions among themselves, while many
Catholic groups feel they INTERPRET Sacred Scripture and the
doctrines of the Church infallibly as if they are the Magisterium of
the Church. The protestants rejected
the guidance of Holy Mother Church, but a great number of Catholics
today in the Church do the same. There was a great rebellion against
Humanae Vitae (1968); we deserve what is happening today in the world
and in the Church
(http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2013/11/prophecy-st-francis.html)!
Certainly today there is a great tendency in this direction, to seek
security, due to the cultural crisis and especially due to the great
confusion in the Church herself, when many
bishops and cardinals are no longer in agreement
about the immutable fundamental doctrines of the Magisterium of the
Church, as foretold by Our Lady at Akita, Japan, October 13, 1973. We
are truly in the period of the great apostasy before the advent of
the Antichrist (2Thess 2:3) when even the elect will be deceived if
possible (Mt 24:24)! Just as Christ was crucified 2000 years ago, the
Body of Christ, the Church, will be crucified in this period of the
purification of the Church (CCC 677)!
We
must all struggle to not slide into complacency and to struggle for
the truth in our lives every day until we die, else we slide
automatically into the subtle traps of Satan who disguises himself as
an angel of light (2Cor 11:14). In this
short life, he who does not go forward goes backward!
So many, including a great number of priests and bishops today, no
longer have the persevering humility to answer Philip’s question,
“Do you understand what you are reading?”, “How can I, unless
someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30-31), by being willing to listen and
dialogue with those of good will not in agreement with themselves,
with the documents of the Church on the table. Saint Thomas Aquinas,
quoting Saint Augustine, recalled “St. Paul made a correction to
the first pope Peter and he made this publicly not privately”
(Summa Theologica, Second Part, Question 33, Article 4). St.
Augustine said Peter was so humble and so wise that he accepted this
correction. He did not say, ‘You are Paul, you are against me. You
are heretical. You are schismatic.’ No, he accepted this with
gratitude and so should be the Pope in
these days (the “Dubia”!?!),
and so should any other person or group who has TRUE humility and
charity, who are seeking the Truth that comes from outside of
themselves, from God. This is because the Truth comes from God, the
Author of Truth, the Truth is God (Jn 14:6). The Truth does not come
from any human being and not even from the Church, the Bride of
Christ, the handmaid of the Truth, the protector of the Truth.
Another
way of saying what Raymond Arroyo is saying is ‘Good Catholics’
cannot follow the easier way: “Ignorance
Is Bliss!”
(http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2016/06/ignorance-is-bliss.html).
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is
easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and
those who find it are few” (Mt 7:13-14)! “Truly, I say to you,
unless you turn and BECOME LIKE CHILDREN, you will never enter the
Kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3)!
-
- - - - - -
Here
is my complete post of April 16, 2018 in several groups in Facebook:
How
many Catholics today could answer simple questions such as the
following?
Does
the Truth come from God or from the Church? Is the Church the
handmaid of the Truth or the Author of the Truth? Does the Truth
change with the world and the times or does the world have to change
according to God’s laws and Truth? Was Christ just playing with
words when he said: “I am the way, and the TRUTH, and the life”
(Jn 14:6)? When Christ said, “The Truth
will make you free!” (Jn 8:32), was he referring to the truth of
the world or the immutable Truth of God?
“Christ said “I am the truth”; He
did NOT say, “I am the custom”.”
– St. Toribio. “We do not need a Church that is moved by the
world, but a Church that moves the world” – G.K. Chesterton.
There
is less prayer than ever before, more
sin than ever before, even worse, indifference as if sin no longer
exists, and so we have given much greater power to “the father of
lies”, Satan (Jn 8:44). In particular Satan has more power to
“disguise himself as an angel of
light” (2Cor 11:14), to offer his
very deadly beautiful lies as if they were the “truth”, but
instead does us great harm.
Thus
it is very important in these times of
great confusion, when even Catholic
bishops are no longer in agreement about the fundamentals of our
faith and morals, to not only pray much and to study the Catechism of
the Catholic Church for adults (CCC, ed. 1992!!!), but to
keep our eyes open so as not to fall into the beautiful lies of Satan
presented as if they were the Truth, or the half truths presented as
if they were the whole and integral Truth! A HALF TRUTH IS WORSE THAN
A LIE!
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