That's Not What He Said.....

SOOOOOO..... a little vent here.  The same little rant millions of devout, orthodox people are doing around the world these past several months since the election of Pope Francis to the head of the Roman Catholic Church. NEWS FLASH: THAT'S NOT WHAT HE SAID.  Honestly.  People.  Good Grief.  Do not be spoon fed by a mainstream media headline and swallow it whole.  Get it straight from the horses mouth.  But then, that might not feed into your preconceived notions, or substantiate what you WANT to believe.  So in that case, go ahead and be spoon fed.  But don't think it's reality, because it's NOT.

I'll have to admit.  At first, I was thinking that it was the Pope who was naive.  He's new to the job and all.  Maybe he's not so "media savvy" yet, and he speaks in a way that is easily misconstrued, because he doesn't labor and mull over every tiny little thing he says.  He speaks extemporaneously.  A lot.  He just SAYS THINGS, and I thought... well, with a little seasoning, he will realize the sharks he's talking to and be more careful.  But that's not really fair to Pope Francis.   He's not naïve.  In fact, the man is making everyone on all sides uncomfortable - on PURPOSE.  He's shaking things up all over the place, and it's not by accident, not because he's stumbling along blindly.  He knows exactly what he's doing, he's rattling cages for a reason.  Do we know someone else who did that??  HMMMMM.  Maybe the one being in all of history that Pope Francis is trying most to emulate... Jesus himself.  And I'm thinking that Pope Francis is right where he needs to be, doing the job that he was called by the Holy Spirit to do.  Time to wake up.  EVERYBODY.

So back to the misconstrued thing.  Let's just take some of the headlines, and see what kind of picture emerges of this man:

Pope Francis Is a Flaming Liberal
Pope Francis: Church can't 'interfere' with gays – CNN Belief Blog 
Pope Says Church Is 'Obsessed' With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control
Pope Francis: Gays, Abortion Too Much Of Catholic Church's Focus
Pope francis calls on church to change focus - The Boston Globe
Pope on homosexuals: 'Who am I to judge?'
Why Pope Francis May Be a Catholic Nightmare
Pope Francis: Even Atheists Can Be Redeemed
Pope Francis on Women Priests: Who Am I to Judge?

OK OK OK .  Enough.  Because I can't stand it anymore.  You read the headlines, and you get this picture that the Pope isn't CATHOLIC!!  In fact, he abhors everything the Catholic church has stood for these past 2000 years, is ready to toss it all out the window (because he has the POWER and AUTHORITY to do that, you know - it's how that medieval church works) and he's jumped on the ideological liberal bandwagon, because he's so cool and he's one of US!  He's just like us progressive media types, because he cares for the poor, and wants to live simply, so he must be on OUR side!!  He sees the Church as archaic, stodgy, and evil as we do!  He's all about "acceptance" and "tolerance".  He justifies our every last belief about ourselves, even to the point of saying that it's okay to have no beliefs whatsoever.  He justifies US, this man in charge of the one institution that has told us for 2000 years that only the divine made human can justify us.

Like there are sides in humanity, an "us and them" in terms of the salvation of souls.  Because in a narrow-minded world, anything that sees every person as a sinner in need of redemption, and not an "us and them" - that's too deep to swallow.  I'll say it again.  GOOD GRIEF.

So.... that's when I started going to the horse's mouth, so to speak.  What did the man REALLY SAY??  Is the picture the headlines paint true??  Do I believe that the leader of the church established by Christ himself through the Apostle Peter is led by someone who disdains it?  Has the moral compass of all humanity lost its magnetism?  Has humanity finally lost its anchor, to drift aimlessly on stormy seas, being tossed wherever prevailing winds take it?

ARGH.  Learn how to read.  Stop projecting yourselves onto the man, big media types. 

Here's an actual quote from the interview he gave recently:

"We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible… when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.
“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow."

In other words... preach the GOSPEL, and the moral code will flow from that.  Preaching about  issues, without an understanding about the paradigm of the gospel, comes across as arbitrary.  When you understand that God is LOVE, that Jesus is REDEMPTION, and that all life is subsequently PRECIOUS and SACRED... it naturally follows that the wholesale slaughter of innocent children is not a "choice", but an abomination.  When you understand that man is created in the image of the Father, and that marriage is a reflection of Christ's relationship with the Church, when you understand that Eve was created from Adam's side for the purpose of completing and "becoming one" with him.... it naturally follows that unions contrary to that paradigm are "disordered".  Without the knowledge of a savior's love first, the "issue" loses its "moral edifice".  He exhorts us to focus on the rock, not the ripple, first.  Not to diminish the "issue", but to bring it into sharper focus!  To give it a moral heading from a deeper base, and not an argument in and of itself.  He wants us all to understand WHY the Church teaches as it does.  Not that he disagrees with the teaching itself!!

Try making a news headline out of that.

So, to all those  out there that think the Church (that solid, unchanging rock) has finally started to roll instead of stubbornly stay... you're wrong. It's not going anywhere.  It's not teaching anything different than what it was given from Christ Himself, 2000 years ago.  Trappings and emphasis might change, but TRUTH does not change. 

My favorite - GK Chesterton - says this, and I think it describes what Pope Francis is doing perfectly....
"
"All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again; that is, you must be always having a revolution. Briefly, if you want the old white post you must have a new white post. "
The man is repainting a white post white.  Quit expecting red or pink.  He's getting us back to the heart of the Gospel, which is the purest teaching there is.  It is our core, and our "edifice".  It is the Church.

 

Quote Of The Day

G.K. Chesterton, that wise old sage.... truer today than the day he wrote it.

"All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again; that is, you must be always having a revolution. Briefly, if you want the old white post you must have a new white post. "

This "torrent of change" we're seeing in the world today does demand a revolution.

Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus

Heard excerpts of this 2nd Century AD letter today, and was so moved by it. Does the world recognize we Christians now as they were recognized then?



"Since I see thee, most excellent Diognetus, exceedingly desirous to learn the mode of worshipping God prevalent among the Christians, and inquiring very carefully and earnestly concerning them, what God they trust in, and what form of religion they observe, so as all to look down upon the world itself, and despise death, while they neither esteem those to be gods that are reckoned such by the Greeks, nor hold to the superstition of the Jews; and what is the affection which they cherish among themselves; and why, in fine, this new kind or practice [of piety] has only now entered into the world, and not long ago; I cordially welcome this thy desire, and I implore God, who enables us both to speak and to hear, to grant to me so to speak, that, above all, I may hear you have been edified, and to you so to hear, that I who speak may have no cause of regret for having done so....

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.  To sum up all in one word--what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by the visible body, and Christians are known indeed to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the Christians, though in nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and [loves also] the members; Christians likewise love those that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet preserves that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they are the preservers of the world. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell as sojourners in corruptible [bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens. The soul, when but ill-provided with food and drink, becomes better; in like manner, the Christians, though subjected day by day to punishment, increase the more in number. God has assigned them this illustrious position, which it were unlawful for them to forsake. "