Cathlick Fith

Parable of the Weeds by Domenico Fetti

Cathlick

noun: liberal religion; adjective: comfortable or complacent

Fith

noun: something that pretends to be faith; undeserved entitlement; unreasonable expectation.

Matthew 13:24-30

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

The pandemic scare may have had the unintended effect of weeding out the tares, not by death but by isolation, a change of proximity, by ecclesiastical distancing, having the effect of weeding out those who habitually pretend to be faithful but are wolves in sheep's clothing.

Weeding, as in a force preventing those false teachers and bad actors who occupied positions of influence - progressive clergy, misinformed choir directors who program heterodox songs, ideology-driven catechists and in the public sphere CINO politicians - from occupying naves and sanctuaries of churches, even if for a relatively brief time, where they had been attempting to impose heterodoxy and sow confusion by word and/or deed.

Perhaps Papa Ratzinger's prediction that the Church would become small is coming to pass much sooner than many imagined.

https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/spiritual-life/the-church-will-become-small.html

Of course, there will likely remain plenty of tares among the faithful. However, we can hope that this months-long exercise in reclaiming resilience - i.e., the shared and ongoing response to restrictions on worship - has trained up spiritual athletes to better live and share the Faith with a world that desperately needs hope and relief from irrational fear (born of a godlessness).

Having perused a great many websites the past few months, it seems to this blogger that social media have been well-used by Tradition-minded clergy and lay people to sustain and shape their flocks and themselves in hope. A great many bloggers, clergy and laity alike, and Catholic (no! - not cathlick but truly Catholic) commercial sites have offered articles orienting readers to hope-filled truth and the goodness of beauty. Well done!

Prohibition In Reverse

People complain. That's a justifiable pastime when people are subject to incongruities such as being prevented by threat of fine and/or imprisonment from exercising religious freedom, yet are able to purchase as much booze as they want by freely walking into any beer and wine shop. Drunks who survived Prohibition (1920 - 1933) have their long-awaited revenge on teetotalers.

Run On

Now that restrictions are lifting, we are seeing a certain brand of Catholic running to the empty tomb ahead of the other sheep (John 20:1-4).

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.

The responsible worshipper hastens to Mass to encounter the Risen Christ, leaving behind the slowpokes - the indifferent, the complacent, those with no reasonable excuse for absence from worship - and not fearing the authorities (John 20:19) who would persecute them for publicly celebrating the Resurrected Lord.

 

If the actions of certain bishops to restore public worship are a(n) (restrained) indication that reason is beginning to prevail, it would seem appropriate to propose sanity in our respective un-sane societies by increasing attempts to own the narrative in conversations by increasing the saturation of social media with the Gospel message of hope and freedom from fear, and, when necessary, declaring to the state that:

1. rational people of faith are perfectly capable of deciding how to manage our own houses (of worship); and
2. inalienable rights such as religious freedom include for Christians the right to worship together publicly; and
3. come the next election, politicians should be mindful of who contributes to their campaigns and who votes for them... or does not vote for them.

We should anticipate a second wave to the pandemic, which is more likely than not to occur. We can maintain public Masses if the masses (i.e., the people) are informed by the facts and by reasoned analysis, are responsive, and our leaders insist with us that our exercise of our constitutional or charter right to public assembly does not constitute a threat to public health. Local and regional governments should join with us to protect the healthy, not punish us by enacting, on the one hand, policies that ignore dangerous violations of health and order by protesters while prohibiting, on the other hand, worshipers from engaging in entirely responsible behaviour.