More good stuff from Fr. Barron! Some much needed common sense, indeed. The brief account of similar things in Church history was helpful, too. He gives a good example of remaining calm and not falling for the crisis of the moment way of the world. Unfortunately, a lot of Catholic reporters/bloggers also fell into this way of thinking and doing things like their secular counterparts.
This would have been a good time for many to remember Matthew 16:18-19. I tried hard to keep those verses in mind. It sure helped!
I have been surprised by some of the vitriolic posts in the blogosphere from what I would normally consider the coolest of heads and most devoted of Church commentators.
Once again, Fr. Barron is a voice of calm reason. We MUSTN'T fall into the trap of knee-jerk reactionism, which we often rightly criticize in the secular press, We mustn't go off halfcocked in an emotional tizzy. There seemed to be little reflection and deliberation done before the blogging wars began (and I am talking about between serious Catholic bloggers who should KNOW better!).
The Holy Spirit and His Truth and Charity will ever prevail.
Leighton, Something that has surprised me is how a certain well-known Catholic network, and the newspaper owned by it (if memory serves), is also jumping on the knee-jerk and negativity bandwagon. This was a shock to see today on Facebook when their updates showed up on the news feed. The comment section was nothing new: the usual “the sky is falling” reactions, armchair quarterbacking, and name calling. In order to maintain my own level of calmess and possibly restore some to others, a link to Fr. Barron's video and advice to meditate on Jesus' words in Matthew 16:18 were shared more than once. Granted, there are problems in the Church. That's nothing new though. The emotional tizzy people are letting others get them into though isn't solving a single one of them, and could very well be making problems where they either don't exist or are far from fruition.
I have been turned off by those same media outlets that you mentioned. Let's crucify Kasper for his comments, while Burke calls out the Pope and not a word is said.
Again, well said. The thing is, while I admit I have been perplexed by things that have been said by Church leaders as much as the next person, this is nothing new, as Father Barron points out so well. (With the new media, we just are "in the know" about these things-- maybe unfortunately!)
Cardinals, etc., are human beings, subject to weakness and the same darkening of the intellect that any of us are. The Holy Spirit works through all that just as he does in our lives and our discernment.
What I really struggle with is the venom in the discourse, and the lack of faith put in the Church process and frankly, in the Holy Spirit. Even Saints Paul and Peter had disagreement. Through that wrestling the Holy Spirit made His will known. And it can be safely assumed that the saints had the best of intentions either way.
It seems to me a lot of the panic comes from a failure to trust in the Lord who promised that the gates of hades would not prevail against the Church, right? Like Father B said, we should take a breath.
I decided a few days ago to be very selective when it comes to the blogosphere/catholic media coverage of the synod. I feel more peaceful that way.
And for me, the fact that I finally preordered my Didache Bible from Ignatius puts me in a happy place. Hopefully they won't delay its release again!
I wonder how people would have reacted to Saints Peter and Paul. Especially St. Peter. The man had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth on ocassion. If memory serves, he also dove in (literally) without a lot of thinking. And we can't forget about denying Jesus three times. Yet, this man was chosen by the Lord Himself to be the first pope! And the Church survived...and thrived!
Timothy, We may be in the know too much. Personally, the information is overwhelming. It's time for me to cut down on some of those media outlets. One new bit of info is being seen before the previous one has had time to even be thought about. And the mob mentality of grumbling is almost as instant, too.
Leighton, I think you've hit upon two very important things: the lack of faith in the Church process, and trust in the Lord. The 1st one could very well be the world rubbing off on folks. Especially if they are putting too much trust into what the secular world and media has to say about it. It would be a rare thing to see a story about the Church on the big networks and not have it spun as a political matter.
Our instant information media driven society wants instant results from the Church, and the process does not work that way (which leads to endless speculation and debate). I stopped reading the media reports awhile ago.
I think THAT'S the key: When we get all worked up and fearful, we are thinking as the world thinks, not as God thinks (cf. Mt 16:23)! Satan must delight in seeing us get worked into a frenzy over such matters because he is all about disunity.
We must place our trust in the Lord and He will vindicate our hope. People will see in the end it is not naïve to believe that God's will shall prevail. We must never adopt the cynicism the world displays.
Of course there are tough issues to discuss, because the family is sacred and must be approached with reverence, and the reality is that the family is in crisis.
To be sure, this is a very personal matter, especially for those of us raising children in the world today. We want clarity as well as charity so we may teach our children the truth about love and marriage and family, etc.
But we trust our shepherds to respond faithfully to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which, to bring it around again full circle, is what Fr. Barron articulated so well.
This is a long and a complex process. Too many commentators are approaching it just like the secular media does, with a simplistic understanding of how the Church works and has always worked, and that sort of surprises me because some of them are usually spot on and certainly know their Church matters!
And yes, I am not sure the instant news era is such a blessing in this regard, either. It promotes the emotional knee-jerkism we discussed.
8 comments:
More good stuff from Fr. Barron! Some much needed common sense, indeed. The brief account of similar things in Church history was helpful, too. He gives a good example of remaining calm and not falling for the crisis of the moment way of the world. Unfortunately, a lot of Catholic reporters/bloggers also fell into this way of thinking and doing things like their secular counterparts.
This would have been a good time for many to remember Matthew 16:18-19. I tried hard to keep those verses in mind. It sure helped!
Well articulated, Ed.
I have been surprised by some of the vitriolic posts in the blogosphere from what I would normally consider the coolest of heads and most devoted of Church commentators.
Once again, Fr. Barron is a voice of calm reason. We MUSTN'T fall into the trap of knee-jerk reactionism, which we often rightly criticize in the secular press, We mustn't go off halfcocked in an emotional tizzy. There seemed to be little reflection and deliberation done before the blogging wars began (and I am talking about between serious Catholic bloggers who should KNOW better!).
The Holy Spirit and His Truth and Charity will ever prevail.
Leighton,
Something that has surprised me is how a certain well-known Catholic network, and the newspaper owned by it (if memory serves), is also jumping on the knee-jerk and negativity bandwagon. This was a shock to see today on Facebook when their updates showed up on the news feed. The comment section was nothing new: the usual “the sky is falling” reactions, armchair quarterbacking, and name calling. In order to maintain my own level of calmess and possibly restore some to others, a link to Fr. Barron's video and advice to meditate on Jesus' words in Matthew 16:18 were shared more than once. Granted, there are problems in the Church. That's nothing new though. The emotional tizzy people are letting others get them into though isn't solving a single one of them, and could very well be making problems where they either don't exist or are far from fruition.
Ed,
I have been turned off by those same media outlets that you mentioned. Let's crucify Kasper for his comments, while Burke calls out the Pope and not a word is said.
Again, well said. The thing is, while I admit I have been perplexed by things that have been said by Church leaders as much as the next person, this is nothing new, as Father Barron points out so well. (With the new media, we just are "in the know" about these things-- maybe unfortunately!)
Cardinals, etc., are human beings, subject to weakness and the same darkening of the intellect that any of us are. The Holy Spirit works through all that just as he does in our lives and our discernment.
What I really struggle with is the venom in the discourse, and the lack of faith put in the Church process and frankly, in the Holy Spirit. Even Saints Paul and Peter had disagreement. Through that wrestling the Holy Spirit made His will known. And it can be safely assumed that the saints had the best of intentions either way.
It seems to me a lot of the panic comes from a failure to trust in the Lord who promised that the gates of hades would not prevail against the Church, right? Like Father B said, we should take a breath.
I decided a few days ago to be very selective when it comes to the blogosphere/catholic media coverage of the synod. I feel more peaceful that way.
And for me, the fact that I finally preordered my Didache Bible from Ignatius puts me in a happy place. Hopefully they won't delay its release again!
I wonder how people would have reacted to Saints Peter and Paul. Especially St. Peter. The man had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth on ocassion. If memory serves, he also dove in (literally) without a lot of thinking. And we can't forget about denying Jesus three times. Yet, this man was chosen by the Lord Himself to be the first pope! And the Church survived...and thrived!
Timothy,
We may be in the know too much. Personally, the information is overwhelming. It's time for me to cut down on some of those media outlets. One new bit of info is being seen before the previous one has had time to even be thought about. And the mob mentality of grumbling is almost as instant, too.
Leighton,
I think you've hit upon two very important things: the lack of faith in the Church process, and trust in the Lord. The 1st one could very well be the world rubbing off on folks. Especially if they are putting too much trust into what the secular world and media has to say about it. It would be a rare thing to see a story about the Church on the big networks and not have it spun as a political matter.
Our instant information media driven society wants instant results from the Church, and the process does not work that way (which leads to endless speculation and debate). I stopped reading the media reports awhile ago.
I think THAT'S the key: When we get all worked up and fearful, we are thinking as the world thinks, not as God thinks (cf. Mt 16:23)! Satan must delight in seeing us get worked into a frenzy over such matters because he is all about disunity.
We must place our trust in the Lord and He will vindicate our hope. People will see in the end it is not naïve to believe that God's will shall prevail. We must never adopt the cynicism the world displays.
Of course there are tough issues to discuss, because the family is sacred and must be approached with reverence, and the reality is that the family is in crisis.
To be sure, this is a very personal matter, especially for those of us raising children in the world today. We want clarity as well as charity so we may teach our children the truth about love and marriage and family, etc.
But we trust our shepherds to respond faithfully to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which, to bring it around again full circle, is what Fr. Barron articulated so well.
This is a long and a complex process. Too many commentators are approaching it just like the secular media does, with a simplistic understanding of how the Church works and has always worked, and that sort of surprises me because some of them are usually spot on and certainly know their Church matters!
And yes, I am not sure the instant news era is such a blessing in this regard, either. It promotes the emotional knee-jerkism we discussed.
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