It seems that the Crisis of the Catholic Church has cast a veil of confusion over all Catholics, as the ones in authority, that they should have been able to trust, have one by one betrayed this trust. Naturally, over 50+ years, this confusion has spread over the world as various individuals and groups vie for the attention of the masses.
Anyone who looks at various 'social media' apps will find people electronically screaming through your computer / cell phone / tablet to grab your attention, get a rise out of you, crank up your emotions and then keep them there.
In this age of instant information gratification, it is easy to get lost in the noise. Just like in the image below, you can't see the real signal and those high peaks are just larger bursts of noise that spike up from the 'crowd' once in a while.There's no hidden message in the noise, it's just noise. There's no way to distinguish the signal from the noise, the important from the unimportant.
As Traditional Catholics we have decades of examples of people following the noise.
The Sedevacantists have been saying the decades that the See of Peter is vacant. Except, that can't be since the First Vatican Council declared that there would be popes until the end of the world. But we really want an excuse to chuck the hierarchy - especially with Pope Francis. It would be nice, but to do so it is necessary to deny a few Dogma's of the Catholic Church. In other words, you have to become a protestant, picking and choosing what to believe and what to creatively re-imagine.
Then we have the "Resistance", new (2012+) and old (1982+) who have been screaming from YouTube videos of a sell-out by the SSPX. Only, here we are a decade or in some cases 5 decades later and the SSPX is still doing what it does - adhering to the Teachings of the Catholic Church. Yet, in the absence of a real sell-out the resistance desperately looks for anything that they can point to and scream, "There look at that, it's a sell-out." The "Resistors" I know have made incredibly bad decisions. One in particular, started by hosting the "resistance" in St. Mary's, became disillusioned, shifted to another branch of "Resistors", then to the Sedevacantists, then another, and another - until ending up as home aloners. The last I heard they believe that they are part of the last faithful remnant of the Church. How is that Father providing for the spiritual welfare of his children?
Then you have the whining about COVID-19, masks, and conspiracy theories. 'nuff said on that mole hill.
On top of this we have the noise about vaccines, whether you can morally be vaccinated, the dangers of vaccinations, the dangers of not being vaccinated, whether the world power created the vaccine etc, etc, etc.
One recent 'open letter' calls on Traditional Catholics (link) to follow the modern Catholics by setting aside the principles of St.Thomas Aquinas. Seriously, how can a Traditional Catholic write something like that and still think they're on the right path?
In addition, people have said to me, "You know that your position on the vaccines runs against the majority of the Traditional Catholics". That is a really bad argument since, I could easy say, well the Traditional Catholics are a microscopic percentage of the Catholic Church and following that logic, we should accept the Novus Ordo Missae and Vatican Duo.
With all these shiny things, Traditional Catholics are just being led by the laser pointer to the next 'BIG' thing. Whatever that may be.
This letter is my call to Traditional Catholics EVERYWHERE to step back from the madness, take a breath and start to think about what is really important.
We are here to "Know, Love and Serve God in this life, so we can be happy with Him in the next"! For those who have forgotten, to be happy with Our Lord in the next life, we have to 'save our souls' first, then those for whom we are responsible.
That means we need to do our duty of state and in this crisis it is harder, but not impossible.
We need to take care of our own duties before we help someone else. That is their business, only when our own 'house' is in order can we move outwards. For some it seems that the various crises are an excuse to step away from their duties. That is a big mistake. If you don't do your duty, then you are in a death spiral.
Our duty of state is a filter that helps us to hear the signal, it tells us what we must do to be saved. It is the razors edge we must use to cut out the noise from our lives and realize what is important.
So, to all Traditional Catholics, understand your duty, fulfill it and stop messing around in other people's business. That's their problem, don't make it yours.
Unless you are a politician, then you have an even bigger duty and should ask for prayers because that road is treacherous even for those with the burden to walk it.Profit from this Advent, to understand your duty to God, country and family.
P^3
Comments
Post a Comment