Today the Sacraments are greatly under attack: marriage, confession and Holy Communion. The attack is simple: they wish to take our Lord and deliver him over into the hands of his enemies (adulterers), and in order to do that they need to lie and deceive (grant phony absolution to adulterers who will continue in adultery). The idea of admitting the unrepentant to approach communion basically trying to be more Catholic than the Apostles who have forbidden such a sacrilege in the most clear and direct language from the very beginning of the Church.
So what is the battle plan on the good side, what can we use to stop such a vicious attack? Scripture? Tradition? The Teaching of the Fathers and Doctors? The teaching of the Magisterium? All of these things are against our opponents. Any book on sacramental theology would condemn them, even a children's catechism for first Holy Communion.
Yet, as a Church we have gotten in the habit of ignoring these things. Take the Death Penalty for example: the Holy Scriptures support it in both the New and Old testaments, the Fathers upheld the right of the State to use it, the Doctors such as St Thomas Aquinas explained how it was just, and the Popes even used the Death Penalty themselves when they had temporal authority. Want another example? Female altar servers, which can in no way be justified from tradition or historical evidence.
So these things are being ignored, or not even considered in the light of the teaching of the Church, at least collectively. What is driving the desire for changes in the Church? Public opinion. Should we care about public opinion? No.
What can we do? We must let the light shine before men, we must shout the gospel from the rooftops, we must point out how erroneous and evil such an idea is. Are we going to be faithful rocks, or reeds shaken in the wind. The more we have to lose for it, the greater the reward is in having lost it for the sake of the truth.
The book Remaining in the Truth of Christ was a good effort by the authors, now we must add our efforts. Rather than trying to convince ourselves that someone who is an adulterer is ignorant of their sin and therefore in some odd theologically nuanced way might be able to go to holy communion, we must rather advance as much and firmly as possible that there is no inheritance in the kingdom of Heaven for adulterers, nor for those who approve or support them in their sin and that receiving Holy Communion in a state of sin will not only lead to greater punishment in the next life, but also in this one. We must be ready to greet false teaching with the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.
“You wish us to pronounce a lie; but in speaking the truth, we inflict much greater and more cruel torture upon you than that which you make us suffer” St. Cecilia, from the Audiobook the Life and Martyrdom of St Cecilia
Let us kindly, but boldly declare that we do not belong to a religion made up on whims and public opinion, but to the religion passed onto us by the Apostles. "Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this and you dissolve the unity of the Church." St Thomas Aquinas, Disputations Concerning Truth.
Friends, are we cowardly Catholics, pious and observant until the possibility of harm and conflict show up? If we cannot stand up for the truth in all of our modern comforts and at most risk losing the graces of someone in the Church with power, a few friends, and the ridicule of Catholic bloggers, how will we ever be able to endure torture and death for Christ sake?
Let us not be gymnasts seeking applause for the complexity of our leaps and bounds to please the world or even leaders in the Church by theological half truths, nuance and platitudes; rather let us be rocks upon which God can build His Church, Heavy in faithfulness, immovable in fidelity, steady under pressure and stable in Tradition and strong enough to take the crashing of the wave of worldly pressure or the assault of heresy. It is time for he who has not a sword to sell his cloak at get one.
"Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to fight, and my fingers to war." -Ps. 144:1
The other day I was in a conversation with a priest and a woman. The woman was inquiring about the Synod on the Family and anxiously asked the priest if the pope and bishops really intended to change the teaching on communion for the divorced and remarried. The priest responded with incredulity, stating correctly that the teaching of the Church could never change. I jumped in and said, "Well, the issue is not so much whether the teaching will 'change', which of course it cannot. Rather, the issue is whether the Synod will implement an approach that is sufficiently decentralized and 'pastoral' to allow abuses to go unchecked at the diocesan level while the teaching technically remains in place." The woman understood the danger and responded that it was an "underhanded" way of changing the teaching without changing the teaching. The priest, however, was dismissive and said it could "never happen."
In the readings from the Old Testament this past Sunday, we heard the parable of the vineyard from Isaiah 5:1-7. This is one of the most important parables of the Old Testament and is echoed in the Gospel of Matthew by our Lord, who compares His people to a vineyard that has not produced its expected increase. Let us look at this beautiful passage from Isaiah (I use the NAB translation here because this is what most of us probably heard at Mass):
Let me now sing of my friend,
my friend's song concerning his vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside;
he spaded it, cleared it of stones,
and planted the choicest vines;
within it he built a watchtower,
and hewed out a wine press.
Then he looked for the crop of grapes,
but what it yielded was wild grapes.
Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard: What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? Now, I will let you know what I mean to do with my vineyard: take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled! Yes, I will make it a ruin: it shall not be pruned or hoed, but overgrown with thorns and briers; I will command the clouds not to send rain upon it. The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant; he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!
The fact that God had promised to maintain His land does not mean that He is obligated to always put it to the same use. Using the analogy of landlord and his piece of property to explain God's actions toward His people, He had initially hoped to grow grapes from this vineyard. The vineyard did not produce, and so He tried various things - pruning it, building a hedge around it, clearing the stones, planting the choicest sorts of vines; in short, everything any reasonable land owner would do to make his piece of agriculture productive.
And yet it was not productive. The prophets of Israel warned their countrymen that if they did not "bear fruit that befits repentance" that God would come in judgment. Perhaps because of spiritual and moral laxity, perhaps because of a reckless confidence in God's promises to Abraham and David, the Israelites assumed that their kingdom would always endure and that they would never be taken from the land. They made a very presumptuous mistake: they mistook the existence of the political Kingdom with the existence of themselves as a people, and while God had promised to always maintain the latter, He had given no such assurance of the former. Thus the kingdom was taken from the Israelites, and the people sent into exile.
This is what God means when He says that He gave the vineyard over to grazing. A landowner cannot ever "destroy" his property, in the sense that land as such is indestructible - but he can certainly alter its use, sometimes in radical ways. When the vines did not yield grapes, God plucked them up, had the walls trampled down, and gave the vineyard over to the wild animals (the nations) for grazing. And because of the reckless, presumptuous overconfidence of the Israelites - whom the prophet Jeremiah says were led astray by false prophets who only spoke what the people wanted to hear - they were caught unaware and led to destruction.
My friends, just because God has promised that this vineyard - the Church - will always endure and that He will always look after it does not mean that the situation of the Church in this world could not be radically altered. In the case of the vineyard, God is still "maintaining" the land when He breaks down the wall and gives it over to grazing. He is maintaining the way any husbandman does: by putting the land to its highest and best use. If the vineyard consistently refuses to bear fruit for the Master, there is no reason to think He will not break down our walls and give us over to grazing. This has already happened to a large extent over the past fifty years.
Of course, this is ultimately remedial. The grazing allows the land to have rest; the manure of the grazing animals fertilizes the ground and the husbandman hopes that, in the future, the land will be more productive when it is again ready for grapes.
So, will the Synod change the teaching of the Church? Of course not. In fact, it may be a total non-event. I readily admit that we may get through this and nothing at all could change. But then again, nothing need officially "change" for much destruction to be wrought, and in the end that is what we care about - not whether on paper any teaching has been "changed" (which is impossible), but in reality how much destruction is wrought and how many souls may be lost. A lot of souls have been lost since the reforms of Vatican II, which remember, did not "change" any teaching.
Will God ever abandon this little piece of property which He has claimed for Himself and bought with His blood? Of course not. Such a thing cannot be. Could He choose to give it over to grazing? Could He break down its walls? - that is, many of the visible structures that have provided security in the past? Could He command His clouds not to rain on it? - that is, withhold many of the gifts that He had showered upon the Church in ages past? Could He pluck up much of the vines by the roots and cast them away to be burned, and could He give over the land to the grazing of animals, who will trample it down with their hooves, grind the vegetation between their teeth and foul the earth with their dung? Of course He could do all this. In fact, unless we bear fruits befitting repentance, He will most certainly do all things.
Perhaps then - and only then - will our little, beloved piece of ground be disposed to again produce good fruit. But until then, let it be given over to grazing.
In the time of Noah, humanity had grown so wicked in its sins that God, in His great justice, decided to make an entire end of the entire human race. Thus came the Great Flood and took them all away, save for the eight souls who were saved on the Ark of Noah. This is one of many instances in the Bible when God displays His preference for working through 'remnants', that is, through small groups of people who are faithful to God despite massive apostasy going on around them.
We see the same story again and again in Scripture: God has called for fidelity, but when the majority refuses to heed God's command, he wipes them away and continues with a very small minority - in Noah's case, a single family. Let us look at some of these 'remnant' scenarios in Scripture and then draw some practical conclusions from them.
After the story of Noah, we see this principle in the time of Moses. After going up to receive the Law on Mount Sinai, the Israelites rebel and worship the golden calf. Angered at this, God is ready to consume the entire Israelite nation. Let us examine the passage:
"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "Go, get thee down: thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath sinned. They have quickly strayed from the way which thou didst shew them: and they have made to themselves a molten calf, and have adored it, and sacrificing victims to it, have said: 'These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.'" And again the Lord said to Moses: "See that this people is stiffnecked: Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation."
But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: "Why, O Lord, is thy indignation kindled against thy people, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand? Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech thee: 'He craftily brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains, and destroy them from the earth': let thy anger cease, and be appeased upon the wickedness of thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swore by thy own self, saying: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven: and this whole land that I have spoken of, I will give to you seed, and you shall possess it for ever. And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which he had spoken against his people" (Ex. 32:7-14).
Here we see God was about to wipe out all the Israelites and begin again with Moses alone. Moses' intercession saved them—an intercession, we ought to note, based not on pleas for mercy for the people but on an appeal to God's own reputation and glory.
After the sins of the Kingdom of Israel, who followed in the idolatry introduced by Jeroboam, son of Nebat, God wipes away the ten northern tribes and allows only the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin to remain in the land. Then later, when King Manasseh of Judah outrages God by sacrificing children to Moloch in he Valley of Hinnom (2 Ch. 33:6), God swears to destroy Jerusalem as well, saying of His holy city: "I will wipe away the people of Jerusalem as one wipes a dish and turns it" (2 Ki. 21:13). How frightening a thing it is when God says of His own city, the home of His own temple, that he intends to wipe it away as one wipes a dish!
Nevertheless, He promised a small remnant would remain faithful and return to the land. In the prophet Isaiah, God says:
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean no more upon him that striketh them: but they shall lean upon the Lord the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say, of Jacob, to the mighty God. For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted, the consumption abridged shall overflow with justice" (Isa. 10:20-22).
God's promise to Israel will come to pass, despite their infidelity, but it will be fulfilled by means of a faithful remnant. Further prophecies about this remnant can be found in Isaiah 11:11, 11:16, 37:31-32, as well as Jeremiah 23:3, which says, "And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase."
The small remnant does return, as narrated in Ezra-Nehemiah. Of that small remnant that is brought back to Jerusalem, only a tiny remnant of that remnant accepts the teaching of our Lord Jesus when He appears on this earth, a "remnant saved by grace", as St. Paul says in Romans 11:5. Our Lord, as well, affirms that God works through remnants when He says, "Many are called but few are chosen" (Matt. 22:14). When our Lord delivered His hard sayings on His Real Presence in the Eucharist and the multitudes and many disciples began abandoning Him, He did not try to prevent their leaving; He merely asked if the Twelve also intended to go away. He was concerned with His remnant.
The lesson of all this is that God is not impressed by numbers. Yes, our Lord wants all men to be saved. But they will be saved on His terms, and if they will not heed Him on His own terms, He is willing to wipe them away and start all over again. He has delivered His truth and His commands, and if people are not willing to keep them, He will blot them out - even if He has to blot out an entire nation or even a race and start all over again from scratch. In none of these historical examples does God ever suggest that He will mitigate His law, relax His discipline, or soften His demands just because a large—sometimes very large—portion of His people are living in disobedience. He would rather wipe out the huge amount of dissenters and start fresh than relax even a single point of His commands on their behalf.
This is extremely relevant given current discussions about mitigating the Church's long standing discipline of denying communion to people living in adulterous "second marriages." The contemporary wisdom, exemplified by Cardinal Kasper, suggests that because there are so many Catholics living in this state who cannot receive communion, there is an "abyss" between Church practice and the real experience of couples in concrete circumstances. If the Church were to continue to deny these people communion, we might lose a lot of people. Therefore, we need to accommodate their rebellion by softening our discipline.
This is not the way God works. God is not impressed by the number of people living in "second marriages", nor is God afraid to lose them all and work again from a remnant. Reflect again on that passage from Exodus; God had done wonders to bring these people out of Egypt and had given them the Law in a manifestation of divine glory unsurpassed in the Old Testament. According to the census at the time of the Exodus, Moses led 603,550 men out of Egypt (Num. 1:46); a massive throng of humanity! Even so, when they all rebelled, He was prepared to destroy them all and start all over again with a single man—essentially, go back to the starting point he had established with Abraham centuries before. He was not impressed with the numbers of the rebels; no angels made the argument that an abyss existed between God's demands and the concrete pastoral circumstances of the Israelites that needed to be bridged; they held no committee meetings on the "problems" of Israelite religion. "Let me alone that I may consume them." God was ready to destroy them all and start over again with a single man. And note that it was not by pleas of mercy for the Israelites that Moses' intercession saved them, but by appealing to God's glory and His own word.
You see, God is not afraid of working through a remnant. Cardinal Kasper is.
When God saw that the vast majority of Israelites were worshiping the golden calf of Jeroboam, He did not decide look for a new pastoral solution to the "problem" of Israelite idolatry by applying the medicine of mercy to idolatrous Israelites in concrete pastoral situations. God was not scared by the prospect of losing ten out of twelve of the tribes, which, by the way, works out to be 83% of His chosen people. When a progressive prelate sees 83% of Catholics are contracepting, he frets about how we can soften discipline and retain those 83%. When God sees 83% of the Israelites committing idolatry, He says, "Oh well. I still have 17% left to work with."
Again, if Jesus sees the majority of His followers deserting Him, He does not wring His hands and talk about the disconnect between His teaching and the experience of His followers, nor posit that the problem is with His message. He merely turns to the disciples, the faithful remnant, and asks what their plans are.
Let us remember, too, the Catholic Church in the days of Pope Clement VII was willing to lose the entire Kingdom of England, and create an innumerable host of martyrs in the process, rather than compromise on one point of doctrine. The Church in that day did not care about the "abyss" between Henry VIII and the Church's teaching; if an abyss existed, it was created by the sins of those who valued their own lusts above the teaching of our Lord.
To return to Scripture, let us recall the instance when Elijah had to flee from Ahab and Jezebel to Mount Horeb. There, alone in the cave, he lamented to God. The tale is told in 1 Kings 19:
"Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” (1 Ki. 19:13-14).
Elijah is mourning the almost universal apostasy in Israel; following the example of the evil monarchs Ahab and Jezebel, the Israelite people have forsaken God and served the Baals. God responds by commanding Elijah to anoint a new king and a new prophet and then says that He will pass judgment on the house of Ahab. But if all Israel has apostasized, who would be left to execute this judgment? God says:
"Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Ki. 19:18).
Again, a small, faithful remnant. Seven thousand men who had not corrupted themselves with Baal worship; and not only has God reserved this remnant, but He plans to use it to judge the unfaithful mass! By the way, this is the very passage St. Paul cites in Romans 11 when explaining why so few Jews have accepted the Savior: because in cases of mass apostasy and infidelity, God works through remnants.
Our Lord Himself hints that, in the end, the masses will fall away and only through a remnant will faith be preserved:
"Many are called, but few are chosen." -Matt. 22:14
"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it." -Matt. 7:13-14
"And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold." -Matt. 24:12
For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, and they shall shew signs and wonders, and even the elect will be deceived, if it were possible." -Mark 13:22
"But when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" -Luke 18:8
The constant focus of God's action, in the Old and New Testaments, is on the remnant. When all Israel is ready to apostasize and stone Moses, it is Moses God is concerned with; He is ready to consume the unfaithful. When ten of the twelve tribes go after foreign gods, God sends them away into oblivion. When Jerusalem sins, God wipes them away like one wipes a dish but encourages the small remnant who remains to be faithful. It is the remnant that must be encouraged, the remnant that must be strengthened, the good of the remnant which must be preserved. It is the remnant which will fulfill God's will; it always has, whether that remnant was 7,000 men, as in the case of Elijah, or a single man, in the case of Moses.
The modern Church is fundamentally afraid of entering into a remnant scenario; petrified of a circumstance when the world scoffs and laughs at her, in which she loses all relevance. And therefore she tries everything to postpone or avoid this state of affairs, even to the point of compromising very basic Catholic disciplines and inventing ingenious ways around doctrine. Ultimately, it is because they do not trust God. They care about numbers; "What are we going to do about declining Mass attendance?" "What about these abysmal baptismal statistics?" God doesn't care about your numbers; He cares about truth. Just preach the truth. Let God worry about the numbers. If hearts are soft, they will repent and come back by the preaching of the truth. If not, the truth will serve as a sword against them, and they shall go forth, and God will wipe them away as one wipes a dish, and the 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal will rise up in judgment against them, and the Lord will start over again if He needs to, working out His mysterious providence through the remnant that He has chosen by grace.
God works through remnants. And He doesn't care about the numbers. He will wipe everything out and start over if He has to. He's done it before. It's the way He operates.
