Avoid the 'Spiritual'

I had a priest visit me who happened remark someone had said they were 'spritual  but not religious', he said he replied he was 'religious but not spiritual'.
I took up the theme today and said in my sermon this morning, we should be the enemies of the 'spiritual'.

The Fathers of the Church, those saintly bishops and monks would tear at the beards punch in the face those who claimed to be 'spiritual'. The 'spiritual' are our deadly foes.

We believe in Jesus Christ who did not abhor a Virgin's womb, indeed that was where he became flesh, flesh and blood. 

We believe in the flesh and blood resurrection of the flesh and blood enfleshed Word of God. Those who claim he rose 'spiritually' or somehow took on our humanity 'spiritually' are damnable heretics. 

Catholicism is about physical realities, yes we even believe, our Resurrection is physical, not 'spiritual', we believe 'in my flesh I shall see God'. 

In the Holy Eucharist we do not receive 'spiritual' food but the actual body and blood, the soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. 

We do not believe that the Church is merely the spiritual body of Jesus but is the real tangible reality of Christ's presence in the world. 

Even the Holy Spirit, the most 'spiritual' thing that we believe in, manifests itself in a real way, in the Incarnation, in the Resurrection of the Person of Christ, in the gathering of the Church, in transubstantiation of bread and wine, in the real sanctification of those who have received him. 

We are not called to 'spiritually' feed hungry but actually do it, we are not called to 'spiritually' instruct the ignorant but to actually do it, nor to be spiritually chaste but to actually be chaste. Indeed we are not called to have a 'spiritual life' but to have Life. The Holy Spirit always manifests itself in the flesh.

At all cost avoid those who speak of the 'spiritual' they are and have always been the enemies of real flesh and blood Christians!

Warning: There is a small degree of rhetorical  irony in this post

Blessed Paul VI?

Paul VI being on track to being Beatified?
There are so many conjectures about his private life, his friendships, those he allowed influence; there are so many questions which are unanswered, so many hints of scandal, of all the twentieth centuries Popes Paul VI should be left to sleep quietly in his grave, with prayers of the faithful.

Even his predecessor Pope St John XXIII dubbed him Hamlet.

Nine years after his election he wrote: "Perhaps the Lord called me to this service not because I have any aptitude for it, or so I can govern and save the Church in its present difficulties, but so I can suffer something for the Church so that it will be clear that it is the Lord, and not anyone else, who guides and saves it."

Field Hospital

I don't watch the BBC, indeed I do not own a television receiver but I have started watching on the BBC IPlayer the Crimson Field, it is about a WWI group of nurses in a field hospital, it isn't that horrific, no scenes of screaming vomiting gas victims crying out in agony. In fact he patients are remarkable quiet but there was one scene that disturbed my comfort, it was a bucket of amputated limbs.

That gave a fresh perspective to Pope Francis' description of the Church not as any old hospital but specifically as a field hospital, operating in a war zone. If you are hearing a lot of Confessions it can sometimes be like a supermarket cashier or a triage surgeon in a field hospital, making quick judgements, cutting out an infection here, giving a dose of morphine there, applying a splint for some else, offering kindness to those dying of their wounds. The 'field hospital' model isn't only about just one specific area of Church but the whole life of the Church, for those at work in such an institution the basic tool historically has been the saw and the knife. Cutting out infection, cutting off the gangrenous, crude tools maybe but the Pope is not talking about a sophisticated urban hospital.

The ultimate sanction in the Church is always amputation, or excommunication, it is done not just as a way saving the sick individual but the rest of the flock as well. In fact a field hospital out of the time of a major battle seems to have dealt with diseases like typhus or cholera the result of insanitary living conditions and bad food. Remember all those stories of all rats living of the detritus of war. The nurses of the Crimea were as much concerned about the  contagion of disease as much as battle wounds. Those 'leperous courtiers' can infect the rest of the court, leprosy is contagious. Yesterday the very stark reminder of Cardinal Mueller was issued to the American Leadership Conference of Women Religious which basically called them to get back into the Church because what they are doing now is leading them out of communion.

A good Pastor is desperately concerned about the health of his flock, just as a medical officer in charge of a field hospital is not merely concerned about battle wounds but such mundane things as latrines and their correct use and clean linen, fresh water and washing, waterproof boots and clean socks, the provision of soap and lavatory paper, the elimination of vermin and the delousing of uniforms. He might also be concerned not just about the physical health of his soldiers but even their psychological and even moral health.

The purpose of the field hospital is worth bearing in mind it is to get the sick well again to engage the battle once more. No Pope has spoken in modern times in such apocalyptic terms as Pope Francis. The first Mass he celebrated with Cardinals after his election, he said 'if you are not praying to Christ, you are praying to the devil' and this dichotomy between Christ and the devil has been present throughout his pontificate.

Some see a growing dichotomy between truth and unity. One of the problems some people identify in today's Church is that sense that we are one big happy family and we don't say or do things that are hurtful. A field hospital is not a place without pain, whether it a surgeon cutting off a diseased limb or a nurse taking off a blood and pus dried dressing or pouring disinfectant over an open wound. Bishops, priests and deacons do not like dealing with pain, it is all too easy to simply ignore the cries of the suffering, to become hard of heart or else never to apply the knife and simply watch the patients die a slow death, in that case we become a hospice for the terminally ill rather than a field hospital. The problem here is that both patients and medical team die not just of their own wounds but of cross infection from other patients.

So what does one do if some mad honorary Prelate denies the Resurrection, or a Professor of Catholic Studies, from a Department of Human Flourishing suggests that scripture and tradition are wrong about human sexuality, our custom has been to ignore the problem. Scripture warns against the father who fails to correct the waywardness of his children, and those who fail to correct the errors of their brothers. St Paul was not afraid to correct the Prince of the Apostle, Pope Francis is continually complaining about careerists, airport bishops, nun's who are old maids. There is an intolerance in his sermons that is not just about evil but about imperfection, and all too human weakness, not just of clergy but of ordinary Christians. He speaks of mercy but it is not the self indulgent mercy of what he describes as the "pastry-shop Christian"

I have always thought it significant that he hardly ever describes 'God as Love', for our days perhaps that has too much secular baggage, the implications of a God who is 'merciful' is that mercy has to be sought, it is given by a greater to a supplicant. God is loving but God is also angry, in the theology of St Paul it is only Jesus who assuages God's anger, only then is he merciful to those united to Jesus.. 

Dangers of Tradition and Young Children

One of our children is in deep trouble: its the mantilla thing. Some, not many of the women in our congregation wear mantillas and very elegant they look too.
Well to cut a long story short, Annie who is 5 often stays with a friend of her mum's who had some rather elegant Victorian lace curtains. Annie found some scissors, now Annie has a mantilla and so do her three of her dolls and her favourite pink dinosaur, and whilst mum's friend still has lace curtains but one is now quite considerably shorter than its pair, they are less elegant nowadays.
And Annie was bareheaded at Mass on Sunday and so was the pink dinosaur.

+++

Speaking of such things, I remember a whole family of reasonably devout traditionally minded Catholics; mother, father and four young children apostacising over the issue of veils. It was around the time the then Papal MC got St John Paul to kiss the Koran, that really did rattle them. They had come into contacting with a Baptist group who insisted on women wearing a head covering, in conformity with St Paul's teaching, "But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head". It was one of those things that wormed away at them until it overcame belief in the Real Presence, the Inerrancy of the Church and everything else. The Baptist pastor kept saying to them if the Catholic Church errs on this rather minor matter can it be trusted on anything, eventually they decided it couldn't and went off to join them, eventually believing the Church to be the whore of Babylon, the Pope the Anti-Christ and all of that extreme Protestant stuff.

Shibboleth

I was pleased to read Bishop Campbell's press release on Protect the Pope, Bishop Campbell is one of the good guys, I am glad he faced up to the furore that has surrounded the closing of this blog, not only here but throughout the world. It is regrettable, looking over the Google feed, that it seems there is a very strong sense that the orthodox, those who might indeed Protect the Pope are legitimate game, whilst, unless you are actually wishing a Pope dead, like the recently dismissed Tablet journalist, you are free to say what you will. Dr Joseph Shaw highlights the problem, focussing on one particular priest, whose writings are in one of the Catholic papers which are distributed in many catholic churches and cathedrals. Fr Henry makes a similar point about the last edition of Catholic Life.

There seems to be a growing sense, especially over the last few months that the Church is moving backwards, away from concern for the Truth to a superficial 'Unity'. There seems to be an increasing sense that those who had discovered or rediscovered 'orthodoxy' under Pope Benedict are not welcomed any longer. The most obvious example is Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, still silenced, still unaware of any specific charges against them after all these months. The 'Kasper theorem' delivered at the Consistory gives the same impression, whatever label you want to give; orthodox, traditional or conservative there is large group of 'concerned' Catholics, especially amongst those touched by St John Paul's theology of marriage, which elsewhere in the Catholic world is a huge number. Again here, the distancing of the entire Bishop's Conference from the Bishop of Portsmouth's reiteration of Cardinal Burkes: no communion for politicians who pass laws contrary to Catholic teaching, is unnerving, for some. It appears that an unsmiling stern-faced Pope Francis was saying a similar things on a broader range of issues, to 'corrupt' Italian politicians only a few days ago in St Peters. In the UK too the resuscitation of ACTA and its apparent promotion by some bishops gives the impression that being a dissenting Catholic carries no consequences, whilst trying to be a faithful one does, most especially if one who is a cleric. Indeed for the dissident a great deal of space is given for dialogue, one is virtually clasped to the breast but for those who oppose them there is only the cold shoulder. It is particularly sad that Bishop Campbell's statement adds to this sense.

The consequences of course are that Deacon Nick's blog will disappear but criticism will not, "unless a grain of wheat ...", on the contrary, it will grow. Fed by our Holy Father himself, who has told younger people especially to make a mess. There are many lay people out there who share the Pope's sentiments about careerist authoritarian bishops and functionaries, as well as ideological, liquid, bat-like, superficial Christians, or Christians allergic to preaching with watered-down faith, weak-hoped Christians and oh yes, my favourite those, "pastry-shop Christians", these critics seem to be making their voices heard increasingly.

A Pastoral Problem - part 2

I've been Mundaborised! He accuses me of being a Kasperite.
Do read his post it is well worth it. It is a characteristic reaction to my fictional pastoral problem of Mary and Sam.
Pope Francis sees the Church as 'a field hospital', dealing with the wounds and injuries of her members. Mundabor, I suspect would disagree robustly with that and see the Church in terms of offering preventative medicine.

It reminds me of a conversation with a friend who works in the Orthodox world, he told me recently of the incomprehension of the local Orthodox bishop when he heard my friend had actually performed non-sacramental marriages: marrying a Christian, someone baptised to a Muslim, or anyone else who was not baptised. According to both our theologies the sacrament of matrimony only exists if it happens between Christians, hence the old practice of 'sacristy marriages' for the non-baptised or doubtfully baptised. The Orthodox would presume that no-one would even presume to ask for such a thing, it would simply be impossible, whilst a second or third marriage is quite possible, even if it is celebrated with less solemnity than the first. It is worth pointing out that we too have different grades of marriage too, sacramental and non-sacramental, nowadays apart from the change of a few prayers there is little distinction, certainly not in the actual formula used to confect the bond in one case or the sacrament in the other.

Mundabor puts forward a valid argument, even if it is one that the Church has discarded increasingly in the last hundred years in its desire for increased numbers going to Holy Communion. His concern is the scandal and compromise that Mary and Sam's situation introduces. I am reminded of the situation of the twice widowed Maria Fitzherbert who the Prince Regent tried to woo, she refused to sleep with him unless the were married, so a secret marriage took place but she was known as the Princes mistress. Her monument in St John the Baptist, the mother Church of Brighton shows her defiantly wearing three wedding rings, proclaiming her third marriage, to the Prince.  In a way their moral but apparently immoral and scandalous lifestyle encouraged the growth of Brighton as a place for mistresses and unconventional lifestyles, they followed what the Prince and Mrs Fitzherbert were apparently doing.

What Mundabor is arguing for is a Church that is uncompromising in its proclamation of the faith, it is indeed a valid argument but one that we have moved away from, mainly I would suggest by the movement for frequent and regular reception of Holy Communion started by St Pius X.

Fr Mark Elvins Rip

Pray for the soul of Father Mark Elvins, KCGCO, OFM, Cap., who died at Oxford today
Eternal Rest Grant to Him O Lord
And Let Perpetual Shine Upon Him