A call to arms

If you are ever the member of any sort of team, whether it be the military, sports, or otherwise you learn a philosophy  early on to aid in "survival" – leave none behind. This philosophy conditions you to give your all in full knowledge that should you fall, your team will do whatever it takes to "bring you back." There is a beauty in knowing that even if it be your dead and lifeless body that remains, there will be those that will carry you and endure the extra weight for the love they posses for you and the cause you all fight for.

Often times on this blog I post about things that some say seem accusatory or angry. Rarely am I angry, and rarely do I accuse any further than my own hands. I started this blog because of how little we have where I live in the way of spiritual nourishment. It is a way to think-out-loud, so to speak when it comes to spiritual questions. It is also a place where I can help inspire others to help defend the Church in the spiritual battle that exists between good and evil. Often I post about things that we need to live a more Christ centered life. Yet, a dear friend of mine, Mindy from the Devout Life, has recently posted that we have all that we need. I dare say I should listen to her, as she is often much more attune to her spirituality than I am to my own. She says,

Sometimes it seems we just want more, more, more, when there He reposes patiently in the Tabernacle, much of the time completely ignored.

She is right, there are plenty of times where we Catholics want more, more, more. We clamor for this that or the other thing. Mindy brings up the fact that folks like myself complain about a lack of beauty in our local parishes. [Something that even our Archbishop has recently addressed.] She goes on to say that this complaining isn't really necessary because we have all we could ever need - Christ in the Eucharist, and searching for more seems to be done in vainglory and distracts us from what we already have. As she puts it:

You might have the ugliest Catholic church in the world, but if the Mass is validly celebrated, you are infinitely blessed with the Most Precious Gift of all. Jesus Himself. His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. What else can you truly need?

I would agree that she is partially right. We as individuals don't need more. But life doesn't always allow us to simply, "Be still and know that He is God." It just isn't the case, life and sin get in the way, and we search for meaning, peace, love, and more often less virtuous things. Sure, I don't need anything more and neither do you ... but I think that often times we can't recognize that fact without more.

For example, what about that guy that comes to church each week, the Catholic Zombie that has been inoculated by years of poor Catechesis and heterodoxy? What about him? He obviously is missing the TRUTH because if Mindy is correct, he already has what he needs - but something tells me he isn't in a good place. What about the mom whose husband never comes to church, and she couldn't get her kids interested in the faith if she bribed them with a million dollars? Is it enough for her, her children, and her husband? If it was... they'd be OK, and they aren't!

···•°···

...it cannot be easily elevated...

Now, let me make a distinction here.  I am not saying Jesus alone isn't enough. What I am saying is that we often can't see Jesus through all of the sin and muck we create in our life. In fact, Churches are a perfect example. We need them beautiful, to fully understand how worthy God is of praise and worship. We have seen over time that as we diminish these outward signs, it isn't only that we can't see the beauty of God, but that it is also a reflection of just how little we do think of God. It is in essence a double-whammy. Father Mauro Gagliardi recently wrote an article for Zenit where he discusses Man's need for external beauty in faith-lives:

Throughout its history, the Church has established sensible signs that would help the faithful to elevate their souls to God.

The Council of Trent, referring in particular to the Holy Mass, motivated this habit by recalling that "human nature is such that it cannot be easily elevated to the meditation of divine things without external aids: on account of this the Church, as a loving Mother, has established certain rites…to render more evident the majesty of such a great sacrifice and to introduce the minds of the faithful, with these visible signs of religion and piety, to the contemplation of the sublime realities hidden in this sacrifice"

So, you see, this is where Mindy and I might see past one another a bit. Maybe it is because she is a woman and I am a man. [Yes, there are actually differences you know - glorious ones!] Maybe she is much more in touch with her spirituality in a way that allows herself to elevate her mind and soul to the the divine, simply by being in the presence of the Eucharist. We all should be so blessed - but through our own faults, most of us are not. That is where Holy Mother Church, has stepped in and in her divine wisdom and millennia of tradition, has established ways to help us on our journey to seek the sacred and facility elevation to the divine.

···°•···

playing different roles

So you see, when I "complain" about certain things, it isn't because I think that the Faith is about me. In fact, if my faith were solely about me, if this blog was about me, myself and I, it wouldn't be published online. It would instead be a journal. Instead I would be writing to a priest, or a friend, discussing theses things. But instead, I found a medium, and a set of readers that quest for the same things I do, and that which it seems Mindy has found. I don't think either of us are wrong, I just think we are in different places the same way we are called to play different roles.

My role, as I feel I have been called, is to defend the faith. I have been asked to do something that most people don't want to do, and I embrace it. I don't mind "getting my hands dirty," I don't mind being out front dodging bullets for the faith and for my fellow Catholics. I don't mind continuing to battle in a very violent way, in the spiritual warfare that affects my friends and family. You see, I do this because I am called to do so. I try to do it with a happy heart, and I try to be at peace with it. Like anyone else, this isn't always the case, but it is always my goal. You see, I am willing to do such things because I want to follow my call from God - my call to arms.

Likewise, in the blogging world, and in our daily lives, we need to respect that people are different and called to different things. We need those out there willing to engage in the spiritual warfare that exists. We need standard bearers of the truth. We want a faith that is beautiful and sacred because it not only helps us, but because it is a reflection of how we view God. Our expression of the faith, our effort in art and beautification of our Sacred places is our expressive image of God and our outward attempt to worship Him.

···•°•···

A final word on this matter. I respect Mindy, and those who take her view. I wish I had the luxury of being able to see the world in its beautiful simplicity – I wish that I was called, as those like her are, to elevate ourselves in a very simple way to the divine – but I am not. Instead I am called instead to quite the opposite, I am called to the fire. As I explained to Mindy, if you sat St. Joan and St. Therese down at a table, their commonality ends at Jesus. This isn't a bad thing, it just goes to show that we are all called differently to work as the Body of Christ. It makes me think of the scene from A Few Good Men where Jack Nicholson's character Col. Jessup utters the famous line, "You can't handle the truth."  In the movie, the Colonel made an illegal order so I can't completely identify with him, but it isn't his actions that I relate with. What I have some sympathy for are some of his words. It isn't that I think highly of myself or what I do; I just understand that I am called differently to serve God – and in my difference, there are things I need that are different. In the end though, I must heed my call to arms and worry not about what others think. In the end – I answer my call to God, my hands are His.

†††