The Cathedral...
Many former Catholics did not leave the Church because of cool and reasoned conclusions about authentic doctrine or belief. Many left hungry and angry, after heart-sickening confrontations with hypocrisy, carnality and/or heresy in the Church. There is passion in the rejection of the Church in many former Catholics! This anti-Catholic passion in new “born-again” evangelicals comes more often because of wounds to the heart – wounds and hurts within them due to the sins of the world in the Church. The failures of men in the Church have overwhelmed them, and thus they have failed ever to see or know the holy Presence of Christ that indeed makes the Church what it is in truth.
These former Catholics are angry with the Church, in their experience, for not being the Church. Their emotional rejection of the Church is not unlike the experience of those atheists who, as C.S. Lewis described his early atheism, “did not believe God existed. I was also very angry with him for not existing.” There is in the heart of man a need for the true God! But when man meets the tragedies and sufferings of this real world, he can fall into an angry rejection of any God that could allow such contradiction in the world. Like Lewis, he can reject the very existence of God – and remain very angry with God for not existing.
So also many former Catholics had and have, in their Christian souls, a sure realization of the holiness and truth that ought to mark the true Church of Jesus Christ. But when such a Christian meets the carnal world in the Church, the contradiction demands resolution. The emotional resolution is nearer and easier than the one Jesus would call us to. The emotional resolution is to reject the Church: “This cannot be the true Church of Christ!” The response that Jesus calls us to is harder: “You are to be faithful. Take up your Cross, and be faithful. You must suffer for the sake of the Bride, and you are not free to cast her out of your heart. Divorce is not an option. As I have wept for her, you must weep for her. As I have suffered, you must suffer. As I am making all things new, you must work with Me looking not for ease in this world, but only for the glory in the Cross.”
And she will be renewed.
Thomas
Dear Thomas,
Thanks for the photo and insights into what keeps some from really “entering” the fullness of Truth which God gives the Catholic Church in Christ.
The picture of a wrought iron gate suggests a barrier which can be in the hearts of many persons. There are some barriers for which others in the Church will bear responsibility. Yet we can still see the doors waiting to be opened. The doors of the Church, of course, remind us of Christ Who is the “Door”.
It is very sad to experience separation from those who were baptized Catholics who now feel estranged. Some have been “born again” into denominations or non-denominational groups. The wounds many have suffered are real, as you point out in this blog entry.
Those who feel so angry as to deny God’s existence, calling themselves “atheists” or to doubt Him as “agnostics” have their wounds as well. How do we respond, in love, to anyone who is angry with the Catholic Church? I think your words help us to examine our own hearts:
“The response that Jesus calls us to is harder: ‘You are to be faithful. Take up your Cross, and be faithful. You must suffer for the sake of the Bride, and you are not free to cast her out of your heart. Divorce is not an option. As I have wept for her, you must weep for her. As I have suffered, you must suffer. As I am making all things new, you must work with Me looking not for ease in this world, but only for the glory in the Cross.’ ”
By God’s Grace, may we be faithful and learn from Jesus to love, as He loved His Bride, on His Cross. May we weep with Him and with Mary beneath His Pierced Heart emptied for all of us.
By: Deborah on March 9, 2010
at 11:25 am
I believe that some people are just looking for an excuse to leave the Church. And, surely the scandals that have plaqued the Church over the last several years is just that excuse! Unfortunately, those people probably are not thinking that this is exactly what Satan wants. It is so easy to be led astray by Satan. He can always make the “grass” seem greener elsewhere.
To take up our cross and be faithful is not always easy to do. I have to remind myself quite often that “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” Phil. 4:13
By: Theresa on November 23, 2010
at 10:38 am