Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Reintroducing Logic and Reason to the Age of Sentimentalism

The Fallacy of Always Being Joyful

I’ve noticed for quite some time that there is a new buzzword in the world of Catholicism. No, I’m not talking about the ‘New Evangelization’ here. I’m speaking specifically about the word ‘joy’.

Now, I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with having joy or being in a state of joy. I consider myself to be joyful most of the time as I am always in the mood for a good joke and a fun time.

However, my concern is that all we talk about lately is that Christians have to have joy in order to be successful at Evangelization. As if that is a requirement for being a disciple of Jesus Christ as well as a Catholic in Good Standing. To me, we are overusing this word and making the word become a sappy and emotional feel-good term, as opposed to the true joy that Jesus refers to in the Gospels.

If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. John 15:10-12

Jesus is clear here. If we follow the commandments that Jesus has laid down before us, as well as the Commandments that God our Father has given us, we will have the joy that Christ has and gives because we are in that state of grace.

Similarly, when Jesus is telling the disciples that He will be taken up and crucified and will no longer be with them, they are upset. He says to them:

Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. John 16:20-24

When you go out to run a race, you more than likely are not thinking or even feeling joy. As you are running, the pain in your legs and the lactic acid build up begins to ache and throb. More than likely, this is not a joyful experience. Many times you may feel the desire or the urge to quit, but you push through. Finally, after your continuing success, you see the finish line. Inspired by this sight, you begin to push harder and run faster. A joy begins to arise as you know you are almost done with your race. You push harder and harder until finally, you cross the finish line, puffing and panting and suddenly a rush of joy sweeps over you. This is authentic joy as Jesus hints at.

This is the type of joy we are to strive for as Catholics. We shouldn’t settle for the counterfeit joy of feeling emotional and good and giddy and happy. Being a disciple isn’t always a joyful experience. Jesus warns us that following Him means the world will hate us because it hated Him first.

He warns us that the Gates of Heaven are narrow, and the Gates of Hell are wide. He warns us that our family will hate us because we follow Him. Jesus even mentions that we are going to have to sacrifice. None of these things are joyful in themselves.

What makes them joyful in the Catholic sense of the word, is the fact that we are created to love and serve our Lord, Jesus Christ. We are to follow His will for us. When we follow His will, we may experience moments of joy, however, there are moments when we do not. The false dichotomy that we will experience joy can lead the person who follows this mentality to think that they are not following God’s will because they do not feel joy. There are many instances in which following God’s will, will in fact not feel or seem joyful.

The faithful who stands up for an end to abortion or in defense of traditional marriage may get fired from his job. There is joy in standing up for God, but the doubts and uncertainty of where the next paycheck will come will not be a joyful experience. Thankfully, God will provide to his faithful.

We have confused smiling and laughter with joy, which is thanks to our wonderful culture who either ignorantly or purposefully do this. If you Google Image St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Joseph or really, just about any Saint you can think of, you will find that they rarely are seen smiling. They are serious and stern, but the holiness radiates around them. Heck, look at the images of Our Lady in all of her different apparitions. Not many smiles.

St. Peter Doesn't Smile

St. Peter Doesn’t Smile

St. Joseph Hardly Smiles

St. Joseph Hardly Smiles

Pope St. Pius X Barely Smiles

Pope St. Pius X Barely Smiles

St. Paul Doesn't Smile

St. Paul Doesn’t Smile

I know some traditionalists would argue with me (and that’s fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion), but I see nothing wrong with smiling. But putting an emphasis on smiling and being a good Catholic is a lie and doesn’t stand when looking at the history of the Catholic faith. Catholicism is based on intellect, not on emotion. Emotion plays a role from time to time, but the majority of the time it is logic and truth.

Life isn’t always joyful. For proof, look at the Rosary as given to us by Our Lady. We don’t have 3 sets of Joyful mysteries. We have a set of Joyful mysteries, a set of Sorrowful mysteries, and a set of Glorious mysteries (we also have a set of Luminous mysteries that were given to us by Blessed Pope John Paul II as a suggestion, so it is not required to pray these). The argument that we must be joyful at all times is a farce of an argument as even Jesus stated that we must be ready and stand watch for the thief that comes at night.

The next time you see someone who is devout in their faith, but seems “non-joyful” or even “angry” at something, before you jump to criticisms and accuse them as such, take a step back and look at the deeper under-linings of why they are such. It may just be that they are interiorly following Christ and are upset that others are not.

Read the follow-up post, You Can’t Always Be Joyful

Jeff February 27, 2014 3 Comments Permalink

Another Questioner Silenced

It’s very interesting times we live in. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the attitudes which have occurred post-Vatican 2. Traditionalists are okay casualties, yet non-traditionalists are not.

Apparently, it is okay to give a free-pass to the Evangelicals and the Pentecostals, but apparently anyone who holds strong to Tradition is treated as the enemy. Publicly pro-abortion or pro-homosexual activity? Promotion. Publicly traditional? Demotion, silencing, shunning, etc. Just another day for the Church of Nice as Michael Voris has wisely put it.

How many priests, bishops and cardinals actively stand in direct disobedience to the Church on many issues of morals and no one bats an eye at them? Meanwhile, whenever a priest, bishop or cardinal talks about the TLM or bringing back more of our Catholic identity, and they are practically excommunicated from the Church? Think FFI or even the SSPX.

Apparently, Patrick Archbold, a blogger for the National Catholic Register, wrote a fantastic article in which he said Pope Francis is the perfect Pope to help reconcile the FFI and the SSPX into the grace of the Catholic Church. After all, Pope Francis made a video for the Pentecostals! Why not extend this invitation?

Well, apparently within minutes of him posting it on their website, they (the NCR) took it down.

Read the article over at Creative Minority Report, which happens to be Patrick Archbold’s own blog.

Jeff February 26, 2014 3 Comments Permalink

True Charity

You are having an intense discussion with your friend. It is a great day outside and after having been stuck inside because of the brutal winter, you are enjoying the scenery. Suddenly, your friend catches you off guard and says “isn’t it amazing how the Sun revolves around the Earth?” You nod your head in agreement.

Except, you wouldn’t as you know that the Earth revolves around the Sun. You know this, because this has been proven, and this is truth. It would be uncharitable to let your friend continue on thinking that the Sun revolves around the Earth. It would be border-line cruel as you are withholding information from them. On top of that, they are your friend, and friends do not let each other err, at least good friends don’t.

earth revolves

Similarly, if your friend was pushing hard that you are incorrect in your math, and is arguing that 2+3 = 23 because you combine the numbers together, again, you would say “aha! That is your opinion and you are entitled to it!”. Except, you wouldn’t, unless you were a terrible and awful friend (maybe you are, I don’t know).

Yet, here are two perfect examples in which you would tell me that it would be wrong and uncharitable not to tell your friend the truth and inform them of their short-comings in math and science. Of course, you would then explain why they are incorrect in their assessments and help them to see the error of their ways.

Why is it then, that when it comes to our Catholic faith, we (read: some, not all) have no qualms or reservations in encouraging our friends to remain where they are in their non-Catholic faiths, and just agree that their opinion is equal to ours?

If Jesus Christ is the Truth as He so rightfully states, than whatever He has said or whatever His Church has said, holds True. Sadly, today, many Catholics are cowardly when it comes to defending the faith when the time arises. Excuses are made such as “Well, they are following Jesus, so we have common ground”.

Jesus The Truth

No! Following Christ is more than just “following” Him loosely and focusing our lives on Him and Him alone! Following Christ is also obeying the Commandments that He has given us, one of those Commandments is to follow His Church. A true Christian would join the true Church that Christ established here on Earth.

Some would argue with me that that is only a Catholic teaching and that there are multiple claimants. Unfortunately, the Encyclopedia Brittanica disagrees with them and they are not a Catholic source, but a secular one.

I am grateful to my friend Stephen for introducing me to the Catholic faith. He had the courage to tell me that Jesus Christ started the Roman Catholic Church and that it was my duty to become Catholic. He didn’t start by saying it exactly like that, but he started slow and worked on me on a regular basis, eventually leading to my conversion.

True charity lies within the truth, whatever that truth may be and especially when the Truth is that of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior and His Beloved Bride the Catholic Church. As Pope Benedict XVI said in his Encyclical Caritas In Veritate:

To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, “rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor 13:6). All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6).

It is inexcusable for us to be so adamant about defending (lower-case t) truths and yet when it comes to the Truth (capital T) we just forego it as if it is just an opinion. This can not stand, nor will it stand as it will be held against us when we stand before Christ as our Judge when we have perished from this world. His final command to us was to go and make disciples of all nations.

True love and true charity require us to share our faith with those around us, through the way we live our lives, through our teachings and through our traditions. This includes the way we worship in the Liturgy of the Mass.

Our worship at Mass should be solemn, sincere and serious. It is not a time for entertainment, but a time for enrichment. It is our spiritual buffet in which we gather the nourishment required for the salvation of our soul. If good food helps our bodies stay healthy and bad food slowly kills us, the same can be said about the Liturgy. If good Liturgy helps our souls stay healthy and strong through God’s abundant grace, than bad Liturgy can rob our souls of the grace needed to ward off the evil one.

Jeff February 25, 2014 1 Comment Permalink

Worshiping With Pagans

We as Catholics believe that only the Catholic Church holds the Truth. We believe this because Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father and Proceeding the Holy Spirit the Paraclete, said so. He started the Catholic Church upon St. Peter (cf Matthew 16:18). Jesus also said that He is the Truth, The Way and the Light. By saying this, He means that there is no other Truth, but him (cf John 14:6).

When we engage in worship, we are announcing that we believe in said worship, whether we realize it or not. We announce it by our presence, by our willful participation. If you walk in, sit down, stand up or whatever, you are participating. Unless you are forced to be there against your own free will, you yourself are willfully being present and participating.

If we are to receive an anointing, we are receiving more than just oil, ashes, or whatever substance the anointing is being done with, and general pleasantries. We are receiving prayers, words, creeds and beliefs that go behind the anointing.

If I was to tell you that I was going to lay my hand upon you and pray over you and send the spirits of my fallen ancestors upon you to strengthen you, would you allow me to do it? Probably not because you know what the prayers entail and know that it is false and pagan.

If I wasn’t to tell you that I was going to do all of that and just said “I’m going to lay my hands upon you as a sign of our friendship” (a lie) would you allow me to do it? This is where the confusion lays.

Unfortunately, today, in the Church, this is the confusion that we are faced with. Jesus did hang out with sinners and engage them in discussion, but he did not receive any blessings or engage in their worship.

It is indeed scandalous when a leader in the Church engages in worship with false religions. All of the leaders in our Church, whether they be a priest, bishop, cardinal or Pope, are a visual sign of Christ here on this Earth. They are his representatives as when they say the Mass or hear confessions, they become in persona Christi, or in the Person of Christ. They become Christ. As Jesus never engaged in worship with the false religions, it would be inappropriate for our prelates to engage in these worships. It gives the false impression that all religions are equal, when they are indeed not.

Our prelates should be spending the time, to instead building up relationships of community, to preaching the truths of the faith. Many saints were martyred for defending the Catholic faith to these same false creeds and for preaching the Truth. The Church canonized these same Saints for their actions. To me, it seems insulting to now spend time in false ecumenicism and giving the false impression that we are all in the same boat, worshiping the same God.

Jeff February 23, 2014 1 Comment Permalink

Who Started Your Church?

It’s an important question to ask, because it is a matter of who you are going to follow. It’s a matter of teaching and tradition. It’s a matter of following Jesus Christ the way that He intended you to.

More than likely, if you are a non-Catholic, you will be able to tell who started your Church. For example, Martin Luther is the head and founder of Lutheranism. Its generally a big part of your faith and your history. This is because its relatively new. But, I ask you, what Church did Jesus Christ Himself found?

Before I answer the question, I want to discuss the importance of following Jesus Christ. I say this because Jesus is the Son of God, Our Lord and Savior. He says many times in the scriptures that we must follow Him. I’ll let Him speak for Himself.

I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes through the Father except through me. John 14:6

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:18-19

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. Matthew 28-19-20

These are all big events and sayings of Jesus. Jesus is the only way to God the Father. We must go through Him. He founded His Church on St. Peter. Jesus founded a Church, thus we should become members of that Church. Jesus commands us to follow what He has given us and to make everyone a disciple (which implies also joining that Church that he started). It is fairly obvious, that Jesus wants us to join the Church that He created and follow Him, making disciples of everyone. This is why we can’t have 300,000 different denominations claiming to be the “one”. There is only One Bride of Christ.

The Catholic Church is the only Church that can point back to Jesus Christ. The Papacy can be traced back from Pope Francis through St. Peter, the first Pope. This isn’t only a Catholic point of view, but a historical one as well.

It is a critical question to ask yourself, why you are a part of the Church you are part of. It should be because Jesus Christ founded it, and as a disciple of His, you are following Him and His Church. If its because you prefer the preaching or the worship or some other personal reason, then you are being selfish and are not following God. We are to conform ourselves to God, not be satisfied with our state of sin.

Now, you must ask yourself the question: Are you going to follow the Church that Jesus Christ started, or are you going to follow the Church that some guy branched off into?

Buy this as a poster or t-shirt at www.catholictothemax.com

Buy this as a poster or t-shirt at www.catholictothemax.com

This isn’t judgmental. This is about salvation. It would be selfish of me not to share this with you.

Questions? Feel free to comment or email me.

Jeff February 18, 2014 Leave A Comment Permalink