A Leaven In The World . . . Reinventing The Church As “Average Christianity”?
By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Last month my parish celebrated the marriage of two young people in the Traditional Rite with a Solemn High Mass. The new bride visibly trembled with the faith-filled knowledge that she had just called the power of God Himself down into her new marriage as she exchanged vows with her husband. Tears streamed down her new spouse’s face as he was overcome with the sense of God’s goodness and faithfulness. For these young people God and His grace is only and always extraordinary.
If C.S. Lewis were to pen his classic and beloved Christian apologia today, would he still title it Mere Christianity? His ironic title was crafted to indicate that Christianity is in fact not only more than “mere” but very much the opposite. Christianity is the greatest hope that has ever dawned upon the world. Walter Cardinal Kasper, however, doesn’t seem to agree.
Until just a few years ago it didn’t matter what a retired and up until now theologically sidelined German churchman thought; that is, until Pope Francis was elected. Now, Kasper has Francis’ ear, is back in the catbird seat, and “average” Christianity is his brand.
Christianity must include an average category, Cardinal Kasper says in effect. Marriage is an ideal, in his view, one that it is not reasonable to expect some people to achieve because of the incidence of divorce and civil remarriage.
Watch for the pattern: Some people think that compassion means arguing from particular cases to push for changing the norms.
This is the tactic of the Kasperite camp: Some have not been able to live up to marriage, so the idea of marriage must be changed or we are lacking compassion.
Have we now created a new existential category we might call the option for “insufficient grace”? If we continue to insist that people who say “I can’t” must be coddled and that Christianity must be reinvented to accommodate them, we are creating a new church that St. Paul wouldn’t recognize.
Parents used to show love by telling their children facing what seemed insuperable challenges by counseling them to keep repeating “I think I can,” like the character in the children’s story The Little Engine That Could. Now it seems we insist on nothing less than redefining humanity down to accommodate those whose refrain is, rather, “I can’t.”
St. Paul’s authoritative teaching based upon Christ’s own words “My grace is sufficient for you” is at stake. Either the Lord’s promise is normative for all Christians and His promise of help is to be implicitly trusted or no law is any longer normative. There is no special category for those denied the Lord’s promises, because He came to offer His life that “all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Christianity is the only religion based on Revelation. God has fully revealed Himself in Jesus Christ who taught “The Father and I are one.” Thus we are called now to live a new life in light of this basic theological principle of divine intervention. God is now among us, the God who is never average but only and always above and beyond all categories because nothing greater than He can be imagined.
Christ taught that “to whom much is given much is required.” This means there can never be any such thing as average Christianity. “Much” is more than “some,” just as “excellent” is more than “average.” Grace is given so that we might excel at being Christian, that is, imitators of Christ, not so that we might hope to fall more or less short of His example.
The pattern is the same here as in political or social life: The contrarian argues from particular cases against the universal, thus proving the universal is not workable and this must be discarded.
However, in Christianity Christ is the divine lawgiver, equal to the Father, describing Himself as such in Matt. 5:17-19:
“Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled. He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments, and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
So, not only does the Lord refuse to back down on divine law as already handed down, He makes it clear that we will be judged as to how and whether we also faithfully hand that law down untouched, to include the laws on marriage.
It is heartening to read that Donald Cardinal Wuerl of Washington, D.C., warns against the idea that individuals can rewrite the moral law to accommodate their personal preferences. He shared recently in his blog:
“The exhortation does not create some sort of internal forum process where, for example, a marriage can be annulled or where the objective moral order can be changed. The teachings of the Church on marriage and family, and conscience and moral decision-making, remain unchanged. The role of the priest in listening and offering affirmation or challenge to persons as they work through their own understanding of their situation, is not the same as absolving from the law or annulling a marriage.”
See: http://cardinalsblog.adw.org/2016/04/the-pastoral-implications-of-amoris-laetitia/
Something will have to go. The Kasperite dumbing-down of Christianity and grace is absolutely incompatible with the Gospel. For many it is still the Gospel that is non-negotiable. Goodbye, Kasper. We will prayerfully await a rewrite of Amoris Laetitia for the sake of clear teaching and tranquility in the Church.
Married couples like the one I described who live the traditional faith will always lead us by their example of belief in our God whose grace is always more than sufficient for all of us and for every vocation.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
@MCITLFrAphorism
