Radical Inclusion Of God
By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Inclusion becomes a concern upon discovering that something or someone is being unjustly or unreasonably excluded — that is, under normal circumstances.
We do not find ourselves in normal circumstances; this is an era of one scam or grift after another.
For some reason, there are those with influence who have inverted their speech about reality and are selling the idea that people are being excluded if they are asked not to sin.
Rejecting sin is not excluding people. We are not our sins. Rejecting or excluding sin is necessary to include people in the life of the Gospel, of grace and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Perhaps we could synod about radically including God in our lives. It is God who is most excluded in our world today.
It was in October 2022 that we were informed we needed to “enlarge the space of your tent” with a document calling for the “radical inclusion” of what was called “LGBT” and “remarried” people.
“The document drew from the various diocesan reports to refer to groups of people who felt ‘neglected and excluded.’ Among those who ‘feel a tension between belonging to the Church and the experience of their own affective relationships,’ the document listed: remarried divorcees; single parents; people in polygamous marriages; LGBTQ people, etc.” (LifeSiteNews, Oct. 27, 2022).
The work of the Church, because of Jesus Christ, is salvation of souls. Souls are saved one by one, not in pairs. And so, first of all, we are not being saved along with our own “affective relationships.” We are being saved, or not, ourselves alone. Now, it is true that married individuals work, pray and sacrifice for the salvation of their spouse, but they do this within a union envisioned by almighty God in creating them “male and female,” as we learn in Genesis. However, that is the only case in which the sexual capacity expresses union and this for the sake of procreation.
But, having said that, man and wife each face the Lord alone at their individual judgment, as do we all, and they alone answer for their sins or not as individuals, not as a pair.
This example makes obvious what is true for us all. Affective relationships either lift up or cast down. Affective relationships, in and of themselves, are not good simply as such. They must be judged in light of the virtues as must every aspect of our lives. And we are each judged by how we conducted ourselves in a holy manner, or not, in our relationships.
The affective nature of friendship is a gift available to all.
Friendship is one of life’s most beautiful gifts. It can confer a great sense of redemptive renewal to life. It is possible only because of virtue, however. It is the virtues that attract souls in the blessing of friendship. One is excluded from the possibility of friendship by oneself alone. How we exercise compassion, understanding, gentleness and goodness toward others determines our capacity for giving and receiving the gift of friendship.
The 1993 Catechism treats friendship under the category of “solidarity.”
“The principle of solidarity, also articulated in terms of ‘friendship’ or ‘social charity,’ is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood. An error, ‘today abundantly widespread, is disregard for the law of human solidarity and charity, dictated and imposed both by our common origin and by the equality in rational nature of all men, whatever nation they belong to. This law is sealed by the sacrifice of redemption offered by Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross to his heavenly Father, on behalf of sinful humanity’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], n. 1939).
The “human virtues,” as the Catechism describes them, are for the basis for everything in life, to include friendship.
“Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.
“The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love” (CCC, n. 1804).
Affective relationships, in order to be virtuous, must will the good of the other.
But, because friendship with God is the greatest imaginable good, exclusion of God from our “affective relationships” is the worst state of all, because it is rejection of this greatest and most wonderful friendship, which saves our souls for the sale of eternal happiness.
It turns out that, after considering the human condition and the ills that plague mankind, it becomes evident that the greatest need that all of us share is the necessity of radically including God in our lives and in our world.
But we can start with ourselves and the practice of our Catholic faith.
God is excluded when we talk with others in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament instead of praying.
God is excluded when engaged couples plan their church wedding last, after the reception, the dress, and the guest list.
God is excluded by immodest dress at Mass in the true presence of the Lord and when we go forward to receive Him unprepared spiritually or in appearance like we’re ready for the beach or the gym.
God is excluded when we desecrate the Lord’s Day by servile work or unnecessary shopping and by omitting to attend holy Mass to sanctify the day.
God is excluded when we fail to pray daily.
God is excluded from relationships which are based upon the sinful use of human gifts, to include disordered sexuality.
God is excluded by mortal sin, which can bar us forever from His friendship in Heaven if unrepented.
Yes, it is in fact God that is excluded and His absence from our lives by the sinful choices which we freely make that is the greatest injustice in the world today. The exclusion of God is the greatest sin.
The quiet “attrition” by which Catholics abandon the Faith, and individualism of indifference, can be true even among us who attend Mass and receive the sacraments. Benedict XVI addressed this phenomenon.
“First, as you know, it is becoming more and more difficult, in our Western societies, to speak in a meaningful way of ‘salvation’. Yet salvation — deliverance from the reality of evil, and the gift of new life and freedom in Christ — is at the heart of the Gospel. We need to discover, as I have suggested, new and engaging ways of proclaiming this message and awakening a thirst for the fulfillment which only Christ can bring. It is in the Church’s liturgy, and above all in the sacrament of the Eucharist, that these realities are most powerfully expressed and lived in the life of believers; perhaps we still have much to do in realizing the Council’s vision of the liturgy as the exercise of the common priesthood and the impetus for a fruitful apostolate in the world.
“Second, we need to acknowledge with concern the almost complete eclipse of an eschatological sense in many of our traditionally Christian societies. As you know, I have pointed to this problem in the Encyclical Spe Salvi. Suffice it to say that faith and hope are not limited to this world: as theological virtues, they unite us with the Lord and draw us toward the fulfillment not only of our personal destiny but also that of all creation. Faith and hope are the inspiration and basis of our efforts to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God. In Christianity, there can be no room for purely private religion: Christ is the Savior of the world, and, as members of his Body and sharers in his prophetic, priestly and royal munera, we cannot separate our love for him from our commitment to the building up of the Church and the extension of his Kingdom. To the extent that religion becomes a purely private affair, it loses its very soul” (Meeting with the Bishops of the United States of America, Responses of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Questions Posed by the Bishops, National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., April 16, 2008).
Would that we convened a synod which discussed the need for the radical inclusion of God, as a cure for the ills of the world and of families today? Yes, we do indeed need to “enlarge the space of our tents,” by including the Lord and His holy plans for us and our world.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ our King, now and forever.
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