Friday 7th February 2025

Home » Our Catholic Faith » Currently Reading:

A Leaven In The World… Spiritual Materialism Cannot Save Your Soul

August 19, 2019 Our Catholic Faith No Comments

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK

Some call it cafeteria Catholic. It manifests itself as a demand to take one thing Christ handed down in the Church while rejecting others likewise handed down.
The Eucharist is the Real Presence of the Lord and it is thus the source and summit of our faith. The sight of the faithful going forward at Mass and receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord is deeply rooted in Catholic experience. Which is awesome, considering who it is we thus receive! If we truly understood that the One greater than which cannot be imagined was before us, we might be seized by an immobilizing fear of offending Him and remain in our pews, bent knees trembling upon the floor.
The sight of faithful streaming forward at Communion in Mass should, however, be emblematic of our faith experience. It is right and just for He who gives commanded: “Take and eat, this is my Body.” The Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier truly present under the sign of bread is the most powerful effect of His love consummated for our sake on the holy cross.
As I like to teach, the Lord’s perfect prayer of the Holy Mass in which we participate through Baptism results in the perfect gift of His true and Real Presence of the Eucharist, which we fruitfully receive if in a state of grace.
But familiarity also breeds attitudes other than wonder, awe, and fear of the Lord. Receiving the Lord of Heaven and Earth in the hand no doubt has had its part to play in the long-term degradation of faith in the Eucharist. Treating the Body and Blood of the Lord like ordinary bread militates against the Catholic faith one may profess. And the faith has always demanded its influence in action.
Denying the faith in one’s postures and gestures while professing it in words has had other deleterious effects on the witness of the Church outside of Mass, such as voting pro-abortion within the privacy of election balloting and failing to stand up and be heard on the issue of redefining marriage — just a couple of the ways that God is denied in His world today, also by self-described Catholics.
How many priests over the years have given Communion in the hand against their own better judgment? They depend for their livelihood on bishops who have caved before this faith-eroding aberration, legally permitted as it is by indult. This sets up a collision course which cannot be avoided once the Traditional Mass begins to make its way back into the parishes. The Traditional Mass admits of no slippery slopes leading to possible profanation of, irreverence toward, or disbelief in, the sacraments.
It seems now that one may be as pious in speech as one wishes, just as long as one does not cause discomfort to others less inclined by expressing such convictions in one’s behavior. This might explain why in some parishes one sees a visiting celebrant physically shove a paten-bearing altar server away as Communion begins and appear to grow angrier as scores of faithful kneel to receive our Lord in the Eucharist. Again, the message seems to be “talk as piously as you like, but don’t ask me to watch you physically express such sentiments through venerable Catholic customs.”
The privatization of belief has far-reaching consequences. One of these is a chilling effect on evangelization. The following scenario plays out again and again in many locations.
A woman comes back to Mass after many years away from practice. She is not married in the Church and unable to be so as she lives with a man who is previously married in a valid Catholic ceremony. She begins discussions with a priest while attending Mass a few times and taking part in some parish activities outside of Mass. After a couple of weeks she abruptly announces to her village neighbors with whom she has attended the liturgy, to their chagrin, that she is not going to “this church” anymore. When asked what she means, she says that she wants to go to Mass where no one knows her and she can receive Communion.
You see, she doesn’t want to go to Confession or promise to live as a sister with the man with whom she shares a home, the usual path necessary for anyone in similar circumstances before returning to reception of the Eucharist in a state of grace. Grace builds only upon grace.
The error of spiritual materialism is at work in those who fail to understand they cannot truly receive the Christ they can see in the Holy Eucharist while rejecting the Christ they cannot see but who truly speaks in the Church’s teaching on marriage and in the voice of the priest in the confessional as he confers absolution.
Why the demand to receive God on one’s own terms and without regard for the necessity of doing so in a state of grace so as to avoid further sin and to grow in grace as the Lord desires?
It might have something to do with the fact that in any typical parish on a weekly basis an observer sees 99 percent of the people going forward at Communion time to receive the Lord as He gives Himself in the Eucharist. This while the priest in the confessional prior to Mass was unable to give the Lord through the grace of absolution because none of those people availed themselves of the sacrament of forgiveness. This scene repeats itself countless times nearly every weekend, close to 52 times a year.
Nearly an entire generation may have fallen away from belief in or practice of one of the seven sacraments, the only one for absolving of grave sin under ordinary circumstances. Which might explain why so many individuals of a certain generation refuse the Sacrament of Confession even on their deathbeds, witnessing which causes this priest to shudder with abject fear for the salvation of their eternal souls. Which now-canonized saint would have rejected the forgiving Jesus in their last moments on this Earth? Not one.
A breakdown in teaching which demonstrates the inner connection in Christ between all of the sacraments and all of the teaching in faith and morals, all handed down through the Church, is the missing piece of the puzzle for many Catholics. Reject one sacrament and you reject all, for it is the same Jesus we profess to love in each. Reject one teaching and you reject the holiness of life in Christ.
One cannot love Jesus present in the Eucharist while, in serious sin, rejecting His voice which says, “I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more” in the absolution of the confessional. Love is also saying you are sorry.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
Watch for my first tweet after a 90 day Twitter fast coming soon @IntroiboAdAltar. Stay in touch at APriestLife.blogspot.com. Scripture and Catechism teachings are paired for Sunday Mass at mcitl.blogspot.com.

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE? An Open Letter to My Brother Bishops (and to the lay faithful!)

You gather here today, present-day apostles, as the Church and, therefore, the world stand perched on the edge of a cliff. And yet you who are entrusted with the keeping of souls choose to speak not a word of the…Continue Reading

Former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards Dies Of Brain Cancer At 67

(LifeSiteNews) — Former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards died Monday of brain cancer at age 67, leaving behind the largest abortion chain in the nation.  “This morning our beloved Cecile passed away at home, surrounded by her family and her…Continue Reading

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

The Brew: President Trump Keeps Flooding the Zone with Sane Policies That Expose Sick, Squalid Secrets

No, it’s not manna from Heaven or multiplied loaves and fishes, because Caesar isn’t Jesus. We don’t look to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, or any mere human being to save us from our sins; Jesus already did that. But we can and should demand that the men who wield the secular sword aren’t sticking it in our backs or using it to abort babies and sexually mutilate children. Some people say that asking for that…Continue Reading

Trump Defunds International Planned Parenthood

President Donald Trump added to his excellent pro-life record today by reversing Joe Biden’s policy forcing Americans to fund International Planned Parenthood. While on Air Force One today, President Trump signed crucial pro-life executive orders which pro-life advocates have strongly prioritized and advocated for. During his first week in office last term, Trump signed the Mexico City policy in one of his first acts as president. The pro-life policy prohibits American tax dollars to groups that promote…Continue Reading

Pope Francis appoints Austin, Texas, Bishop Joe Vásquez as archbishop of Galveston-Houston

Vatican City, Jan 20, 2025 / 08:00 am In an important move for the Catholic Church in Texas on Monday, Pope Francis named Austin Bishop Joe Vásquez to replace 75-year-old Cardinal Daniel DiNardo as head of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. DiNardo, who was made a cardinal in 2007 and who led the U.S. bishops’ conference as president from 2016–2019, turned 75 — the standard retirement age for Catholic bishops — in May 2024. The 67-year-old…Continue Reading

Trump CDC Nominee Dave Weldon Protected Pro-Life Doctors From Being Forced to Do Abortions

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the reason the government doesn’t give money to entities that discriminate against pro-life health care providers. In 2005, then-Rep. David Weldon, R-Fla., first proposed the Weldon Amendment, which prohibits Department of Health and Human Services funds from going to entities that discriminate against providers that don’t pay for, provide, cover, or refer for abortions. The amendment has been readopted in every HHS…Continue Reading

Donald Trump elected president in decisive win over Kamala Harris

(LifeSiteNews) — Republican former President Donald Trump has won this year’s election to become the 47th president of the United States, defeating Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Fox News called the 2024 presidential race for Trump around 1:50 a.m. EST on Wednesday after declaring him the winner of swing states Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Associated Press has since called the election for Trump.

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)