The Devil in the Castle.

I think the difficulty here for us as Modern Western Societies, in a large Part as a Church and also as Individuals (to a great or lesser degree) is that so much of this is profoundly counter cultural.

We have an over all assumption that there is no such thing as Good or Evil, that there are simply bad choices. Bad choices that we ourselves make and cumulative bad choices passed on from previous generations. We assume that everyone is basically a good person and that everyone is free to chart their own path with no or very little concern for consequences.

We assume that what society itself regards as right or wrong is the ultimate marker of what is right and wrong. So for instance if our present generation regards Euthanasia as a boon, the closest thing to a , 'Sin', would be not to go along with this.

We assume that Government has a , 'Right ' , to steal money from others as Taxation so that politicians can forward their own schemes, 'For the greater good.'

We have made a God of Man and assume in all things that we are getting better and better in all spheres or existence.

We are in fact the ultimate Communists. Not in name but reality.

This goes for we Catholics also. For instance to a greater or lesser degree we have implicit assumptions that all religions are basically heading in the same direction, that everyone means well, that everything is heading in a great direction. That God is up there in the sky but basically He leaves it up to us to fix things on His behalf.

We are all of us influences by these things, these Modern poisons to a great degree. How could we not be?

So when we confront the age old teaching of the Church, 'Outside the Church there is no Salvation', we choke on it and cannot quite swallow it. It is indigestible.

Previous generations could swallow it with ease, I know for instance my mother and father could and with great ease.

But we? Not so easily at all.

I watched an interview with the Agnostic Jew Dave Rubin. Dave asked Bishop Barron if he thought he would be lost as he were not a member of the Church and Bishop Barron basically bottled it and ran.

The same Bishop Barron who learnedly informed us that there is probably no Hell and if there is it is probably empty.

I think the bottom line in all of this is that if you look at the loves of most modern Catholics and the lives of those in wider society you would see no difference at all. In face Catholics tend to conform to the mores of Society more so than anyone else.

The thing is if our Faith does not change who we are and how we behave what possible use is it to be a Catholic in the first place? It is a waste of time.

When we dump basic Church Teachings like Outside the Church there is no Salvation we but into becoming part of the faceless, plastic, boring, predictable anaemic , Communistic whole.

We think that by being nice we have the Golden Ticket to heaven. Bishop Barron is very,very nice indeed.

 

This is one of the reasons why the Bishops dropped the Ball so badly on the clerical child abuse thing.

They were so nice that had no concept of the real existence of true evil. So their priests who interfered with children were not to be regarded as doing evil things, of being evil. They were just people who had made bad choices and needed, 'Fixed'.

Bad mistake at so many levels.

The fact that a person or an action can be evil simply does not compute with them. It is not part of their Modern world view or their very Modern Theology.

 

Ralph Martin wrote a good book on this subject, "Will Many be Saved?". The book is very orthodox and lays a lot of blame for the rise of Universalism in recent times on the shoulders of the Theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar. Indeed he comes across as less hostile to Karl Rahner than to von Balthasar. He also demonstrates that the documents of Vatican II were very much traditional, and again the Council has been hijacked by the modernists and we have been deceived.

 

I will say one thing about Von Balthasar which always confused but pleased me. From the very earliest days of Medugorje he always strongly supported the apparitions there. I always liked him for this but was very,very surprised that he did so.

Another very strong supporter of Medugorje was the ultra Liberal Cardinal of Austria Christoph Schonborn.

Again a very big surprise, you never can tell.

On the other hand some of the biggest critics of Medugorje have been Traditional Catholics like thus on Sensum Fidelium.

As I say, you never know.

 

There was a young man one time who fell in love with a girl and asked her to marry him. She agreed. But before the marriage he had to go to a far country to ern money for their married life. He asked her to wait for him and promised to write and phone and text and email every day. He would always be in touch.

He left by ship and at first did as he said and wrote every day. After a while he tailed off with the calls. maybe then once a week, then once a month then hardly ever.

Then one day he made the Dear Jane call and cancelled the marriage.

The Spiritual Life is a lot like this. We are headed, we hope to the Eternal Marriage with the Lamb. We have taken ship to the far country of life and the only way we can get in touch with the beloved is prayer.

Now how can we expect to join with God in Marriage in Heaven if we never message (pray) on Earth.

If we don't bother entering into a relationship with God while on Earth, how can we expect to enter an Eternal Relationship with Him in heaven? If we don't care to contact Him on Earth we certainly won't be in contact with Him in heaven.

But folks do think that it doesn't matter..