An important Note from Notes

Leo Wong found this thoughtful reflection on Catholicism. Among the more Foolish points:

What is this mysterious goodness in thinking – independence of mind combined with interdependence and sense of mutuality, clarity, lucidity, charity, forbearance, openness to reality, balance, proportionality, loyalty to something beyond the self . . . ? Where do you find these qualities today? Do you find them at all in the tomes of our "intellectuals…"?

Well, let’s see . . . I was reading Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith: The Church as Communion, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger -- the new Pope, Benedictus XVI. His writing almost brought tears to my eyes. It is so lucid, with every word and every sentence counting for something. He writes: "… obeying Christ means obeying his body, obeying him in his body… the obedience to Jesus [is] a matter of overcoming Adam’s disobedience… Only in this way can the renunciation of idolizing oneself be given concrete form… In an age in which emancipation is regarded as the true heart of redemption, and freedom appears as the right to do everything I myself want to, and only that, the concept of obedience is, so to speak, anathematized. It has been excised, not merely from our vocabulary, but from our thinking. Yet this conception of freedom is the very thing that has made people incapable of living with one another, incapable of loving…"

The most Foolish idea that she raises, though, has to be this:

I sense that Protestant rationalism and even its step-child, Quaker puritanism, are forces that are devouring the world and all that is good in it. It is not that they "mean" to do it, and it is not that they do not offer standards. It is just that the standards they offer do not fully encompass the act of thinking. They fail at incarnation, at being fully incarnated in the body, in history and in morals. It is a strange paradox that the Mysteries must be guarded by these tangible reminders. But get rid of the tangibles and you are left not with the intangible Mystery, but with a horde of self-appointed little popes speaking the language of derision.

Catholics have not forgotten the importance of incarnation. We understand, through the theater analogy of life, that God is more the Directory and Stage Manager than Actor. His creation is the medium by which he intervenes in the world. Even with the American Catholic urge to complete the assimilation process begun so long ago and accelerated after the Second Vatican Council, we still understand incarnation in our bones.

Consider our worship. The most sacred celebration of our Faith is the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist--a ritual meal. We find the greatest spiritual blessing in the everyday sharing of food. Intercessory prayer is another example. We call on those that have gone before us to the Father to share our prayer and theirs, so that through their prayer--joined with ours--our Father may hear us. Even traditional art and music serve as rich exemplars of how we see God present in His creation, the Spirit and material joined together. And why not? We worship an incarnational God who saved us all through the ultimate act of incarnation: death on the crresurrectionsurection from death! Catholics are an incarnational people.

That's why we make the best swing voters. Neither The trumpeting of elephants or the braying of Donkeys captures our entire loyalty. Both of the platforms do not consider the incorporation of their ideas into practical reality. They are ideological, not incarnational. At our core, we understand this. Sure. Obviously the Stupid Party gets the instrumental issues. Life is a sacred gift. Does that mean we happily go frolicking to the polling station with visions of dancing elephants delighting us all the way? I doubt it! We understand the mythology of the sovereign individual that so many elements of the Republican Party appear to uphold. Likewise, we see through the illusion of the Nanny State and the woMolochof moloch and thanatos that the Democratic party appear to have wedded. How could we not? We're Catholic! We see that life is not simply programmed and then executed. Life is lived. That means ideas and actions have a complex interaction. Individual, family, community and society share a precarious relationship.

Of course Protestants understand incarnation. It just does not shape their religious culture nearly as strongly as it does ours. We have gestures and practices that literally move our bodies in prayer that we take for granted, which many Protestants do not even think about doing. A classic example is crossing ourselves before prayer. I have had many occasions to pray with a variety of protestant Christians. Whenever they begin to pray, they pray. I'm the only one crossing himself!

Our ecclesiologylesiology has remained consistent thanks to our magisterium. Without it, Protestants have no final authority that can speak for doctrine for all Protestants.

Granted, not all Catholic are united. However, how many divisions of Catholics are there in the world? Consider the diversity of the doctrines and disciplines that Catholics of every Rite hold. Now, compare that with the variety of Protestant denominations around. Consider, also, the range of doctrine and disciplines that they may hold.

What is the common denominator that may account for these differences? Catholics--whether Roman or Orthodox, hold to a Tradition that apostolic Apostlic Succession and a Magisterium--a Teaching Authority.

This in no way is meant to denigrate Protestant Christians. Quite honestly, I have encountered Christ far more regularly in the personal lives of the Protestants that I volunteer my time with than more than a few Catholics! No, it's meant to assess why Catholic culture, growing out of the Faith, more consistently holds to an incarnational perspective. For this worldview has, indeed, allowed the Catholic to better survive the Post-Modern travesties of thought that currently rot away Western Civilization than some Protestant Denominations.

We must embody Christ. That is the only cure for the nihilistic cancer that threatens all civilized societies. An incarnational worldview allows people to best embody the Savior.