When
Catholics fall into the ways of the world and pick and choose
what elements of the church they think is true and reject other parts they
really, in a profound way, cease to be Catholics because by doing so they are
saying, "This is not a revealed religion. This is, after all, simply a
man-made rule of a man made institution. I can therefore do what I like."
What the Catholic Church needs now more than ever are good, solid,
supernaturally inspired, joyful, dynamic and energetic Catholics. What we need
are Catholics who are empowered by the supernatural vision of the Church of
Christ alive in the world as an objective reality –not something that exists -
only if you happen to like it.
Too many
people think that if you believe something it makes it so, and if you do not
believe something that makes it so. How often have you heard people say,
"Well, I don't believe in Hell." Then they go on living like the
devil-imagining that just not believing in Hell makes Hell go away.
Likewise a
good number of religious people think that just by believing a particular
doctrine makes it so. This is not belief. It is wishful thinking.
This form
of relativism is sometimes expressed as "If that belief works for you,
then that's good. It doesn't work for me." This is not faith it is
utilitarianism. A person chooses a belief according to how useful it is.
Most non
Catholic Christians treat the church as simply a useful, man-made
institution. They do not stop to think what might be the true church,
because they don't think such a thing exists. Instead church is like a fast
food franchise. You choose which one works for you and you can "have it
your way."
An
increasing number of Catholics operate the same way. They choose the items of
church belief and practice they like best, and reject what they don't like. St
Benedict named four types of monks, and these he called the "gyrovagues". He writes in the
Rule,
"They
are never stable throughout their own lives, but wanderers through diverse
regions, receiving hospitality in the monastic cells of others. Always roving
and never settling, they follow their own wills, enslaved by the attractions of
gluttony.
He calls
these church shoppers gluttons! No wonder we call them "Cafeteria
Catholics". Like diners at a buffet they sniff out what they like and
don't like and take a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
The reason
St Benedict links this kind of Christianity with gluttony is because the church
shoppers are driven by pleasure. Cafeteria Catholics choose what they like and
reject what doesn't suit them, never realizing that in doing so they are
undermining the very Catholicism they profess.
If you
choose to believe in something just because it attracts you or because you
think it is useful, then you are living in Never Never Land with Tinkerbell. We
don't believe Catholicism because we find it useful or attractive; we believe
Catholicism because it's true.
Catholicism
is solid and real. It is based on the life, teaching, passion, death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ –a real historical figure who was God in
human form. He founded the Catholic Church by giving his apostles his own divine
authority on earth. That Catholic Church is a real, historical institution. It
has laws and property and prelates and priests and people. Each element of the
Catholic Church is part human and part divine. The Body of Christ is incarnate
today in a real and solid way within the structures and teachings and people
and sacraments of this church.
It is not
fairyland. It is not a fantasy. It is not something that happens to be true if
you happen to choose to believe in it. The Catholic Church does not exist
because you clap your hands.
By Fr Dwight Longenecker
Parish
Priest, Our Lady of the Rosary Greenville,
South
Carolina.
< catholic.org
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