Who wants to be a Marine? Well everyone does. Their maxim- "the few, the proud, the Marines".
What does it take to be a Marine- hard work, aspiring to be the best, elitism and a conviction that it is necessary.
When you hold up an ideal. Everyone wants to aspire to it.
Like the Church. Once being Catholic was considered elite- the shock troops of Christianity, ready to shed blood in a moment for the Truth. Membership in the Church was necessary for salvation (Pius IX thought so in his Syllabus of Errors), and it took hard work. There was ritual, mystery, aspiration for the best- for sanctity.
We've ripped out the altar rails, dispensed with holy days of obligation, reduced requirements for fasting and eliminated the necessity of adhering to the belief and system of the True Faith. Optional. Unnecessary. All inclusive.
And guess what? No one wants it.
5 comments:
I think there has been a movement toward the Salvation Army or the limp wristed conscientious objector model.
As Islam advances and perhaps a few liberal heads roll ... the Church as the bulwark of all civilization may re-emerge.
So limp wristed, even Jesus wouldn't let Peter use the sword, huh?
In any case, if you notice, the Marines are struggling to fill the ranks so I would have to disagree with you that everyone wants to be a Marine.
According to my brothers, both of whom are Marines, the shortages are so acute they are seriously understaffed in battle. Not cool.
But to address your larger point, I would agree with you completely that lowering standards within the Church does not make people want it.
RCM: Wouldn't you agree though, that the reasons why people don't want to be Marines is because we live in a hedonistic society where people are unused to sacrificing for others?
And Jesus wasn't a conscientious objector. Telling Peter not to use the sword was clearly an indication that this battle - the battle for our souls - is not one in which swords are used.
So true. When Pope Benedict XVI quoted an Emporor who noted Islam's commitment to violence (by which me meant the slaughter of innocents), our enlightened Bishops responded (eight days later) by stating that such attitudes were not inspiring to "authentic Christians."
So guess we should denounce those who fought back the Sword of Islam at Lepanto, then excommunicate Don John of Austria.
No one wants sacrifice? It's much worse: no one wants to even speak the truth, even when the consequences are not death or dismemberment, but merely being unpopular with the posers in our Church.
The Church that demands less gets less; the Church that demands more gets more--just like the Marines.
Post a Comment