Unmerciful Church

The Lantern Vol 3

In our Catholic faith God is not an unknown deity that we have figured out over the centuries. He is a revealed God. A god who not only revealed Himself through the ages, but a God who sent His son to share in our humanity as a teacher, as a prophet, and most of all as an example.

When we discuss our understanding of God we see time and time again that he is Holy.

He is justice, righteousness goodness, as we pray in mass, he is holy , holy , holy.

This is how we should model ourselves in our quest for righteousness. This is not self righteousness, i.e. a desire to be right. Our desire should be righteousness for the honor and glory of God. I feel this is best described as a right ordering. Putting things right.

As the evils of sexual immorality perpetrated the priesthood like a cancer we were taught not to look for a Holy God but only a merciful God.

This concept of mercy alone went hand in hand with the concept of non judgement. Where before we fought the evils of the day, we were slowly convinced to ignore evil. "Who are we to judge", was the mantra. Catholic moral theology was corrupted by evil priests and bishops who wanted to live a life of sin yet not be judged and they convinced a generation of catholic's to hide child molestation, priestly prostitution and infidelity.

Christians now tolerate the absurd, until it becomes the norm, then we do not have the moral courage to confront public evils. We yield to the societal peer pressure that we created by our silence.

Decades of Catholic truth were brought into question as if we had no idea of God or his teachings. It was a veil of confusion taught through the pulpits, the schools and diocesan programs to undermine the resolve of Catholics. A just God was no more, only a God of Mercy.

Catholics and many in society were turned into lukewarm, apathetic bystanders.

This is not Catholic teaching, a God void of Justice and truth. Mercy is an attribute of Justice The constant teaching of the Church is a God of Justice who after putting things right, grants us a mercy we do not deserve.

From the book of Sirach we have a teaching on wisdom. Chapter 5: 5-7

5 Do not be so confident of forgiveness that you add sin upon sin. 6 Do not say, “His mercy is great;

my many sins he will forgive.” For mercy and anger alike are with him; his wrath comes to rest on the wicked.

7 Do not delay turning back to the LORD, do not put it off day after day. For suddenly his wrath will come forth; at the time of vengeance, you will perish.

For decades we have broken the first commandment. I am the lord your God and created a false God. A God conceived in the dark hearts of false priests. Mercy has been the mantra, devoid of righteousness holiness, of true love.

Mercy without truth and justice and right ordering is injustice. To allow child molesters to continue to have access to children or to act as spiritual leader is unjust to the innocent. This is not mercy but injustice.

The concept of being just has been compromised to mean we never judge. That is a crazy thought because each day we make judgments, decisions based on what is wrong or right. Our entire society is based on laws, preconceived values of right and wrong. Christ calls us to judge right and wrong and to live our lives accordingly.

What we are told not to do to do is to judge a person’s soul.

This is for God alone. Scriptures do call us to judge one another’s actions and call them to righteousness. I do not know if an abortion doctor will go to hell but I know he is murdering children. This watered down and misleading teaching of non judgement is what we see today in our church. A church filled with corruption scandal and confusion. A church with leadership so corrupted and wrapped in decades of lies and ruled by injustice. The faithful are persecuted , the righteous and holy are mocked and the corrupt and sinful continue to try and lead the faithful.

Yes, we see the mercy of God each day that he allows our sins to continue unpunished, yet we will not see justice , righteousness or holiness return to the church until we the faithful stand together to fight this evil . An evil clear to see but constantly denied which I will address next.