I guess I am too much of an idealist but what really has been on my mind and bothering me since I watched Elizabeth yesterday is the fact that anyone should have been punished by death for their faith. Whether it was protestants killing Catholics or Catholics killing protestants it just seems so wrong to me. Is that really what Jesus wanted us to do in defense of the Truth? Shouldn't belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God come to save humanity unite us even when our particular interpretations of what that means differ? Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And all of us as Christians accept Him. Is He as worried about our theological differences as we are?
I am not trying to say that such things are unimportant. I am not trying to suggest that there isn't "The" Truth. I just wonder if we may have allowed ourselves to become so preoccupied with the differences that we forget the overriding commonality we share in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe I am nothing but an evil heretic. But I just have trouble thinking that God wastes His time watching out for our "orthodoxy"; I'd rather believe that He is most concerned about whether we are truly loving one another as His Son taught. I know that way-out traditionalists would condemn someone to hell for failure to believe each and every doctrine of the faith. I can't buy a God like that though. Take the notion of Purgatory, for instance. I believe firmly in it. To me it makes wonderful intellectual sense; it seems to befit the dignity of an all-merciful God. But I don't for a moment think that God would send someone to hell for not buying into the idea. I rather believe that such a person will quickly change their tune when they spend some time there themselves. It is hard to deny a reality in which one finds oneself resident!
In some people's eyes that would make me a manifest heretic I guess. But I don't care about what others think. To me, how God views things is paramount. And I don't think He's ready to condemn me. At least not for this.
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It seems to me that what you're getting at is this: one does not need to know and understand and accept everything intellectually in order to be a good Catholic.
And I think most would agree; but we do at least have to assent that the Church is right in her teachigns, even if we don't understand. Because if we don't assent, we're not really Catholic. We do indeed have to accept a lot on faith because a lot of people don't have the time or ability to take to learn everything, think it through, etc.
My mother for instance; she's very devout (I mean truly, not in the political John Kerry version of "devout"), and she gave my brother and I a wonderful foundation of what MUST be believed, and she lived it and continues to do so. But she can't explain the doctrines, why they are what they are, the scriptural support, etc. But she BELIEVES everything.
(The danger for her these days, though, is in being led off the rails by someone who teaches dissenting doctrines...she no longer has the ability to understand but knows all about obedience. She'll obey someone she percieves to be an authority. On the flip side, her difficulty in understanding new ideas protects her from falling for too much junk.)
Considering that Jesus laid down His life for the faith, yeah I would say that He does desire us to also becomes martyrs in the faith if we are presented with that situation. The apostles certainly didn't shy away from martyrdom, did they?
Without martyrs for the faith, what would have become of us?
I shudder when I read accounts of the Elizabethan and other periods in which people were tortured and killed for their faith (whether they were Protestant or Catholic). Of course we know this is not what Christ wants, it is against everything He taught. Unfortunately in our time in some places in the world people are still being killed for their beliefs. This fratricidal impulse is obviously not of God; we can pretty well figure out where it's coming from. We have to pray that if we were ever put to the test, that we would have the courage to die for Christ. But for Christians ever to kill others in the name of religion would be blasphemy.
Fr. Charles Ledderer, The Dakotas, USA you are impersonating a Catholic priest. Your identity is fictitious. There are people on here that are believing you. I am asking you not to trick people anymore.
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