Actually…I’ll join you where it comes to the sentence to which you were referring. So, you better make room fast!
Tried to remove it, but I was too slow. I was not trying to promote moral relativism, however, but simply attempting to highlight the issue of discernment versus the act of passing personal judgement on others. It’s one thing to hold a personal religious view such as the one being described on this thread and it’s another to apply it in terms of passing severe judgement on those fellow Catholics with whom you disagree. It’s too easily done–it’s human nature–but I suggest its heading in the wrong spiritual direction.
Reminds me of a quote I like from an Anglican writer named C.S. Lewis. As he reminds us in
The Weight of Glory, there are no “
ordinary people”. Lewis continues on that “nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.” When one is faced with the sobering value of his fellow man, pride is replaced with humility. That is what I was trying to draw attention to.
Furthermore, I do believe that legalism is a problem for some “Cradle Catholics”–as well as other Christians. There is a Catholic exorcist I was reading last summer, for instance, that pointed out that the demon(s) he frequently encountered at Catholic exorcisms identified itself/themselves as “legalism”. I never much believed in demons identifying themselves as the names of particular sins. It all seemed a little too Frank Peretti to me, but I have read a number of accounts which appear to indicate that this kind of thing is not that rare–in the context of a Church approved exorcism. When I read that for the first time, it made a big impact with me, and it is an area of which I am constantly trying to be aware. I know it sounds corny, but it’s also true that the way we treat or think about others is the way we treat Christ–perhaps even more true when we are talking about those fellow Catholics who have just taken the Eucharist!
Remember what Saint Augustine wrote of the Eucharist in
Confessions, “**I am the food of full-grown men. Grow and you shall feed on me. But you shall not change me into your own substance, as you do with the food of your body. Instead you shall be changed into me.” **
That being the case, it seems rather bad form to be watching those receiving the Eucharist for the purpose of passing your critcal juddgement upon them.
