Divine Mercy Sunday - do you think it needs a counterbalance?

Blazkovitz

Blazkovitz

New member
It would be interesting and spiritually helpful to see a liturgical Day celebrating God's Justice, as a counterbalance to Mercy.
I feel that Mercy is preached too much in current Western culture, and as a result many people have lost belief in Hell.
 
Blazkovitz said:
It would be interesting and spiritually helpful to see a liturgical Day celebrating God's Justice, as a counterbalance to Mercy.
I feel that Mercy is preached too much in current Western culture, and as a result many people have lost belief in Hell.
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It might be a good idea, but in today's world, people would go berserk at the suggestion.

Perhaps the most salient feature of today's society is that many, many people are mired in habitual sins of the flesh, and have made these sins into lifestyle accessories, you could say, from which they have no intention of extricating themselves. Examples would include cohabitation with possibly daily fornication, contraception, premarital sex (which is part of the cohabitation I noted above but not confined to it,, "hookup culture" is a thing), homosexual activity, pornography and self-gratification, and possibly other things. Also not to be neglected are all of the people who live in invalid marriages that are not exactly of the Josephite variety, often to people whom it would be impossible for them to marry due to an existing valid marriage to someone else (and that's adultery). Our Lady warned us wisely at Fatima that the sins that send most people to hell are the sins of the flesh. (I had someone on another forum try to claim that perhaps she was talking about gluttony. Please. That's really reaching.)

Again, a "Feast of Divine Justice" would just drive people away, and in today's Church, in so many ways, the tail wags the dog, the inmates run the asylum, the kids tell the parents what to do. Not the way it should be, just the way it is. Your typical Catholic has no vest-pocket knowledge of what a mortal sin even is, much less what conditions make for it, nor a thumbnail list of what those sins are.
 
Blazkovitz said:
It would be interesting and spiritually helpful to see a liturgical Day celebrating God's Justice, as a counterbalance to Mercy.
I feel that Mercy is preached too much in current Western culture, and as a result many people have lost belief in Hell.
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That's been a long concern of mine too.
We must always remember God's love, mercy AND JUSTICE.
 
There is another consideration. Just putting it as plainly as I can, our culture contains many tempting alternatives to Catholicism, that go under the name of "Christian", and there's probably not a single one of them that would turn away a disaffected Catholic. Simply put, these alternatives present a generally easier vision of salvation (Orthodoxy would be an exception to this, and I'm not including them in this observation), people listen to them, it "sounds good", and if the Catholic Church would go full-court-press on concepts of judgment and damnation for those who die in mortal sin, we would probably lose even more people than we already do. Add to this, the mortal sins to which human nature inclines most strongly are those of the flesh. Many Christian confessions at least tacitly believe that these are "no big deal", and entirely deny the sinfulness of some of them, such as contraception. Add to this, many Catholics are no longer fearful of losing their salvation by leaving the Church, indeed, some of the more severe Christian confessions explicitly tell them that they will be damned if they stay in it (think Jack Chick comic books).

Long story short, if the Church pressed the matter, and highlighted God's justice, people would just leave. Truly the tail wagging the dog.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
There is another consideration. Just putting it as plainly as I can, our culture contains many tempting alternatives to Catholicism, that go under the name of "Christian", and there's probably not a single one of them that would turn away a disaffected Catholic. Simply put, these alternatives present a generally easier vision of salvation (Orthodoxy would be an exception to this, and I'm not including them in this observation), people listen to them, it "sounds good", and if the Catholic Church would go full-court-press on concepts of judgment and damnation for those who die in mortal sin, we would probably lose even more people than we already do. Add to this, the mortal sins to which human nature inclines most strongly are those of the flesh. Many Christian confessions at least tacitly believe that these are "no big deal", and entirely deny the sinfulness of some of them, such as contraception. Add to this, many Catholics are no longer fearful of losing their salvation by leaving the Church, indeed, some of the more severe Christian confessions explicitly tell them that they will be damned if they stay in it (think Jack Chick comic books).

Long story short, if the Church pressed the matter, and highlighted God's justice, people would just leave. Truly the tail wagging the dog.
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The most conservative Evangelical churches, who emphasize the threat of hellfire, are the ones that grow the fastest.
In France, where many young people return to the Catholic faith, many choose traditionalist Society of St Pius X as presenting a more authentic form of religion, indeed highlighting God's justice over Pope Francis-style mercy.

So, the ones who would leave are probably the least serious believers.
 
Blazkovitz said:
The most conservative Evangelical churches, who emphasize the threat of hellfire, are the ones that grow the fastest.
In France, where many young people return to the Catholic faith, many choose traditionalist Society of St Pius X as presenting a more authentic form of religion, indeed highlighting God's justice over Pope Francis-style mercy.

So, the ones who would leave are probably the least serious believers.
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But in those evangelical churches, they also believe that once you have accepted Jesus as your "lord and personal savior", your sins, past, present, and future, are forgiven, and many of them believe that you can never lose your salvation "no matter what". That, coupled with being relieved of the sinfulness of some things (such as contraception and marriage after divorce), makes it a pretty easy proposition. Their "hellfire and damnation" is reserved for those who haven't "gotten saved" yet. Generally speaking, they treat divorce as either having dissolved the marriage, or as recognizing that the marriage has already been dissolved. I have heard of one, and only one, case (and this through an online anecdote) where someone of that religious confession was divorced, but still regarded herself as being bound by the marriage.

I will grant that many people who make this decision go on to live very virtuous lives, not because they fear hell if they don't (there is the idea among some that if you persist in your sins, you never really got saved to begin with), but because they do not wish to disobey Our Lord. That by itself is laudable, but it doesn't take away from the fact that if these people were Catholic, they have left the Church.

The SSPX and other traditionalist movements (both Church-approved and not) attract a specific kind of person who is willing to take on the moral demands of traditional Catholic teaching. If it resonates with someone, so that they will give up a mortally sinful lifestyle, that, too, is laudable. It happens.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
Long story short, if the Church pressed the matter, and highlighted God's justice, people would just leave.
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I have always been told that.
But my experience is that those most successful churches are the ones that call their members to task for their behavior.

I am convinced that it is a mistaken notion that people would simply leave should the church highlight God's justice.
 
"Some" knowledge of evil and its father, the evil one, is good as it equips the Christian to recognize and avoid his influence. He has not stopped roaming and patrolling the earth. He remains as subtle as ever.
 
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