Good Morning Granny,
As we head to the barn, as my Irish Mother would say, I wonder why there is so much fear about the “story of disobedience.”
There is no fear at all on my part Granny. First of all, I said that the story “in part” is about obedience. The obedience aspect is so obvious that it is not worth discussing. A&E disobeyed God, and there were consequences. We are to obey authority.
When someone engages in the “tampering” I mentioned earlier, (which is not of malicious intent) trying to resolve conflicting issues in theology, they may very well be doing so without the authorization of the standing Pope or other contemporary “authorities”. You have to understand that doctrine changes (revelation unfolds) extremely slowly. Some concepts “stick” while others do not. And over the years, some of Augustine’s additions did not stick, nor did those of Anselm. However, both Augustine and Anselm, while perhaps “disobeying” some existing authority by presenting the Gospel in slightly different way, were obedient to the Father they knew from within.
If I remember right, Pope Benedict (God bless him!) disagreed with some of the words put forth by Karl Rahner; to some degree then, Rahner’s works are “against authority”.
On the other hand, let’s look at the most applicable definition of the word “tamper”:
2a : to interfere so as to weaken or change for the worse —used with with
It is possible, Granny, to alter the definition of “original sin” without weakening it or changing it for the worse. Such alterations may not be “tampering” at all; indeed, they could change it for the better.
So now I have responded to your inquiry about obedience. Request: for the other person who did not respond to your question about obedience, give that person the benefit of the doubt. He may have thought as I did, that the obedience aspect is simple and obvious, or he may have become tied up in other discussions.
Interestingly, those who fear the most will say that there cannot be disagreements within the Catholic Church. Unity must be maintained. See wonderful citations in previous posts. Common sense says that the only way all humans can all agree is that all humans are living in the world before Genesis 1:25. Talk about blinders.
Now you’re talkin’ Granny! Yes, we can have great disagreement and all be Church!
So Granny, be wary of the words of people who judge that those who have different ways of looking at things are “against Catholicism”. Their accusing words can be very divisive, and divisiveness is against the workings of the Spirit. Of course, we are also called not to judge others, so saying that any Catholic is “against Catholicism” (unless the accused person agrees!) is contrary to the Gospel and clearly demonstrates disobedience to the call to charity and holiness.
In addition, be very wary of people who are “silent” about the definition of Church. Those who prefer a very narrow aspect without acknowledging the wider aspect are promoting exclusion rather than unity.
For Catholics, true unity is found in Eucharist, not in words. Yes, people disagree! Sure there is some unity in words in that we all profess the same creed and adhere to the same Gospel, but there will always be some disagreement about what those words mean. * Disagreement is not disobedience, nor is it disunion. *
