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JimG
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A good article. I liked the C.S. Lewis quote: “We want, in fact, not so much a Father in heaven as a grandfather in Heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, liked to see young people enjoying themselves.”
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Maxirad
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No offense, but a blogger using the handle Catholic in Brooklyn thinks that Msgr. Charles Pope has been too critical of Church hierarchy and Pope Francis in particular. Um, is it true that one must not be kind to sinners?
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JimG
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It seems that Msgr Pope bases his reflections mainly on a prior article by Peter Kreeft.
A quote from the linked article:
“Kindness generally seeks to alleviate suffering and negativity, but love understands that suffering often has a salvific role. My parents disciplined me out of love. Had they been merely kind to me, I would likely have been spoiled, undisciplined, and ill-prepared for life.”
A quote from the linked article:
“Kindness generally seeks to alleviate suffering and negativity, but love understands that suffering often has a salvific role. My parents disciplined me out of love. Had they been merely kind to me, I would likely have been spoiled, undisciplined, and ill-prepared for life.”
C
commenter
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I happened to be in the next room when a religion class was going on. They were using a text which was commonly used back then, which I don’t recall the name, something like “Make the Loving Choice”. There was a series of exercises, where various situations were presented.
In each exercise the students were obviously steered toward one choice. That choice was always the one that felt good, and from the students’ responses that was their reason for choosing it. None of the choices relied on any kind of absolutes of truth/false, or good/evil. An atheist would likely have made the same answers.
The title was misleading, it was all about which choices feel kind, not which are actually loving. None of the exercises directly contradicted Catholic teaching, but clearly this kind of training would not prepare anyone to defend the life of the unborn child, or to affirm that same sex marriage hurts people.
Consider one doctor who will not accept smokers in his practice. He rejects them, until they quit smoking. That is not loving. Consider another doctor, who knows smokers feel tense when someone brings up their addiction, so he never mentions it to any patients. This is kindness, not love.
Consider a third doctor, who maintains a respectful relationship with patients who smoke, but gently, on occasion, encourages them to stop, and tries to find means that will help. This is closer to what we mean by love.
A loving Church will not be obsessed with making everyone feel at home. It will gently tempt everyone toward sainthood, which means occasionally causing stress when people move away from that.
In each exercise the students were obviously steered toward one choice. That choice was always the one that felt good, and from the students’ responses that was their reason for choosing it. None of the choices relied on any kind of absolutes of truth/false, or good/evil. An atheist would likely have made the same answers.
The title was misleading, it was all about which choices feel kind, not which are actually loving. None of the exercises directly contradicted Catholic teaching, but clearly this kind of training would not prepare anyone to defend the life of the unborn child, or to affirm that same sex marriage hurts people.
Consider one doctor who will not accept smokers in his practice. He rejects them, until they quit smoking. That is not loving. Consider another doctor, who knows smokers feel tense when someone brings up their addiction, so he never mentions it to any patients. This is kindness, not love.
Consider a third doctor, who maintains a respectful relationship with patients who smoke, but gently, on occasion, encourages them to stop, and tries to find means that will help. This is closer to what we mean by love.
A loving Church will not be obsessed with making everyone feel at home. It will gently tempt everyone toward sainthood, which means occasionally causing stress when people move away from that.
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