Or maybe those same individuals would like to hear it for THEMSELVES because it challenges THEM. Or maybe those same individuals think this is what the Church as a whole needs to do to better catechise a whole generation who just doesn’t know the Catholic Faith.
Why is it that whenever there is criticism it must mean that these folks are only concerned with showing others how sinful they are? It really does get old.
When one has been in ministry as long as I have, one gets to hear this line all too often and 9/10 times it’s always about the other person, including the clergy and religious. There is a tendency among some people to want to dictate what the Church should teach and to whom. Unfortunately, this tendency is often based more on arrogance than on charity. When one listens to these folks one hears the message loud and clear, “I know what needs to be done, better than the pastor, the bishop, the catechist, the pope, etc.”
Then I get the one percent who comes and says, “Brother, I struggle with this or that sin,” or “Brother, what can I do to help fight this or that sinful situation.” Those are genuinely charitable concerns. They’re not approaching telling anyone what to do. They’re admitting their sinfulness and they’re asking what they can do to eliminate sin, not telling the Church or others what they should be doing.
I always find this latter group very inspiring. Sometimes, they say something that I had not stopped to see in me or in the world around me. I end up admiring them more than leading them. These folks genuinely want to confront sin. They’re not commanding anyone else to do this or that.
One of the traits that made St. Francis so beloved by Catholics and non-Catholics alike is that he never tells anyone what they need to preach. He simply atones for his sins and teaches others to do the same. He faces sin head on, without ever mentioning what the Church should or should not do. He was so strict on this that in our statutes, if you dare make such a criticism, a superior can legitimately ask for your excommunication. Like Francis, who was like Christ, we teach others how to atone for sin at the same time that we do atonement. But we never say, "The Church does not . . . "
When I say that people who call for fire and brimstone often need to work on their life first, it’s because of years and years of experience.
When I was relatively more steeped in sin than I am now, the priest didn’t have to mention sin for me to realize I was living in it. It was part of me. It caused me to live fearfully , to hang my head in shame, to avert my eyes from people, to live a joyless life. I dismissed other people telling me I was living in sin. I would think something like “thanks for jumping on the pile, now go bend over backwards and look at your own problems”, or something to that effect.
A sermon that helped change my life was on Divine Mercy Sunday of 2002. Til that time I had tried all kinds of my own methods to overcome the misery I was living. Battling with sin is a tremendous life consuming (literally) effort. It had never ocurred to me to shut up, give up, and listen to that voice that says “I love you, and there is nothing else you need.” Those are powerful life changing words that God speaks to us.
The priest was preaching God’s mercy in a powerful way that day. He was really inspired and his voice was raising in pitch with the Holy Spirit as he spoke. The priest was talking about the 3 ways to receive mercy revealed to Sr Faustina. I can vividly remember the priests’ words to this day, saying that the third and perhaps most easily dismissed way to receive mercy is to “get on your knees and ask for it”.
Really? Just ask for it? Huh? What about living in shame, don’t I deserve that in light of my sin? Don’t I deserve to be reminded of punishment and and the inescapability of it? What about hand to hand combat with Satan? What if I just try a little harder to be “good”?
That’s all a deception. Sin only makes sense in light of surrendering it to the love of God. That surrender to God’s love slowly began to bear fruit in my life.
Awesome.
I would like to hear about hellfire and brimstone. It has never happened in my entire life though.
I think it’s more of a Protestant thing. We have great preachers like St. Leonard of Port Maurice who preached about sin and salvation. But he did not threaten people with hell. His sermons always ended by stating the fact that God waits for us to come to him. It is we who must turn away from sin and toward God, because God has always been looking in our direction. He always ended by stressing the need to love God because he loves us.
St. Francis would preach, “Love is not loved.” Again, there is not that threat of hell and fire. But a stirring of the conscience.
Many people attribute their conversion to Bl. John Paul. His message was “Be not afraid of Christ.”
St. Francis de Sales takes the same approach. He leads people to God through a devout life, not through fear.
I often wonder if Catholics may be using a Protestant expression that does not fit into Catholicism. We have never used “hell fire and brimstone”. Our greatest preacher, St. Paul, corrects faults, offers counsel and teaches about God’s love and one’s duty and privilege to respond to that love. Pointing out to sins is a very small component of Paul’s preaching. Most of his preaching is catechetical.
