shannon e said:
Mysty and Annunciata are so right.
Jesus teaches His Truth with firmness and strength and honesty. But most of all, Jesus teaches with Love. This is hardly hogwash.
Dear shannon,
This is for you:
“The good of all good is the divine Good, just as God is for all men the Neighbor of all neighbors. In consequence, the
love due to a man, inasmuch as he is our neighbor, ought always to be subordinated to that which is due to our common Lord. For His
love and in His service we must not hesitate to offend men. The degree of our offense towards men can only be measured by the degree of our obligation to Him. Charity is primarily the
love of God, secondarily the
love of our neighbor for God’s sake. To sacrifice the first is to abandon the latter. Therefore, to offend our neighbor for the
love of God is a true act of charity. Not to offend our neighbor for the
love of God is a sin.
Modern Liberalism reverses this order; it imposes a false notion of charity: our neighbor first, and, if at all, God afterwards. By its reiterated and trite accusations toward us of intolerance, it has succeeded in disconcerting even some staunch Catholics. But our rule is too plain and too concrete to admit of misconception. It is this: Sovereign
Catholic inflexibility is sovereign
Catholic charity. This charity is practiced in relation to our neighbor when, in his own interest, he is crossed, humiliated, and chastised. It is practiced in relation to a third party when he is defended from the unjust aggression of another, as when he is protected from the contagion of error by unmasking its authors and abettors and showing them in their true light as iniquitous and pervert, by holding them up to the contempt, horror, and execration of all. It is practiced in relation to God when, for His glory and in His service, it becomes necessary to silence all human considerations, to trample under foot all human respect, to sacrifice all human interests – and even life itself – to attain this highest of all ends.
All this is
Catholic inflexibility and inflexible Catholicity in the practice of that pure
love which constitutes sovereign charity. The Saints are the types of this unswerving and sovereign fidelity to God, the heroes of charity and religion. Because in our times there are so few true inflexibles in the
love of God, so also are there few uncompromisers in the order of charity. Liberal charity is condescending, affectionate, even tender in appearance, but at bottom it is an essential contempt for the true good of men, of the supreme interests of truth and (ultimately) of God Himself. It is human self-
love, usurping the throne of the Most High and demanding that worship which belongs to God alone.”
from “Liberalism Is A Sin,” by Don Felix Sarda y Salvany, a priest of Barcelona