What St Dominic Can Teach Us Catholic Men
St Dominic's feast day is August 8th. He founded an order of preachers to combat the Albigensian heresy. That heresy created a lot of havoc in the Church in the early 13th century. We can learn a few things from him as Catholic men at work.
First, he took the heresy he fought against very seriously. It's hard to find anyone who even understands what "heresy" really means these days. Heresy is an opinion or doctrine at variance with established religious doctrine. The accepted wisdom today is that if you do recognize a heresy, you should be "tolerant." That wasn't St Dominic's way. He put forth a constant effort to preach the truth to the Albigensian heretics.
We Catholic men don't need to "tolerate" heresy when we come across it. At the very least, we should recognize it for what it is. Abortion's a prevalent example. How many people do you know who support a woman's "right to choose." How many are Catholics? If a Catholic supports "abortion rights," they commit the sin of heresy. The Church couldn't be clearer in its teaching that abortion is murder. It's taught this since the beginning of the Church, i.e., for centuries. If you can't correct the heretic, at least pray for them, which brings us to the second thing we can learn from St Dominic: charity.
The great saint, a master preacher who swayed the hearts and minds of thousands of heretics and brought them back to the church, worked with supreme charity, always separating the sin and the sinner in his mind. While we shouldn't tolerate heresy, we also can't be judging heretics. With great charity, we sincerely pray for them. If the opportunity presents itself, we may try to explain the nature of their mistake (whether willful or simply out of ignorance), but pray at the very least.
Finally, let's learn from St Dominic's example. When he first started preaching to the Albigensians, he did so at the request of the Pope. He was given the assignment to work with the Cistercians, monks who lived among the heretics. Unfortunately, the Cistercians at the time lived a life of luxury. They made no headway with the heretics, because those preaching the Albigensian heresy did not live in luxury. So ordinary people were drawn to the Albigensians and repulsed by the Cistercians, even though the Cistercians were preaching the Truth. It's only human nature, even if it was a mistake in judgment on the part of the ordinary people.
St Dominic understood all this. He convinced the Cistercians to reform their ways. And he himself lived a modest life. He attracted people by his piety, learning, speaking skills, but most of all by his example.
We Catholic men need to attract people to the Church by our example, above all. And if we are ever to correct a heretic, it will be more by that than by our convincing arguments.
I've known Catholic men - good men - who are brilliant at arguing the faith. I've seen them debate non-Catholics and, yes, heretics, on points of doctrine. I don't know if all their debating points ever attracted any of these people to the Truth. But I do know that their good example, in some cases, did.
So if (like me) you're not especially good at debating, don't fret. Any of us can give good example. If you can't beat 'em, don't join 'em. Be a good example to them of a Catholic man.
First, he took the heresy he fought against very seriously. It's hard to find anyone who even understands what "heresy" really means these days. Heresy is an opinion or doctrine at variance with established religious doctrine. The accepted wisdom today is that if you do recognize a heresy, you should be "tolerant." That wasn't St Dominic's way. He put forth a constant effort to preach the truth to the Albigensian heretics.
We Catholic men don't need to "tolerate" heresy when we come across it. At the very least, we should recognize it for what it is. Abortion's a prevalent example. How many people do you know who support a woman's "right to choose." How many are Catholics? If a Catholic supports "abortion rights," they commit the sin of heresy. The Church couldn't be clearer in its teaching that abortion is murder. It's taught this since the beginning of the Church, i.e., for centuries. If you can't correct the heretic, at least pray for them, which brings us to the second thing we can learn from St Dominic: charity.
The great saint, a master preacher who swayed the hearts and minds of thousands of heretics and brought them back to the church, worked with supreme charity, always separating the sin and the sinner in his mind. While we shouldn't tolerate heresy, we also can't be judging heretics. With great charity, we sincerely pray for them. If the opportunity presents itself, we may try to explain the nature of their mistake (whether willful or simply out of ignorance), but pray at the very least.
Finally, let's learn from St Dominic's example. When he first started preaching to the Albigensians, he did so at the request of the Pope. He was given the assignment to work with the Cistercians, monks who lived among the heretics. Unfortunately, the Cistercians at the time lived a life of luxury. They made no headway with the heretics, because those preaching the Albigensian heresy did not live in luxury. So ordinary people were drawn to the Albigensians and repulsed by the Cistercians, even though the Cistercians were preaching the Truth. It's only human nature, even if it was a mistake in judgment on the part of the ordinary people.
St Dominic understood all this. He convinced the Cistercians to reform their ways. And he himself lived a modest life. He attracted people by his piety, learning, speaking skills, but most of all by his example.
We Catholic men need to attract people to the Church by our example, above all. And if we are ever to correct a heretic, it will be more by that than by our convincing arguments.
I've known Catholic men - good men - who are brilliant at arguing the faith. I've seen them debate non-Catholics and, yes, heretics, on points of doctrine. I don't know if all their debating points ever attracted any of these people to the Truth. But I do know that their good example, in some cases, did.
So if (like me) you're not especially good at debating, don't fret. Any of us can give good example. If you can't beat 'em, don't join 'em. Be a good example to them of a Catholic man.
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