Why Gaining and Edge at Work Has Never Been More Important - 3
We've been talking about gaining an edge at work. The mess created
by COVID and the lockdowns imposed by governments motivated this. We're revisiting the areas we first focused on a few posts ago: Family, the Economy, Social Unrest, the Church. We've addressed Family, the Economy, and Social Unrest in our last three posts. Today we move on to the Church. Let's start where we left off last time:
...The Church has thrived in war and peace, good times and bad. It will continue to do so.
Or will it? We'll circle back to the issues that have grown in recent decades, springing from both the leaders and followers of our contemporary institutional Church. As we'll see next time, we're not only looking for an edge to keep our work up to snuff. Some of us may have some serious decisions to make.
"Or will it?" was a rhetorical question. Our Catholic Religion teaches that the Church, the Bride of Christ, our Holy Mother, will last until the end of time. Period. There's no possibility of that not happening.
Of course, how it happens remains open to discussion. Will it once again be the Mother of a new "Christendom"? Will it reside in the minds and hearts of a mere few individuals driven underground by new virulent waves of persecution not seen since Roman times? Maybe somewhere in between? We have no way of knowing.
What we do know is this: When COVID struck Our dear Holy Mother Church had already suffered terrible wounds from the secularist, modernist agenda seeded by the Enlightenment and the Protestant Revolt that ripped her apart. The separation of Protestants from the the Roman Church inflicted an open wound that has remained open and bleeding for centuries. What remained of the "faithful" Roman Catholics has been steadily infected and poisoned by modernist ideas that gutted centuries of tradition. We've talked about all this recently, so we won't rehash it again. Let's move on to our immediate concern: How to deal with the distraction caused by the current state of the Church.
(You can find a quick re-cap of what's unsettling about the current state of the Church HERE.)
Not having access to Mass or the Sacraments (specifically Holy Communion, Confession) can be distracting to any serious Catholic. I must admit, though, that, for me, it has not been all that bad. It was more disconcerting the first few weeks, but things settled down a bit after that.
For the first few weeks, the main distraction was as much a change of habit as anything else: I used to attend Mass most days. I used to receive Holy Communion most days. I used to go to Confession about once a month. That abruptly stopped. The change threw me off stride. It had its effect on my work, although not a severe effect. As time passed, the effect lessened.
So, frankly, on a day-to-day practical level, the distractions caused by the absence of Mass and Sacraments were pretty much lighter than those caused by immediate concerns with family and friends, the impact of the economic catastrophe, and the violence caused by thugs and vandals. These three were more immediate and had a palpable impact.
In considering why the current state of the Church hasn't been as much of a distraction, I've concluded that it's not because I placed my concerns with the Church on a lower level. It's some combination of the fact that: a) as already mentioned, the Church has suffered persisting deep wounds for centuries (Protestantism/Enlightenment); b) to the extent that scabs formed on those wounds, these were ripped off after Vatican II. That awareness had seeped into my consciousness years ago. As a result, I think a settling process took place: I couldn't really do much about it so it wasn't a pressing matter on a day-to-day basis. It's not that it wasn't important. It's just that, given its perceived intransigence, it didn't seem all that urgent.
But when COVID and the subsequent lock-downs descended on us, there was a bit of an "Ah-hah" moment. After living with a bad situation for so many years, thinking it couldn't get any worse, all of a sudden the church doors were locked and the Sacraments taken away. What?!!
Still, as noted above, the impact and therefore the potential distraction at work hasn't been all that bad. Did I not care about Mass and the Sacraments after all? I did wonder for a while. And that did become a bit of a distraction as I worked through the day. Some combination of guilt and confusion would seep into my daily activity. So I prayed on it. I went to my Father, my Savior, and their Holy Spirit and sought for some kind of explanation for the seeming indifference.
It turned out not to be a matter of indifference at all. In fact, it would seem it's been a reinforcement of a level of faith I didn't suspect I possessed. As the truth emerged - and thankfully it did so quickly - the distraction lessened. And as the realization that my faith had been put to the test and had passed (even if it was only with a C+), the impact of our C-Virus mess on the Church became less and less of a daily concern.
The C-Virus mess highlighted the depths of the dysfunction perpetrated by secularism and modernism in the institutional Church and its current leaders. How? What sort of Church leadership kow-tows to civil authorities who demand the continued closure of churches even as they "allow" demonstrators (and rioters) to herd and march without masks? Or push back the opening of churches behind opening business and social venues? Or who dictate what conditions will be "acceptable" for people to worship God? Any serious Catholic who's given all this a moment's attention and a modicum of thought should have wondered how it has come to this.
And despite it not being as distracting as I had thought it would be, it has given me pause to reassess my relationship to the Church and how that relationship might look in the future. Next time.
...The Church has thrived in war and peace, good times and bad. It will continue to do so.
Or will it? We'll circle back to the issues that have grown in recent decades, springing from both the leaders and followers of our contemporary institutional Church. As we'll see next time, we're not only looking for an edge to keep our work up to snuff. Some of us may have some serious decisions to make.
"Or will it?" was a rhetorical question. Our Catholic Religion teaches that the Church, the Bride of Christ, our Holy Mother, will last until the end of time. Period. There's no possibility of that not happening.
Of course, how it happens remains open to discussion. Will it once again be the Mother of a new "Christendom"? Will it reside in the minds and hearts of a mere few individuals driven underground by new virulent waves of persecution not seen since Roman times? Maybe somewhere in between? We have no way of knowing.
What we do know is this: When COVID struck Our dear Holy Mother Church had already suffered terrible wounds from the secularist, modernist agenda seeded by the Enlightenment and the Protestant Revolt that ripped her apart. The separation of Protestants from the the Roman Church inflicted an open wound that has remained open and bleeding for centuries. What remained of the "faithful" Roman Catholics has been steadily infected and poisoned by modernist ideas that gutted centuries of tradition. We've talked about all this recently, so we won't rehash it again. Let's move on to our immediate concern: How to deal with the distraction caused by the current state of the Church.
(You can find a quick re-cap of what's unsettling about the current state of the Church HERE.)
Not having access to Mass or the Sacraments (specifically Holy Communion, Confession) can be distracting to any serious Catholic. I must admit, though, that, for me, it has not been all that bad. It was more disconcerting the first few weeks, but things settled down a bit after that.
For the first few weeks, the main distraction was as much a change of habit as anything else: I used to attend Mass most days. I used to receive Holy Communion most days. I used to go to Confession about once a month. That abruptly stopped. The change threw me off stride. It had its effect on my work, although not a severe effect. As time passed, the effect lessened.
So, frankly, on a day-to-day practical level, the distractions caused by the absence of Mass and Sacraments were pretty much lighter than those caused by immediate concerns with family and friends, the impact of the economic catastrophe, and the violence caused by thugs and vandals. These three were more immediate and had a palpable impact.
In considering why the current state of the Church hasn't been as much of a distraction, I've concluded that it's not because I placed my concerns with the Church on a lower level. It's some combination of the fact that: a) as already mentioned, the Church has suffered persisting deep wounds for centuries (Protestantism/Enlightenment); b) to the extent that scabs formed on those wounds, these were ripped off after Vatican II. That awareness had seeped into my consciousness years ago. As a result, I think a settling process took place: I couldn't really do much about it so it wasn't a pressing matter on a day-to-day basis. It's not that it wasn't important. It's just that, given its perceived intransigence, it didn't seem all that urgent.
But when COVID and the subsequent lock-downs descended on us, there was a bit of an "Ah-hah" moment. After living with a bad situation for so many years, thinking it couldn't get any worse, all of a sudden the church doors were locked and the Sacraments taken away. What?!!
Still, as noted above, the impact and therefore the potential distraction at work hasn't been all that bad. Did I not care about Mass and the Sacraments after all? I did wonder for a while. And that did become a bit of a distraction as I worked through the day. Some combination of guilt and confusion would seep into my daily activity. So I prayed on it. I went to my Father, my Savior, and their Holy Spirit and sought for some kind of explanation for the seeming indifference.
It turned out not to be a matter of indifference at all. In fact, it would seem it's been a reinforcement of a level of faith I didn't suspect I possessed. As the truth emerged - and thankfully it did so quickly - the distraction lessened. And as the realization that my faith had been put to the test and had passed (even if it was only with a C+), the impact of our C-Virus mess on the Church became less and less of a daily concern.
The C-Virus mess highlighted the depths of the dysfunction perpetrated by secularism and modernism in the institutional Church and its current leaders. How? What sort of Church leadership kow-tows to civil authorities who demand the continued closure of churches even as they "allow" demonstrators (and rioters) to herd and march without masks? Or push back the opening of churches behind opening business and social venues? Or who dictate what conditions will be "acceptable" for people to worship God? Any serious Catholic who's given all this a moment's attention and a modicum of thought should have wondered how it has come to this.
And despite it not being as distracting as I had thought it would be, it has given me pause to reassess my relationship to the Church and how that relationship might look in the future. Next time.
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