David Ancell / Saturday June 07, 2003
I just posted this to Busted Halo when a member started a thread about dissent:
1. The Church is not a mere opinion body. The Magisterium is given the authority by Christ to “bind and loose.” She can only present what Christ has taught. Therefore, all that the Church teaches is a revelation from God.
2. “I don’t agree with it.” can often be truly translated as “I don’t like it.” If we find ourselves in disagreement with a Church teaching, it may be the old tendencies towards sin brought about by our wounded nature. Many Church teachings are difficult, but it makes them no less binding. In fact, when difficulties arise, we should be more eager to obey than risk disobeying out of the weakness of our flesh.
3. When we don’t think we agree with what the Church teaches, we should always assume that the Church is right and that it is our understanding that is wrong. More on this later, but it is truly not a blind faith that we are to have but a faith seeking understanding. We should do our best to seek understanding.
4. God’s ways are not our ways. Remember that God created the universe. It goes without saying that he is wiser than any human being ever was or ever will be. He knows best. He has an eternal perspective; we have a limited perspective. Therefore, he will understand what we do not. The right thing in his eyes may not make sense to us because we are missing part of the picture.
5. To assume the right to disagree with even one aspect of Church teaching is to make all of Church teaching subject to our opinion. In this case, we try to become our own God. It just happens that we agree with the other teachings or we wouldn’t follow them either.
Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized
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