Leaving or Leaven?
The Bruderhof movement is a great example of community, but it is based on heretical ideas that the entire world is evil. Of course, this idea is either Manichean or Calvinism (or the modern equivalent-Christian Scientism, which believes that all matter is evil).
Heresies which hold that the world is evil see all matter as fallen and not redeemed by Christ.
Catholics believe in the opposite, that God recreated the world on Calvary.
The confusion is in the term "the world". Yes, the immorality of "the world" leads us astray, but the response of the Catholic is not to leave but to be leaven.
If a group developes a "moat mentality", that group becomes a cult.
This last century witnessed the rise of cults, including Christian cults.
Now, I was in a community for seven years. This was an urban community of 2,000 people. On the whole, the experience proved to be beneficial to my spiritual growth, and especially to developing a life of discipline.
This group was not cultic. However, many cults attracted people of my generation, people who wanted both a spirituality and structure.
Sadly, too many traditional Catholics have become cultic. A cultic group demands that all women dress alike, or that all people pray the same prayers.
Cultic behavior many times encircles a strong personality, such as a strong priest, who is treating his flock like children and not leading them to become adults.
Too many cultic leaders shine in the glow of specialized groupings. This "cult of personality" provides a false security which takes people away from God, away from the Church, and away from their own adult responsibilities.
An adult is one who takes responsibility for his own spiritual life without depending on either a spiritual director or a priest.
To become holy, one must become a responsible, spiritual adult, (a theme of this blog).
If one leaves the mainline Church and becomes cultic, one's soul is in grave danger. One then has a tendency to be more Roman than Rome and more holy than the saints.
None of the saints fell into cultic behavior. Those who were lay people, such as Louis and Zelie Martin, remained in the world as "leaven".
They did not leave the world, but changed it. Such is the call of the lay saint.
Is it hard to stay in the world and be a saint? Yes, but that is our call.
