I feel like I am preaching to the choir and cannot get through to those who should be reading and are not.
However, one thing I realized this weekend is that those who should be reading this blog are not.
The anti-intellectual attitude of most Catholics I am meeting here means that these people do not read things online. Nothing.
They do not take advantage of the Vatican website with all the archives of excellent encyclicals and apostolic letters. They do not read the great priest bloggers, whom we all know and love. There are many.
They do not read. And most of them I have met this past weekend are Baby Boomers. Many have computers which they seem to use for social network, but not research or learning.
The CCC is completely online. I am constantly surprised at the refusal of adults to use what is available for learning.
Instead, they spend money going on pilgrimages across Europe, thousands of euros, not looking at the necessity of fulfilling their baptismal vows, which includes learning the Faith. Reading the elocutions of seers daily is not a substitute for learning doctrine, or understanding what one says in the Creed. Most people do not approach books on the understanding of sacraments and approach these as if these were magic. Examples of this mind-set was exhibited just this week past, when someone believed Catholic women ordained as priests were real priests. And, secondly, another person believing that and actually going ahead with arranging Anglican baptisms for two grandchildren being raised by an atheist and a fallen-away Catholic. Sacraments are not "magic" and I have written on this before. The Church's teaching is that one of the parents must be Catholic and raise the child Catholic.
All of these activities which do not form one's Faith are indications of Gnosticism. People want to be "in" with the latest knowledge, without being able to discern such things to be false or true.
As to pilgrimages, these are not sacraments and do not make one holy. In fact, one a year or even one a lifetime, should be sufficient for those who love pilgrimages, but not six or seven times a year. My point is that to constantly seek out the experiential is not to learn one's Faith.
Growth is interior and painful, not exterior. Until an adult realizes that the interior life must be formed, growth is hindered seriously. Purgatory is the place where those who refuse to go through the purgations on earth, which demand some silence and prayer, go, to endure the final cleansing, and sadly, to also endure punishment for not responding to grace. I work out my salvation, as St. Paul writes, in fear and trembling.
Pray for these theologically and even catechetically illiterates, who refuse to grow up. Again, they want the candy and not the cross. They want magic, not work.
Our priests have so much work to do, so please pray for them as well.
Some adults only want the rest of their life to be a Teddy Bears' Picnic. Sorry, it is grow-up time.
