Both gatherings were made up of Catholic journalists, theologians, priests, and even a smattering of Anglican clergy (low church).
These gatherings centered on the work of such illustrious men and women (few of us women were at these gatherings) in either pro-life work, campus ministries, or publishing in the Catholic world.
From both meetings, I walked away sad, knowing that the enemy was within the Church. But, these meetings were not just a grouping of liberals, but also of very traditional, Latin Mass Catholics.
Therefore, the enemy within proved not to be heresy alone, or modernism.
The great evil among so many of these people were their enormous egos. That they were more concerned with building their own kingdoms, rather than the Kingdom of God, became obvious over the time I engaged in conversation with some of the invitees.
Four indications of the specter of egotism were these. One, the illustrious people mostly talked about themselves and not the Church. Little love for the one, true, holy and apostolic Church shown in conversation.
Two, the talk centered on what so-and-so was doing for the Church rather than what the Church was giving to so-and-so. Men and women seemed to think themselves absolutely necessary for the growth of Catholicism.
Egotism creates hothouse plants not apostles.
Egotism wants adulation not service.
Three, few wanted to meet new people. The comfort of the clique even came down to one famous person exclaiming out-loud, "Who is .....? Why would I want to meet him?"
Four, the status quo of the various situations in which these people were engaged proved to be more important than brainstorming about new ways to evangelize or reach more people. In other words, the continuance of their communities or kingdoms was more important than God's plans. The reason for both of the meetings should have been furthering the Kingdom of God. In reality, the meetings were a gathering of individuals who only wanted to ensure their own positions of influence and power.
Such is the problem when people choose to serve the Church without allowing God to purify them first. The saints knew this secret of success in ministry.
Service must be centered on the love of God, not the love of men, or the love of one's self.
Love defines who we are and sets us on the path of service, for God alone.
Humility is the only way to serve God and the pursuit of humility is painful. There is no getting around being humiliated.
None.
(A few days after I wrote this piece, I had a sinking feeling that egotism is also the sin keeping people from forming communities. I had written several posts on community formation, which one can find under that label. Sadly, being in several gatherings recently and attempting to speak of community, I realized that the past two generations of Gen-Xers and Millennials may be too individualistic in their own ideas and set in their own materialistic ways to sacrifice for a community. I shall come back to this later.)
To be continued....