Posted on 07/16/2009 5:46:59 PM PDT by tcg
Most of those reading this article will easily remember the story. We heard it so many times when we were children we could repeat the beginning: “Chicken Little was in the woods one day when an acorn fell on her head. It scared her so much she trembled all over. She shook so hard, half her feathers fell out. Chicken Little: "Help! Help! The sky is falling! I have to go tell the king!" The story proceeds through many different encounters and ends with the little chicken learning the lessons of courage and the practicality of good preparation for every journey in life.
I fear that the condition of too many Christians these days is more akin to the fear demonstrated by Chicken Little than to the faith to which we are all called by Baptism. It seems wherever I look Christians are afraid, complaining, or worse, actually causing others to succumb to fear or despair. What happened to faith, hope and love, those “theological virtues” infused within us when we rose from those waters? Why, of all people, do those who know the real King and Sovereign of the entire universe so easily give in to the kind of crippling fear which is such an impediment to living faith?...
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
We’re doomed. Even the Christians are hopeless. :P
“I am going to stop reading the growing number of naysayers in the camp who are losing the supernatural sight which is informed by faith and fueled by Christian hope.”
“Where ignorance is bliss/’Tis folly to be wise.”
Just the sort of nonsense theology I expect from this person.
No my friend, it is called LIVING faith. “Nonsense theology?” How about faith in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ! To recognize the challenge is one thing, to give in to despair, another. I would have hoped that you of all people who purports to profess the “orthodox Way” would have had something positive to say. Maybe you are just a grump?
How sad. I would have thought that the one who purports to be the voice of Orthodoxy would have recognized faith! C’mon!
“It seems wherever I look Christians are afraid, complaining, or worse, actually causing others to succumb to fear or despair.”
I’m Christian, I’m NOT AFRAID, & I’ll complain until your Godless ears bleed buttermilk. My latent pagan inner barbarian is smoldering...
“I would have hoped that you of all people who purports to profess the “orthodox Way” would have had something positive to say.”
What’s positive to say about a preacher whose plan is to just stop listening to those in despair and thus have become “naysayers”? What nonsense theology leads to that, tcg? Not anything recognizable as Orthodox, I assure you. I sincerely doubt Western Catholic theology does either.
“Maybe you are just a grump?”
As a general proposition no, but religious foolishness, because it is dangerous, brings out my inner grump.
I give up. Speak to your priest
Do you have living water flowing forth out of you refreshing all around your or are you as James puts it
James 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
3:12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield bitter water and fresh.
“Be not afraid”
“Do you have living water flowing forth out of you refreshing all around your or are you as James puts it”
Oh, I sincerely doubt that. +John Chrysostomos claimed he was the chief among sinners but I claim that distinction for myself. On the other hand, if I did, I can guarantee I wouldn’t be bragging about how very holy I was and how I would ignore anyone in spiritual despair. I certainly wouldn’t be listing on my online bio that I was an editor of my law school Law Review nearly 30 years after the fact like this character Fournier does.
Apparently guys like Fournier represent an element in the Latin Church. Orthodox Christians should be aware of the peculiar mindset Fournier demonstrates and plays to and take that into consideration as we deal with the possibility of the Eastern Patriarchs and Bishops of The Church welcoming the Pope back into communion with them.
As for speaking with my priest, well, tcg, he already has read Fournier’s stuff. Unlike me, he thinks Fournier represents one of two or three main streams of American Latin Catholicism (I think he’s far more peculiar and off the mainstream than that) and is a perfect example of why we SHOULD NOT countenance any reunion and intercommunion with Rome. He also thinks a group of Orthodox laypeople would eat a Fournier for lunch.
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