Oh, I think God is a sports fan. God's word even speaks of the Cubs directly:
Jer 12:13 : They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. So bear the shame of your harvest because of the Lord's fierce anger."
Eccl 1:1-4, 9 : 1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"says the Teacher."Utterly meaningless!Everything is meaningless." 3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go,but the earth remains forever. ...... 9 What has been will be again,what has been done will be done again;there is nothing new under the sun.
Ps 94:11 : The Lord knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.
Besides, everyone knows that God is a Cardinals fan. However, the Cardinals have apparently sinned grievously, and are being lovingly disciplined by our Lord, .... for a whole month. But of course, our God is a merciful God. Why, just last night the Cardinals only lost by 17 runs at home against the Astros. God is good, God is great. :)
FK: "My understanding of the Apostolic view is that the Holy Spirit specifically guides the hierarchy of the Church on the most important matters, but forsakes the laity of the same leadership."
You know the reply would be along the lines of "That's like saying God forsook the ears by not giving them the faculty of taste." Same notion, different slant on it.
Yes, that is what I would expect, and to continue the analogy, ears are not designed to be able to taste. In a like manner, the layman is not designed to be led by the Spirit on matters of interpretation, etc. We of course would respectfully disagree and say that God wants an intimate and personal relationship with each of His children. I don't see how that could happen with such a barrier erected between God and you and me.
If you review the exercise of the "ex cathedra function" you will find that it is anything but whimsical.
Oh, I don't doubt that at all. I was just thinking of the amount of power that would be SUBJECT to whimsy, regardless of whether it happens that way in practice. I wouldn't imagine that any Pope would feel completely free to declare "anything" (not contradicting a prior Pope). :) That is, although technically, as I understand it, he "could".
Wait wait! I'm getting confused. I'm the Catholic here .... Still, an impressive array of citations. Who can argue with such a preponderance of evidence. And as to Cardinals Sinning, that's what we've been saying all along ....
But it's not just a matter of design. I am happy to interpret, to engage in haute vulgarization and do forth, but on a very derivative level. I WANT to be guided and corrected by other wiser and holier folk. I pester them, in fact, with requests for "inquisitions", and a lot of the stuff I have posted on FR I run by them for comment. (So far, they are not building fires in the church yard, but I DO tent to scope it out before I leave cover and walk in .....)
The fun part of the issue is
God wants an intimate and personal relationship with each of His children. I don't see how that could happen with such a barrier erected between God and you and me. One man's barrier is another mans gateway. Interestingly a major collection of koans in the Rinzai Zen tradition is called the Mumonkan, which can be construed as The Gateless Gate.
Okay, Mad Dawg, get a hold of yourself! What do you mean?
Struggling here ...
- A reason I could be a hospital chaplain was that I didn't have to be a nurse or a doc. That was taken care of, so I could tend to the patient in MY area of responsibility.
- I will never know what it is like to praise God in a beautiful solo (where "never" means, before I die. Who knows what I will know after I die?).
- My wife knows things about the Nativity I will never know. And yet nurses, docs, Sopranos, and mothers are always teaching me about God and His love. I can teach and have taught some clergy about the basic considerations in deadly force encounters, as well as the wound channel such encounters make in the soul. They teach me things I need to know to be a better LE chaplain (if I ever get back in that game ...)
That's what I mean about it's not seeming like a barrier to me. The diverse gifts of the Spirit benefit me, make me grateful, and evangelize me all over again. !
Here's where I do my Protestantism/mercantilism/nationalism rap, which is probably just foolishness ....
The Catholic Church in all the multifariousness and splendor of the Office of This and the Secretariat of That, and the Commission of the Other certainly gives the appearance of Byzantine (funnily enough) complexity). And looking at it in terms of power and political structure seems natural enough.
We post Hobbes- and Locke ians tend to view polities as the shaky result of a careful argument and negotiation. Our Constitution is a kind of a treaty.
And I'm all over this way of doing things politically. I don't generally like it when the other guy, holding firmly to his ax, says,"Aw, come on. Trust me. Put down your ax."
Um. No thanks. You put down yours, then we'll talk ...
But it was not always like that. I got a glimpse of another possibility when I realized that my [late] Mom, being a Limey, really LOVED the Queen.
So when I consider the Holy Father ("Pope" being a kind of informal title) I have that momentary gasp of "Jeez! Ratty could do ANYTHING!" But I deal with that, as I've said before, by remembering that the Church is what it is not because of the guys in dresses, but because of God's providential guidance. And the very risk of allowing the guys in dresses so much authority is a spur and challenge to greater faith and trust.
That he COULD, but hasn't, helps me to put my confidence in the Lord's pledge to be with us to the end of the age.
This is not meant to persuade so much as to depict how it looks from here and how that appearance integrates with the whole ball of wax.