by Doug Lawrence
Watching the second installment of Father Robert Barron’s “Catholicism”, currently airing on local PBS stations, I couldn’t help asking myself, “Is there a point to this?”
Expecting to pick up a tip or two about the Catholic faith, all I seemed to be getting was a rather protracted explanation of all the things we DON’T and CAN’T know about God.
If we Catholics know so little about God, then what is the basis of what the Church has been teaching for the last 2000 years? Father Barron offered little or nothing to us, in that regard.
Then, question number six of the old Baltimore Catechism, came to mind:
6. Q. Why did God make you?
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.
“To know” Him, because we must know of a thing before we can love it. A poor savage in Africa never longs to be at a game or contest going on in America, because he does not know it and therefore cannot love it. We see a person and know him; if he pleases us we love him, and if we love him we will try to serve him; we will not be satisfied with doing merely what he asks of us, but will do whatever we think might give him pleasure. So it is in regard to God. We must first know Him-learn who He is from our catechisms and books of instruction, but especially from the teaching of God’s ministers, the Holy Father, bishops and priests. When we know Him, we shall love Him. If we knew Him perfectly, we should love Him perfectly; so the better we know Him the more we shall love Him. And as it is our chief duty to love Him and serve Him upon earth, it becomes our strict duty to learn here whatever we can of His nature, attributes, and holy laws. The saints and angels in Heaven know God so well that they must love Him, and cannot therefore offend Him.
You have all seen some person in the world, or maybe several persons, whom you have greatly admired; still you did not love them perfectly; there was always some little thing about them in looks, manners, or disposition that could be rendered more pleasing; some defect or want you would like to see supplied; some fault or imperfection you would like to see corrected. Now suppose you had the power to take all the good qualities you found in the persons you loved and unite them in one person, in whom there would be nothing displeasing, but everything perfect and beautiful. Do you not think you would love such a person very much indeed?
Moreover, suppose you knew that person loved you intensely, would it not be your greatest delight to be ever with such a friend? Well, then, all the lovable qualities and beauties you see in created beings come from God and are bestowed by Him; yet all the good qualities on earth and those of the angels and saints in Heaven, and even of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, if united in one person would be nothing compared to the goodness and beauty of God. How good and how lovable, therefore, must He be! And what shall we say when we think that He loves us with a greater love than we could ever love Him, even with our most earnest efforts? Try then first to know God and you will surely love and serve Him. Do not be satisfied with the little you learn of Him in the Catechism, but afterward read good books, and above all hear sermons and instructions.
“In this world:” Because unless we do what is pleasing to Him in this world we cannot be with Him in the next. Our condition in the next world depends entirely upon our conduct in this. Thus we have discovered the answer to the great question, What is the end of man; for what was he made?
From this, it’s clear that God revealed enough about himself to enable us to know him and love him. So why all the nonsense?
In my last post I called Father Barron a modernist, because it seemed as though he didn’t seem to believe in Satan, the devil … or at least, he failed to acknowledge Satan’s particular role in the fall of man and our subsequent redemption in Jesus Christ.
Now I’m beginning to see the inherent weakness in all of the various catechetical schemas that have been foisted on unsuspecting Catholics since the beginning of the post-Vatican II deconstruction of the Church:
Many of our current priests and bishops have little or no regard for Tradition, Divine Revelation, the Sacred Deposit of Faith, the infallibility and divine inspiration of Sacred Scripture, and/or the continuing role of the Holy Spirit in guiding the Church.
Instead, we have church leaders, theologians, intellectuals and other alleged scholars attempting to use human logic alone to makes sense out of things which can only be understood in the light of faith, according to the grace of God.
Somebody should have told Father Barron that we Catholics know something about God from reading the Bible … particularly, the Gospels … from the teachings of the Apostles (who knew Jesus Christ personally) from their successors (who learned first hand, what the Apostles knew about Jesus Christ) … from the writings of the saints … from our own personal encounters with God, in and through our reception of the Sacraments .. and from the Holy Spirit himself, who, indwelling the souls of the faithful … intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.” (Romans 8:26-27)
The Baltimore Catechism seems to indicate that this should be quite enough for us … at least for now. The rest can wait until the Kingdom comes!
It would have been much nicer to have dealt with these “positives” rather than spending half an hour discussing only what we don’t know.
The only redeeming part of the entire episode was the short discussion segment, near the end, when the producer asked a few questions that finally managed to elicit some fairly concrete answers from our good theologian/priest.
Here’s hoping that the next episode, on the Blessed Virgin Mary, will be much more edifying.
October 23, 2011
Categories: Books & Publications, Catholic Q & A, Events, history, Human Rights, Inspirational, Politics, Videos, Photos, Audio . Tags: catholicism, episode 2, Father Robert Barron, PBS, review . Author: Doug Lawrence . Comments: Leave a comment
