Give It Some Time

It seems like every announcement from Rome creates instant clash between different Catholics. One side is “See, Pope Francis is getting rid of the old guard.” The other side is “See, Pope Francis is getting rid of the old guard.” Time after time, I wait and see what time will tell, and time and again my anxiety dwindles.

Just four years ago, one side of the Catholic aisle screamed that the Church is not political and warned their followers not to read anything into such actions. However, when an announcement is made in their religious ideological favor, they rejoice that the Pope must be on their side. Just one year ago, another side of the Catholic aisle screamed that the Church is not political and warned their followers not to read anything into such actions. However, when an announcement is made in their religious ideological favor, they rejoice that the Pope must be on their side. So what do we make of all this?

Here is my take. Stop watching TV. Every organization does not operate like Conrad Grayson of Grayson Global, Frank Underwood the 46th President of the United States, former director Henry Wilcox of Clandestine Affairs, or even the deceased president of the United States, Charles Logan. Everything that the Pope does is not part of some larger conspiracy that can only be interpreted by viewing a Michelangelo painting as the sunlight creeps through a church built by the masons that were directly linked to the Knights Templar.

The latest is the soon to be probable announcement that Cardinal Burke will be leading the charge of the Knights of Malta rather than as Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. I have read many conclusions on this story already. Many will not read another update because they have read one person’s thoughts and grant that one author is just short of being divinely inspired.

I believe it was St. Paul that warned the early Christians:

But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men? For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apol′los,” are you not merely men?

What then is Apol′los? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apol′los watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

According to the commission of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble— each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.

Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So let no one boast of men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apol′los or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. (1 Corinthians 3)

Just as with God’s creation around us, the seasons change. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our Faith. It is He that breathes life into the Church, raises saints, and converts the hearts of the Church Militant. Our focus needs to be Christocentric not Vaticanista-centric. All this despair and gloom reminds me rather of the fire and brimstone preachers found in dispensationalistist theology.

What is the answer to this despair, anxiety, and disheartenment? The only cure is found in a simple virtue of trust. The modern age calls us to question everything and conclude nothing. This leaves the human person in a constant state of turmoil and ripe for the picking of division by the master of the masters of suspicion. As Catholics, our action should be to trust like the little country girl from a little place when she was greeted by an Archangel, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”