By way of introduction, let me say I am a recent convert. A\nlifelong seeker who found a profound answer in Catholicism, which is, a person\ncannot find Grace. God\u2019s love, His providence and His grace are gifts; we as\nHis children, we can only receive and accept the design of His creation. More\nprecisely, as children in the twenty first century, we know and love God in His\nsingularity, while we struggle with all our facets, our passages and often\ntimes the resulting duplicity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are times when the dogma of the Church or the passage\nfrom scripture didn\u2019t ring true for me. At those moments, I asked myself what\nit is I don\u2019t understand and looked deeper into my thinking before I declared a\npoint of departure. Being a believer forces me to reconsider, study and\ncontemplate looking for what is right in scripture and what runs parallel with\nmy thinking. Many times, an explanation from a priest\u2019s point of view, or an\ninsightful homily is all it took to show me the wisdom of scripture and the wisdom\nof the Church. However, as a Catholic writer I give myself the latitude to\nbegin the dialog, realizing my obligation is not to lead the reader away from\nthe Church or into sinful behavior. Using this as my standard, there are many\ntimes when I do find a point of departure in the interpretation or point of\nview of other Catholic authors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To his credit, Russell B. Connors in his book, Christian Morality\nsaid, \u201cin my view\u201d, as he described the meaning of CCC #2343, Laws of Growth.\nHe went on the say, \u201cWe are called to be and to do the best we can\u2014no more, no\nless.\u201d For me, this statement is not only a point of departure, it is also\ntroubling. On reading CCC#2343, I find clear direction that chastity has Laws\nof Growth which progress through stages. The CCC continues, a person builds himself\nthrough many free decisions, and so knows, loves and accomplishes moral good by\nstages of growth. Clearly, Laws of Growth encompasses moral good and moral good\nencompasses many other Christian virtues including, compassion, integrity, and\nkindness to name a few. Implying an individual could be his or her own judge as\nto what is the most one could do at any given time, in any given virtue,\nincluding chastity is not consistent with Catholic teaching. The standard is\nset by Christ Jesus, through His church, the magisterium and the CCC. A\nperson\u2019s accomplishments or limitations at any of the stages of growth does not\naffect the teachings or the authority of the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first century Christian could legitimately struggle with\nwhat to believe. In an effort to make a radical idea more understandable, many\nwell intentioned clergy and scholars scuffled over the nature, meanings and\nteachings of Christ Jesus. Saint Thomas asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief\nas would many followers going forward. As practicing Catholics in the twenty\nfirst century, our dichotomy is not belief or unbelief, it is belief or\ndisobedience. We have the magisterium and the Catechism giving clear direction.\nTo imply an irregular relationship, adultery, genital contact outside of\nmarriage or the idea of contraception being acceptable because it is the best\nwe can do at the moment, denies the magisterium its authority in our lives, and\nmore importantly we are putting ourselves ahead of Christ and the design of His\ncreation. In all fairness to our psychological make up and our spiritual\nnature, we will certainly agree, everyone falls short in the eyes of Jesus.\nGiven this inevitable situation, Jesus also provides a remedy which is glorious,\nfor sure and for certain, that is confession. As the author suggests, it would\nbe trite and unreasonable to think our confession would carry the burden, I\u2019ll\nnever do this or that again. However, confession does mandate, by its very\ndefinition, that we will go beyond our thinking and turn away from the\ndirection which is leading us into harmful behavior. This ideal is a long way\nfrom subjectively accepting our current circumstances as the best we can do.\nMatthew Kelly proposes constant learning and the implementation of best\npractices. Joyce Meyer puts it this way, \u201cI know I\u2019m not where I should be,\nthank God I\u2019m not where I used to be.\u201d I believe these reflections of the CCC\nbetter capture the Laws of Growth rather than the presupposed disposition of an\nindividual at a certain time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, is there a fatal flaw in our author\u2019s thinking, or\nperhaps something not so nefarious? Could a study in hermeneutics be a simple\nsolution? Isn\u2019t there a presupposition at play here, something built into the\nlanguage or depth of understanding which brings a certain bias to the forefront?\nIt occurs to me both the CCC and the author\u2019s point of view, points to the\ntruth and for the betterment of the individual. The CCC from a principled and\nrigorous doctrine of spiritual understanding, and the author\u2019s from a softer\npsychological frame of reference underscoring tolerance of a fragile psyche\nstruggling for forgiveness in a difficult situation. I find it very telling as the author describes\nthe advice of a good pastor; we learn to refrain from judging others.\nCertainly, good advice considering our judgments would be mostly if not purely subjective.\nSaint Paul took it a step further, preaching one should not judge themselves.\nThe conclusion I find is pretty straightforward, its never about us, our\nevaluations, our frames of reference or our calculated concoctions; it is about\nHis timeless message, His guidance and His direction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By way of introduction, let me say I am a recent convert. A lifelong seeker who found a profound answer in Catholicism, which is, a person cannot find Grace. God\u2019s love, His providence and His grace are gifts; we as His children, we can only receive and accept the design of His creation. More precisely, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,53,54],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","tag-catholic-faith","tag-ccc","tag-laws-of-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}