The rigour of the truths of religion contradicts the spirit of the world. Is it up to Catholics to accommodate themselves to the world’s demands, or does their mission demand something different?
Newsroom (10/11/2022 18:00, Gaudium Press) In His first instructions after the Resurrection, Our Lord sent the Apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and commanded them to teach all nations to observe what He had prescribed for them (cf. Mt 28:19-20). However, even before the Passion, the Redeemer had warned them: “Since you are not of the world, but out of the world I have chosen you, therefore the world hates you. [If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also” (Jn 15:20).
Foreseeing the rejection that the Apostles would have to face, the Lord did not say to them: “If in any place they will not receive you or listen to you, adjust your words a little, that you may be well received“. Rather, He recommended that they take a strong stance: “Go out and shake off the dust from your feet for a witness against him” (Mk 6:11).
These instructions introduce us to a very current theme, discussed not only among those who are Catholics, but also among those who are not.
To accommodate to the world or to be faithful to God?
As considered above, at no time did the Master recommend that His disciples adapt themselves to the world, to the “signs of the times” – an expression so often used by those who consider themselves “modern” or “progressive”, in comparison with those qualified as “conservative” or “traditionalist”. On the contrary, He commanded them to teach all peoples a new way of living, strongly opposed to that of the men and women of those distant, paganized times.
Now, it sometimes happens that the strict truths of religion contradict personal interests. And so, the apostles of all centuries have been faced with a dilemma as to the direction they should take, because to conform to their times would be to reject the mission that God entrusted to them.
At the present time, we find ourselves in the midst of “profound and rapid transformations“, which are all the more acceptable if they require less commitment. “We live under the impression of a fabulous change in the evolution of humanity”, wrote the then Father Joseph Ratzinger, future Benedict XVI, in 1970.
Faced with this picture, many Catholics are asking themselves: is there something in the Church that must change? Will we have to adapt to everything new that comes along? Should the Church adapt to certain situations to avoid clashes?
The truth taught by Jesus Christ is unique and absolute
Our time resembles the time when “Jesus saw a great multitude and was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep having no shepherd” (Mk 6:34). A great variety of ideas and doctrines are disseminated in society – including abundantly in the Catholic media – without the concern to know whether they are in fact in accord with the teachings of the Divine Redeemer. As a result, modern man feels directionless, lacking in doctrinal clarity, and with a strong yearning to know the truth that is created within him. It is urgent, therefore, that we be unfailingly faithful to Him who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6)!
In exercising her mission, the Church must teach the Truth, govern according to the Truth, and sanctify according to the Truth in a world which no longer possesses the Truth, but which only accepts some truths. To fulfil her mission of saving souls, she cannot adapt to the vices of society, since any adaptation to the spirit of the world easily gives rise to deviations. The truth taught by Our Lord Jesus Christ is unique and absolute, and does not allow relativity or accommodation to environments where it is not accepted: “The truth of the Lord endures for ever” (Ps 116:2).
The sun, which sustains life on earth, remains faithful to itself, without adapting itself to anyone. On the other hand, one cannot imagine Christ deciding not to be “rigid” in order to adapt himself, for example, to the Sanhedrin. He would cease to be Our Lord if He did so!
The future of the Church will be shaped by those who have integrity
A sad circumstance reflects what we are commenting on. The German Episcopal Conference has published terrible statistics showing the number of faithful who have left the Church in 2021: 359,338 people, that is 137,948 more than the previous year (221,390 in 2020), a new historical record.
Pope Benedict XVI mysteriously “prophesied” this lamentable picture when he was still a simple priest: “Our present ecclesial situation is comparable, in the first place, to the period of so-called modernism […]. The crisis of today is only the long-delayed resumption of the one which began then […]. […] Very difficult times are coming for the Church. Her real crisis has not yet begun. Serious upheavals are to be reckoned with”.
He then stated, instilling hope, that the future of the Church will come from “those who have deep roots and live from the pure fullness of their faith”, not those who “only give recipes”, nor those who “accommodate themselves to the present moment” or “choose the most comfortable path”“. And he emphasized: “Today, as always, the future of the Church will be shaped anew by the Saints”.
Many facts emphasize at every moment how the historical phase in which we live is the stage of an unprecedented religious crisis. In his apostolic journey to Germany, Benedict XVI did not “prophesy”, but recommended a Church exempt from the spirit of the world in order to fulfil its mission: “It must, so to speak, ‘demundanise itself'”: basically, the Church must remove itself from the world. That is, it must have more faith and less adherence to the profane.
All of this requires of us Catholics an unshakeable trust in the triumph of Holy Church – even if she seems asleep or dead – that she will rise again and be exalted, presenting herself “glorious, without spot or wrinkle or any such defect, but holy and blameless” (Eph 5:27).
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm