New Life In Christ, What It Looks Like, What It demands

This is a sermon/talk by Charles Chaput, the Archbishop Of Denver. It is in the website for "First Things". I present a link because I was very moved by it. I am not a RC, but I thought the Catholics here would appreciate it. One of the great points he makes is that in this age Christ has had a makeover. He is now the "image and likeness of generic compassion...an enlightened humanist nice guy. " However, if Christ was just that he can't do anything for us. If I were a Roman Catholic graduate who took my faith seriously I would SO much prefer this talk to be given at Notre Dame than to one President Obama might give:

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1417

Really. I'm going to savor that and write more tomorrow AM.

"If we truly seek him, then we will always find him. But when we find him, we need to be ready for the consequences, because nothing about our lives can be the same."

The idea that there are consequences to truth seems to me 1) totally right, and 2) totally antithetical to the soft and fuzzy Jesus who says "you're okay."

From the letter he quoted: "I can say from my own experience how painful life often is when one lives as a halfway Christian."

What if we took that to heart? What if we really believed that pain isn't the result of orthodoxy and adherence so much as it is in trying to make wiggle room to avoid those things while still feeling kinda Christiany?

"We don’t want to stand out. We don’t want to seem different, so we keep our religious beliefs to ourselves."

Hence my gag reflex at the idea that those of us who are out about our beliefs are "sheeple." To be a sheep is to conform to the herd, and the herd says "don't be too religious, and for goodness sake, don't talk about your beliefs."

"We’re taught to think that we live in an open society that respects freedom of religion and the free exchange of different ideas. But we don’t."

Yes, and the broader that gap between reality and rhetoric becomes, the more disenfranchised and helpless people feel.

"We may not be too far from the day when it will be legally discouraged to hold certain moral views and illegal to refuse to do certain things we find to be evil."

I think we may already be there. Insurance plans, state edicts on adoption, rules about dispensing euthanasia drugs and abortifacients, etc. There are definitely people today who break the law if they refuse to do something they consider immoral. It seems pretty likely that we could not too far down the road see the criminalization of certain messages from the pulpit. That's already happened in Canada and parts of Western Europe.

"Your task is to preach the gospel with your lives no matter where you are or whatever you find yourself doing—going to school, working, raising children, making a home."

It's interesting how much this sounds like the stated mission of Opus Dei, which Dan Brown has characterized as a masochistic society of assassins.

"For as long as we fear men more than God, we will never make the grade." That a man could write that as he faced the Nazi guillotines, seriously it gives me goose bumps.

As far as the idea that this could ever fly at any Catholic college, it wouldn't, with one or two exceptions. Most preach the gospel of diversity and inclusivity, and this address is thus way out of bounds.

Thanks again. Your link gave me a new hero. "Blessed Franz Jägerstätter—a martyr for the truth that a Catholic can never lead a double life; that there can be no such thing as a halfway Christian."

I really appreciate his perspective and call to action for Christians. Even though they mentioned it at the end of the article, I thought I would reiterate that this is also the author of the book "Render unto Caesar" that I mentioned in the other thread about Christianity and politics. This article had the same tone, and directness that I appreciated in his book.

Thanks again for the link.

Peace to you.

"Mere Christianity". Lewis says before persuing Christianity you have to know what you are getting into because, it means you will giving up some things.

Austen, I greatly enjoyed the article, thanks for posting. You always find good stuff.