An Antidote for Amoris Laetitia Angst

Amoris Laetitia.  Regrettably, both Catholic and secular media seem to be dancing to a cadence of increasing hysteria. These bold-print emotional barrages are spreading undue anxiety into the ranks of otherwise placid and well-reasoned Catholics, who previously exampled more stoic equilibriums.

De Facto Schism! Heresy and Scandal! Pope Francis leading the Church into confusion?  Traditional Truths are being undermined!  Bishop expresses grave concern!

Hand-wringing and prayerful supplications are in ample evidence.  And they’re not just a hangover from the recent Election…  

There is a reason to take pause.  There is a need to invoke the gift of Wisdom that all Catholics claim by the Holy Spirit through the Water and by the Laying on of Hands.  Let’s begin.

Discernment of the Zeitgeist- Amoris Laetitia

Prayer is always an efficacious response of the Faithful.  But hysteria is not a gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s not even a virtue. On the other hand… neither is schism.

Both hysteria and schism admit of an equally negative discernment. An important consideration is being broadly overlooked. It will be the best antidote for this overwrought public and media “angst” over Amoris Latitae.  Surprise! It’s not Valium.

After reading a recent editorial in the German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost entitled “A De Facto Schism” a well-read, erudite life-long friend who also happens to be a Catholic and a Psychiatric M.D [who can legally prescribe Valium] wrote me in words that embody the “angst du jour” that now unreasonably plagues the cognizant capacities of many lay Catholics:

“I pray for our Church.  I have never in my lifetime seen such a terrible situation in the Church.”

My response: “Lighten up with the hand-wringing, already! This is merely a minor speed bump on the “long and winding highway” of the Church’s inevitable ecclesial travails.”  

My bedside manner left much to be desired… but my logic was sound – even as it remained unreconciled to any halo of Catholic compassion.

Consider by comparison some of the much larger challenges that have confronted the Catholic Church in 2000 years of its “long and winding road” across human history: 

• The Reformation
• Arianism – conquered under the banner of St. Athanasius ONLY after a MAJORITY of Church’s bishops had succumbed and aligned themselves with this heresy. 
• Popes Alexander VI, Benedict IX and John XII- whose undisputed achievements in establishing new lows of personal Papal disrepute bear no equal to this very day. 
• The Schism of 1034  
• The Avignon “Experiment” (3 simultaneous Popes) 
• The Borgia/Medici Papacy “Cartel”. 

Hey Abbott – Who’s on First?

By contrast, the present Church “kerfuffle” offers a grimly intriguing view into the otherwise hidden, byzantine labyrinths of Vatican intrigue and human limitations.  As such, it offers a temporary focal point cast upon a vast kaleidoscope of myriad human endeavors. But nothing more… (yawn). 

Here’s why:  Jesus doesn’t actually require either the opinions or the initiatives of squabbling ecclesial functionaries in order to guide or sustain His Church in Perfect Truth.  That’s an indisputable fact.  God is all powerful.  The Vatican’s functionaries are not.  End of discussion.

Furthermore, has anyone observed that Jesus seeks out ANY of these ecclesial prelates for their personal advice or direction in Church matters?  No?  When was the last time Jesus personally grabbed an Uber into the Vatican to seek their ecclesial counsel or opinion?  “When the Vatican speaks, The Carpenter listens?” Due deference to E.F. Hutton, but I don’t think it actually works that way.

An inescapable conclusion must follow that disconcertingly logical assessment:   

All these Vatican guys are just window dressing!

It’s a harsh truth. The ecclesial ranks may bristle and harrumph at such a humbling dismissal of their roles and relevance within God’s Catholic Church – but they’re all still learning how to be humble too.  Just like we are.  Admittedly, if you’re fitted out in satin beanies, gold piping and stunning, custom-tailored red capes worthy of a flurry of mouse-clicks at the local Starbucks, humility might come a bit harder. You and me?  Heck, we just wear jeans. But let’s still try to understand where they are coming from and why, right?  The respect due them comes with its own peculiar struggles. And a satin beanie…

The Calming Perspective of God’s Charity

With this realization, we engage the foremost consideration by which wisdom approaches the whole Amoris Laetitia situation.  The premise is straightforward and commensurately simple.  Jesus indulges, encourages and actually chooses the instrumentality of human participation in bringing forth the Kingdom of God on earth through the institution and edifice of His Catholic Church.  Jesus does this for one reason alone: 

He loves us!  Therefore, His Divine Love must necessarily reduce to the most indulgent, surpassing and pragmatic accommodation of infinite charity in order to sustain and engage His desire to integrate a cumbersome, flawed, yes – even contrary – human participation into the ultimate fulfillment of His will.

No competent attorney would dare argue that Jesus could not more efficiently, effectively, and persuasively bring forth the Kingdom of God – and His Will for men on earth – by simply calling the Vatican staffers out of the game and coaching the Home Team directly.

Wouldn’t it be easier to simply DISPENSE with the myriad historical amplitudes of various Papal personalities (whether saintly, good or unspeakably degenerate), the conflicting Vatican bureaucracies and clerical cliques, and the ample ranks of imperious or officious (take your pick) Cardinals and Bishops? 

History argues eloquently toward that very conclusion – yet the Church endures.  Exactly as do the present obscurities and posturing that has engulfed and segregated certain ecclesial “camps” in the interpretations of the latest Papal publication.

Logically, only a fool would argue the case for the Church. Even Thomas More’s brilliant legal defense couldn’t win that case – though His eternal retainer subsequently compensated the adverse ruling.

Reality check:  Instead of a Church, could God just drop down a few additional stone tablets (or thumb drives) on Mount Sinai with specific instructions and corollary human resource appointments whenever His People needed them?  Obviously!  It’s a proven methodology, historically validated.  Ask Moses.

By implication of the obvious alternative, the Church is simply this: the charitable mechanism of a Loving God who is willing – even, dare we say, eager – to endure the comparative dead-weight of our human involvement in His Divine Plan.  Why this folly?

Jesus Owns a Massive Vacuum Cleaner

Answer: For the same reason that Mommies let their 5-year old daughters help them to bake a cake (often redecorating the kitchen with layers of flour, streaks of frosting on cabinets and ample distributions of floor-crumbs).  For the same reason that Daddies invite their toddler sons to help them wash the car on Saturdays (often spraying Daddy as much as the car).

This “sharing” gives the “little ones” a necessary sense of personal responsibility and accomplishment by their own participation in a positive outcome.  This participation imprints an important assimilation upon the child of the destined maturity into which the Parent is thereby guiding them. 

The Parent doesn’t NEED any help to bake a cake or wash a car.  In that respect, the kids are just “window dressing”. A vacuum cleaner will eventually tidy up the mess they will make. The cake will disappear into happy faces. But the positive benefit of that participatory experience will remain with the child – perhaps forever.

The ultimate priority of the exercise is NOT the cake or a clean car – which could be more quickly and efficiently accomplished without the involvement of the children. The priority of the Parent in creating this involvement mechanism is the children themselves.  It is the child’s involvement –  their personal experience of bringing forth the objective – that the Parent wants to share with them out of love.

So too, the Church. It is a similar mechanism – engaged by God for the same reason. With that realization, let’s return to Amoris Laetitia and harvest the benefit of this new perspective.

What you have here is a bunch of Daddy’s ecclesial “car-washers” and “cake-bakers” who – completely absorbed with all seriousness and sincere intention – are making a glorious and enthusiastic “grand mess of it”.   They are every bit as inefficient, ineffective and unnecessary to the ultimate objective as the cake-baking toddlers in the analogy we just used.

Why is this permitted?  Because Daddy wants to engage them in the very same exercise of experiencing and extending their human limitations into the mature destiny He desires for them. It is the same destiny He desires for each of us who claim the Covenant Promise of The Catholic Church.  The Church’s mechanism is the same for all of –  Parents.  Priests.  The Wearers of Beanies.

Understanding Betrayed in a Smile

To wring our hands over this mechanism is akin to observing little children running amuck in the proverbial kitchen; of observing toddlers hose-spraying everything on the driveway (except the car) and uttering in sheer horror: “Oh MY!  It’s a huge mess!  It’s a total catastrophe! This can never end well!”  Might wisdom suggest a hint of human presumption in such exclamations?

Yes. It is a mess.  But like every good parent observing the intently industrious – and occasionally hilarious – the activity of little kids reaching beyond their human abilities, Jesus is smiling.  He understands what is going on.  Do we?

He is smiling at these busy little clerics floundering intently and messily in the Catholic kitchens of the Vatican.  

He is also smiling at those standing outside – peering in through the Vatican windows, horrified and increasingly beset with anxiety over the fact that the culinary skills of the little pot-stirrers inside aren’t nearly equal to the demands of the Grand Menu that will be served at The Feast.

We are all little children.  St. Therese told us so.  Did Jesus disagree with her assessment? Might we consider then, that in our childlike comprehension we won’t be able to recognize or confirm when the “cake” is complete or even partially finished?  That’s why Jesus is smiling.

Do the toddlers already know what decoration is yet to be added to a cake in any given moment of the creation process?  What additional layers will be added – or removed?  Perhaps only the Master Chef should be rendering that determination – not the toddlers?

In the present situation, the papal writing is completed, of course.  But the effect within and through the Church has yet to be determined, resolved and reconciled to the intention of the Master Chef.   That process is now ongoing.  It’s messy. Confusing.  The kids are bouncing all over in every direction and it seems like there is total pandemonium and confusion.  Not so.

The Master Chef is keeping an eye on everything. He is singularly capable of serving up the Final Feast – notwithstanding the “helpful” but inevitably confused efforts of those playing in the kitchen around His ankles who have been invited to join Him with their efforts.

Now, go grab a cookie and feel better.  This too shall pass. “Be Not Afraid”.   Wisdom suggests that advice remains still precisely correct.  Saints are pretty tight with the Gift of Wisdom.  That assurance can be as comforting as the cookie.  Catholics can enjoy both.

Guest Contributor: Mike White is a Catholic convert, a real estate investment banker, lawyer, Cursillista and father of four boys. Having navigated an Exodus from California, he now lives in Castle Rock, Colorado with Mary Jo, his wife of 36 years. Mike teaches RCIA  at his parish and writes on contemporary faith and economics issues.