Of Catholicity

The author sits writing this with the recent words of his priest's sermon fresh in his mind. This Sunday was clearly a providential one, since whilst the sermon given is always insightful, this one prompted proper reflexion. The sermon itself was about Catholicity, a words which most Christians should be familiar with, not only because it is the noun form of one of the Four Marks of the Church, but because it has come to define the Christian faith itself, not merely the section of it which is frequently referred to as 'Catholic'. As attempts to define Catholicity, both in traditional and Novus Ordo terms, creep into the canons of everyday preaching, it seems more important now more than ever to have a meaningful discussion of Catholicity—first and foremost therefore, credit be where it is due, with that priest in question, for making this discussion possible. 

The article linked here has been circulating in liberal media about a woman fired from her job as a teacher for being "not the right kind of Catholic", i.e. homosexual, or to paint a more accurate (and this difference is significant) picture of the situation, fired from her job for having a same-sex wedding. Of course, as far as liberals are concerned, this is an outrage, and only goes to prove the inherent prejudice and intolerance of the Catholic faithful, indeed, how dare they discriminate against this lady for marrying "the love of her life", how callous! how ungodly! But, as ever, there is more to the narrative than meets the eye. Putting aside natural arguments, such as that a Catholic school would obviously not want its children, to whom it has a duty of care, to hear all about their female teacher's false "wife", let us consider instead the theology of the situation.  

When discussing Catholicity, the priest did so in the context of the reading, which was taken from Matthew 25, the parable of the Sheep and the Goats. Something was therefore made abundantly clear in the course of this reading. Catholicity is about who we are, and in being Catholic—in Greek, καθολικός, "whole, universal"—we are united to the Church of Christ wheresoever we go. We are Catholic within our church's four walls, and we are Catholic when sitting at home enjoying a cup of hot tea. But there are some who are not Catholic, as the parable in question teaches us. What does Christ say?

“Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'” (Mtt:25:41-43)

So there is a separation between sinners and the saved. So, there is another prerequisite for Catholicity, submission to Christ. We must consciously choose to cast our own needs aside, shun sin, and strive only for the sake of God—as Christ expresses it, to feed him, clothe him and visit him wherever we can. Now of course, it is impossible for us to not sin at all, being humans, we are sinful by our fallen nature, and even the most blessed monastics fail to escape the taints of sin. It is for this reason that the sacraments exist. The Eucharist itself is an expression of God's forgiveness of sins, but perhaps most importantly, the sacrament of confession is the purest expression of our need for forgiveness—it is also one of the most widely-abused of all the sacraments. 

The Church teaches that there are certain grave sins. We can confess white lies and casual errors as they happen, these are the most common fallen sins, but some sins arise from the deliberate choice to indulge in behaviours harmful to godliness. One of those is homosexual practices, but there are of course others. Now, it does not befit us to judge, but it does befit us to defend our Church. In that vein, it is a sinless thing to declare that Catholicity is not something to be bent and changed to the will of what society considers right this day, or that. Yet this is what we see in the case of the homosexual teacher who got "married". It is not a case of being "the wrong kind of Catholic" but of frustration with the fact that "Catholicism doesn't bend to my individual identity". Yet this is not how sin works, least of all grave sin. 

It is often hard to choose to cast aside grave sins. We are faced with grave temptation regularly—and it is not supposed to be easy. There is a challenge in rejecting sin, overcoming our own nature, and living for God. But God will not change his rules if we sin. If we confess, and make a conscious effort to not sin again, we are absolved. If we sin again and again and simply use sacraments such as confession as a get-out clause, praising God for his "oh so goodness", and claiming that an all-loving God forgives all without genuine repentance is a grave sin in itself, based on an equally grave misunderstanding of Church theology. 

Catholicity is about finding ourselves, indeed so, but finding ourselves does not manifest itself in this strange, liberal idea of hyper-individualism and sinful identity. Finding ourselves means overcoming our own nature via a spiritual journey with Christ, overcoming by sheer will the pain which charges us and demands that we choose the easier, but more sinful option. There is no such thing as a "wrong kind of Catholic", there are only Catholics and not-Catholics, and these vague and 'tolerant' attempts to redefine what it means to be united to Christ in his Universal Church can only be symptoms of the sick world in which we live. The indignation shown to those who attempt to defend the traditional doctrines of the Church only serves to prove our point about the agenda against our Church all the more cogently.