Happy feast day of St Francis of Assisi. In his honour, I would like to quote a verse from the Canticle of the Creatures:
Laudato s' mi Signore, per sora nostra Morte corporale,This verse is sometimes glossed over in popular renditions of the hymns of the holy founder. After all, the language of mortal sin is now seen as a "misguided attempt to movitate the faithful."
da la quale nullu homo vivente pò skappare:
guai a quelli ke morrano ne le peccata mortali;
beati quelli ke trovarà ne le Tue sanctissime voluntati,
ka la morte secunda no 'l farrà male.
Be praised, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whose embrace no living person can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those she finds doing your most holy will.
The second death can do no harm to them.
9 comments:
Dear Father, thank-you for bringing this up. I read the piece at the time and was left shaking my head.
The three-fold way of spiritual encouragement a) the low road of responding to fear b) the middle road of responding to mere justice c) the high road of love; have always been through salvation history ways encouraged by the Spirit. Even our Lord Jesus practiced all three encouragements. Obvious a + b are only meant to eventually get us to c. But none is a bluff - there really is the Lord to fear, to respond to justly and to Love.
I can't remember the numbers, but I think Peter Kreeft pointed out that the Lord Jesus threatened the reality of Hell a dozen times during the Sermon on the Mount. "A misguided attempt to motivate the faithful."
I genuinely pray for the Archbishop. I am saddened and shocked by his words. May we all pray for him, for the Nuncio, whose advice can be so influential -- and for our beloved Holy Father.
We praise and thank God for all his Blessings. A big one in our lives, Father, is you!
Yes, when I read those words (not St Francis's, of course) I was stunned.
God help us! The day an Archbishop tells us it is unhelpful to call a mortal sin that which it is, is a woeful and lamentable day!
Hee! This verse does appear, though, in the children's book about St Francis which I read to my brood today: 'Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi' by Tomie DePaola.
Dear Fr Finigan,
Please publicise this petition:
http://www.adv.org/appel-objection-de-conscience/appel-en/
hat-tip to:
http://markshea.blogspot.com/2010/10/european-reader-sends-this-along.html
Thanks,
In caritate Xp.,
Bryan
I gather that St Paul was equally "misguided" when he wrote about people "eating and drinking damnation" to themselves.
Fr. Tim,
It's high time for all Catholics to familiarize themselves with Pope John Paul II's encyclical "Veritatis Splendor." It contains an excellent reiteration of the traditional doctrine of mortal sin, now largely eclipsed by the therapeutic mentality, especially when it comes to sins against the sixth commandment:
"A doctrine which dissociates the moral act from the bodily dimensions of its exercise is contrary to the teaching of Scripture and Tradition. Such a doctrine revives, in new forms, certain ancient errors which have always been opposed by the Church, inasmuch as they reduce the human person to a 'spiritual' and purely formal freedom. This reduction misunderstands the moral meaning of the body and of kinds of behaviour involving it (cf. 1 Cor 6:19). St Paul declares that 'the immoral, idolaters, adulterers, sexual perverts, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers' are excluded from the Kingdom of God (cf. 1 Cor 6:9). This condemnation — repeated by the Council of Trent — lists as 'mortal sins' or 'immoral practices' certain specific kinds of behaviour the wilful acceptance of which prevents believers from sharing in the inheritance promised to them. In fact, body and soul are inseparable: in the person, in the willing agent and in the deliberate act, they stand or fall together."
Sometimes I think that the greatest cover-up in the Catholic Church is the conspiracy of silence around our own moral theology!
I’ve never seen the original Italian, so thanks for that. Way back in college, I found a variant that has always stayed in mind:
Be praised, my God, for my sister Death,
From whom no living man can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Blessed are those who do Thy most holy will;
For the second death cannot touch them.
What I found equally shocking was this statement:
"...tradition says human sexuality is for an expression of total self-giving in fidelity in a way that is open to the creation of new life. Now, that's tough, that's a high ideal. I'm not sure many people have ever observed it in its totality, but it doesn't mean to say it has no sense"(emphasis added).
The "total self-giving" bit is a daily struggle, but is he really suggesting that "only a few" have lived lives of fidelity and openness to new life? Or am I missing something?
I'm more convinced than ever that His Grace needs our prayers.
Howe's famous analogy applies here too:
"How on earth are faithful priests and evangelism-minded laity, commending the Church's moral teaching and her remedies for sin, to be taken seriously against that kind of background noise? It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain."
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