Complaining is a trap. We like to tell ourselves that venting is actually a positive thing with friends and that it is an indication of intimacy. The truth is that complaining distracts us from our path, takes our focus off of providence, and also robs us of humility.
“Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” (Jas 5:9). It is culturally expected of us that we complain about our spouse instead of building one another up. It is just so easy to think about what is “owed” to us.
But when it comes to faith and the Church, nothing is owed to us.
The sacraments aren’t owed to us. Faithful priests, bishops, and popes aren’t owed to us. Religious freedom isn’t owed to us. All of these are pure gifts. When we have these things: Blessed be God! Also, when we don’t have these things: Blessed be God!
In a recent interview with Catholic apologist Matt Fradd, Ukrainian Catholic priest Father Jason Charron speaks about how fixating on the problems in the Church can be a trap for lay people. Corruption in the Church has always been a thing; there is nothing new there.
If anything, this time of intense demolition and mutiny in the Church is causing us to frantically peel away all of the trappings of our faith in order to rediscover faith itself. This time of trial, Father Charron says, “is going to give us a bare-bones, enlivened, and purified vibrant faith. God is permitting this so we will cleave to him.”
In speaking about his family’s experience of communism, Father Charron recounts how his wife was baptized by a visiting “doctor” in her home with the curtains drawn at midnight. Christians during that time didn’t wait around for the right priest or for someone to organize a Scripture study. Faithful priests roamed through the woods at night to minister to their people. These Christians lived and breathed their faith. The Church structure was a luxury that was simply unavailable for many, many years.
In times of relative stability, we can, for a time, lean on those giants in the faith who have gone before us and have confidently and humbly articulated the faith in ways that we could immediately perceive as true, good, and beautiful. We didn’t have to do any legwork in those moments. We could coast a bit.
The time for coasting has come to an end. The time for debate over doctrine and who can and cannot receive Communion has come to an end. Now is the time for chasing personal holiness and for repenting for sin.
We can no longer trust that Church teachings will be proclaimed fearlessly by those who have the microphone. There are many good and faithful priests and bishops out there to be sure, but their level of faithfulness or lack thereof has never and should never indicate our level of faith.
Father Charron comments that for a time, we could leave the heavy lifting to those above us. (St. John Paul II wrote so much gold that we are still unpacking it all). Father Charron likens those moments to the kid in class who just sits and copies the work of the smart kid beside him. This kind of behaviour is never acceptable, not in education and certainly not in the spiritual life.
“The teacher doesn’t want that. The teacher wants you to assimilate [the material]. To work through the math problem. So that the material has become part and parcel with you […] The Church is a mother, a teacher, but she is not a substitute for faith,” Father Charron says.
It is wonderful to know and to celebrate the smart kid, read his work, and be inspired by it. Ultimately, however, we have to make the material our own. When we stand before God, we don’t get to hold up the smart kid’s paper nor do we get to blame the lukewarm priest for our own lack of holiness. (That said, however, God help the lukewarm, hibernating priests when they stand to make an account before him!)
“What is your excuse for not getting holy?” Matt Fradd asks his listeners. “You have the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Scriptures. The writings of the saints!”
We have been given all that we need plus way more. Let’s get to work.
