Because...Modernity!

Because...2015!: You'll find one in many English towns

Ed West today pens a great piece for The Spectator on the intellectual crisis - virus - afflicting contemporary society, in which a Canadian President can flippantly answer the question, 'Why is gender equality important?' with the answer: "Because its 2015" and not think that's just a little meaningless.

There might be some interesting arguments to advance for the largely secularist cause for 'gender equality' but I'm not sure 'Because its Friday' quite cuts it.

Yet, this view that we are just so advanced and superior to those who came before us that whatever they believed was ridiculous and unbelievable is, inside the Church and outside the Church, dominant and widespread. The intellectual underpinnings of "Because its 2015" are just so weak and tenuous that those laughing at it should be in the majority, but I don't think they are. Are we more stupid and accepting of such laughable arrogance 'because its 2015'? Quite possibly!

Within the Church, "Because...modernity!" has something of a stranglehold over many a Catholic mind. I was talking with someone recently who said how much she 'couldn't stand' the previous Pope, Benedict XVI. She was unable to really explain why. She went on to explain why she loved Pope Francis, saying he has a 'human face', whereas Benedict XVI didn't. We had a little discussion about the Synod, she knew nothing about it, but when we talked about the issue of divorce, remarriage and Communion, she said something like, 'But I'm sure that Jesus was talking to the people of His time and now...Well, people live longer, so people can't be expected to...'

Behold, do I not too have a face that is human?

That's right. People can't be expected to live good lives anymore because its 2015 and we are irredeemable degenerates. Ross Douthat's letter to academics welcoming them to the intellectual battlefield was, I noticed, met with a flurry of comments saying that Ross shouldn't object to the liberalising of everything and destruction of the sacred because we're 'in the modern world now' and I'm pretty certain that the doctrine-lite/-less Christ presented by Pope Francis and his clique, prepping for battle against those who think Jesus Christ actually meant what He said for all times, has at its shallow root, this self-fascination modern man has with his own godless era.

And so, instead of the proclamation of Jesus's own, really quite divisive teachings, which so often require no filtering and little esoteric 'interpretation for today's realities', we are now presented with an image of Christ who has, through His representative (and his clique), adapted to the modern age, taking upon Himself the language of 'inclusion'. We have the Synod on the Family which introduces new language of 'accompaniment' and 'walking with your people', instead of the language that would enable modern man, just like ancient man, who is wandering around, lost but looking for the Light, being told that being a Catholic is all about 'inclusion', the kind of meaningless rhetoric that graces the pages of social worker reports on young offenders or Stonewall's latest LGBT propaganda for schools. If it means more than nothing, it certainly doesn't signify anything that is actually sacred and, the last time I looked, the Church of Christ was the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

"Because 1933!"

The stupidity of the 'Because its 2015' position for justifying any political or moral opinion that seems to have infected the West in a way gives us a clue as to why the Eternal Father decided to shed the rays of His mercy on the human race, by sending the Son of God to our Saviour, but thought better of forgiving fallen angels who rebelled against Him. Humanity is obviously, still, in 2015, quite stupid! The Angels were created with a vastly superior intelligence to men, an intelligence beyond our reasoning. God made man and saw that he was very good, but, perhaps, a little dim?

Anyway, good luck, Fathers, as you 'walk with your people', 'accompanying' them on their spiritual journey through life, but I think there are probably many Catholics who don't want their parish priest to walk with them to the sex shop, or to the gay bar, or to their mistresses bedrooms, or to a local prostitute, or to come round and pop-in to say hello while the poor, storm-tossed soul drops his guard and looks at online pornography or even to the husband and wife at each other's throats for no particularly good reason. None of those things happen because its 2015. They happen because men and women are still - yes, even in 2015! - sinners in need of grace, mercy and the truth that can set us free.

Keep it simple, Fathers. Be wise pastors, merciful confessors, call your flock to follow Jesus Christ and take up the Cross but beware, your 'accompaniment' probably won't be wanted until your penitent asks, "Can I accompany you into that Confessional box? I know its 2015 and everything, but I'm in mortal sin."

"Because 33!"

As for the Gospel of 'inclusion' that again places passive-aggressive papal ire in the direction of those who would think the Kasper proposal is irreconcilable with Christ's teaching, some could be forgiven for wondering how you can 'include' 'always' yet still 'in a measure of healthy prudence'.

We'll put that down as another papal instruction that's clear as mud since some could easily think that means, in a parish setting, come but maybe best not to receive Holy Communion for the time being if you are in X, Y or Z state? Is that what His Holiness means? Is that the prudence he is looking for? For others, of course, it means, give Holy Communion to everybody, no matter what because, er, because...modernity! Because its 2015!

Perhaps we're left unsure but it does go some way to explaining why Cardinal Daneels was invited to the Synod on the Family but Cardinal Burke was not. You know, sometimes 'prudence', so easily mixed up with 'expediency', just has to kick in. Because 2015. Jesus spoke a great deal about wise and foolish virgins, faithful and faithless stewards, sheep and goats and talked about wheat and tares growing up to be harvested for Judgment Day. True, He even included, within His Apostles, Judas. Yet simply being included didn't help him. Receiving Holy Communion didn't actually help him. He, too, was given fame for being quite 'kissy-kissy', sometimes at the most inappropriate of times.