162 Chapter 13
WHY IT WAS WORTHWHILE
If Fr. Keefe's argument is accurate, it is possible that the Catholic
faith has continued mainly on the backs of people like your
grandmother -- and, perhaps, on the backs of people like you. It may
even be that what 'normal people' have done over the centuries has
made up for many errors committed by the theologians.
1
Theology has no special status among Man's responses to the
Eucharistic Event. Nor is there any guarantee that theology will be
done well, just because it is attempted. The Catholic academy, slowly
working its way toward its 'epitome' in New Class Catholicism, may
even have been a net drain on the Church for several centuries. Your
grandmother's response in faith, not Catholic theology, may well have
been a truer worship in spirit and truth.
1. To say it again, Catholics -- even
saints -- can make theological mistakes,
while at the same time personally
taking the Eucharist at least as seriously
as your grandmother. A Catholic
mathematician, juggler, or theologian
can make a mistake in his profession,
without any sin, and without his faith
being impugned in the least. To say
otherwise is to make theology a
sacrament instead of a science.
For centuries, the faith of people like her may well have been of
more actual assistance to the magisterial protection of the sacraments
than the 'assistance' provided by theologians, both 'distinguished' and
otherwise. Generations of grandmothers may have been making up for
generations of manualists
2
-- as you may have to make up for the
mistakes of Catholic theologians today.
2. A 'manualist' is a writer of a theological
'manual' -- a handbook of the Catholic faith.
This is not to say that your thoughts can correct those of the
theologians -- that is pretentious. That is also not what Our Lady's
juggler was doing. Without contradicting any theologian -- and
certainly without violating any moral teaching of the Church -- he
simply offered what he could to Our Lord through Our Lady.
The above is not meant as a serious argument. After all, it's
probable that no one wrote down every single one of your
grandmother's mistakes, but the mistakes of theologians (as
theologians) are literally a matter of record -- thus much easier to
count. The real moral is, there is no 'contest' among believers as to
whose seat in Heaven is higher. When we worship in spirit and truth,
we're grown-ups. It may have been worthwhile to read this text, just to
be able to understand that better.
One final reason reading this text might have been worthwhile is
that it might make clearer to you the problems involved in
evangelizing the 'modern world' -- which is to some large extent the
world produced and run by the New Class.
This particular evangelization, as most people recognize, has not
been going all that well. Reading this book has been worthwhile if you
are now able to see that there may be theological reasons for this lack
of success.
Obviously, there are innumerable reasons why members of the
New Class might find living a Christian life at least occasionally
inconvenient, but that hardly distinguishes them from the rest of the
fallen human race, including every single loyal Roman Catholic.
N.B. This is an html-ized copy of a page from the pdf file, The Knucklehead's Guide to Covenantal Theology.