The Church does not tiptoe around our favorite sins (well, the Church should not be doing that). Truth should not change to match our desires. No, the Church is there to call us to repentance, to holiness, and to be free from those sins. Lets be honest. The call to repentance is uncomfortable just as repentance itself is uncomfortable. God does not want us to remain as we are but is seeking to change us for our good and not for arbitrary or controlling purposes. Jesus is “the light has come into the world, [but] the world loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19). We think people are rejecting our worldview or the specific truths of creation, fall, redemption, etc., but they might be rejecting the calling to live differently, according to different values, and for a different goal and purpose. God is not trying to end the party but is providing the best wine at the end and more of it than we ever expected.
Whoever has made peace with a cherished sin will naturally see the Church, the call to repentance, and worship centered upon the Word and Sacraments as adversaries. That is Augustine's point. As such, it is also good to remember that the Church is not the one condemning sin but the Word of God. The Scriptures call us to repentance, to admit our love and addiction to our favorite sins, and to a new life lived in response to a different voice than that of desire. So when people reject the liturgy or preaching or catechesis, we think it is about a liturgical or preaching or teaching problem when in reality it is about sin. Maybe it was always about sin? Maybe sin and forgiveness are not antiquated ideas in our modern era. Maybe it is the same issue as Eden.
St. Augustine DID NOT say or write, “People reject the Church because She speaks against the sins they love" (even in Latin). And, of course, the use of “Church” depends on one’s definition of “Church”.
ReplyDeleteWhat St. Augustine DID write in Latin in his _Enarrationes in Psalmos_ [Expositions on the Psalms] 35, 1 (https://www.augustinus.it/latino/esposizioni_salmi/esposizione_salmo_048_testo.htm) was:
“Quia corpus quod corrumpitur aggravat animam, et deprimit terrena inhabitatio sensum multa cogitantem: aliud autem quando perniciosius agit adversum seipsum cor humanum, ut quod possit intellegere, si bona voluntas accederet, non intellegat, non quia difficile est, sed quia voluntas adversa est. Hoc autem fit dum amant peccata sua, et oderunt praecepta Dei. Sermo enim Dei adversarius tuus est, si tu amicus sis iniquitatis tuae: si autem tu adversarius sis iniquitatis tuae, sermo Dei amicus tuus est, et adversarius iniquitatis tuae. Si ergo odisti iniquitatem tuam, iungis te sermoni Dei; et eritis duo adversus illam perimendam, tu et sermo Dei.”
[“For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling oppresses the mind as it ponders many things; yet it is a different matter when the human heart acts destructively against itself—failing to understand what it could grasp (were a good will present), not because the truth is difficult, but because the will is hostile. This happens when people love their sins and hate God's commandments. For the Word of God is your adversary if you are a friend to your own iniquity; but if you are an adversary to your iniquity, then the Word of God is your friend—and the adversary of your iniquity. If, therefore, you hate your iniquity, you ally yourself with the Word of God; and the two of you—you and the Word of God—will stand together to destroy it.”]
For Augustine, it was the Word of God that was the adversary of people who loved their sins.
A message about sin is designed to make us uncomfortable, as it should, but if one reveres the whole word of God, sin must be discussed more frequently from the pulpits. Sometimes it is easier to talk mainly about the love of God, referring to sin more abstractly, defining them as simply bad choices, glossing over the idea that our sins grieve the Holy Spirit. But we also inherently know our sins weigh upon us, in convicting and accusing us, often causing us to question our own salvation. We see the hypocrisy of our tainted lives, and find sanctification is a struggle of the soul and it lasts a lifetime. Roman’s one addresses sin directly, and pulls no punches. I fear it is not incorporated in many sermons because it might make us squirm. The good news is announced further on in Roman’s 6:14, it is written, “For sin shall have no dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” Also, look at Proverbs 28:13, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Even though we struggle with the cycle of repeated sins in our lives, the word of God reveals the promises that the Holy Spirit continues working on our behalf. We must call to mind 1John1:9, and keep short accounts with the Lord. It is the way a Christian must live, as sin will plague us until God calls us home. It may seem a small thing, but in my view one bad habit in particular is revealing of a man’s heart. And in my opinion it is one of the first of many things he must reject. It is the habit of everyday cursing and vulgar coarse language. And It goes without saying that no child of God should thoughtlessly take the name of the Lord in vain, in jest, in a curse, or in any common and blasphemous manner. The words we communicate to others should be free of vulgarity and coarseness. They should be no part of our private or public vocabulary. As smoking cigarettes destroys the lungs, and excess alcohol attacks the liver, coarse language destroys the witness of a believer. As we go through the sanctification process, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we will find more strength to fight our personal war against sin. And in my humble view, the process begins with the words we choose to speak. Soli Deo Gloria
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, in his autobiography, _Confessiones_, Book VIII, Chapter 7 (https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/latinconf/8.html) [_Confessions_ (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3296/3296-h/3296-h.htm#link2H_4_0008)], St. Augustine recalls:
ReplyDelete“But I wretched, most wretched, in the very commencement of my early youth, had begged chastity of Thee, and said, "Give me chastity and continency, only not yet." For I feared lest Thou shouldest hear me soon, and soon cure me of the disease of concupiscence, which I wished to have satisfied, rather than extinguished."