The Profundity of Catholicism
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By Jim J. McCrea
People of the world have a false conception of Catholicism.
They think of it as dry old dogmas which are not connected to real life and as arbitrary moral rules that stand in the way of true freedom. The mainstream media presents the Catholic Church this way.
However, there is an infinite distance between the caricature and the reality.
In reality, Catholicism expresses the deepest dynamism and nature of life and reality. It is the perfect expression of the true, the good, and the beautiful.
The world that is in opposition to it is an expression of extreme ugliness. Take the example of the modern "progressive" immodestly dressed woman or girl. Here, both modesty and femininity have been departed from. We have a specter of round fleshy bodies with faces as hard and sharp as nails. The modern world is imbalanced one way or the other, while avoiding the mean where the true good is found - where Jesus Christ is found.
Many are of the impression that Catholicism is for stupid people. This misconception is held also by many evangelical Protestants with their often too-bright and too-much-on-the-surface joy.
However, as far as truth goes, nothing is deeper or more profound than the intellectual tradition of the Catholic Church.
It says in the "Imitation of Christ"
"The more a man is united within himself, and interiorly simple, the more and higher things doth he understand without labor; because he receiveth the light of understanding from above."
They think of it as dry old dogmas which are not connected to real life and as arbitrary moral rules that stand in the way of true freedom. The mainstream media presents the Catholic Church this way.
However, there is an infinite distance between the caricature and the reality.
In reality, Catholicism expresses the deepest dynamism and nature of life and reality. It is the perfect expression of the true, the good, and the beautiful.
The world that is in opposition to it is an expression of extreme ugliness. Take the example of the modern "progressive" immodestly dressed woman or girl. Here, both modesty and femininity have been departed from. We have a specter of round fleshy bodies with faces as hard and sharp as nails. The modern world is imbalanced one way or the other, while avoiding the mean where the true good is found - where Jesus Christ is found.
Many are of the impression that Catholicism is for stupid people. This misconception is held also by many evangelical Protestants with their often too-bright and too-much-on-the-surface joy.
However, as far as truth goes, nothing is deeper or more profound than the intellectual tradition of the Catholic Church.
It says in the "Imitation of Christ"
"The more a man is united within himself, and interiorly simple, the more and higher things doth he understand without labor; because he receiveth the light of understanding from above."
(Bk. I, Ch. 3)
The more pure a person is, the subtler, profounder, and higher realities he is able to grasp with his mind.
In heaven, as we ascend through the nine choirs of angels, which are the nine grades of being in heaven, the knowledge there becomes subtler, deeper, and more profound.
But as it becomes subtler, deeper, and more profound, it also becomes simpler, easier, more obvious, and more intelligible - and there is an increasing delectability in that knowledge.
There exists infinite potential grades of depth and profundity of knowledge (outside of what has actually been created) going higher and higher, leading right to the abode of the Blessed Trinity. In the abode of the Trinity there is both infinite profundity and infinite simplicity. Only God is capable of understanding all truth, absolutely simply and comprehensively. The rest of us can be given more or less a share of that.
But it is all important to point out that our love must grow in proportion to the truth that we have; for the knowledge that we have is there only for the sake of our expressions of love or agape.
Catholicism has all truth and all love contained within it, which is incarnated in Jesus Christ. It is our life's journey to unpack that more and more.
The more pure a person is, the subtler, profounder, and higher realities he is able to grasp with his mind.
In heaven, as we ascend through the nine choirs of angels, which are the nine grades of being in heaven, the knowledge there becomes subtler, deeper, and more profound.
But as it becomes subtler, deeper, and more profound, it also becomes simpler, easier, more obvious, and more intelligible - and there is an increasing delectability in that knowledge.
There exists infinite potential grades of depth and profundity of knowledge (outside of what has actually been created) going higher and higher, leading right to the abode of the Blessed Trinity. In the abode of the Trinity there is both infinite profundity and infinite simplicity. Only God is capable of understanding all truth, absolutely simply and comprehensively. The rest of us can be given more or less a share of that.
But it is all important to point out that our love must grow in proportion to the truth that we have; for the knowledge that we have is there only for the sake of our expressions of love or agape.
Catholicism has all truth and all love contained within it, which is incarnated in Jesus Christ. It is our life's journey to unpack that more and more.
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