Quote of the Day: Fidelity, Not Blind Obedience
Quote of the day from "Reluctant Penitent", posting in comments at Amy Welborn's blog entry regarding the LATimes story on Bishop Tod Brown's decision to forbid kneeling in the Diocese of Orange:
Orthodox Catholics have stressed obedience far too much, in my view. What is important is not obedience but fidelity to the teachings of the Church.My Comments:
Not that I necessarily agree with the notion of being disobedient to one's bishop, but I did think this was an interesting comment that certainly has me thinking about its implications.
posted by Pro Ecclesia 3:57 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
There's a false dichotomy there.
If Dad29 refers to the false dichotomy that is present in the sentence,
"What is important is not obedience but fidelity to the teachings of the Church," I completely agree with him. Obedience is said to be one of the best virtues. Whatever the reason is for the ban on kneeling at certain parts of the Liturgy, it in any case is a good thing for the Liturgy, as at least people will be united in their bodily positions, and therefore not distracted with each other. If all parishioners obey and come to understand that you can still reverance our Lord while standing, the result can be people being able to focus entirely on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and be able to, along with the Celebrant(s), better offer the Holy Sacrifice too. One example is the Benedictine-perhaps it is simply a monastic tradition, not only limited to the Benedictines, but I am not sure & can only voucher from experience the Benedictines- tradition standing during the entire Mass. I have found, in my one year attending daily Mass with the Benedictines (I attended a Benedictine college for a year) that one can learn to kneel in one's heart and revere Him completely.
May I add that I know that it is not easy to give up one's ways of offering one's self to God-- I know that it is painful. But I pray that God will be able to grace my fellow brothers and sisters with the understanding needed for this situation and I pray that the Bishop will be able to reach out to those hurting because of the ban.
And I know that this may seem like a contradictory break from what I have said above (which I do not retract one bit), but I feel it is necessary to point out, for the benefit of those reading, another point in the line of my comments regarding that statement ("What is important is not obedience but fidelity to the teachings of the Church"):
The statement is also illogical because if you have fidelity for the teachings of the Church, right away you imply that you are *obedient* to all Popes down the line who have, with the Holy Spirit's guidance, determined the true teachings of the Church, and therefore God's....who, in *addition* to being a bishop of a certain diocese, is overmore the *universal* pastor of the Holy Mother Church. Obedience is one of our duties as practicing Catholics-- to the Pope and to those loyal to His Holiness. I am not aware of anything un-holy regarding Bishop Brown, but not knowing nothing else, I will argue that he is a good bishop and just simply needs to clarify and explain his decision.
I hope that I am not appearing arrogant and out of my place here. I apologize if I seem so, because I know I am dealing with my elders here and I am humbled that I am interacting with people with more experience in life on an eye-to-eye level. I humbly offer to all of you what I have written here, knowing that I am not worthy.
Peace,
Katrina
P.S.
Also, Just so everyone knows, I'm cross-commenting what I've written her at Amy's blog. Though I am not worthy, I wish to point out the illogic to her and to her readers.
Sorry to blog again here! :( But just wanted to let everyone know:
NM on the posting on Amy's blog--- I think Amy closed her comments.
Peace!
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