I certainly pride myself on knowing and defending my faith and surrounding myself with others who do the same.
The reason is simple- when you love something you want to know everything there is to know about it and to defend it.
Desiring to have a deep knowledge and understanding of the mysteries of our sacred faith is a worthy endeavor. It is a thing of high importance.
It certainly isn't the highest importance, however. In fact, our research and study and intellect can get us in a great deal of trouble if we let our pride take over. All discerned truths have to be weighed against the deposit of faith and revealed truth. All conclusions and judgements must be subservient to the Magisterium.
Sometimes a paradox looks like a contradiction and sometimes an egg looks like a scorpion, so to speak. Divine mysteries are just that and our intellects are only able to penetrate what God is doing to the extent that He will give us sufficient grace us to penetrate it.
Over the last few days, I have been watching a Netflix series called Midnight Mass and it's a drama about a new priest that goes to a small town and miraculous and crazy things begin to happen. In episode 2, a girl named Leeza regains the ability to walk as a result of a eucharistic miracle, for example.
The series has it's downfalls, to be sure but some of the themes are quite engaging and probing.
In the very first scene, we see a man named Riley, cuffed and sitting on the asphalt while police and medical personnel frantically apply CPR to the girl that his car struck. As he sobers up, he looks to the police officer and asks if she will be ok. Suddenly, she goes limp and her dead face turns in his direction. He begins to the pray the Our Father, when the police officer tells him to ask Him (God) why he always takes the kids instead of the drunk *****s who kill them.
For the rest of his life, he is haunted by nightmarish visions of that face.
Later, we find out that Leeza's paralysis was caused by a hunting accident and the accidental shooter is likewise tormented and becomes an alcoholic.
His redemption- and the town's- begins with her miraculous cure.
I have heard and seen countless examples of a bullet that miraculously missed the target by inches or about a person who was supposed to be on a plane that crashed. Surely, God has shown that He can intervene so, when He doesn't, it leaves us wondering and sadly, sometimes doubting. It's just a movie series but it hits too close to home for many of us.
We cannot explain the evil and the trauma and the suffering we see around us so we often wander off the reservation seeking secret knowledge that will give us a perceived advantage in understanding. This is a very, very dangerous thing and many - most, in fact, - Catholics are led astray by false leaders.
Here are some good guidelines to follow.
Reject any claims of private revelation that are not formally approved by the church. There are many improved revelations and devotions to choose from. Among those to be avoided at all cost are the writings of so-called Maria Divine Mercy and the demonic condemned Marian apparitions in Amsterdam, Garabandal and Medjugorje. Stick with Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe etc.. and you can't go wrong.
Reject schismatics and ultra-trad fanatics that reject the Pope or Vatican II.
Reject modernist liberal ideology that supports abortion, gay marriage or other abominations.
Read the classics and the lives of the saints.
Keep up an active prayer and sacramental life.
Stay humble and obedient.
If you do these things, you won't get drawn in by the lunatics.
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