The Bible, personal surrender to Christ, experience of God, and mission
If the sects are advancing, it is for a reason. What will happen the day we snatch away their great banners? They will collapse, having fulfilled their mission, which is to awaken the slumbering giant, the Catholic Church.
We were accustomed to a mass Catholicism, the majority of which was religiously indifferent and apathetic. It seemed to us that this was the destiny of religion: to be increasingly relegated to the sacristies, with little groups of the faithful facing an amorphous and indifferent mass.
And what happened? That with the explosion of the sects we realized that our analysis was not correct. Suddenly the apathetic became active and enthusiastic. Well then, what is the cause of this change?
First banner: The Word of God is for everyone
We thought that the Word of God was something difficult, reserved for seminaries, convents, and schools of theology. For simple people the catechism and the prayer book were enough. Well then, the sects came and showed that it is not so. The Bible is for everyone: children and adults, the learned and the ignorant. The people ran after them in search of more solid and genuine spiritual nourishment. And we, the Church of Christ, remained behind, with our treasure well guarded. Possessing the fullness of truth, we hid it. The others, opening the Bible, gave the impression of having greater riches than ours. And many went away with them.
What will happen the day we Catholics place the Bible in the position it deserves, making it the principal spiritual nourishment of every believer, beginning with the children who are just opening up to the faith?
Second banner: Surrender to Christ is for everyone
We Catholics thought that personal surrender to Christ was only for priests and religious. Well then, the sects came and opened our eyes, reminding us that surrender to Christ is for everyone: a conscious and definitive surrender to Him as the one Savior and Lord of one’s own life. Something truly thrilling and simple at the same time, within everyone’s reach, which gives meaning to life and creates the awareness of an essential equality among all the members of the people of God.
What will happen the day when among us Catholics all of this becomes “law,” eliminating in the laity that deep inferiority complex which traps them and prevents them from rising toward the heights of apostolic commitment and holiness?
Third banner: The experience of God is for everyone
For many simple Catholics, God is a familiar being, with whom they have a continual and loving relationship that gives a deep serenity to their own life. The problem is that they do not have a clear awareness of the “treasure” they possess.
On the contrary, the sects deliberately seek out this kind of experience and make a display of it, using the most varied resources: prayer, fasting, singing, testimony, etc. They know that it is a treasure that must be found at all costs, and, upon finding it, or having the impression of having found it, they feel the obligation to communicate the good news, creating in the community a climate of contagious euphoria.
What will happen the day when among us Catholics that search becomes “law,” turning the distant God into the friendly and inseparable God?
Fourth banner: Mission is for everyone
Whoever has found God and been marked by this experience cannot remain silent. For him, mission becomes the obligatory step. If to this is added a particular mysticism and a well-planned system of “conquest,” one should not be surprised at the results.
What will happen the day when in the Catholic world this becomes a normal style of pastoral action, making the constant search for the lost sheep into “law,” relying on a mysticism and a specific methodology aimed at recovering those who have fallen away?
It is a pity that we are still very far from being able to glimpse this change, beginning with the seminaries and the houses of formation for religious. So be it. It will fall to the laity to take this step so important in the life of the Church, as is already happening with many apostolic movements.
In any case, the day this happens, we will be able to say with full reason:
“Blessed are the sects that came to awaken us!”
The role of the sects
In reality, this is the role of the sects: to bring to light certain deficiencies present in the Church and to try to give a response. To the extent that their analysis is correct and their response apt, the sects advance.
Until the Church becomes aware of their challenges and snatches away their best banners. Then the sects will collapse, having fulfilled their mission, which consists precisely in awakening the slumbering giant, which is the Catholic Church.
The same thing happened with Marxism. Its mission consisted in awakening the capitalist world to the problem of social justice. Its mission accomplished, it disappeared from the world stage. This is what we wholeheartedly wish for the sects.
Author: Fr. Flaviano Amatulli Valente
