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Christians are not ‘parked’ but rather courageous
January 17, 2017 by Inside the Vatican Staff

Be courageous Christians, anchored in hope and capable of enduring dark moments.

This was the forceful invitation of Pope Francis at the morning Mass on Tuesday at the Casa Santa Marta. Lazy Christians, on the other hand, are stationary, the Pope said, and for them, the Church is a good parking spot.

The life of a Christian is a “courageous life,” Pope Francis said in his homily, which he based on the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. The zeal spoken of in the reading, the courage to go forward, ought to be our attitude toward life, like the attitude of those who train for victory in the arena. But the Letter also speaks of the laziness that is the opposite of courage. “Living in the fridge,” the Pope summarized, “so that everything stays the same”:

Quote:Lazy Christians, Christians who do not have the will to go forward, Christians who don’t fight to make things change, new things, the things that would do good for everyone, if these things would change. They are lazy, “parked” Christians: they have found in the Church a good place to park. And when I say Christians, I’m talking about laity, priests, bishops… Everyone. But there are parked Christians! For them the Church is a parking place that protects life, and they go forward with all the insurance possible. But these stationary Christians, they make me think of something the grandparents told us as children: beware of still water, that which doesn’t flow, it is the first to go bad.”

Vox Wrote:"And when I say Christians, I’m talking about laity, priests, bishops… Everyone." -- everyone but himself, it seems. It takes a lot of nerve to toy with the Church as he does, to think that he is right and 2,000 years' worth of Popes and Saints have been wrong.

But what is he even talking about in the first place? The lazy route is to go the way of the world, to please the liberals, to bend over for rabbis, to pretend Luther was a great Catholic, to not evangelize, to sell out. The trad way -- by which I do not mean "the toxic trad way" -- is the hard way. But His yoke is sweet, and His burden light.

And shouldn't the Church protect life? Shouldn't She be a sanctuary, a place of rest in addition to the source of the Sacraments that keep us fed so we can live up to our Confirmations?

Be anchored in hope, and able to endure in difficult moments what makes Christians courageous is hope, while the “lazy Christians” don’t have hope, they are in retirement, the Pope said. It is beautiful to go into retirement after many years of work, but, he warned, “spending your whole life in retirement is ugly!” Hope, on the other hand, is the anchor that we cling to in order to keep fighting, even in difficult moments:

Quote:“This is today’s message: hope, that hope that doesn’t disappoint, that goes beyond. And he [the Author of the Letter to the Hebrews] says: a hope that ‘is a sure and firm anchor for our life.’ Hope is the anchor: We threw it, and we are clinging to the cord, but there, but going there. This is our hope. There’s no thinking: ‘Yes, but, there is heaven, ah, how beautiful, I’m staying…’ No. Hope is struggling, holding onto the rope, in order to arrive there. In the struggle of everyday, hope is a virtue of horizons, not of closure! Perhaps it is the virtue that is least understood, but it is the strongest. Hope: living in hope, living on hope, always looking forward with courage. ‘Yes, Father – anyone of you might say to me – but there are ugly moments, where everything seems dark, what should I do?’ Hold onto the rope, and endure. Parked Christians look only at themselves, they are selfish.”

Vox Wrote:
Things look much more dark than they have to be in great part because of how things go at the Vatican. If you want Christians "living in hope, living on hope, always looking forward with courage," then FEED them! Guard the Faith and hand it down! Stop toying with Tradition! Stop watering things down and caving in to the world!

“Life does not come to any of us wrapped up like a gift,” Pope Francis noted; rather, we need courage to go forward and to endure. Courageous Christians might make mistakes, “but we all make mistakes,” the Pope said. “Those who go forward make mistakes, while those who are stationary seem to not make mistakes.” And when “you can’t walk because everything is dark, everything is closed,” you need to endure, to persevere.

Finally, Pope Francis invited us to ask ourselves if we are closed Christians, or Christians of the horizons; and if in ugly moments we are capable of enduring, with the knowledge that hope does not disappoint – “Because I know,” he said, “that God does not disappoint”:

Vox Wrote:
No, God definitely does not disappoint, but you do, Holiness.

Quote:“Let us ask ourselves the question: How am I? How is my life of
faith? Is it a life of horizons, of hope, of courage, of going forward; or a lukewarm life that doesn’t even know to endure ugly moments? And that the Lord might give us the grace, as we have requested in the Collect [Opening Prayer], to overcome our selfishness, because parked Christians, stationary Christians, are selfish. They look only at themselves, they don’t raise their heads to look at Him. May the Lord give us this grace.”

Vox Wrote:Since he seems to equate being a "parked" and "lazy" Christian with resistance to "change," it seems that he's talking about us, calling us "selfish" because we don't buy into novelties, attempts to present doctrine as having changed, dangerous changes in sacramental rites and disciplines, such things as allowing unrepentant adulterers to receive Communion, etc. We're all just soooo rotten, eh?

I'm not even surprised at this point.

Is there any other group that draws as much criticism from the Pope as Catholics who trying to be faithful? I don't think so. Most every other group gets a pass. They need "accompaniment," "pastoral care," "tenderness," etc.. But the Catholics who are trying to be faithful and hold onto very old and precious traditions are "parked," "rigid," "pickled pepper-faced Christians," "Promethean neo-Pelagians," etc..

It's very interesting that there is a prophecy tied to St. Francis of Assisi where he said that Jesus would send at a certain point, "not a true Pastor, but a destroyer."

The definition of " faithful Catholic " has shifted with the passing of time. That's the issue here. If you want the modern definition of " faithful Catholic" in the mainstream than read PrayTell, Commonweal and America Magazine, or perhaps the USCCB website. I'm not at all joking here either.

Trads feel lost in days Church because quite frankly today's church teaches something radically different, something literally jettisoned by the hierarchy en masse in the wake of the Council. There is bound to be cognitive dissonance.

There's really no way to make peace with this reality other than to find a niche and, to quote 90's rapper Too $hort get in where you fit in.   Find a chapel that fits your needs, bury yourself in the Office, devotions or find something to excite you hobby wise outside church stuff. There is no simple answer to the cognitive dissonance of trying to be a Roman Catholic in a church that claims to be Roman Catholic but rejects almost every aspect of its past.

As usual, well said, formerbuddhist.

The good news I think is that the current situation has been forced to such an extreme today that God will have to intervene to make good on His own promises. I suspect an 'intervention' is coming soon, and will be something Christians will remember for the next 2000 years, so we don't repeat this.

One can interpret this outside of the scope of him complaining about people who don't want to change doctrine...

I kind of read it as the people who just go to church and go through the motions their whole lives or who only look interiorly, but don't really do anything to step outside to help others and things of that nature. That people use the Church as their insurance for the afterlife, but don't have real love (lukewarmness) and stay in an idleness of not growing in their spirituality or doing good works. That's at least a more orthodox way of interpreting it.

(01-19-2017, 10:50 AM)GangGreen Wrote: [ -> ]One can interpret this outside of the scope of him complaining about people who don't want to change doctrine...

I kind of read it as the people who just go to church and go through the motions their whole lives or who only look interiorly, but don't really do anything to step outside to help others and things of that nature. That people use the Church as their insurance for the afterlife, but don't have real love (lukewarmness) and stay in an idleness of not growing in their spirituality or doing good works. That's at least a more orthodox way of interpreting it.

This is how I read it as well.  Normally the pope confuses me, but this time it made sense. 

Edit: But immediately after posting the above, it dawned on me how confusing the message really is.  Just on this forum, how many different reactions have there been?  Perhaps he should have been a bit more direct, if he intended it as a poke against those who go through the motions.

So it's better to be a lukewarm mediocrity of a Catholic these days? Okay Holiness, okay..

(01-19-2017, 10:50 AM)GangGreen Wrote: [ -> ]One can interpret this outside of the scope of him complaining about people who don't want to change doctrine...

I kind of read it as the people who just go to church and go through the motions their whole lives or who only look interiorly, but don't really do anything to step outside to help others and things of that nature. That people use the Church as their insurance for the afterlife, but don't have real love (lukewarmness) and stay in an idleness of not growing in their spirituality or doing good works. That's at least a more orthodox way of interpreting it.

I don't see how you can get that reading. He very clearly said he was referring to "Lazy Christians, Christians who do not have the will to go forward, Christians who don’t fight to make things change, new things, the things that would do good for everyone, if these things would change."

Christians are not ‘parked’ but rather courageous
I think it is courageous to promote the TLM in some places. Be firm but be respectful.

Obviously we should work to change bad things or make improvements to benefit our fellow man and sloth is a sin.  But the Bible also warns us to be careful when "going forward" and that some kinds of "remaining" are necessary.

2 John 9 Anyone who is so “progressive”* as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.

* [9] Anyone who is so “progressive”: literally, “Anyone who goes ahead.”
http://www.usccb.org/bible/2john/1