Where there is no hatred of heresy, there is no holiness!

[Vetus Ordo]

We should all medidate on these hard truths. How many of us have grown lukewarm? He who has ears, let him hear!

"If we hated sin as we ought to hate it, purely, keenly, manfully, we should do more penance, we should inflict more self-punishment, we should sorrow for our sins more abidingly. Then, again, the crowning disloyalty to God is heresy. It is the sin of sins, the very loathsomest of things which God looks down upon in this malignant world. Yet how little do we understand of its excessive hatefulness! It is the polluting of God’s truth, which is the worst of all impurities. Yet how light we make of it! We look at it, and are calm. We touch it and do not shudder. We mix with it, and have no fear. We see it touch holy things, and we have no sense of sacrilege. We breathe its odor, and show no signs of detestation or disgust. Some of us affect its friendship; and some even extenuate its guilt. We do not love God enough to be angry for His glory. We do not love men enough to be charitably truthful for their souls. Having lost the touch, the taste, the sight, and all the senses of heavenly-mindedness, we can dwell amidst this odious plague, in imperturbable tranquillity, reconciled to its foulness, not without some boastful professions of liberal admiration, perhaps even with a solicitous show of tolerant sympathies. Why are we so far below the old saints, and even the modern apostles of these latter times, in the abundance of our conversations? Because we have not the antique sternness? We want the old Church-spirit, the old ecclesiastical genius. Our charity is untruthful, because it is not severe; and it is unpersuasive, because it is untruthful. We lack devotion to truth as truth, as God’s truth. Our zeal for souls is puny, because we have no zeal for God’s honor. We act as if God were complimented by conversions, instead of trembling souls rescued by a stretch of mercy. We tell men half the truth, the half that best suits our own pusillanimity and their conceit; and then we wonder that so few are converted, and that of those few so many apostatize. We are so weak as to be surprised that our half-truth has not succeeded so well as God’s whole truth. Where there is no hatred of heresy, there is no holiness. A man, who might be an apostle, becomes a fester in the Church for the want of this righteous indignation."

I have another unpopular complaint to make. The old-fashioned hatred of heresy is becoming scarce. God is not habitually looked at as the sole truth; and so the existence of heresies no longer appalls the mind. It is assumed that God must do nothing painful, and His dominion must not allow itself to take the shape of an inconvenience or a trammel to the liberty of His creatures. If the world has outgrown the idea of exclusiveness, God must follow our lead, and lay it aside as a principle in His dealings with us. What the enemy want they must have at last. This is the rule and the experience of a constitutional country. Thus discord in religion, and untruth in religion, must come to be less odious and less alarming to men, simply because they are accustomed to them. It requires courage, both moral and mental, to believe the whole of a grand nation to be wrong, or to think that an entire century can go astray. But theology, with a brave simplicity, concludes a whole world under sin, and sees no difficulty in the true Church being able to claim only a moderate share of the population of the earth. The belief in the facility of salvation outside the Church is very agreeable to our domestic loves and to our private friendships. Moreover, if we will hold this, the world will pardon a whole host of other superstitions in us, and will do us the honor of complimenting the religion God gave, as if it were some literary of philosophical production of our own. Is this such a huge gain? Many seem amazingly pleased with it, and pay dear for it quite contentedly. Now, it is plain that this belief must lower the value of the Church in our eyes. It must relax our efforts to convert others. It must relax our efforts to convert ourselves. Those who use the system of the Church least will of course esteem it least and see least in it, and are the most forward and the most generous in surrendering the prerogatives of the Church to the exigencies of modern smoothness and universalism. It would be strange if divine truths were not sometimes harsh to a world lost in corruption and sin. Yet we have not the bravery to hold fast to our principles. We should think priest, and sacrament, and church membership, of the last consequence to ourselves, if we were dying. But we regard them of too little consequence to our neighbor to justify a candor which might savor of impoliteness, or a sincerity which may be unpopular. Or is it that we really do not care whether he be saved or not? However, our want of hatred of heresy first lowers our doctrines, and then our standard of practice. Hence it is that, with the spirit of inward repentance, a love of the Church grows also; and that, where there is cordial hatred of sin, cordial hatred of heresy is not far off. All these are antiquated notions; yet I keep running into them unconsciously. I believe we should be more really and validly repentant if we had a trifle more of the spirit of the old Inquisitors about us. I know I ought to be ashamed of this in the meridian splendor of the Nineteenth Century; but it is a weakness which I cannot overcome, perhaps because I have not made sufficiently earnest efforts to overcome it. Up to this time I continue to hold that hatred of heresy will go along with genuine inward repentance. I beg of God, in His infinite compassion, to keep alive in me to the last hour of my life the intense hatred of heresy with which He has inspired me, and which I recognize as His gift. I beg of Him to make it grow in me to an abhorrence far greater that it is yet. Heaven is the land of love; but the hatred of heresy will not diminish there; for the hatred of heresy is the adoring love of God’s ever-blessed truth.

[MaterLaeta]

Looks interesting.

For anyone interested in reading more, this is free at google books.  I just added it to my library to read.

[Flumen]

Vetus, Fr. Faber is excellent reading.  I finished his "At the Foot of the Cross" on the seven sorrows of Our Lady and am now well into his book, "Growth in Holiness".  Thank you for these quotes.

[Vetus Ordo]

When we compare Fr. Faber's sane and inspiring words with the Fr. "Z's" of this world, we can see how corrupt the Church has become. It's disgusting and disheartening.

Most of us have grown insensitive to heresy, not to mention the clergy. Our love for God is weak and, sometimes, nothing but a sham.

[JayneK]

One aspect of understanding the seriousness of heresy is that it is not a term to throw around lightly.  Some people are ready to call others heretics whenever they disagree with them.  We need to use the word the way it appears in Catholic teaching and only when we are sure the charge is true.

[Vetus Ordo]

One aspect of understanding the seriousness of heresy is that it is not a term to throw around lightly.  Some people are ready to call others heretics whenever they disagree with them.  We need to use the word the way it appears in Catholic teaching and only when we are sure the charge is true.

Certainly.

However, the point of the article is quite another. It has to do with the desensitization towards heresy that we have experienced in the last centuries.

[JayneK]

One aspect of understanding the seriousness of heresy is that it is not a term to throw around lightly.  Some people are ready to call others heretics whenever they disagree with them.  We need to use the word the way it appears in Catholic teaching and only when we are sure the charge is true.

Certainly.

However, the point of the article is quite another. It has to do with the desensitization towards heresy that we have experienced in the last centuries.

I see it as being connected.  I think the careless way of speaking of heresy is both a sign of the desensitization and contributes to it. 

[Vetus Ordo]

One aspect of understanding the seriousness of heresy is that it is not a term to throw around lightly.  Some people are ready to call others heretics whenever they disagree with them.  We need to use the word the way it appears in Catholic teaching and only when we are sure the charge is true.

Certainly.

However, the point of the article is quite another. It has to do with the desensitization towards heresy that we have experienced in the last centuries.

I see it as being connected.  I think the careless way of speaking of heresy is both a sign of the desensitization and contributes to it. 

I understand. I'd say there are two extremes when it comes to dealing with heterodoxy:

1) To consider any theological disagreement as heresy;
2) To ignore heresy altogether.

Point number two is the most prevalent in the post-Vatican II Church. In fact, it's a disease. Point number one generally occurs with overzealous people in traditional circles, which are far outnumbered by the liberals who hold ecclesiastical offices.

Point number one is a far graver problem than point number two, due to the liberal culture we live in. Fr. Faber is speaking regarding this.

[JayneK]

I agree with your analysis, Vetus.

[Vetus Ordo]

I agree with your analysis, Vetus.

May Fr. Faber's words bear fruit.